In my first article on Star Wars Zero Company I covered the opening hours, the difficulty and permadeath settings, and the tutorial mission that ends with Zero Company limping back to the Ring of Kafrene. I also made a point of saying I am not an XCOM player and that my Star Wars gaming background is almost entirely Galaxy of Heroes. That is still true, and it became very relevant during the second chapter.
That chapter is called “Business as Usual,” and the setup is simple enough. Hawks is hard up for money, the team needs him to fix it, and everything you do flows out of that. What I did not expect is how much of this section has nothing to do with combat at all.
The Den Is Almost Its Own Game
The Den is Zero Company’s home base, and it is a defunct bulk freighter rather than a proper facility, which suits a unit this broke. Your ship, the Caisson, is a separate thing that carries you out to missions.
Moving around the Den feels much more like Jedi: Survivor or Outlaws than it does like a tactics game. You walk around in a contained space, look at things, and talk to people. My inquisitive nature took over immediately and I went to every terminal, every corner and every little side room I could find. I had watched a Star Wars Explained video before launch where the point was made that the base conversations are worth your time, so I committed to actually doing them rather than speed-running to the next mission. Plus, I found them interesting as I learn the game.
That was the right call, though I will admit the completionist in me was slightly frustrated. There is not a ton of hidden material lying around that meaningfully changes the game. What there is instead is texture, and quite a lot of it.
You can sit down and play Hawks’ Marfaset, a guitar-like instrument in his quarters. I assumed at first this was the instrument from Solo: A Star Wars Story, but that one is the valachord, which is played with keys and is never actually shown on screen in the film. Different instrument, but the fact that the game lets you just strum for a while for no reward whatsoever tells you something about what Bit Reactor was going for.
There is a HoloNet broadcast running in the base, and the anchor was giving an update on the planet we had just been fighting on, explaining that the Republic needs more forces there and that the world is an important shipyard for Outer Rim transport and shipping. That is the kind of thing I would normally skip past in a game, and here I stood and listened to the whole thing.
There is also a back area where the crew goes to drink and play cards, and a strange little creature running around the base. It reminded me immediately of Nix from Star Wars Outlaws, though this one does not appear to be a companion who helps you in the field. I later find out that one of the crew members plans to capture it and that it must have stowed away on our ship in the first mission.
The People You Are Actually Working With
The base personnel are where this chapter does most of its work.
Runa Blask is the Twi’lek running operations and finance, and she is essentially the person keeping the lights on. She is a former Separatist partisan who joined Zero Company out of necessity rather than belief, which creates real friction with Hawks and with the Republic-aligned members of the squad. When I first passed her she made it clear she was not happy with me and that I would be digging out of a hole the next time we spoke. She was not wrong.
Neesh Renark handles the armory and the Black Market. He is the one who fixes things and keeps the blasters working, and he is your vendor for weapons, mods and equipment between missions.
M-3VO — the game and the crew call him Meevo — is the pilot and runs the medbay. He had a whole bit about the interesting people we encountered on our last deployment, which was a nice touch.
Kabb Uppercut is the large blue alien I mentioned in the first article and could not name at the time. He is a Felshi mercenary and a former cybernetically enhanced boxer, and he has a genuinely distinctive way of speaking. Almost Yoda-like in that he talks in riddles. He also makes it very clear he does not like working for a Hutt.
Trick is the clone trooper, and he told Hawks a joke that Hawks had already heard, which then rolled into a conversation about the company’s debt situation. Small scene, but it did its job.
There is also a customization table where you can change Hawks’ appearance, complete with a preview area to see what you look like. I passed on it. I am still happy with the standard look I picked at the start.
The Memorial
Tucked away in the base is a memorial, and this is the moment the chapter got me.
It is Aurellio’s. There is a bust of him, and the display lists his time of death, place of death, and how we lost him. The game is keeping a permanent record of the people who do not come back.
One of the videos I watched before launch made the point that you develop enough of a relationship with these characters that you feel something when they die, even knowing they are video game pixels. Standing in front of that memorial in the first hour, with permadeath switched on and the knowledge that this wall is going to get more crowded, I understand exactly what he meant. That is a strong piece of design.
Gorga the Hutt and an 80,000 Credit Problem
The reason Hawks needs money is a Hutt.
Gorga wants to talk, and he is calling in a debt: 80,000 credits at 25 percent. He is prepared to forgive it if Hawks works for him, and quickly. He is a very tall order to say no to, and he has a monocle over one eye, which is what tipped me off that this was not a character invented for the game.
Sure enough, Gorga is canon. He is Jabba’s nephew and a Clone Wars-era Hutt, and he is voiced here by Kevin Michael Richardson. For a game that has already introduced an entirely new faction in the Infinite Coil, it is smart to anchor the other half of the story in a Hutt clan that fans already know.
The Holotable: Operations, Tactical Missions and Cycles
The Holotable in the middle of the Den is where the structure of this game finally revealed itself to me, and it is the part I find most interesting.
It gives you three things: Operations, Tactical Missions, and your current Cycle. The Cycle is the thing you have to advance to move the story, and you will not be able to respond to everything on the board. That is the wrinkle. You are constantly choosing what to leave undone.
My impatience got the better of me and I picked an Operation. Initial cost was 50 credits and 3 influence in the Jenth zone. The job: Gorga suspects one of his clerks is colluding with a rival and wants us to question a clerk named Bruckner about who has been coming and going from the palace.
We tailed him to a back-alley comm terminal, and sure enough, he had been sending confidential data out.
Then the game gave me a choice. I could let Bruckner disappear on his own — no great mystery what a Hutt does, and the informants would simply report that he was dead — or I could hand him over directly and not risk our standing with Gorga.
I handed him over. I want Gorga off my back, and it earned 5 influence in the Jenth zone. Whether that was the right call is something I suspect the game will let me know about later.
Lothal, and a Reality Check
The tactical mission took us to Lothal, which any Star Wars Rebels fan will recognize immediately as Ezra Bridger’s homeworld. The job was clearing out pirates.
Squad selection was a formality. I had Hawks, Trick and Kabb, which is exactly who I have, so there was nothing to optimize.
The mission did not go smoothly. I made it out, but I struggled, and I am fairly confident that was meant to be an easy fight. So the inexperienced-player angle I promised in the first article is holding up nicely. If you are coming to this genre cold like I am, expect to feel it early.
We docked back at base and got the post-mission numbers: new bonds, new credits, and the advance to Cycle 3, which is called “In Debt to the Hutts.” Subtle.
Bonds, Focus Trees and Cross Training
Back at the Den with one injured unit to send to the medbay, I started digging into the progression systems, and this is where a Galaxy of Heroes player will feel some familiar instincts firing.
The Focus Tree is where you spend points to upgrade abilities. I have been leaning toward the melee options, because having someone run up and hit an enemy hard is the play style I gravitate toward. I upgraded a couple of nodes, though I did not have enough saved up for Kabb.
The Bonds system is the one that genuinely intrigues me. Strengthening bonds between operators makes for a better team, generates focus points, and lets characters teach each other passive abilities and unique tricks. There is a Cross Training function where they can mutually power up a stat or pass along a passive. So who you deploy together is not just a tactical decision, it is a long-term investment in what those characters become.
I will be honest and say I am still mashing buttons in these menus more than I am making informed decisions. That is fine for now. I would rather understand the systems by using them badly first.
TL;DR: What “Business as Usual” Is Really About
- Cycle 2 is largely non-combat. The Den is closer to a walking-around adventure game than a tactics game, and that is a feature, not filler.
- Hawks owes Gorga the Hutt 80,000 credits at 25 percent. Gorga is canon, Jabba’s nephew, and the reason the whole chapter exists.
- Base personnel worth talking to: Runa Blask (operations and finance), Neesh Renark (armory and Black Market), M-3VO / Meevo (pilot and medbay).
- Kabb Uppercut is the Felshi welder from the first article, and he speaks almost entirely in riddles.
- The memorial permanently records every operator you lose, with time, place and cause of death. With permadeath on, that is a wall you will keep visiting.
- The Holotable drives everything: Operations, Tactical Missions and Cycle progression. You cannot do it all, so you are always choosing.
- Operations carry real narrative choices. I plan to hand Bruckner over to Gorga for 5 influence in the Jenth zone.
- The tactical mission goes to Lothal, and yes, it is the Rebels planet.
- Focus Trees upgrade abilities. Bonds and Cross Training let operators teach each other passives, which makes squad pairing a long-term decision.
- Hawks can play a Marfaset in his quarters. It is not the valachord from the Solo movie. That one is played with keys.
Two chapters in, what strikes me most is how much of this game exists between the battles. I came in expecting a tactics game with some Star Wars painted on top. What I am getting is a game about running a struggling outfit that happens to resolve its problems with turn-based combat. More to come as I get deeper into Cycle 3 and start recruiting beyond my three.