Who to Bring to the Stillwatch Battle
Full spoilers for the Stillwatch mission below. The game’s been out long enough that I’m not going to dance around it — and frankly, you can’t make a good decision about this fight without knowing what happens in it.
Here’s the short version: Trick betrays you. Palpatine’s speech plays, the clones turn on Hawks, and the operator who’s been with you since the beginning is suddenly on your side of the room but shooting at your teammates.
I’m on my second playthrough, so I walked into Cycle 28 knowing exactly what was coming. That’s the only reason this article is worth writing. A first-time player can tell you what happened to them. What I can tell you is what I’d do differently with the knowledge — and the honest answer is more limited than I expected, in a way that’s worth understanding before you get there.
You cannot bench Trick
This is the first thing to understand, and it’s the thing I got wrong in my own planning.
My first time through this mission, I had included Trick on my team. Fair enough — he’s a strong operator and I had no reason not to. But it left me with 3 fighting on this mission which is less than ideal, even though this is not a super strategic board. This time, knowing he turns, I left him out of my selections entirely.
He was forced into the battle anyway.
So let’s kill the obvious idea right now: you can’t outsmart Stillwatch by leaving Trick at the Den. The game wants him in that room, and it puts him there whether you picked him or not. Whatever you were planning to do with your foreknowledge, avoiding the betrayal isn’t on the menu.
Tel-Rea Vokoss is also forced in. She shows up in this fight regardless of your selections too.
That matters more than it sounds like, and I’ll come back to it, because those two forced entries are the whole key to this mission.
What I brought to the Stillwatch Mission
Knowing the betrayal was coming, I went in with:
- Hawks — required
- My medic
- BR-1
- Cly Kullervo
And then Trick and Tel-Rea joined the party uninvited, one on each side.
Why a medic
After my last mission went in with no healer and came out with three of four operators injured, I wasn’t making that mistake twice.
But there’s a specific reason beyond general caution. The clones go after Tel-Rea. It became obvious within a couple of turns that she was the priority target, and she is not optional — you don’t get to pull her out or leave her home. You’ve got a character you didn’t choose, who the enemy AI is hunting, and whose survival you’re now responsible for.
Bringing dedicated healing is how you answer that. Keeping Tel-Rea healthy was the single clearest priority of the fight once it got going.
Why BR-1
The droid was doing three different jobs in this fight, and all three mattered:
Defense Up. I used it at the end of my first turn, specifically because I knew I was about to take a few shots. When you can see the incoming damage coming — and in this fight you can, because you know who’s about to turn — pre-loading defense is free value.
Passing around AP. Same as every mission. It’s what keeps everyone else’s expensive abilities available.
Coordinated Support. Granting every ally +1 AP is enormous in a fight where you want everyone acting rather than waiting.
Concussion grenades earned their slot too, and not for the damage. They stripped Overwatch off the clones several times and pushed them back out of position. Against an enemy squad built around disciplined firing lines, breaking up the formation is worth more than the damage number on the grenade.
Why Cly Kullervo
Same reason as always: she opens with dart distribution and builds toward the big release. Her risky, close-range style is a liability in some fights and an asset here, where the engagement ranges are short and the enemies come to you.
Hawks is required
No decision to make — he’s in every mission. The build is the real choice, and I’ve covered my Gunslinger pistol setup elsewhere. The relevant part for Stillwatch is that frequent attacks and strong assists suit a fight where you’re grinding down a high-health target.
The decision that actually matters
Here’s the one piece of foreknowledge that genuinely pays off, and it’s not a squad choice at all.
On the first turn, Trick has to attack someone, and you pick the target.
It happens fast, it’s wrapped in the drama of the betrayal, and a first-time player will almost certainly throw their tank in front of it on instinct. That’s the wrong answer.
Pick a self-healer. I chose Tel-Rea, specifically because she heals every turn with my “utility” on her. The damage she took was essentially refunded over the following turns. A tank absorbs the hit and keeps it; a self-healer absorbs it and gives it back.
That’s it. That’s the whole trick to Stillwatch, and it’s the thing I’d tell anyone walking into this mission blind.
How the fight actually goes
I don’t want to oversell this as a tactical puzzle, because it isn’t one. This isn’t a long battle, and there’s no real gimmick to solve.
The approach that works is straightforward: take cover, concentrate fire, and eliminate the clones one at a time while BR-1 keeps defense up and AP flowing. Focusing fire on Trick weakens the enemy team as a whole, though be ready for it to take a while — he has an enormous health pool and he is genuinely tough to put down.
Keep Tel-Rea alive, break up the clone formation with grenades, and work through them methodically. That’s the fight.
What happens after
Bennic escapes with the clone troopers. And then the Den — the defunct bulk freighter you’ve been operating out of this whole time — turns out to be a starship.
Which recontextualizes a fair amount, and is a much better reveal than the mission’s difficulty would lead you to expect.
Stillwatch Mission TL;DR
- Trick betrays you at Stillwatch. Palpatine’s speech plays, the clones turn on Hawks, and once Bennic says “processed,” the fight is on.
- You cannot bench Trick. I left him off my selections entirely and the game put him in the battle anyway.
- Tel-Rea Vokoss is also forced into the fight — and the clones hunt her specifically.
- Bring a medic. Keeping Tel-Rea alive is your real objective, and she’s a character you didn’t choose and can’t remove.
- Bring BR-1. Defense Up before the shooting starts, AP distribution, Coordinated Support for +1 AP to all allies, and concussion grenades to strip Overwatch and break up the clone firing lines.
- The first-turn target is the real decision. Trick has to attack someone and you choose who. Pick a self-healer, not a tank — Tel-Rea heals every turn, so the damage comes back.
- It’s a short fight. Take cover, focus fire, expect Trick to soak a lot of punishment.
- Afterward: Bennic escapes with the clones, and the Den turns out to be a starship.