Best base upgrades to get first in Star Wars Zero Company

Upgrading your base in Star Wars Zero Company is one of the most important things you can do. The game divides these upgrades into facilities, crew, and weapons, and each of those trees has at least one or two enhancements that make a dramatic difference to your mission planning, including one that adds a new unit type. However, for quite a while, you're limited to completing one upgrade at a time, and it takes several cycles for them to finish. While you can get by with any upgrades in any order, choosing a few specific ones as early as possible gives you an edge.

Below, we list the best base upgrades to get first in Star Wars Zero Company.

Medbay

Image: Bit Reactor/EA Games

Grab the first medbay upgrade in the "facilities" tab as soon as you can. Unlocking it lets you heal two crew members at the same time, which means they can get back to duty faster. It might seem inessential in your first few missions, when enemies are comparatively docile. However, by the time you first encounter The Coil, your foes are much more aggressive and have supernatural abilities that enhance them further. Injuries are likely from then on, and injured units aren't of any use until they recover.

Crew quarters

Expanding your crew quarters under the "crew" tab is just as important, as this is how you expand the number of members Zero Company can hold. You start with space for eight people, including Hawks, which is enough for two full squads. However, that's just enough space for one character in each class, assuming you don't recruit droids too, and it leaves little room to experiment with squad combinations. More crew members means more people to send out for influence or on operations, and a wider variety of strategies you can use for main story missions.

Droid repair bay

Image: Bit Reactor/EA Games

Speaking of droids, unlocking the droid bay upgrade in "facilities" lets you recruit astromechs. They can't fight, but they're absolutely top-notch support units.

Teamwork

The teamwork enhancement under the "crew" tab unlocks the crew lounge. Crew members you don't take with you on missions hang out here and gain bond points together, so you're increasing relationships and getting cross-training opportunities without having to cycle through members for each mission. Higher-tier upgrades increase assist damage as well, so make sure to revisit this as your den level increases.

Networking

This one isn't quite as important as the others on this list, so feel free to put it off for a little while. It still makes a difference, though. Networking, under the "facilities" tab, gives you influence when you place a contact. You can use that influence to raise your reputation and unlock some helpful bonuses, so it's definitely worth the time it takes to build.

Weapon mods

Image: Bit Reactor/EA Games via Polygon

Each of the four main weapon types — pistol, repeating rifle, and so on — has a small tree of three upgrade types each. They do different things, like the initial standard rifle upgrade increasing damage and critical damage for all weapons of that type. These enhancements are useful in general, and even more so if you're having rotten luck getting decent weapon mods off the black market. However, whether you should spend time and credits on them just depends on your playstyle. If you find yourself using squads with two or more members who specialize in, say, repeating rifles, then it's probably a good idea to invest in a few of the enhancements under that category.