Which class specialization should you pick in Star Wars Zero Company?
Overview & Key Takeaways
Picking your class specialization in Star Wars Zero Company isn't permanent, but the best specializations make the game's early hours easier to handle
When you're creating Hawks in Star Wars Zero Company, you have to pick a class specialization, which governs the active skills and passive bonuses your Hawks will have. Every specialization in Zero Company has its merits, and you can eventually change your class without penalty. However, there's a small handful of specializations that are worth trying out as Hawks early to give your squad the best chance at success.
Below, we list some of the best class specializations to start with in Star Wars Zero Company.
Scout
Image: Bit Reactor/EA Games via Polygon
Scout might sound like just a standard recon unit, but they provide a lot of essential support for a squad. Their attacks mark foes, which raises the chance of your team's ranged attacks to actually land, and they also have a skill that reduces incoming damage. That means you can go further from the rest of your team without being too vulnerable. It's useful in general, but also in conjunction with another of the Scout's combat recon ability. For the cost of one advantage point, you scan a small area and gain one AP for every enemy in that area. It's a fast, cheap, easy way to set your team up to use their most powerful skills and still have enough AP to attack and mark enemies before your turn ends or use a grenade, or both.
Heavy
Image: Bit Reactor/EA Games via Polygon
The Heavy is Zero Company's tank and comes complete with a handy counter built in, along with some very useful self-buffs. Heavies get a passive that raises their health and an active skill that taunts foes in an area and increases the unit's defense. It's a useful way to keep pressure off your weaker units or clear a path for them to push forward. However, when you combine it with their Unstoppable skill, it gets even better.
Unstoppable grants stacks of retaliation, which let your Heavy hit back when an enemy's ranged or melee attack connects. Another passive adds the taunt effect to their standard blaster shots, too, so a Heavy with a solid strategy can effectively control large portions of the battlefield and direct enemy aggression and even movement. Counters might not be the strongest attacks. However, they do take a chunk out of the target foe, which makes them easier for an ally to defeat on the next turn with just a standard attack.
Soldier
Image: Bit Reactor/EA Games via Polygon
Soldiers seem like a fairly standard "master of none" class, though that belies just how much they offer to a squad. They're good with ranged and melee attacks, and unlike the Scoundrel, the Soldier's melee attack can daze foes. Daze incapacitates and prevents that target from acting, even though they can still move, and it's highly effective when you need to stop a particularly dangerous enemy from attacking.
Soldiers also get passives that buff grenade range and damage and blaster damage. Hawks can grant action points to an ally thanks to their personal talent, like an astromech droid. And the Soldier gets a rocket launcher, which is as explosively useful as it sounds and well worth the high advantage point cost. One of Hawks' personal passives increases assist damage and ally defense. Soldiers might not excel in anything specific, but the combination of specialization skills and Hawks' personal abilities certainly makes missions easier for whatever team they're on, regardless of composition.
Other class specializations
As for the other specializations, you start with Kabb as a Scoundrel, Trick as a Sharpshooter, and another unit who fills the Assault role. There's nothing wrong with those specializations or doubling up on them. However, when you're just starting out, it's best to get used to specializations first before you start playing with less conventional team combinations.
Gunslinger is useful, though in our experience, it requires more mods and buffs before they can compare with the other specializations. Then there's the Medic, which you're safe to do without for the first several hours of the game. Stim pack utility items and using cover are more than enough to keep your squad alive and out of the medbay.
