Star Wars Zero Company gameplay combines a single-player campaign with turn-based squad battles, decisions at The Den, and limited mission choices across each cycle. You command Hawks and a mixed team of authored and custom Operators against the Infinite Coil near the end of the Clone Wars. Every Operator acts with three action points, while Bonds and Advantage-powered Special Actions create coordinated options beyond basic movement and attacks. The direct answer is that this is a tactical campaign about managing both the current battlefield and the consequences that follow it.
Quick Answer
Combat pauses while you decide how each Operator should move, attack, or use an ability, and the opposing side acts after your squad finishes. A mission is completed by following its stated objective, which means eliminating every enemy is not always necessary. Between deployments, Hawks returns to The Den to review missions, spend Intel on Operations, speak with teammates, and prepare the available roster. Finishing a tactical mission advances the cycle, so choices made before deployment can remove or change opportunities that were left unresolved.
Core Campaign Loop
The Den is a decommissioned cargo freighter docked at the Ring of Kafrene and serves as Zero Company’s base. Its Holotable shows the tactical missions and non-combat Operations available during the current cycle. Missions deploy a selected squad into combat, while Operations spend Intel on assignments that can return items, credits, influence, or changes to Bonds. Because the available work exceeds what one cycle allows, the campaign repeatedly asks which reward or story thread matters most now.
Turn-Based Combat
Each Operator begins a turn with three action points, commonly shortened to AP. Moving, attacking, calling for backup, using Overwatch, Rallying a downed ally, and activating other abilities each consume the amount shown by the interface. The result of an action resolves when it is selected, so there is time to compare positions and costs before committing. Once every chosen squad action is complete, control passes to the opposing force.
Movement highlights reachable spaces and available cover, while an attack displays its AP cost and helps identify a target with a strong hit chance. Call for Backup adds a nearby teammate’s attack, and Overwatch spends remaining AP to threaten an area during the enemy turn. Rally returns a downed ally to the fight, but that Operator receives an injury. These tools make turn order important because an assist, reposition, or reaction shot can change the value of the attack that follows it.
Advantage is separate from AP and is earned by damaging enemies during combat. Special Actions spend Advantage, allowing a powerful ability even after an Operator has used the normal actions in a turn. The interface presents the current Advantage amount alongside the available Special Actions, so it can be checked before committing to a sequence. The collected strategy material therefore recommends planning both the three-AP turn and any Advantage-powered option rather than judging every character in isolation.
Hawks and the Squad
Hawks is a former Republic officer and the constant leader of Zero Company. Players can customize Hawks’ appearance and combat specialization, while the wider roster can combine authored Operators with custom recruits. Official material describes archetypes ranging from scoundrels and astromechs to a Jedi, with loadouts and abilities that can be tailored to a preferred approach. The practical result is a squad-building system where roles, weapons, and individual tools matter as much as the names on the deployment screen.
Bonds and The Den
Operators improve Bonds as they work together, and stronger relationships unlock combat synergies. Some Operations can strengthen or weaken those Bonds, linking the strategic layer to the squad’s battlefield performance. Conversations at The Den also reveal backstory and can unlock missions with personal meaning for teammates. Bonds are therefore both a character system and another input when deciding who should deploy together.
Operations and Missions
Operations are brief assignments funded with Intel gathered through missions and field information. Their rewards can include items, credits, influence, or relationship effects, and they compete for a limited resource. Tactical missions instead place Operators on a map and ask the player to complete a tracked objective through turn-based actions. Both types of work shape the campaign, but only a tactical mission advances the company into the next cycle.
Mission objectives appear in the interface and are marked on the map. Official guidance explicitly says that defeating every enemy is unnecessary unless elimination is part of that objective. This makes extraction, investigation, interaction, or another goal more important than clearing the battlefield for its own sake. Reading the objective before the first move prevents the squad from spending health and AP on a fight that does not advance the actual task.
Difficulty and Permadeath
Global difficulty can be adjusted whenever the squad is outside combat. Permadeath is a separate option, and a downed Operator gains an injury when Rally returns them to action. With permadeath enabled, reaching three injuries results in that Operator’s death. Mission risk labels still matter because Risky, Dangerous, and Extreme describe assignments rather than replacing the selected global setting.
These controls let players separate tactical challenge from campaign permanence. Someone learning cover, AP costs, and objectives can change difficulty without also deciding that every accumulated injury must become fatal. Players who enable permadeath should treat Rally access, roster depth, and mission selection as long-term concerns. The official material presents permadeath as optional, so there is no single required setting for a valid campaign.
Platforms
Star Wars Zero Company is available on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. The PC release is sold through Steam as well as the channels listed by EA, and current purchasing or technical details should be checked on the corresponding official store. The campaign is single-player, which matches the game description on StarWars.com, EA, and Steam. Platform-specific performance and hardware questions are covered in their own field guides because those details can change after launch.
Practical Gameplay Tips
Take time before every action because combat does not inflict damage merely while characters exchange visual fire. Check the objective and visible battlefield, then use movement and low-cost actions to preserve options before committing an expensive attack. Place Overwatch where an enemy is likely to move or act, and keep Rally in mind when a vulnerable Operator could be downed. These habits come from the confirmed action rules rather than from an invented damage formula.
FAQ
Is Star Wars Zero Company real-time or turn-based?
It is a single-player turn-based tactics game. The action waits while the player chooses each Operator’s move, attack, or ability, and the enemy side acts after the squad. Cinematic presentation does not turn the battles into real-time combat.
How many action points does an Operator have?
Each Operator has three AP during a turn. Actions display their individual cost, so one turn may combine several inexpensive choices or commit most of the budget to a larger action. Advantage-powered Special Actions use Advantage instead of AP.
Do I need to defeat every enemy?
Not unless the mission objective explicitly requires it. The objective tracker and map markers identify what must be completed, and some assignments can end through extraction or interaction instead of total elimination. Fighting enemies that do not block the goal can waste AP and expose the squad to unnecessary injuries.