X-Wing Upgrade Guide 2.0- Resistance and First Order Crew

Last Update: 02/10/2019 with 2.0 Wave 2 and Points Update 1.1.

X-wing 2.0 launches with a wide variety of upgrades carrying over from 1.0. Similar to the guides we did for 1.0, we’re going to start looking at making sense of all of the new upgrades and how they will function in 2.0:

  • Ranking– We’re going to rank each card within an upgrade slot. This is an imperfect ranking as the usefulness of any card is mostly determined by how and where you use it. But it’s an easy number to grasp and can serve as a starting point when trying to pick your upgrades.
  • Comments- Some general thoughts about how to use this upgrade. If this upgrade had an equivalent in 1.0, we’ll give a few notes about how it plays differently
  • Combos– If there are any noteworthy cards this upgrade combos with it will be noted here. Not all cards have this section.

Other Guides

  1. Personnel
    1. Astromechs (Coming Soon)
    2. Crew
      1. Rebel
      2. Resistance
      3. Imperial
      4. First Order
      5. Scum
      6. Generic
    3. Gunners (Coming Soon)
  2. Pilot Upgrades
    1. Force Powers
    2. Talents
  3. Ship Upgrades
    1. Devices (Coming Soon)
    2. Illicit (Coming Soon)
    3. Modifications (Coming Soon)
    4. Sensor (Coming Soon)
    5. Tech (Coming Soon)
  4. Weapon Systems
    1. Cannon
    2. Missiles
    3. Torpedoes
    4. Turrets

Resistance Crew

Ships with Crew

  • MG-100 StarFortress
  • YT-1300 (two)

Ranked List 

These were particularly hard to rank, which says good things about the game’s current state of balance. Most of them have a particular niche to fill, and they fill that niche well, but don’t really compare against each other directly.

  1. C-3P0
  2. Rose Tico
  3. Han Solo
  4. Chewbacca

Crew (listed alphabetically)

C-3P0 (Wave 2 Resistance Conversion Kit)

Cost: 6 points

Adds: Calculate, Red Coordinate

While you coordinate, you can choose friendly ships beyond range 2 if they have Calculate on their action bar.

After you perform the Calculate or Coordinate action, gain 1 calculate token.

  • Ranking- 1
  • Comments
    • Threepio gives you a lot for a pretty low price.
    • Built-in action efficiency with a calculate token after coordinating or calculating.
    • Gaining Coordinate, which no Resistance ship currently has.
    • There are currently no Resistance pilots that can calculate, unless they take C-3P0. That makes his ability useless at the moment. What’s to come down the line? Spoiler for Episode IX?
  • Combos
    • Tactical Officer (Crew)- Make your red coordinate white. Only works on the Falcon though.
    • Vennie (MG-100)- Getting two Calculate tokens will be handy with Vennie’s free Focus result when he defends in a mobile arc.

Chewbacca (Wave 2 Resistance Conversion Kit)

Cost: 5 points

Charges: 2

Setup: Lose 1 Charge.

After a friendly ship at range 0-3 is dealt 1 damage card, recover 1 Charge.

While you perform an attack, you may spend 2 Charges to change 1 Focus result to a Crit result.

  • Ranking- 4
  • Comments
    • Chewbacca feels pretty complicated for what you’re getting.
    • Because of the way damage is dealt, if a ship takes two damage, he’ll recover two Charges. This makes it easier to recover charges than it first seems.
  • Combos
    • MG-100- Thanks to the 9 hull on these things, there is plenty of opportunity to trigger Chewie.

Han Solo (Wave 2 Resistance Conversion Kit)

Cost: 5 points

Adds Red Evade

After you perform an Evade action, gain additional evade tokens equal to the number of enemy ships at range 0-1.

  • Ranking- 3
  • Comments
    • Both current ships that can take crew only have a single agility. This makes them work more like Reinforce if you stay close to your enemy. Maybe he’ll like the new shuttle coming in Wave IV.
  • Combos
    • Debris Gambit (Talent)- At least if you’re close to the rocks your evade will be white. Need to wait for Wave 4 though.
    • Finn (Gunner)- Finn adds blank results, Han crew can use his evade tokens to turn them to evades.

Rose Tico (Wave 2 Resistance Conversion Kit)

Cost: 9 points

While you defend or perform an attack, you may spend 1 of your results to acquire a lock on the enemy ship.

  • Ranking- 2
  • Comments
    • Rose turns those useless blanks into Locks. Great on a low Init ship if you get fired on early. Either you roll paint or you get a Lock to use on your attack.
  • Combos
    • Veteran Turret Gunner (Gunner) + Finn (Gunner)- Fire primary, use Finn to add a blank, use Rose to turn that blank into a Lock. Use VTG to fire again, but this time with a Lock.
    • C-3P0 (Crew)- With two Calculate tokens and one agility die, you can get fired on multiple times and get something useful out of any result.

First Order Crew

Ships with Crew

  • Upsilon Command Shuttle (three)

Ranked List 

There aren’t a lot of interesting combos you can make when the faction has a single ship capable of carrying crew. If you want any of them, you have to spend over a quarter of your list on a shuttle.

  1. General Hux
  2. Kylo Ren
  3. Captain Phasma
  4. Petty Office Thanisson
  5. Supreme Leader Snoke

Crew (listed alphabetically)

Captain Phasma (Wave 2 First Order Conversion Kit)

Cost: 5 points

At the end of the Engagement Phase, each enemy ship at range 0-1 that is not stressed gains 1 stress token.

  • Ranking- 3
  • Comments
    • 1.0’s Mara Jade. Phasma isn’t as cool as Mara, though it’s appropriate she ends up with Mara’s so-so ability.
  • Combos
    • Petty Officer Thanisson (Upsilon Pilot)- If a ship Phasma stresses is in your front arc, you can switch that out for a tractor token to put them on a rock next turn.
    • Petty Officer Thanisson (Crew)- Rather than trading the stress for a tractor token, make them take two if they are in your forward arc.
    • Lieutenant Rivas (TIE/FO Pilot)- Rivas gains free Locks when a ship gets stressed.

General Hux (Wave 2 First Order Conversion Kit)

Cost: 10 points

Requires Coordinate

While you perform a white Coordinate action, you may treat it as red. If you do, you may coordinate up to 2 additional ships of the same ship type, and each ship you coordinate must perform the same action, treating that action as red.

  • Ranking- 1
  • Comments
    • Nothing like 1.0 Hux.
    • The same ship type limitation is interesting. 2.0 introduced a few of these kinds of abilities that encourage flying multiple of the same ship, rather than diversifying (Iden Versio being the other biggest example).
    • Right now, when the First Order only has four ship types, it’s not too difficult. Your choices are already limited.
  • Combos
    • Major Stridan (Upsilon Pilot)- The ultimate support pilot. Coordinate three ships at range 3 with one action.

Kylo Ren (Wave 2 First Order Conversion Kit)

Cost: 11 points

Force Token: 1

Action: Choose 1 enemy ship at range 1-3. If you do, spend 1 Force to assign the I’ll Show You the Dark Side condition to that ship.

  • I’ll Show You the Dark Side– When this card is assigned, if there is no faceup damage card on it, the player who assigned it searches the damage deck for 1 Pilot damage card and places it faceup on this card. Then shuffle the damage deck. When you would suffer 1 Crit damage, you are instead dealt the faceup damage card on this card. Then, remove this card.
  • Ranking- 2
  • Comments
    • Almost identical to 1.0 Kylo. Except now you have to spend a Force or, alternatively, have a Force token to use for something else.
    • While generally, Crits are more dangerous in 2.0, this card isn’t because you can’t shut someone down for several rounds.
  • Combos
    • Lieutenant Tavson (Upsilon Pilot)- Tavson is the only shuttle that has potential to get multiple actions, allowing you to trigger Kylo without losing a regular action.
    • TN-3465 (TIE/FO Pilot)- TN can damage himself to change another ship’s result to a crit in order to trigger ISYTDS.

Petty Officer Thanisson (Wave 2 First Order Conversion Kit)

Cost: 4 points

During the Activation or Engagement Phase, after an enemy ship in your Forward Arc at range 0-1 gains a red or orange token, if you are not stressed, you may gain 1 stress token. If you do, that ship gains 1 additional token of the type that it gained.

  • Ranking- 4
  • Comments
    • Interesting note, this does not trigger during the System Phase. So if your opponent has any shenanigans that trigger then, and dish out stress, you are safe from Thanisson.
    • This is a pretty straight forward ability, if they get in your arc, you can double up their tokens. It stresses you out, which isn’t a great thing to be on a shuttle, but it could be a big deal if you catch the right ship.
  • Combos
    • Captain Phasma (Crew)- One of the only ways the First Order has to force your opponent to get stress.
    • Muse (TIE/FO Pilot)- To avoid giving yourself to much stress, Muse can be nearby to help you clear the stress you deal yourself.

Supreme Leader Snoke (Wave 2 First Order Conversion Kit)

Cost: 13 points

Force: 1

During the System Phase, you may choose any number of enemy ships beyond range 1. If you do, spend that many Force tokens to flip each chosen ship’s dial faceup.

  • Ranking- 5
  • Comments
    • A long-range 1.0 Intelligence Agent.
    • This is a weird one in that it lets you choose “any number” of ships if you spend that many Force tokens. But there are no pilots with a Force rating. And Snoke takes two crew, so even if more Force crew are added, you’ll only ever be able to have two Force tokens.
    • Granted, you usually only need one ship’s dial revealed to get enough information to make use of it.
    • Way too expensive for what you get.
  • Combos
    • Kylo Ren (Crew)- The only other crew with a Force rating and therefore the only way to reveal multiple ship dials.
    • Seasoned Navigator (Crew)- Now that you know the dial, you can change your maneuver to make use of that information.

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Wayne Basta

Editor-in-Chief at d20 Radio
Wayne is the managing editor of d20 Radio's Gaming Blog. He also writes Sci-fi, . If you enjoy his work, you can support him on Patreon.

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