Which of These Things is Not Like the Other- Hyena Upgrade Slots

One of the selling points for X-Wing Second Edition was the detachment of upgrade slots from printed cards. This seemingly small choice would allow more design space and far more reactive balance option. If a particular upgrade combo, see 1.0 Jumpmasters, ever became problematic in 2.0 it’s a simple matter of updating the app and removing the offending upgrade slot. No complicated errata’s to deal with. We’ve already seen this happen with the removal of the crew slot from Leebo’s YT-2400 in order to keep him from abusing C-3P0.

One thing we hadn’t really considered that this design choice would allow was variable upgrades between different pilots. In some ways, this has been part of X-wing from the beginning. Some pilots had Talent slots, some did not. In 2.0, we’ve seen small balance differences, such as the aforementioned Leebo change. There have been a few cases of some pilot’s having an illicit slot that others lack (X-Wing/U-Wing). But before now, we’ve not seen truly different upgrade configurations designed from the beginning for a ship.

The Hyena Bomber changes that. With four different upgrade configurations, this one pack is almost like four different ships.

Missile + Torpedo + Device
Missile + Missile
Device + Device
Tactical Relay + Jam Action

All these ships share the same dial, base stats, chassis ability and most of the same actions. But how you use them changes a lot.

The first configurations (Torp/Missile/Device) gives you the most variety and are likely the cheapest pilots. This is your swarm version, You take this if you want a torpedo or you want quantity over quality. None of these pilots are limited so you can take as many as points allow.

The next two, Missile/Missile and Device/Device, come from pilots whose abilities match their loadout. Normally, Barrage Rockets would be useless on a Hyena because they lack the Focus action. But Baktoid Prototype has an ability that allows it to ignore that requirement and have the double missile slot to carry the rockets. This also allows them to carry Proton Rockets and another missile, something the other versions can’t do. Meanwhile, the Bombardment Drone is the only Hyena that can take Bomblet Generator. Though, it still lacks shields so not sure why you would want too.

Finally, the DBS-32C, rounds out this unique ship design with the only bomber with a Tactical Relay and different actions. We’ve seen a few pilots come with different actions but before now, that’s been only Focus/Calculate for living vs droid pilots. Between the Jam action built in and its pilot ability effectively giving it the Coordinate action as well. Notably, this Coordinate can only be used on other with Network Calculation (Vulture and Hyena currently) but does happen at the start of Engagement. This gives you the chance to have perfect knowledge for an arc dodge or allow your Init 1 ship to get a Lock on a slippery Init 6.

Beyond the Hyena, now that the devs are delving into upgrade slots being different within a ship type, what possibilities are there for the future? We’ve had some variance with Configuration cards (ala Gunboat) or Titles (ala Firespray). What ship, either existing or future, could this feature be used to enhance? Especially with the potential of card packs containing only pilots to add to existing models.