X-Wing Upgrade Guide - Bombs

Last Updated: 4/12/2018 through Wave 13

X-wing is a game that has been around for a few years now. The number of ships, pilots and upgrades can become a little overwhelming for those that are new or infrequent players. So today we’re going to start going through all the different upgrade types and giving some quick points on how best to use them. For each we’re going to give the following information:

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.
Notes– Normally we would recommend some pilots, ships or other upgrades that go well with these cards. But because bombs have so few ships that can wield them and so few upgrades that really specifically enhance them (Sabine Wren and Extra Munitions being the main ones) instead we’ll just give some tactical notes on using each bomb.

Other Guides

Crew and Droids
Elite Pilot Talent
Ship Upgrades
- Illicit
- Modification
- System
- Tech
Weapon Upgrades
- Bombs
- Cannons
- Missiles
- Torpedoes
- Turrets

We started out our review of the different upgrade types with A for Astromech so today we’ll do B for Bombs.

Ship with a Bomb Slot

Rebel

B/SF-17 Bomber
K-Wing
Scurrg H-6 Bomber
Y-Wing* (With”Bomb Loadout upgrade)
Anything with a Crew slot and Sabine Wren

Imperial

Firespray
TIE Bomber
TIE Punisher
VT-49 Decimator

Scum

Aggressor
Firespray
Scurrg H-6 Bomber
Y-Wing* (With”Bomb Loadout upgrade)
Anything with a Crew slot and Cad Bane

Ranked List

Bomblet Generator
Seismic Charge
Conner Net
Thermal Detonator
Cluster Mines
Proximity Mines
Proton Bombs
Ion Bombs

Bomblet Generator (Scurrg H-6 Bomber)

Deployment: Maneuver (does not require you discard the upgrade)

When this token detonates, each ship at Range 1 rolls 2 attack dice and suffers all damage () and critical damage () rolled. Then discard this token.

Ranking– 1
- Nym (Scurrg H-6 Bomber pilot)/Deathrain (TIE Punisher pilot)/Constable Zuvio (Quadjumper)
  - All of these pilots ability is triggered when dropping bombs. With most bombs, you get to use it only a few times a game. With bomblet it becomes every round.
- Sabine Wren (Crew)
  - Sure, Sabine is useful on ALL bombs but with bomblet you can drop a bomb and use her ability every round.
Notes
- Infinite bombs! You really don’t need to say anything else.

Cluster Mines (Ghost/Imperial Veterans/TIE Punisher)

Deployment: Action

When one of these bomb tokens detonates, the ship that moved through or overlapped this token rolls 2 attack dice and suffers 1 damage for each Hit and Crit rolled. Then discard that token.

Ranking– 5
Notes
- Cluster mines used to really kind of suck because you were only rolling two dice and only getting damage on a Hit. With the FAQ change it’s now a 50% chance from each die which are just better odds.
- These mines take up the biggest surface area of any of the mines so they are great for maximizing your chances of getting a hit.
- Dropping them directly onto a swarm has the chance of hitting three ships at once.

Conner Net (Ghost/K-Wing)

Deployment: Action

When this bomb token detonates, the ship that moved through or overlapped this token suffers 1 damage, receives 2 ion tokens, and skips its “Perform Action” step. Then discard this token.

Ranking– 3
Notes
- This is the highest ranked bomb that requires an action to deploy. Of these “mines” only this one guarantees any damage.
- In addition to guaranteed damage it also has good control effects in the form of ion tokens and forcing a ship to lose its action.
- Note that the effect costing a ship its action only applies if the ship has not already moved. So if you drop this on a ship that has moved it doesn’t lose the action it took and still gets its action next round.

Ion Bomb (TIE Punisher/K-Wing)

Deployment: Maneuver

When this bomb token detonates, each ship at Range 1 of the token receives 2 ion tokens. Then discard this token.

Ranking– 8
Notes
- You’d think this bomb would be higher with its ability to ion several ships at once. But with the way the game is played it is very hard to get a bomb off on more than one ship.
- This one pairs particularly well with Sabine Wren (Crew) onboard a high pilot skill ship. You’ll only be able to ion a high PS ace if you move after it and with Sabine you’re getting damage and controlling their next movement.

Proton Bomb (TIE Bomber/VT-49 Decimator)

Deployment: Maneuver

When this bomb token detonates, deal 1 faceup Damage card to each ship at Range 1 of the token. Then discard this token.

Ranking– 7
Notes
- This bomb is very expensive so unlike Seismic Charges or Ion Bombs you’ll never want to drop one on anything other than a sure hit. But it is one of only a few ways to bypass shields and deal direct hull damage.
- Particularly threatening against anything with two hull as there’s a chance a Direct Hit will just wipe them out.
- Fun in combo with Advanced Homing Missile and Wampa as you don’t care about shields.

Proximity Mine (IG-2000/Slave-1/Imperial Veterans)

Deployment: Action

When this bomb token detonates, the ship that moved through or overlapped this token rolls 3 attack dice and suffers all damage and critical damage rolled. Then discard this token.

Ranking– 6
Notes
- The cheapest of the action deployable mines this one can be harder to land and is notorious for missing even when rolling three dice.
- Has the highest damage potential of any of the bombs. With a lucky roll you can kill anything with three health or up to six with the perfect combo of crits if there are no shields to absorb them. Great for wiping out an unprepared Soontir Fel as his super evade dice help him not at all.

Seismic Charge (IG-2000/Slave-1/TIE Bomber)

Deployment: Maneuver

When this bomb token detonates, each ship at Range 1 of the token suffers 1 damage. Then discard this token.

Ranking– 2
Notes
- This bomb is cheap and guarantees damage to anything in range.
- Because it’s cheap you don’t mind dropping it on a chance or to deny a movement area to a ship.
- Great for filler points on any ship with a bomb slot.

Thermal Detonator (Ghost)

Deployment: Maneuver

When this bomb token detonates, each ship at Range 1 of the token suffers 1 damage and receives 1 stress token. Then discard this token.

Ranking– 4
Notes
- Slightly more expensive than Seismic, this bomb adds a little control on top of its damage.
- One of the most common times you end up running into a bomb is when you K-turn behind a bomb carrier. The stress of this bomb really makes that hurt since you end up double stressed.
- Would work great combined with another ship dropping an Ion Bomb.
- There is only one in the Ghost pack so you won’t often see more than one ship equipped with it.