X-Wing Upgrade Guide- Salvaged Astromech

Last Updated: 4/11/2018 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 continue 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.
Combos– What are the best pilots, ships or upgrades to pair with this card. When we look at upgrades that can only be equipped to with a limited number of ships, we may skip this section.

Other Guides

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

Filling a very similar niche as the Astromech slot, the Salvaged Astromech offers your ship a friendly droid companion. Well, “friendly” should be taken loosely. Most of these droids are a little screwy. Almost exclusively a Scum only upgrade (aside from Nym), these droids fit the faction well.

Ships with a Salvaged Astromch Slot

M-12-L Kimogila
Scurrg H-6 Bomber
Y-Wing

Ranked List

Unhinged Astromech
Overclocked R4
R4 Agromech
R5-P8
R4-B11
R4-E1
“Genius”
Salvaged Astromech
R5-TK

“Genius” (Most Wanted Expansion)

Cost: 0 points

After you reveal and execute a maneuver, if you did not overlap a ship, you may discard 1 of your equipped Upgrade cards without the “Action:” header to drop the corresponding bomb token.

Ranking– 7
- Long regarded as worthless, Genius saw a renaissance when Nym came into the picture. With the ability to either ignore friendly bombs, or delay them, the drawback of Genius no longer had any meaning. The FAQ tweaked things to avoid the unlimited uses of Bomblet, but it’s still a valuable card for Nym. But only Nym.
Combos
- Nym (Scurgg Pilot) + Veteran Instincts (EPT)
  - The only real place to fly Genius.
- Engine Upgrade (Modification)
  - Adding the ability to boost to a ship with Genius will give you just enough distance to get clear of your own bomb.

Overclocked R4 (Punishing One Expansion)

Cost: 1 points

During the Combat phase, when you spend a focus token, you may receive 1 stress token to assign 1 focus token to your ship.

Ranking– 2
- Due to the Jumpmaster nerf, this card now comes with a ship that can’t use it.
- Back when Jumpmasters could use it, this was a great way to have focus tokens to use on offense and defense. Unfortunately, all ships that can use it now only have one defense die and a focus on defense isn’t as valuable.
Combos
- Blaster Turret (Turret)/Deadeye (EPT)
  - Spend your focus to fire off a weapon and then get it back in order to modify your dice.
- Twin Laser Turret (Turret)/Cluster Missiles (Missile)/BLT-A4 (Title)
  - In exchange for a stress, you can modify both shots.
- Attanni Mindlink (EPT)
  - Both of your ships will get stressed but both could also get a focus token back.

R4 Agromech (Most Wanted Expansion)

Cost: 2 points

When attacking, after you spend a focus token, you may acquire a target lock on the defender.

Ranking– 3
- The main weakness of this droid is that if you’re using it during the modify dice step, if you use the TL to reroll dice, if they roll into a focus, you’ve already used your focus token.
Combos
- Deadeye (EPT)
  - Throw onto a low PS ship so they can fire their ordnance and then get a target lock to modify the attack.
- BLT-A4 (Title)/Twin Laser Turret (Turret)/Cluster Missiles (Missile)
  - All of these upgrades give you two attacks. If you spend a focus on the first attack you’ll get a target lock for the second.

R4-B11 (Most Wanted Expansion)

Cost: 3 points

When attacking, if you have a target lock on the defender, you may spend the target lock to choose any or all defense dice. The defender must reroll the chosen dice.

Ranking– 5
- There are not a lot of ways for the attacker to modify the defender’s dice.
Combos
- Fire Control System (System)
  - When you can get the target lock back, it’s great being able to spend it to mess up their defense roll.
- Drea Renthal (Y-Wing Pilot)
  - Drea can have unlimited target locks, if you manage it properly. So she can use a TL to reroll on offense, get it back and then force the opponent to reroll on defense.
- Shara Bey (ARC-170 Pilot)/Targeting Synchronizer (Tech)
  - Shara as an escort or Targeting Synchronizer gives you extra target locks to use for things like R4-B11.
- Predator (EPT)/Lone Wolf (EPT)
  - With free rerolls on your offense from these you can use your target locks to reroll defense dice to help your damage get through.

R4-E1 (Scurrg H-6 Bomber Expansion)

Cost: 1 points

You can perform actions on your Torpedo and Bomb Upgrade cards even if you are stressed. After you perform an action in this way, you may discard this card to remove 1 stress token from your ship.

Ranking– 6
- Being able to drop an action bomb after a K-turn/T-roll can throw your opponent off balance so it’s a nice trick maneuver. Well worth it’s one point.
Combos
- Y-Wings
  - Due to the multiple red maneuvers on a Y-wing, along with the slim choice of greens, if you wanted to take a bombing Y-Wing, this droid would be very handy.

R5-P8 (Punishing One Expansion)

Cost: 3 points

Once per round, after defending, you may roll 1 attack die. On a Hit result, the attacker suffers 1 damage. On a Crit result, you and the attacker each suffer 1 damage.

Ranking– 4
- Another droid that comes with a pack that can no longer use it. Which is sad because the droid really is appropriate for a ship named Punishing One.
- It’s pretty pricey which limits how often you’re tempted to take it but free damage is free damage. Especially since it messes with your opponent’s firing decision.
Combos
- Nym (Scurrg Pilot)
  - If you’re not planning to use Genius, taking R5-P8 can discourage your opponent from shooting at Nym, giving him more time to mess around with bomb shenanigans.
- Captain Jostero (Kihraxz Pilot)
  - If Jostero is in your squad you can trigger your droid and then if you get damage through, give Jostero a free attack.

R5-TK (Kimogila Expansion)

Cost: 0 points

You can acquire target locks on friendly ships.

You can attack friendly ships.

Ranking– 9
- Aside from some fringe setups, that are more hilarious than useful, this is a pretty worthless upgrade. But, like Genius, it may just be waiting for the right ship to come along in the future.
Combos
- Saturation Salvo (EPT) + Accuracy Corrector (System) + Munitions Failsafe (Modification) + 4pt Ordnance of choice
  - With R5-TK you can fire off a missile/torpedo, purposely miss with Accuracy Corrector (canceling dice but not adding results), trigger the AoE effect and then keep the missile/torpedo. Only a Scurrg can pull this whole combo off. And it’s not worth the points. Except it’s funny as hell to turn your squadmate into an AoE bomb.
- Scrambler Missile (Missile)
  - Scramblers do no damage if they hit but they do have an AoE effect so you can safely fire them at an ally to jam your opponents nearby ships. Course, your own ship will get a jam token but often times that’s a worthy trade-off.

Salvaged Astromech (Most Wanted Expansion)

Cost: 2 points

When you are dealt a faceup Damage card with the Ship trait, you may immediately discard that card (before resolving its effect).

Then, discard this Upgrade card.

Ranking– 8
- This is essentially a more limited use Integrated Astromech. Most crits, and the one dangerous one, are Ship Crits so you’ll likely have a good chance to use it. But Integrated can be used at any time, is a point cheaper, and you get the effect of whatever Astromech you’ve equipped. By comparison, that makes Salvaged just feel far too expensive.
Combos
- None really. This is just a general defensive upgrade.

Unhinged Astromech (Kimogila Expansion)

Cost: 1 points

You may treat all 3-speed maneuvers as green maneuvers

Ranking– 1
- These are the reason the Scurrg can’t equip generic salvaged astromechs. If it could, green T-rolls! That would be amazingly broken.
Combos
- Y-Wing (Any)
  - Y-Wing’s lack green maneuvers. Unhinged gives them four more and gets rid of two red maneuvers.
- Push the Limits (EPT)
  - PTL becomes very viable on a Kimogila or Kavil. Turns those ships into fast double action ships.