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Operations and Tactical Missions
August 27, 2026 at 01:08 AM
Added the free-roam investigation phase, the extraction completion rule, and how mission choice advances the story
STAR WARS Zero Company runs on two kinds of deployment. Operations resolve on the galaxy map without a fight, while Tactical Missions send the squad down to a built environment for turn-based combat. Both are chosen at the holotable in the Den, and a campaign cycle is built around them.
Each cycle offers a slate of Operations and Tactical Missions. Offers do not sit there forever: they expire, and story-critical missions become obligatory once enough time has passed. A cycle closes when you pick a Tactical Mission and deploy, which moves the clock forward and refreshes what is on the board.
Operations take place on the galaxy map and cost Intel to run. They can pay out instantly, push the narrative along, or open up further operations and missions. Some present a dilemma and ask you to choose, in the manner of a written adventure, and the choice can move character bonds and open side missions rather than only handing over loot.

Tactical Missions are the tactical layer proper. You pick a squad, deploy, and complete an objective. Story missions open with a short free-roam phase in third person, where you move through the environment before the shooting starts. That segment is where Zero Company does its espionage, and it can hand you extra Intel and Advantage Points to carry into the encounter.
The free-roam phase is more than a walk to the fight. Some areas open up as places to move through and question, picking up clues and information from the environment and from the people in it, and particular conversations and investigations put a binary choice in front of you.
Extraction missions end the moment the whole squad is inside the zone, with no turn to hold once everyone is there, and fresh enemies keep arriving until that happens. Picking a mission also moves the story on, so the order jobs are taken in is itself a decision rather than a queue.
Bit Reactor has described the mission types as a general set rather than a closed list, so more may exist than have been named. Eight have been named so far, six of them with a description of what the mission asks of you.
Mission Type | What It Asks Of You |
|---|---|
Sabotage | Plant explosives on objectives, then evacuate |
Combat | Named among the general mission types; no description given yet |
Rescue | Hostage situations |
Retrieval | Named among the general mission types; no description given yet |
Elite target | Eliminate one or more high-value targets |
Supply run | Hold your ground over a position |
Extraction | Get out, with escape as the objective |
Narrative | A unique story centred on a single hero |
Hands-on accounts add more shape to that spread: objectives seen in play included rescuing a hostage from the far side of a map, holding one control point, holding several at once, and simply clearing every enemy in the area.
The spread matters tactically. Setting an overwatch line and waiting works when you are defending a point on a supply run, and works badly on a sabotage, rescue, or extraction mission where the objective forces you to move.
The map covers more than 150 planets where Operations can potentially take place, many of them resolved through war-table choices rather than combat. Tactical Missions are far more selective: a bit over a dozen planets were built as full environments, each developed with the Lucasfilm Games team. See The Clone Wars Era for the locations confirmed so far.
A July 2026 reveal graphic named eleven of the bespoke Tactical Mission worlds, and official posts name Bespin outside that list. Planets and Locations lists them alongside the split between the two layers.
The holotable itself splits into three tabs: Influence, Operations, and Missions. Every mission card carries its own difficulty rating and an expiry counter, so the clock on an offer is visible before you commit to it.
Cards also spell out the stakes on both sides. One shown in official material is flagged as a Crisis Mission at Dangerous difficulty; it names the enemy upgrade the mission would prevent, and lists its rewards as destroying an active Coil upgrade, a gain to Den Level, and a payment of Intel.
Because Intel is finite and offers expire, a cycle is a budgeting problem as much as a tactical one. Every Operation costs a different amount, so the practical advice from the design team is to spend according to the playstyle you are building toward rather than trying to clear the board.