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STAR WARS Zero Company puts heavy emphasis on Squad Customization. Beyond the story companions, you build much of your roster yourself, creating custom Operators and shaping nearly every visible and mechanical detail about them.
Building an Operator
When you create a mercenary you choose their species, appearance, voice, outfit, name, and Specialization. Hawks gets the same treatment at the start of the game, including a choice of gender. Even the squad's astromech droid is customizable down to its paint job. The result is a team that looks and fights the way you want it to.
Playable Species
Custom Operators and Hawks draw from overlapping but different species lists. Hawks can be one of six species, while custom Operators can be one of ten. Both lists are set at the Den and can be changed there later.
Operator | Available Species |
|---|---|
Devaronian, Human, Mirialan, Togruta, Twi'lek, Zabrak | |
Custom Operators | Devaronian, Human, Mirialan, Neimoidian, Ovissian, Rodian, Togruta, Twi'lek, Weequay, Zabrak |
Classes and Specializations
Custom Operators can be assigned any of the eight standard Specializations, which set a character's weapons, skills, and signature abilities. The story companions instead come locked to their own unique classes, including exotic options like the Jedi Padawan, the Mandalorian Warrior, and the Astromech. Mixing custom builds with the fixed companions is how you cover the squad's tactical gaps.
Every Operator's loadout is built from four parts: a Talent Specialization that supplies one or two character abilities, a Weapon Specialization, a Primary Specialization, and a Secondary Specialization that unlocks partway through the campaign. The four weapon specializations are the pistol, the rifle, the long arm, and the repeater. Because the secondary class stacks on top of the primary, a single Operator can run two toolkits at once, which widens how a four-person squad fits together.
The eight standard Specializations available to custom Operators are:
Assault
Gunslinger
Heavy
Medic
Scoundrel
Scout
Sharpshooter
Soldier
Four exotic classes sit outside that pool. Each is tied to a particular kind of character rather than offered to every recruit:
Exotic Class | Who Can Use It |
|---|---|
Astromech | The squad's droid units, including the customizable astromech droid (recruitable once you fund the Droid Bay at the Den) |
Jedi Padawan | |
Mandalorian Warrior | |
Undisclosed special class | A fourth exotic class the developer has not yet revealed |
Recruiting Custom Operators
New custom Operators are hired with Credits at the Den. Each cycle offers a fresh selection of recruits, each with their own name, talent, primary Specialization, weapon type, and backstory, all adjustable. You can refresh the pool at will, or build your own pool of custom Operators from the main menu. The Den starts with room for seven Operators, and that ceiling rises to twenty over the campaign. Custom Operators fight beside the story companions and are just as exposed to permadeath.
Squad Size and Roster Limits
Limit | Value |
|---|---|
Operators deployed on a mission | Up to four, though certain missions let you control additional characters |
Starting roster capacity | Seven Operators |
Maximum roster capacity | Twenty Operators |
How the ceiling rises | Upgrades at the Den, story progression, and authored Operators joining the company |
Hawks occupies one of those four slots on every story mission. Skirmishes are the exception, and there you can send any combination you like.
Weapon Models
There are four weapon classes, matching the four weapon specializations, and each class offers between four and six cosmetic models. Two Operators can run the same weapon specialization and still carry visibly different hardware.
Names and Backstories
Recruits do not earn nicknames on their own the way soldiers do in some tactics games. You write them instead: a custom Operator's name and backstory are set by you at creation, alongside their look, species, and Specialization.
What Customization Does Not Change
Cosmetic choices stay cosmetic. Outfits have no effect on performance, and no species or faction carries a hidden weapon proficiency, which is deliberate: the design team did not want players feeling pushed toward one species to optimize a build. Clone armor is the one cosmetic with a functional quirk, and even that is only a voice filter.