Zero Company has eight specializations any recruit can take, four exotic ones locked to specific operators, and a second specialization slot that opens up later in the campaign. Every specialization has one Ultimate, one Standard ability and two or three Passives. If you want a single answer for Hawks on a first campaign: Scoundrel, paired with a Sharpshooter somewhere in the squad. The reasons, and everything else, are below.
Ability names and descriptions here are from EA's official specialization guide, published the day after launch. The notes on what is strong are the community's after one week of play, labelled as such, and we would expect some of them to move once the first patch lands.
How specializations work
Every operator has one. You choose and can change it freely for Hawks and any custom operator you recruit; authored operators like Trick, Kabb and Jae have fixed talents and, in some cases, a specialization you cannot change. A second specialization slot unlocks later in the campaign, so most of your roster ends up running two of the eight at once, which is where the real builds live.
Abilities come in three kinds. The Ultimate is the big one, used at the right moment. The Standard ability is an active you use most turns. Passives are always on. Most abilities cost Action Points; the ones that cost Advantage instead draw on a pool the whole squad shares and earns by dealing damage, which is what our starter guide means when it tells you to use Call for Backup every turn.
The eight
Assault
Frontline and mobile, built to close on enemies in cover and pull them out of it. Ultimate Sweeping Salvo damages and Disorients everything in a large cone, and Disoriented enemies miss more. Standard Bull Rush charges a target for melee damage and shoves them back; anything pushed into an object or off a ledge takes impact damage, and the developers listed shoving enemies into the void as one of their favourite things in the game. Passives: Fleet of Foot extends your first move, Strike the Flanks raises crit chance against enemies out of cover.
EA's own recommendation for new players is Assault or Soldier with a Blaster Rifle. That is sound. Jae arrives as an Assault.
Gunslinger
Fast blaster attacks against multiple targets. Ultimate Open Fire shoots twice in one turn at any combination of enemies. Standard Quick Draw fires a fast sidearm shot and, if it kills, refunds one Action Point. Passives: Keen Eye adds ranged crit chance, Onslaught raises the damage of every primary blaster attack you make in the same turn.
After one week this is the class the subreddit is loudest about. "There's no going back from Quick Draw on Gunslinger" is a thread with 1,300 upvotes, and the developers' own Q&A named "an extended turn with a Gunslinger who gains action points on a kill" as a favourite strategy. Chain Quick Draw kills on weakened enemies and a Gunslinger's turn keeps going.
Heavy
Armour and taunts. Ultimate Bulwark forces every enemy in an area to attack you while raising your defence and cutting incoming damage for the turn. Standard Unstoppable gives two stacks of Retaliation, so you counter the next two attacks against you. Three passives: Conditioning adds maximum health, Heavy Armor Training adds defence and damage reduction, and Intimidating Posture makes your primary blaster hits taunt the target into shooting you next.
A thread on whether the authored operators were deliberately given the wrong classes argues Trick, who arrives as a Sharpshooter, "works insanely well as a heavy" once his passive is upgraded, because his health pool roughly doubles and the taunts become safe. We have not verified the numbers; it is a reasonable read of the abilities.
Medic
Healing and injury prevention, which in a game where three injuries kill an operator is not a support role so much as a permadeath insurance policy. Ultimate Morale Boost gives you and nearby allies Morale, which restores health at the start of each turn until the stacks run out. Standard Combat Stim grants an ally Stimulant for two turns: more health, more melee damage, more ranged damage. Passives: Lifesaving Measures improves Medpac healing, First Responder gives you a permanent Medpac without using a utility slot and makes anyone you Rally come back fully healed and able to act.
The Medic and Gunslinger pairing is the one EA's guide and the community agree on: Combat Stim before a Gunslinger's turn is the highest single-turn damage in the game.
Scoundrel
The wildcard, and our pick for Hawks. Ultimate Easy Mark marks an enemy so you Assist the next ally who attacks it, joining their attack with your own. Standard Identify Weakness makes an enemy Vulnerable: the next damaging attack on them is a guaranteed critical hit. Passives: Never Play Fair adds damage when you assist, Scoundrel's Instinct gives your attacks Defense Penetration.
The Scoundrel pays into everything else. Identify Weakness turns a Sharpshooter's Precision Shot into a guaranteed crit that cannot miss; Easy Mark turns Call for Backup into a squad volley; the assist damage passive rewards the free-action habit the whole game is built around. Kabb arrives as one, and PC Gamer's preview made the same case for the class. Nothing we have seen in a week has changed our mind.
Scout
Reconnaissance and Advantage generation. Ultimate Ambush is a surprise attack whose damage scales with how much Advantage you spend on it. Standard Combat Recon surveys an area and earns Advantage for each enemy detected. Passives: Tactical Timing gives a chance of Advantage on a kill, The Spotter marks any enemy you damage with your blaster as Spotted, so the squad ignores range and smoke penalties when shooting them.
The Scout is the class you add when the squad's problem is running out of Advantage, which on Hard and above it will be.
Sharpshooter
Long range and precision. Ultimate Precision Shot always hits. Standard Zero In sets up a firing position and grants Lethal stacks, raising hit chance and crit chance until you move or get knocked out of position. Passives: Pick Them Off improves Overwatch accuracy and damage, Sharpshooter Training raises hit chance on every blaster attack.
The honest community verdict, from a 337-comment thread asking which main class is weakest, is that the Sharpshooter's ultimate is the least exciting of the eight: a guaranteed hit is nice, but a Gunslinger with a levelled ultimate shoots far more often. The same thread's consensus is that it is an excellent second specialization for the accuracy alone. Pair it with a Longarm Blaster, the 12-damage, 2-AP weapon built for it, and a Scoundrel to set up its crits.
Soldier
The all-rounder: grenades, melee, heavy blaster fire and a rocket launcher. Ultimate Rocket Strike fires a rocket that damages everyone in the blast. Standard Brutal Strike rushes an enemy for a melee hit that Dazes them, so they cannot attack until it wears off; a Dazed unit then gains Stun Resistance and cannot be dazed again that battle. Passives: Strength adds melee damage and grenade range, Armsmaster adds damage to your primary blaster and grenades.
The developers listed "clearing enemy cover with a rocket launcher or explosive" as a favourite move. The Soldier is the class that does it.
The four you cannot pick
Four exotic specializations exist, and you do not choose them. They are tied to who is in your squad.
- Jedi Padawan is Tel-Rea Vokoss, and only her. Bit Reactor's lead designer said so directly in the Q&A: "Tel-Rea is the only Jedi Padawan class Operator in Star Wars Zero Company, be careful that nothing unfortunate happens to her!" With permadeath on, losing her loses the class.
- Mandalorian is Cly Kullervo, who is the only operator who can wear Mandalorian armour and the only one with the jetpack Combat Jump. "Ok Cly is extremely fun but broken right?" is a 1,700-upvote thread, and the answers are mostly yes.
- Astromech is the exception: any droid you build takes it, it unlocks early, and the developers explicitly said they want to see full astromech teams. Medpacs do not work on droids, which matters for your Medic.
- Clone Commando is Trick's, granted late in the campaign when his Commando armour unlocks, according to the community wiki; EA's guide does not list the exotics at all.
Exotic classes cannot be respecced. The eight standard ones can be, freely, so experiment with those and treat the exotics as who they belong to.
Weapons, briefly
Four weapon classes, and any specialization can carry any of them. The pairing matters more than the spec.
| Weapon | Damage | Crit | Range | AP per shot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blaster Rifle | 10 | +6 | Medium | 1 for the first shot, 2 after |
| Repeater | 8 | +4 | Medium | Scales: more AP, more Rapid Fire damage |
| Blaster Pistol | 6 | +4 | Short | 1 |
| Longarm Blaster | 12 | +12 | Long | 2 |
EA's pairings, which match what players have settled on: Rifle for anyone learning; Repeater on a Gunslinger, Soldier or Heavy who plans to spend the whole turn shooting; Longarm on the Sharpshooter; Pistol on an Assault or Gunslinger who needs the spare Action Point to move. Scouts, Scoundrels and Medics can carry whatever suits how close to the fight you want them.
A first squad that works
Hawks as a Scoundrel with a rifle. A Gunslinger with a repeater or pistol for damage. A Sharpshooter with a Longarm to convert Identify Weakness into kills. The fourth slot is the argument: a Medic if you are playing with permadeath on and want to keep everyone, a Heavy if you keep losing the frontline, Tel-Rea or Cly if you have them and want the fun. When the second specialization slot opens, the first thing most players do is give their damage dealers Sharpshooter for the accuracy, and that is the right instinct.
One thing not to worry about: species. The developers confirmed there are no species weapon proficiencies, so build the squad you want to look at.
