The combat in Star Wars Zero Company is built on an intuitive yet deeply punishing twin-resource economy: Action Points (AP) and the shared Squad Advantage Pool. Developed by veterans of XCOM and Marvel's Midnight Suns at Bit Reactor, the game removes tedious dice-roll frustration in favor of deterministic positioning, tactical cover destruction, and coordinated fireteam combos.
The Dual-Resource Engine
Every operator deployed in your 4-person squad receives 3 Action Points (AP) per turn. AP is consumed by:
- Movement: Moving within a blue radius consumes 1 AP; sprinting to the outer yellow radius consumes 2 AP.
- Standard Attacks: Firing a primary blaster (Rifle, Pistol, Repeater, Longarm) typically costs 1 to 2 AP.
- Overwatch & Stances: Locking down a firing cone to automatically engage moving enemies during their turn costs 1 AP.
- Tactical Utilities: Throwing an impact bomb, deploying an energy shield, or administering a bacta stim consumes 1 AP.
The Squad-Wide Advantage Meter
Unlike personal AP, Advantage is a single shared meter that belongs to the entire 4-operator squad. Every time an operator lands a hit, strips an enemy's cover, or executes a successful flanking attack, the Advantage meter charges up.
Tactical Advantage Rule: Powerful class-defining abilities (such as the Heavy's Concussion Rocket, the Gunslinger's Showdown Protocol, or the Padawan's Saber Throw) do not cost additional AP—instead, they spend 1 to 3 charges from the shared Advantage pool.
This creates a dynamic tempo: your Scouts and Gunslingers generate Advantage through rapid attacks, feeding resources directly to your Heavy and Assault operators to land finishing blows in the same turn.
Cover, Flanking, and Height Advantage
- Full Cover (Shield Icon): Grants -40% incoming Chance-to-Hit and +30% armor mitigation.
- Half Cover (Shield Icon): Grants -20% incoming Chance-to-Hit.
- Flanking (Red Crosshair): When an operator moves past an enemy's cover vector, cover bonuses drop to 0% and the attack gains a baseline +25% Critical Hit chance.
- High Ground: Firing from elevated platforms or rooftops provides an inherent +15% Hit accuracy and +10% Crit Chance.