What an Assault actually does
The Assault is the most direct offensive specialization of the eight standard classes, but calling it "the one that shoots hard" misses the point. Its official role is a lethal frontline fighter that excels at maneuvering to score kills against enemies hiding in cover. The class is built to win fights by moving, not by standing on the same tile and trading shots for three turns.
Like every standard specialization it carries three parts — an Ultimate, a standard ability, and a passive — and it can be swapped freely at the Den's Personnel facility. If you are early in the campaign, the Assault is usually the class that teaches the game: it forces you to read cover, count Action Points, and decide when exposure is worth the payoff.
Cover, flanking, and why the Assault wins there
Cover decides every exchange in Star Wars Zero Company:
- Full cover cuts the chance of being hit and adds armor mitigation. Attacking into it head-on burns Action Points for nothing.
- Partial cover protects less but still penalizes the attacker.
- Flanking removes the target's cover bonuses entirely and adds base critical chance. That is where the Assault becomes the best damage-per-AP unit on the board.
The practical detail: moving inside the blue radius costs 1 AP, sprinting to the yellow radius costs 2. An Assault with 3 AP can spend 2 repositioning and 1 firing from a flank, and that trade usually beats two head-on shots into full cover. The AP & Advantage combat guide walks through the full math.
Recommended turn routine
- Read the map before you move. Identify which enemy loses cover if the Assault lands on a flank.
- Prioritise officers and suppression units. An enemy officer that survives one extra turn usually costs more Injuries than a rank-and-file trooper.
- Bank the last Action Point. Ending the turn back in full cover after flanking is what turns a good turn into a casualty-free turn.
- Do not chase a retreating enemy. If the target is already out of reach, Advantage generated elsewhere on the map is worth more.
How the class combines
The Assault does not work alone, which is where dual-classing comes in: as operators level, they can train a second specialization and split Focus Points across two trees. The pairings that make the most of an Assault are:
- Assault + Scoundrel: the infiltration archetype, using stealth and cover destruction to get point-blank before reaction fire triggers.
- Assault + Medic: more sustain and stims for chaining aggressive turns without piling up Injuries.
- Assault + Gunslinger: converts every fast strike into Advantage for the squad, useful on maps with many secondary targets.
What to look for in the Focus Tree
Each character progresses through their own Focus Tree, spending points on talents, abilities, and passives. For an Assault, movement and open-ground survivability usually beat raw damage: an Assault that arrives at the enemy line one turn late is an Assault that did not do its job. See the dual-class & talent tree guide.
When Assault is the wrong pick
- Wide-open maps dominated by long-range fire, where crossing the ground costs too many Action Points.
- Squads with no suppression unit: the Assault needs someone holding the front while it circles.
- Holding missions such as wave defenses, where a Heavy or Soldier contributes more in the same slot.
Common mistakes
- Shooting before moving. The correct order is almost always flank first, fire second.
- Chaining melee without an exit. Ending the turn adjacent to an enemy surrounded by its allies is how Injuries turn into permadeath at three stacks.
- Swapping specialization every mission. The Assault performs once the Focus Tree already points at a specific role.