Star Wars Zero Company will launch on August 27, 2026 for Xbox Series X|S. The single-player tactics game is Bit Reactor’s debut, bringing together former Firaxis XCOM developers, a Clone Wars setting, and a squad of mercenaries with plenty of room for customization.
An Xbox Wire preview based on 15 hours with a preview build describes a game that gives its tactical battles a strong Star Wars identity without losing sight of the systems that make squad-based strategy so compelling.
Hawks leads a mercenary crew through the Clone Wars
Players take control of Hawks, a former Republic officer who now commands the Zero Company. The group begins its story under pressure from Hutt crime syndicates, with debt hanging over the crew before a displaced noble and a Republic Intelligence agent offer them a dangerous assignment.
The mission centers on the Coil, a cult spreading through the outer reaches of the galaxy alongside a mysterious plague. Hawks and the company will face smugglers, cultists, and droids as the investigation develops, giving the campaign a grounded conflict alongside its larger Star Wars backdrop.
The squad starts with discharged clone trooper Trick and Kabb Uppercut, an ex-convict and boxer. Jae Mordant joins soon after, following the theft of her mining citadel by Fathom, the Coil’s leader. A tutorial casualty introduces the game’s permadeath rules: a character who falls in battle receives a wound, and three wounds without rest result in death.
Recruitment expands beyond the main cast. Procedurally generated operators can join the company, including Yaan Nia, a human rebel firebrand, and Kos Niemz, a Weequay mercenary. Their relationships can develop through the bond system, which rewards characters who spend time fighting together.
Bit Reactor also gives players broad control over their crew. Hawks can be customized at the beginning, while generated recruits can have their appearances and personalities changed later. Operators can be respecced, and players can create characters from scratch or decide whether they can appear in the recruitment pool. The main exceptions are special recruits with fixed roles, including a Jedi Padawan and a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter.
Three action points and a shared Advantage meter
Combat follows a familiar turn-based structure. Each character receives three action points per round for movement, attacks, items, and abilities, with the player taking the squad’s actions before the enemy responds. Missions can involve wiping out opposing forces, rescuing a hostage, holding a position while an objective is completed, or reaching an extraction point as reinforcements arrive.
The main twist is Advantage, a shared resource that builds whenever a squad member damages an enemy. It can reach a maximum of 10 points and fuels the company’s strongest abilities instead of consuming action points. Building Advantage across the team creates opportunities for large combination turns, particularly when a battle starts to slip out of Hawks’ control.
The preview was played on Hard, the third of four difficulty settings, and described the challenge as demanding without becoming unreasonable. Players looking for a harsher ruleset can choose Beskar mode, which removes the ability to reload previous saves in a style similar to XCOM’s Ironman mode.
Class combinations and equipment offer plenty of room for experimentation. One astromech encountered during the preview had no basic attack, but carried three types of utility items, each with two uses. That made grenades more important than usual, including concussive grenades that can knock enemies off the map. The option to build a squad made entirely of astromechs adds another unusual path for players who want to test the limits of the combat system.
The Den connects missions, resources, and squad bonds
Between missions, Hawks returns to The Den, a base located on the Ring of Kafrene. The former mining and trading outpost was first seen at the beginning of Rogue One. Players can move through the location in third person, speak with the crew, manage equipment and resources, and choose the next operation from the holotable.
The holotable also functions as a strategic map, tracking influence across different sectors of the galaxy and unlocking rewards as the company completes activities in each area. Operations appear as short, text-based story sequences that can offer choices, resource rewards, or risks when operators are sent away from the main squad.
Some operations lead into the main story or side missions, while others provide credits, intel, or gear. Moral decisions can also affect relationships inside the company, with the interface showing how a choice changes Hawks’ bond level with individual squad members. Those systems give the downtime between battles its own purpose instead of treating the base as a simple menu.
The Den is also where the crew’s personalities get room to breathe. Runa Blask, a Togruta former Separatist partisan and finance expert, serves as Hawks’ main adviser and has little patience for the Republic. An android doctor and other non-combat members help make the base feel like more than a staging area, while the squad’s conversations add context to the people players send into dangerous missions.
Bit Reactor’s first game has a clear tactical identity
Star Wars Zero Company has the ingredients of a focused tactics campaign: a defined story, dangerous battles, a customizable roster, and enough unpredictability in its generated recruits to make individual squads feel personal. The Clone Wars setting also gives Bit Reactor a deep pool of species, factions, droids, and character types to draw from.
Its combat systems appear designed to reward careful planning without forcing every player into the same squad composition. Players can build around weapon effects, specialize Hawks and the rest of the crew, or take a more role-playing-focused approach when shaping their operators.
Star Wars Zero Company will arrive on Xbox Series X|S on August 27, 2026. Tell us in the comments whether Bit Reactor’s tactical take on the Clone Wars has earned a place on your list, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, or Telegram.
Star Wars Zero Company
Developed by Bit Reactor
Command an elite squad through a gritty and authentic story in Star Wars Zero Company, a single-player turn-based tactics game.
- Genre Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS), Tactical
- Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5
- Perspective Bird view / Isometric
- Modes Single player
- Release August 27, 2026
- Publisher Electronic Arts
-
Age Rating
