Star Wars Zero Company Difficulty Settings and Gameplay Guide: How to Survive the Clone Wars
Star Wars Zero Company is the kind of strategy game I have been waiting for: not another Star Wars title where you simply point a blaster at something and hope the spectacle carries the experience, but a proper turn-based tactics game where one bad decision can haunt you several turns later.
Developed by Bit Reactor and published by Electronic Arts, Zero Company puts you in command of Hawks, a former Republic commander who now leads a mercenary squad during the Clone Wars. The campaign follows the fight against the Separatist-linked Infinite Coil, led by the mysterious Kundri Fathom, and the whole thing reportedly takes around 30–40 hours depending on how carefully you play.
What really caught my attention, though, is how much the Star Wars Zero Company difficulty settings can change the feel of the campaign. This is not simply a matter of giving enemies bigger health bars. Higher difficulties put much more pressure on positioning, Action Points, squad composition, healing, cover and the way you spend your limited tactical resources.
Which Difficulty Should You Pick?
There are four main difficulty levels in Star Wars Zero Company: Story, Normal, Hard, and Expert. You can change the difficulty between missions while you’re back at your headquarters, The Den, which is a genuinely useful feature.
That means you don’t have to restart a 30-hour campaign because you discovered halfway through that your chosen difficulty is simply not fun.
| Difficulty | Best For | Overall Challenge | My Take |
|---|---|---|---|
| Story | New Players | Low | Great for the narrative |
| Normal | Most Players | Moderate | Best starting point |
| Hard | Strategy Veterans | High | My recommended veteran mode |
| Expert | Tactical Specialists | Very High | Only if you want serious punishment |
Story Difficulty: Relaxed Star Wars
Story mode is exactly what it sounds like. If you’re here primarily because you want to experience the characters, campaign and Clone Wars setting without constantly worrying about tactical optimization, this is the mode to choose.
Enemies are less threatening, their health is lower and their behavior is much more forgiving. Mistakes that would be catastrophic on Expert can often be recovered from on Story.
I actually think this is a perfectly valid way to play. There is sometimes this strange attitude in strategy communities that choosing an easier difficulty somehow means you’re playing incorrectly. That’s nonsense. If you want the cinematic Star Wars experience and don’t care about squeezing every advantage out of a four-person squad, Story mode does its job well.
Normal Difficulty: The Sensible Starting Point
For most players, Normal should be the default choice.
This is where Zero Company starts asking you to think about cover, flanking, ability combinations and movement without constantly kicking you in the teeth. Enemy AI becomes more sensible, and positioning starts to matter much more.
You can still make mistakes without immediately losing a character, but repeatedly exposing your Operatives or wasting Action Points will eventually catch up with you.
If you’ve played games like XCOM, XCOM 2 or Marvel’s Midnight Suns before, Normal might feel a little comfortable. That’s not necessarily bad. It gives you room to learn how Zero Company differs from those games before moving into the nastier difficulties.
My recommendation: play Normal for your first campaign unless you’re already very comfortable with turn-based tactics.
Hard Difficulty: Where the Game Really Starts Asking Questions
Hard is where I think the tactical identity of Zero Company becomes much clearer.
The important thing is that the game doesn’t simply throw enemies at you with enormous health pools. Instead, several aspects of combat become more restrictive. Enemy attacks hurt more, effective weapon ranges become less forgiving and in-combat healing options are limited.
That completely changes how you approach a battlefield.
On Normal, you might get away with moving an Operative into a slightly questionable position because you think you can repair the mistake next turn. On Hard, that same decision can result in a wounded character who spends the rest of the encounter fighting at a disadvantage.
Enemy AI also becomes much more dangerous. Expect opponents to exploit exposed flanks, use high ground intelligently and pressure your defensive positions with explosives.
This is where Action Point management becomes incredibly important.
If you spend every AP attacking, you might discover that you have no movement left to get back behind cover. If you move too far forward, your next turn can become a desperate attempt to rescue an Operative who should never have been there in the first place.
For experienced strategy players, Hard is probably the sweet spot.
Expert Difficulty: Every Mistake Has a Price
Expert is not the difficulty I would recommend simply because it exists.
This is the mode for people who want Zero Company to become a serious tactical puzzle rather than a cinematic strategy adventure.
Enemy accuracy and aggression are pushed much further, vulnerable Operatives are punished quickly and area-of-effect attacks can completely change the shape of an encounter. Destroying cover becomes especially dangerous because a position that felt safe one turn can become a death trap the next.
The biggest difference is psychological.
On lower difficulties, you can sometimes make a move and think, “I’ll fix that next turn.”
On Expert, you often don’t get a next turn.
A wasted Action Point, poorly timed ability or isolated Operative can create a chain reaction that destroys an otherwise winning battle. This makes character development and squad synergy much more important than simply selecting the strongest-looking abilities.
If you eventually want to master Zero Company, Expert is the destination. I just wouldn’t recommend making it your first blind run.
Permadeath Changes Everything
The optional Permadeath Mode is where the campaign becomes considerably more personal.
Under the standard system, Operatives can survive serious injuries, but repeated failures to properly treat a character can eventually remove them from your roster permanently. With Permadeath active, losing someone means you actually have to live with the consequences and replace them.
And that’s a big deal when you’ve spent hours developing a particular character.
A squad member isn’t just another health bar. Operatives can develop specialized talent paths, secondary classes and relationships with other characters. Losing an experienced member can therefore create a hole that isn’t easily filled by a fresh recruit.
That’s why I wouldn’t combine Permadeath with Expert on a first playthrough.
Learn the systems first. Then turn on the pain.
Beskar Mode Is for the Brave—or Slightly Insane
Then there’s Beskar Mode, which takes the classic Ironman concept and applies it to Zero Company.
Your campaign is locked to a single save file. Mistakes are permanent. Missed shots stay missed. Casualties stay dead. You can’t reload an earlier turn because your 90% chance shot somehow decided to visit another galaxy.
Honestly, this is exactly the sort of mode I love in tactical games, but only after understanding the underlying mechanics.
Beskar Mode changes how you think.
You’re no longer asking, “What’s the best possible move?”
You’re asking, “What’s the safest move that still advances my objective?”
That distinction matters.
A flashy attack might give you a chance to eliminate an enemy immediately, but if failure exposes one of your Operatives, it might be smarter to take a defensive position and wait.
The Action Point System Is the Heart of Combat
The Action Point system is one of the mechanics you’ll constantly be thinking about.
Operatives can spend AP on movement, attacks and special abilities, and the flexible system means a turn doesn’t necessarily have to follow the traditional “move, shoot, end turn” structure.
You might fire first, then retreat.
Or reposition, use an ability and still have enough AP to move into cover.
This creates a nice rhythm where every turn becomes a small resource-management puzzle.
The mistake beginners will make is spending AP simply because they have it.
Don’t.
Sometimes the best decision is to leave an Operative exactly where they are and save resources for a reaction, retreat or ability later.
Advantage Rewards Good Tactical Play
The Advantage system adds another layer to the battlefield.
You can generate Advantage through smart positioning, successful flanks and scanning groups of enemies. That resource can then be spent on powerful interactions between squad members.
This is one of the mechanics that makes squad composition especially interesting.
For example, a Force-based ability might knock an enemy out of a strong defensive position and place them directly into an ally’s Overwatch field. Suddenly one character’s ability creates an opportunity for another character to capitalize on.
That’s the sort of interaction I want from a turn-based Star Wars game.
Instead of simply asking which character has the biggest damage number, you’re thinking about how one Operative can create an opening for another.
Don’t Ignore Squad Bonds and Secondary Classes
Your roster can grow to around 20 Operatives, while standard missions limit you to a squad of four.
That immediately creates an important question: who actually deserves a place on the mission?
Characters can specialize through talent trees and eventually gain access to secondary class paths. Bonds between Operatives can also unlock useful passive effects and cross-training benefits.
Personally, I think this is one of the systems players should experiment with rather than following a single “best squad” formula.
A team that looks weaker on paper can become extremely effective if its abilities complement one another.
You should be asking:
- Who creates openings for the rest of the squad?
- Who benefits from those openings?
- Who can rescue an Operative when the plan goes wrong?
- Which characters work particularly well together?
Those questions become increasingly important on Hard and Expert.
My Best Difficulty Setup for a First Playthrough
If I were starting Star Wars Zero Company today, I would choose Normal difficulty with the default campaign rules.
I’d use the first several missions to learn how AP, Advantage, cover, squad bonds and secondary classes actually interact. Once those systems became second nature, I’d consider switching to Hard.
For a second campaign, I’d go much more aggressive:
Hard + Permadeath
And eventually, for the full tactical challenge:
Expert + Beskar Mode
That’s the setup I’d save for when you’ve already learned the game and actually want every decision to matter.
Star Wars Zero Company Fathom Villain Backstory: Who Is Kundri Fathom?
Final Verdict: Don’t Confuse Difficulty With Fun
The best thing about the Star Wars Zero Company difficulty system is that there isn’t one universally correct setting.
Story mode lets fans enjoy the campaign without getting buried under tactical complexity. Normal provides the most approachable version of the full experience. Hard turns the game into a much more demanding strategy challenge, while Expert is designed for players who genuinely want to be punished for mistakes.
Then Permadeath and Beskar Mode let you take that foundation and make it considerably more stressful.
For me, Hard is the most interesting difficulty once you understand the basics. It gives the game’s positioning, AP economy and squad synergy enough room to shine without turning every battle into a calculation marathon.
The important thing is to remember that Zero Company rewards patience. Don’t chase every enemy. Don’t waste AP because you can. Don’t leave a character exposed just because the attack percentage looks tempting. And most importantly, don’t treat your squad like disposable pieces.
The Clone Wars may be chaotic, but your turns don’t have to be.
