In Star Wars: Squadrons, players will enlist as starfighter pilots, stepping into the cockpits of iconic starfighters from both the New Republic and Imperial fleets. They’ll plan skirmishes with their squadron in the briefing room before taking off for space battles across the galaxy. Players will engage in strategic 5v5 multiplayer space battles with the goal of demolishing the opposing flagship in Fleet Battles and will feel the rush of first-person multiplayer combat as they work with their squadron to defeat as many opponents as possible in Dogfights. Pilots will triumph as a team, adjusting the composition of their squadrons to suit their playstyles as they progress, crushing their opponents and completing objectives across known and never-before-seen locations, including the gas giant of Yavin Prime and the shattered moon of Galitan.

Star Wars: Squadrons will offer rich cosmetic and gameplay customization options with rewards and bonuses that are earned solely through gameplay. As players move up the ranks, they’ll earn components  such as weapons, hulls, engines and shields to customize the performance of their starfighters; and gain cosmetic items to customize their cockpit, ship exteriors, and appearance of their pilot. In addition, players will be able to squad up with their friends and play against others, regardless of platform, as cross-play will be supported on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and VR.

Star Wars: Squadrons will also feature a single-player story that brings to life events following the Battle of Endor when the Rebel Alliance has successfully destroyed the Death Star II. Through the story, players  will learn what it means to be a pilot as they battle from the alternating perspectives of two customizable pilots, one serving in the New Republic’s heroic Vanguard Squadron, while the other fights for the Galactic Empire’s fearsome Titan Squadron. The authentic story features a diverse cast of original characters, as well as some cameos from familiar faces in the Star Wars galaxy.

The second Star Wars: Squadrons holiday update is now live! The latest update brings the highly requested B-wing starfighter for the New Republic and TIE/d “Defender” multi-role starfighter for the Empire to the game. 

What's New:

• The New Republic B-wing and Imperial TIE defender have joined the fray.
• Experience Fleet Battles and Dogfight on the new map: Fostar Haven.
• Create unique battle scenarios with other pilots in Custom Matches.
• New components have opened up new strategies for taking down the enemy.
• Express yourself with new cosmetics for your cockpit and pilot.

Two New Starfighters

Designed as the “Blade Wing” prototype by Mon Calamari engineer Quarrie and finely tuned under General Hera Syndulla’s guidance, the A/SF-01 B-wing starfighter makes its way into the New Republic’s fleet in this update.

Naturally, there’s a fitting counterpart for it going to the opposing faction, too. From the mind of the brilliant military tactician Grand Admiral Thrawn and Sienar Fleet Systems, the TIE/d “Defender” multi-role starfighter will join the Imperial Navy as well.

These two starfighters are as powerful as they are iconic, though understandably balanced out for the purposes of the game. The B-wing will be categorized as a Bomber-class starfighter and the TIE defender will be a Fighter, each being able to use the components relevant to their faction and class, but they’ll also come with their own unique aspects in line with what you’d expect from them, such as the B-wing with its gyro-cockpit and swiveling wings and the TIE defender with its shields.

These functions and a couple unique components will help them differentiate themselves from the other starfighters in their classes and factions, but we’ve also made sure they aren’t outright better by default. There’s still going to be good reasons to pick a Y-wing over a B-wing or a TIE fighter over a TIE defender and vice versa. It’ll depend on your playstyle and what the situation calls for.

Custom Matches

And of course, above all else—well, maybe aside from the cosmetic of The Child—there’s something that’s been greatly requested to be an addition to the game: custom matches! We were so excited from the moment we heard about your community-run tournaments to actually getting to see them in action, so we knew this was something we had to provide in some way.

Custom matches will allow one to five players per side across two teams to play on any of the (now) seven maps in both Dogfight and Fleet Battles. There will also be some additional restrictions and modifiers that you can change. These include things like hull/shield/damage modifiers, changing capital ship health, restricting certain starfighters, and other tools to help you change how you play. With this, there will also be a custom matches server browser for you to search through private matches made by your friends as well as public ones made by strangers!

General

• Added Custom Games and a server browser, available in the Multiplayer & Training menu
• Adjusted Skill Rating requirements for each tier via server-side change last week (see below for full details)
• Updated Skill Rating gain/loss ratios to better reflect each player’s performance in a match via server-side change last week
• Ongoing server-side matchmaking improvements
• Fixed an issue where the game could crash if the player didn't skip through the outro screens of a match
• Fixed an issue where the game could crash when loading into Fostar Haven
• Fixed an issue where having Lighting quality set to Low could create intense flashes of light on Fostar Haven
• Fixed an issue where AI in multiplayer could on occasion deal no hull damage to players with their primary weapons
• Fixed or improved instances of poor collision detection on Fostar Haven, Galitan, Esseles, Nadiri Dockyards, Zavian Abyss, and Sissubo
• Fixed issue where the interior of the TIE interceptor could disappear after respawning
• Fixed issue where Star Destroyer engine VFX could flicker
• Fixed an issue where PlayStation 5 visuals appeared blurry.

Career

• Fixed an issue where at times players could not see their own stats on the Career page

Controls

• Added support for TrackIR on PC
• Improved how the game detects and handles device inputs under the same device name
• Fixed an issue where the game would not detect all input devices if multiple were plugged in
• Fixed issue where PC users with more than 5 input devices were unable to adjust device order in some cases
• Added controller rumble for ion cannon, assault shield, and beam cannon
• Fixed an issue where the mini-stick input on the Hori HOTAS for Xbox One did not work properly
• Added the option to toggle game controllers between dynamic (default) and static throttle. This option can be used to correct the behavior of the throttle on certain input devices, such as the Hori HOTAS for PS4.

Cosmetic Customization

• Added new cosmetics that will be rolled out over time through in-game events and Operations
• Improved lighting for dashboard figures where needed
• Fixed issue where an Astromech-shaped hole could appear in the decorative UI elements around the "Powerful Ally" X-wing skin

Fleet Battles

• Fixed an issue where on occasion no indicator would display after a capital ship was destroyed
• Reduced the max time waiting in the briefing room from 120 seconds to 90 seconds
• Fixed an issue where Titan One could have a hologram effect on their legs in the briefing room

Practice

• Fixed an issue where there was no UI indicator on some spawned New Republic squadrons

Social

• Friends will now display in alphabetical order for easier use
• Improved the loading time of the friends list for players with many friends

Spectator

• Fixed an issue where all the players could appear as the same one in the intro cinematic

Starfighters & Components

• Added the B-wing to the New Republic fleet
  • Heavy Gunship playstyle, back-line fighter
  • Low maneuverability, relies on boosting/drifting to move and turn efficiently
  • High durability and primary damage output, explosive capital ship damage and built-in ion cannons
  • Relies on Support/allies to reach capital ships and survive while dealing damage
  • Ideal for staying back behind Fighters/Interceptors and laying down heavy fire on enemy ships
  • Unique component: Ion Beam
    • Deals massive ion damage to capital ship shields and subsystems
  • Unique component: Gyro/Aux Control Module
    • Allows gyroscopic cockpit roll while holding the auxiliary button, rotating the entire ship around your cockpit. Wing angle determines bomb release angle. Missile evasion is also increased while gyroscopic roll is in motion.
    • Also increases ammo count for auxiliaries that use ammo; otherwise, improves auxiliary cooldown rate.
• Added the TIE defender to the Imperial Navy
  • Highly adaptable anti-starfighter specialist, front- and mid-line fighter
  • High survivability with strong shields but very susceptible to ion weaponry
  • Requires frequent, skillful power management and use of boost/drift for ideal performance; poor power management can be detrimental
  • Unique component: Advanced Power System
    • Gives instant, significant overcharge to the system with max power. If no system has max power, gives weaker overcharge across all systems.
• Deployable turrets (both standard and rocket) now display their DPS.
• Fixed an issue where a rocket could have no effect on impact
• We've updated the Deployable Turret's description to be clearer on how it functions in-game
• Fixed an issue where there could be no reloading sound effect for components
• Tactical Shield and Emergency Shield are now displayed on the targeting computer around the starfighter in New Republic ships (already present for Imperial starfighters) instead of on the status indicator to allow for side by side comparison between the temporary shield and regular shields when cycling allies or enemies
• Reduced A-wing shield regeneration rate by approximately 1/3
• The Rotary Cannon no longer consumes laser power during its windup
• Fixed an issue where a starfighter's movement could become jerky while firing the Rotary Cannon
• Reduced Ion Missile travel speed from 400m/s to 240m/s to fall in line with other missiles
• Fixed an issue where players could exploit power converter penalties and reset them when setting power management to Balanced
• Players now take +50% damage if they are hit while charging the Plasburst Cannon to enforce its role as a “chase” weapon rather than a “jousting” weapon
• Improved VFX clarity when the Plasburst Cannon is fully charged
• Fixed issue where beam VFX could disappear if the player repeatedly tapped the button
• Fixed an issue where the starfighter disabled effects would not show up correctly in the U-wing
• Fixed an issue where starfighters could hit a negative turning rate
• Increased Piercing Torpedo inner blast radius from 2 to 14 to allow it to deal more consistent damage.

Story

• Fixed an issue where the game could load infinitely as Mission 1 ended
• Fixed an issue where some players couldn't progress past the objective to "Follow Gunny" in Mission 1
• Fixed an issue where the drifting tutorial couldn't be completed with arrow keys on PC in Mission 3.

UI

• Individual sub-tiers in the rank ladder now display their SR requirements
• Fixed an issue where the defeated player's username would display very small in the kill cam
• Fixed an issue where text would inconsistently display as outlined when it shouldn't
• Fixed an issue where the prompt to leave the briefing room could continue into the intro cinematic and game
• "Recenter HMD" VR input is now appropriately displayed on the PC controls screen
• Added a few new loading screen tips related to the new content.

VR

• Fixed an issue where ships could pop into view midway through the hangar enter/exit cinematics while playing in VR
• Fixed an issue where doubled images could occur when tracking points in PSVR while rotating the in-game camera.

VS AI

• Fixed an issue where the player could load into Esseles instead of Fostar Haven when playing against AI.

 

 

Star Wars: Squadrons is available on PS4, Xbox One, PC (Origin, Steam and the Epic Games Store), and will be playable via Virtual Reality (VR) on PS 4 and PC with cross-play support.