Help for new players: The process of planning for roster improvement

Ships, grouped by Fleet Commander under which they should serve (for now) and power:

Executix level 84, 6 stars (15/100)

• Geo Soldier Starship level 84, 7 stars
  
• Sun Fac Starship level 84, 7 stars
  
• Geo Spy Starship level 84, 7 stars
  
• TIE Silencer level 83, 7 stars
  
• Slave 1 level 70, 6 stars (44/100)
  
• TIE Advanced x1 level 60, 5 stars (31/85)
  

Supplemental to Executrix:

• Imperial Tie Fighter level 1, 5 stars (175/85)
  
• Imperial TIE bomber level 1, 4 stars (28/65)
  
• FO SF Tie Fighter level 20, 6 stars (100/100)
  
• FO TIE Fighter level 1, 3 stars (7/30)
  
• Vulture Droid level 57, 5 stars (74/85)
  
• Hyaena Bomber level 1, 4 stars (29/65)
  
• IG-2000 level 0 (42/25)/IG-88 level 0(42/50)
  

Endurance level 17, 3 stars (30/30) (can be used as reinforcements for HomeOne as needed):

• Jedi Consular Starfighter level 57, 4 stars (53/65)
  
• Anakin's ETA-2 level 33, 5 stars (101/85)
  
• Ashoka Tano's Starfighter level 1, 3 stars (24/30)
  
• ARC-170 level 45, 5 stars (148/85)
  

Home One level 5, 3 stars (30/30) (can be used as reinforcements for Endurance as needed)

• Ghost level 1, 4 stars (71/65)
  
• Phantom II level 1, 4 stars (68/65)
  
• Rsistance X-wing level 1, 1 stars (1/15)
  

Next we need to determine what can be done to make the current squads and fleets better.

There are 3 primary ways to do this:
1) add a new character/ship
2) gear up an existing character (or pilot, for a ship)
3) add ability levels to an existing character/ship (ships also gain power when you add ability levels to their pilot(s))

but there's also an important 4th thing to do: add character/ship levels. These are the basic level of a toon or ship, and range from 1 to 85. If you add a character level you'll notice that there isn't much difference for a specific toon between level 45 and 46, or 75 and 76. There's not even much difference between level 1 and level 2 (especially by the time your player level has hit 85). But character levels are important because it's not possible to add ability levels or gear unless the toon meets the character level prerequisite.

The most important character levels are, arguably, the even numbered levels from 76 to 84 and level 85. Why? Because the greatest ability boosts are gained through Omega ability mats, which can only be applied to an ability at level 76, 78, or 80 (depending on the particular ability's requirements) and Zeta mats, which can only be applied to an ability at levels 82, 84, and 85.

This means that you might find a character at level 79 gains access to a completely new ability at level 80. This can be incredibly important, so we'll pay particular attention to what levels we want to increase, whether or not a character has a special ability coming up, and what level is required for that special ability.

We also, though, have to pay attention to the level required for the most restricted piece of gear at a toon's current gear tier so that they can complete the tiers their currently on and gain the bonuses associated with going up a tier.

Okay, with all that in mind, we're going to make a list of important squad improvements in the next comment. This will include everything above: adding characters, adding gear, adding ability levels, and, where necessary, adding character levels to make those improvements possible.

Okay, so let's look at this player's best current faction:

Early Jedi, Primary:
Bastila level 85, 7 star, gear X

• Grand Master Yoda level 72, 7 star, gear IX
  
• Ashoka Tano level 72, 7 star, gear IX
  
• Jedi Knight Anakin level 72, 7 star, gear IX
  
• Jolee Bindo level 35, 5 star(49/85), gear V
  

Note that they had increased Jedi Consular far more than Jolee Bindo. They're currently using Consular in their Arena squad. It made sense to focus on Consular early, especially but not only because Consular has one of the better starting ships, so JC could serve multiple roles, helping in Galactic War, Squad Arena, and Fleet Arena. But Bindo is the more powerful character in the long run for several reasons. As a result, creating the most powerful early Jedi faction requires moving on from JC and improving Jolee Bindo.

What can be done right now? Well, 3 of these characters are about the same level & gear tier. Bindo is the obvious weakling. We want his abilities, so we don't want him to die early. Therefore we put effort into the whole faction, but starting with JB:

1) Increase the character level of Bindo to 82 immediately.
2) Increase the gear level of Bindo to VII immediately.
3) Add the zeta to Bindo's ability "That Looks Pretty Bad" which became possible to do once JB hit level 82. This allows him to resurrect multiple Jedi at once
4) Add the omega ability to Bindo's "Eh, You Do It."
5) Increase the character level of Biindo to 84
6) Add the omega ability to Bindo's "Experience & Wisdom".
7) Increase the gear level of Bindo to IX as soon as reasonably possible.

Next we'll increase the character levels, as soon as credits are available, in this order:
1) GMY to level 78
2) JKA to level 78
3) Ahsoka Tano to level 78
4) GMY to level 84
5) JKA to level 82
6) Ahsoka to level 82

Now when I'm looking at the gear to determine gear improvements, I notice that our player has mislabeled the gear tiers for 2 toons: JKA and Ahsoka are each gear tier VIII, not IX (in other words, tier 8, not tier 9). This is common for level 72. Grand Master Yoda is actually unusual in being able to hit g9 while still level 72.

Gear improvement priorities would be something like this:
1) Bindo => g9 (as stated above)
2) JKA => g9
3) Ahsoka => g9
4) Bindo => g10
5) GMY => g10
6) JKA => g10
7) Ahsoka => g10

Ability improvements:
1) All of the Bindo improvements listed above
2) GMY's "Masterstroke" omega
3) GMY's basic attack ("Ataru") omega
4) Ahsoka Tano's basic attack ("Focused Slash")
5) JKA's "Overpowering Assault" omega
6) JKA's basic attack ("Deft Bladework") omega
7) GMY's "Unstoppable Force" omega
8) GMY's "Battle Meditation" zeta



Now, obviously we want all these characters at relics someday with all their abilities omega'd and zeta'd, but we're making immediate and intermediate goals here, not long term ones. Long term we have to account for new characters (like Jedi Knight Revan) who will come along and disrupt the order in which we gear toons by immediately moving to the highest priority. For that reason, it makes more sense to plan a couple months ahead, but not much farther than that. To be honest, I don't expect to get even that far with the current squad as is, since there will be other new toons in other factions that will end up higher priority than these.

BUT, within this faction, not considering anything outside this faction and not considering new toons for this faction, this is a good priority list of improvements.

I'm going to go ahead and follow this same general strategy for each faction available, and then I'm going to rank the factions by priority after that.

We rank the different factions by priority for improvement last because we need to see which factions can be improved the most and the quickest in order to set those priorities. This faction has a lot of room to improve, but as you'll see, the Empire faction can be improved even more by the quick addition of 2 characters. Thus other than some quick character levels and ability levels, most of what we've laid out here as priorities for this faction will actually be done after some work is done on the Empire faction... and possibly others? We'll see.

Early Jedi, Secondary:
Barriss Offee level 48, 7 star, gear VII
Obi-Wan (Old Ben) level 36, 5 star(13/85), gear V

• Mace Windu level 53, 5 star(95/85), gear VII
  
• Jedi Consular level 85, 7 star, gear X
  
• Luminara Unduli level 22, 5 star(58/85), gear IV
  
• Jedi Knight Gaurdian level 2, 2 stars(109/25), gear II
  

We don't need another Jedi team right away, but it's not bad to have one. Grand Arena and Galactic War both benefit from having multiple squads built up. Barriss Offee and Old Ben are the best characters to lead a 2nd Jedi squad, and Old Ben is required for the CLS event, so finishing Old Ben's shard farming & increasing the levels of Barriss & Old Ben are our first priorities here:

Barriss ==> level 80, gear 8, basic attack to ability level 7 (just short of the omega), "Force Healer" to ability level 7, and leadership ability ("No one left Behind") to omega

Old Ben ==> 7 stars, level 80, gear 8, all abilities to ability level 7 (just short of omega/zeta level), basic attack ("Elegant Form") to omega

Luminara ==> level 70, gear 7, all abilities to ability level 7

Mace Windu ==> level 70, gear 7, all abilities to ability level 7

JK Guardian is too poor a toon even to increase by the relatively small amounts we're giving to Luminara. Fortunately we have 6 candidate toons here, so this gives us a complete squad of secondary Jedi.


Early Geonosians (Nute Lead, Dooku supplemental):
Nute Gunray level 72, 7 star, gear VIII
Poggle the Lesser level 72, 7 star, gear VIII
Count Dooku level 14, 5 star(21/85), gear II

• Geo Soldier level 85, 7 star, gear X
  
• Sun Fac level 85, 7 star, gear VIII
  
• Geo Spy level 85, 7 star, gear VIII
  

This squad can't really be helped by improving Dooku, but he doesn't fit anywhere else yet, and you might need him in an emergency, so he still goes here, he just won't be in the improvement plan.

Nute ==> level 80, all abilities to ability level 7, leadership ability ("Backroom Subterfuge") to omega, Motivate to omega

Poggle => level 78, "Warlord's Resolve" to omega

Geo Spy ==> g10

Sun Fac ==> g10

Nute ==> g9

Geo Spy ==> g11

Sun Fac ==> g11

One of the interesting things here is that Padmé is a character available from a Legendary event that you can get with these toons. Without following at least part of the improvement plan, it might only be possible to get her at 5 stars, but the player should try for Padmé right away, and again every time any improvement is made on the early Geonosian squad.


Vader's Imperials:
Darth Vader level 85, 7 star, gear IX
Grand Moth Tarkin level 85, 7 star, gear VIII
TIE Fighter Pilot level 50, 4 star(3/65), gear VII
Royal Guard level 55, 5 star(211/65), gear VII
Stromtrooper level 35, 5 star(36/85), gear V

Now this is an interesting squad because there are two excellent toons available from Legendary events that vastly improve the imperials: Emperor Palpatine and Grand Admiral Thrawn. Unfortunately those characters require you to gear up a different faction (Phoenix Squadron for Thrawn, and Phoenix or any other Rebel for Palp) to get those toons. But fortunately, their Phoenix is (as we shall see) already good enough to get both of these toons. Palp at 7* and Thrawn at 5* or 6*. So literally later today the improvement plan can progress quite a lot:

1) Acquire Emperor Palpatine

• Level up to 82
  
• Gear up to g7 immediately and to g9 ASAP
  
• All abilities to ability level 7
  
• Leadership ability ("Emperor of the Galactic Empire") to zeta
  
• Power of the Dark Side to omega
  
• Basic attack ("Lightning Strike") to omega
  
• 
  

2) Acquire Grand Admiral Thrawn

• Level up to 82
  
• Gear up to g7 immediately and to g9 ASAP, but after Palpatine
  
• All abilities up to ability level 7
  
• "Fracture" to omega
  
• Basic attack ("Manipulate") to omega
  
• "Ebb and Flow" to zeta
  

3) Royal Guard: Use credits + the shards you already have to raise to 6 stars

• You probably don't want to actively farm RG since you'll continue to get a lot of shards from Bronziums and GW, but you might want to do a small amount of shard farming if this is the last toon you need to get to 7* in order to complete the R2D2 event. This is just something to keep in mind.
  

4) Darth Vader to g10

5) TIE Fighter Pilot

• Begin working on shards (this is ongoing) and take toon all the way to 7*.
  
• Level up to 70
  
• All abilities to ability level 7
  
• Any time after hitting 6 stars, raise character level to 80
  
• TIE Strike to Omega
  
• Basic attack ("Targeting Computer") to Omega
  

Now something else to note is that as soon as you have Palpatine (and possibly even before) you have enough Imperials to unlock R2D2 in its legendary event. You need 5x 7* characters to get R2D2 at 7*, but just unlocking the droid should be enough for now.

Currently there are only 2 seven star toons in the Vader's Imperials squad, but this can go up to 4 quite rapidly if the player completes the Palpatine & Thrawn events soon. Even if Thrawn is not completed as soon (it is the more difficult event), with Snow Trooper (from the Imperial Troopers faction) and with increasing the star count of Royal Guard, getting a 6 star R2D2 should be possible in a week or less.


Phoenix:
Hera level 72, 7 star, gear IX

• Kannan level 72, 7 star, gear VIII
  
• Sbine Wren level 71, 7 star, gear VIII
  
• Ezra Bridger level 71, 7 star, gear VIII
  
• Zeb level 71, 7 star, gear VIII
  
• Chopper level 52, 6 star(40/100), gear VII
  

We're doing Phoenix & Rebels next, even though they weren't next originally, because they're so strongly tied in with Imperials through the need for Phoenix for Thrawn, Rebels (including Phoenix) for Palp, and then Palp & Thrawn for R2D2.

Now, not only is R2D2 a rebel, but it's also the last toon needed to get CLS who is the premier Rebel leader. That ties Empire & all rebels (including Phoenix) together with a great big bow.

So let's do this. We need a plan to make Phoenix good enough to gain a 7* Thrawn so that rebels can gain a 7* R2D2.

Now, unfortunately we have to note that gear levels have been listed incorrectly again. The actual squad is this:

Phoenix:
Hera level 72, 7 star, gear VIII

• Kannan level 72, 7 star, gear VIII
  
• Sbine Wren level 71, 7 star, gear VII
  
• Ezra Bridger level 71, 7 star, gear VII
  
• Zeb level 71, 7 star, gear VII
  
• Chopper level 52, 6 star(40/100), gear VII
  

So... that took a gear tier off of 4 toons. Yikes! Still, we're in good shape to get Palp & Thrawn unlocked & not that far away from getting both to 7*. So here we go:

1) Chopper

• Take to 7* (Purchase from Cantina Battles store, 6 purchases required)
  
• Raise level to 82
  
• All abilities to level 7
  
• Maintenance Protocol to Omega
  
• Basic Attack ("Reckless Fling") to Omega
  
• Gear to g8+4
  

2) Hera

• Raise level to 82
  
• All abilities to ability level 7
  
• Leadership ability ("Rise Together") to Omega
  
• Backup Plan to Omega
  
• Gear to g9 (I would recommend g8+5, but Hear already has her g8 Stun Gun and everything left is relatively easy)
  

3) Ezra

• Raise Level to 82
  
• All abilities to ability level 7
  
• Push Through to Omega
  
• Basic Attack ("Rushing Strike") to Omega
  
• Watch and Learn to Omega
  
• Gear to g9+5 (it's reasonable to skip the g9 Mk5 Fusion Furnace for now, but if you have an extra Mk5 FF, well, everything else at g9 is relatively easy, and finishing the Mk5 FF allows taking Ezra to g10+2 or +3 pretty easily, and it's probably worth it)
  
• 
  

4) Kanan

• Raise level to 82
  
• All abilities to ability level 7
  

5) Zeb

• Raise level to 82
  
• All abilities to ability level 7
  
• Gear to g8+3
  

Early Rebels (Incl. CLS requirements):
Admiral Ackbar level 50, 7 star, gear VII
Princess Leia level 66, 7 star, gear IX
Stormtrooper Han level 22, 5 star(24/85), gear III

• Hoth Rebel Scout level 35, 7 star, gear IV
  
• Luke Skywalker level 62, 4 star(4/65), gear VII
  
• Biggs Darklighter level 2, 5 star(81/85), gear II
  
• Scarif Rebel Pathfinder level 2, 2 stars(3/25), gear II
  

NOTE: Old Ben listed with secondary Jedi above, but is also an alternate here

The most important improvements we can make here are about adding characters: R2D2, Commander Luke Skywalker ("CLS"), Han Solo (from the Rancor Raid), Chewbacca (this is different from "Clone Wars Chewbacca"), C3PO, and "Threepio and Chewie" which, despite the two names, is a single character. I'm listing them in this order since this is the order you're most likely to get them. Wedge is also a character you will need to add, but he doesn't improve the squad nearly as quickly as the other characters.

The most important characters above are the ones that are the prerequisites for CLS, so
Princess Leia
Stormtrooper Han
Luke Skywalker
Old Ben

The last requirement for CLS is R2D2. You will have to have all of these at 7* to get CLS. You literally can't even unlock him until you finish the entire event and receive the character already at 7*. This is how things are done with "Hero's Journey" events, and it's different from the "Legendary Events" that you will be more used to.

SO the three characters for which you will need more shards are:
Old Ben
StormTrooper Han
Luke Skywalker

Then for R2D2 you need shards, but from the event, not from farming. To get those you need to complete the Palpatine Event & Thrawn event mentioned above, which means that your first priority would be to get your Phoenix squad improved so that you can complete the imperial events. Then complete those events & improve Palp and Thrawn. Then get one more imperial to 7* (SnowTrooper is close, but Magmatrooper is in the GW store, where farming is cheap & easy: I would go SnowTrooper, though, as 85/100 is just too close and it's a much better toon). Since Snow is only 15 shards away, I would wait until both Palp and Thrawn are 7* before even considering farming Snow. It is most likely that this player will get the last 15 shards needed for Snow before we can even finish the Thrawn event.

So improvement here looks like this:
1) Princess Leia

• Increase level to 82
  
• Increase all abilities to ability level 7
  
• Gear to g9 (the player had incorrectly labeled this, she's currently actually g8)
  
• Rebel Tactics to Omega
  
• Basic attack ("Hair Trigger") to Omega
  

We don't want to give her a zeta, but that is one way that people get through the CLS event without spending as much on gear, if the player has more zetas to spare than gear to spare.

2) Acquire R2D2

• Increase Level to 80
  
• Increase all abilities to level 7
  
• "Smoke Screen" to Omega
  
• "Improvise" to Omega
  
• Basic attack ("Electroshock Prod") to Omega
  
• Gear to g8+3
  

3) Old Ben

• Shards to 7*
  
• Level to 76
  
• All abilities to level 7
  
• Gear to g7
  

Seven stars on Old Ben is required, but this is more than enough gear & ability increases for him to fulfill his role in the event: he doesn't need to be high powered as long as he gets good health and defense mods.

4) StormTrooper Han

• Shards to 7*
  
• Level to 80
  
• All abilities to level 7
  
• "Draw Fire" to Omega
  
• Gear to g9+4
  

5) Luke Skywalker (Farmboy)

• Shards to 7*
  
• Level to 78
  
• All abilities to level 7
  
• "Bullseye" to Omega
  
• Gear to g8
  
• If you need it, but try to avoid it: Basic attack ("Frontier Marksmanship") to Omega
  

Once you have this, you can get CLS
6) Commander Luke Skywalker

• Level to 80
  
• All abilities to level 7
  
• "Call to Action" to Omega
  
• "Use the Force" to Omega
  
• Basic attack ("Destined Strike") to Omega
  
• Gear to g10
  

There are 3 more factions, IIRC, that I want to analyze, but they're going to have little in the way of improvement plans for now. The above are the main factions we're going to worry about.

Other factions worth mentioning:

Early Bounty Hunters:
Bobba Fett level 85, 7 star, gear VIII

• Dengar level 65, 7 star, gear VIII
  
• Cad Bane level 66, 7 star, gear VIII
  
• Greedo level 50, 7 star, gear VII
  

The gear here, as it so often is for this player, is mislabeled. Everyone but Boba is actually one gear tier less than originally stated, so in reality it looks like this:

Early Bounty Hunters:
Bobba Fett level 85, 7 star, gear VIII

• Dengar level 65, 7 star, gear VII
  
• Cad Bane level 66, 7 star, gear VII
  
• Greedo level 50, 7 star, gear VI
  

I realize the roman numerals are confusing, but this is a good reminder to double check those if you're new to the game.

Improvement here should be limited to that necessary to first, defeat the maximum tier of the Credit Heist event, and second to get Chewbacca. Chewbacca is going to require a LOT more gear, so right now the improvement plan only includes what's necessary to defeat the max tier Credit Heist and... frankly this might be enough. If the player was having difficulty defeating the Credit Heist, remember that it's open to all Scoundrels, which means the improvements to StormTrooper Han are usable here. Rancor Raid Han Solo is also usable here, once acquired. Since those toons contribute to multiple goals, not just the Credit Heist, I wouldn't improve any of these Bounty Hunters right now.


Early First Order:
Captain Phasma level 47, 4 star(1/65), gear VI

• Kylo Ren level 85, 7 star, gear VIII
  
• FO SF Tie Pilot level 53, 7 star, gear VIII
  
• FO TIE Pilot level 44, 4 star(6/65), gear VI
  
• FO Executioner level 53, 2 star(12/25), gear VIII
  

So first thing to note here is that "Kylo Ren" is mislabeled. This is actually "Kylo Ren (Unmasked)". That changes a lot, including who gets to be the leader of this faction. So we're reordering things:

Early First Order:
Kylo Ren level 85, 7 star, gear VIII

• Captain Phasma level 47, 4 star(1/65), gear VI
  
• FO SF Tie Pilot level 53, 7 star, gear VIII
  
• FO TIE Pilot level 44, 4 star(6/65), gear VI
  
• FO Executioner level 53, 2 star(12/25), gear VIII
  

There's so much to do with this faction that we're going to leave it mostly alone for now, except this:
1) Captain Phasma
Increase level to 70
All abilities except leadership to level 7
Gear to g7
Shards to 7*

2) FOSF TIE Pilot
Level to 70
All abilities to level 7
gear to g8 (it is currently mislabeled as g8, but is actually g7)



Ewoks (C3P0 requirements)
Teebo level 2, 3 star(164/30), gear III

• Ewok Elder level 61, 7 star, gear IX
  
• Ewok Scout level 53, 4 star(234/65), gear VII
  

These don't need to be improved yet. But other ewoks should be farmed to collect a squad which can unlock C3PO. For that, we need:
1) Teebo
Use credits to increase current stars (there is almost enough here to reach 6*)
Finish collecting shards to reach 7*

2) Chief Chirpa
Collect shards to 7*

3) Paploo
Collect shards to 7*

3) Wicket
Collect Shards to 7*

Imperial Troopers:
Moff Gideon level 25, 3 star(0/30), gear V
Range Trooper level 14, 5 star(59/85), gear III
Snowtrooper level 56, 6 star(85/100), gear VII
Colonal Starck level 14, 4 star(84/65), gear II
Darktrooper level 2, 1 stars(0/15), gear II

This faction is not worth upgrading immediately, but Range Trooper is key and can be used in other Empire squads. To make this faction worth upgrading, we need a 5* General Veers. So the current plan is just this:

1) SnowTrooper

• Level to 80
  
• All abilities to Omega
  
• Collect shards to 7*
  
• gear to g9+3
  
• 
  

2) General Veers

• Collect shards to 5*
  
• Level to 82
  
• All abilities to ability level 7
  
• Leadership ability to Omega
  
• gear to g9
  

3) Range Trooper

• Collect Shards to 7*
  
• Level to 80
  
• All abilities to level 7
  
• "Steady" to Omega
  
• Basic ability ("Take Aim") to Omega
  
• Gear to g7
  

This allows you to get ready for the next steps without overcommitting gear or other resources to a faction that's not yet usable. Once you're here, you would be ready to push Veers to 6* and add his zeta while gearing up Colonel Stark and one more Imperial Trooper.

Okay, so now we have a list of faction improvements. For any one of these factions the improvements won't take long. But for all of them it will take a very, very long time. So now we need to put these factions in a priority order and make an action plan. Which faction plans do we follow first? What else do we need to add to those faction plans (like a long term farm which doesn't fit into our immediate time frame, but we should start now ... like Geonosian Brood Alpha, for instance, and Zaalbar and Mission, to make sure that we do eventually finish, someday.

The factions which can be improved the most are:

Geonosians, who are completely transformed by the addition of Geonosian Brood Alpha. Unfortunately even though this is a huge change, it's very far away: it requires farming Brood Alpha from scratch. We'll have to add GBA to our list of Cantina Battles farms to get the big improvement. Short/medium term our improvements will be small.

Galactic Republic, who are also completely transformed by the addition of Padmé Amidala. You can probably unlock her now, but she requires a lot of rare gear and the rest of her team isn't ready yet. Of course we can pull Jedi Knight Anakin and Ahsoka from the primary Jedi squad, and Fives from clones, but we still need others. Grand Master Yoda is of little help since so much of his kit revolves around gaining Turn Meter%, and Padmé's leadership prohibits TM% manipulation (up or down). So for a full squad we need General Kenobi (from the Tank raid) and ideally one more toon than that, to replace Fives so that he can stay with the other clones. GR isn't close enough because of gear and other character issues, but it's a lot closer than Geos!

Empire, who are completely transformed by Emperor Palpatine's leadership skill, and gain another serious bump in power from Grand Admiral Thrawn who can keep tanks from taunting while the rest of your toons focus on the biggest threat, or just paralyze the biggest threat while the rest of your toons eliminate all the tanks and other distractions. Neither of these toons requires Kyrotech gear before the final piece of g12 gear the way Padmé unfortunately does, and you have a good number of other Empire toons already. On top of that, this helps get R2D2 who is a huge boost to the Rebel faction. So Empire can be completely transformed into a much better team, it benefits quickly, and spreads those benefits to another faction quickly. So for right now, Empire looks like our top priority.

Phoenix does not transform, and they are hard to gear, and generally they gain you very little in Arena or GAC or even Galactic War. Their two redeeming features are that they are useful in fleet (but not that useful to us, since our best ships are Dark Side) and that they can win Palpatine & Thrawn. Since Empire generally and Palp & Thrawn specifically are our top priorities so far, that means that whenever we run into a roadblock improving Palp and/or Thrawn, Phoenix will jump to the top of the priority list until we're powerful enough to overcome the current challenge & add that final star to each of those transformative Empire toons.

==========================================

Factions which gain smaller benefits or take much longer than the above squads:
1. Jedi: These have already been transformed by Bastila Shan. There isn't another transformation in the offing until gaining Jedi Knight Revan. Improving Jolee Bindo is worth it since his ability to revive all other Jedi is very nearly transformative, but the rest of this faction plan will have to be put on hold.

2. Rebels: Rebels don't transform until gaining CLS and Rancor Raid Han Solo (just "Raid Han") in the future. RH takes care of himself just by participating in raids, so that farm is passive and not something to worry about. CLS is not accessible until many characters which aren't 7* yet hit that 7* mark. Not only that, but one of those toons is R2D2 which requires Empire faction toons to complete its event. Therefore the Rebels have to come after the Empire.

3. Bounty Hunters: Bounty Hunters transform with the addition of Bossk, and he is a very, very long farm. We'll get that going, but there's no reason to invest in other improvements right now. We'll also farm Bossk's ship at the same time, and Bossk's ship gives us Jango for free. Once we have Bossk & Jango to 5* or 6*, we'll see where we are with the overall state of the inventory of characters and work them into the gear priority list. That will help us both in fleet and with our rebels by giving us access to Chewbacca.

4: First Order: This faction gains quite a bit by giving a zeta to Kylo Ren (Unmasked), but too many of the other toons are not ready. It wouldn't be the transformation we would hope for. The FO faction here is set up better for fleet, and that's how we'll use them until there's room in the farming plan for General Hux, Kylo Ren, First Order Stormtrooper, and First Order Executioner.

5. Ewoks: This faction never really transforms into something great with the addition of a single zeta'd character the way that other factions do. But they are necessary for C3PO, so we'll continue to farm the four valuable ewoks in the background to get ready for the C3PO event. When we have the characters all at or near 6*, we can start worrying about the gear.

6. Imperial Troopers: As stated above, this faction is capable of a fantastic transformation, but it requires more toons to get ready, and it requires General Veers at a survivable gear level since the transformative element is a Unique ability rather than a leadership. We will push the farming plan above if we can, but the general improvement plan with assigning gear etc. will have to wait.

Right then, so the first thing we need to do is have the player try the Palpatine & Thrawn events & see how they go. From there we'll see just how much emphasis we'll have to put on Phoenix and when. Since I'm betting the player will unlock both toons at 5* and maybe get Palp to 6*, first priority for gear and credits and ability mats will go to improving those two characters. Then they will use those to unlock R2D2 and third priority for gear, credits, and ability mats will go to getting R2 up to a usable level. Finally, we'll have the player try the Padmé event. We won't have the gear for her immediately, but we can start the slow push towards useable gear levels today if we can get Padmé unlocked. She won't be first in line for gear, but there will be lots of gear available for the early tiers that she can get without trouble.

Once that's done, we'll cycle back to improving Phoenix just enough to earn a 7* Thrawn, which will give us just enough to earn a 7* R2D2.

Then we'll be working full time on the Empire improvement plan. Cross your fingers for our player!

You mentioned needing a 5th in Padme eventually. Wouldn’t Barris work?

You mentioned needing a 5th in Padme eventually. Wouldn’t Barris work?

Yes, but right now she's also our best secondary Jedi leader. I haven't gotten as far as thinking through exactly who should be the 5th yet, but I can say I will be thinking about it, and I'll consider both Barriss usefulness under Padmé and her usefulness as an independent leader of Jedi.