For an end-game Empire team, you’ll want Death Trooper and Shore Trooper, but you can’t farm them for a while. A good Empire team for unlocking R2D2 is going to depend a bit on which characters you can get to 7* and gear 9. I’m planning on Palpatine, Tarkin, Stormtrooper, TIE Fighter Pilot, and Starck because those are the ones I can most easily get up to 7* in a reasonable amount of time. If you can get Thrawn and/or Vader to 7* then obviously go with them. I’d suggest Stormtrooper or Royal Guard be in your group one way or the other since you’ll need a taunter to take damage and protect your damage dealers.
For ships, only level up the ships you intend to use. You’re going to eventually need 5 dark side (preferably Empire) and 5 light side (preferably Rebel) ships, but you won’t be able to farm them all at first. So pick the best ones you have and level them up. Look at ship abilities to tell you what level the ship needs to be, then level the ship to the required level for the ability.
