FIGHTER SQUADRON

Hop into your Starfighter and dominate the skies. Heroes are available for this mode. Vehicles are available for this mode. This mode supports up to a max of 20 players.

Before we even get into the details and strategy for Fighter Squadron there is a point that we need to see clarified as briefly as possible... The game implies that what this is really about is you taking control of either the Millennium Falcon or the Slave I - the appropriate faction super ship.

Well, it implies that, but the reality is anything BUT that. Only ONE player on each team can seek out, find, and use the icon for the relative special ship. Everyone else flies the standard fighters for their faction - either the TIE Fighter or TIE Interceptor for the Imperials, or the X-Wing or A-Wing for the Rebels.

That being the reality, you should probably not get your heart set on being the skipper of the Millennium Falcon or the Slave I. Just saying that the odds are against it.

But that's okay because flying one of the standard fighters will still allow you to very quickly rack up some major XP and thus Rank up pretty quickly. Which you know what? You WANT to do!

The bottom line is that when you first start out playing - and that means you are a Rank 1 newbie - you want to get to Rank 13 or 14 as fast as you possibly can - and Fighter Squadron activity is the fastest way to do that. The reason you want to get to at least Rank 13 is because you really very badly NEED to unlock and purchase the Jump Pack, which is a tactic tool for ground combat.

The primary Objectives are:

• Destroy enemy transport ships.

• Defend your transport ships.

• Destroy enemy fighters.

The first thing that you will notice when you start playing FS is that in its basic standing it is pretty similar to all of the other team-based modes -- you are part of one faction-based team, and you are doing battle with the other faction-based team.

The biggest difference is that in FS the whole balloon turns into a furball almost immediately. What that means is that there really is no point in trying to apply any sort of squad - or in this case squadron - tactics - because things just move too fast on this mode.

Hey, you are halfway into the Danger Zone - so get some speed!

In fact in the most basic terms this game mode is pretty much the equivalent to what is called Deathmatch in most other games in the genre. Or as close to it as it may as well be called that.

The actual game play mechanism is divided into three basic elements -- you vs. AI fighters from the other faction, you vs Player fighters from the other faction, and you either protecting your own transports as they attempt to take off or shooting down the transports that belong to the opposing faction before they can take off completely.

It will interest you to know that a variety of different power-up tokens are available in each map in this mode. Spawning low to the ground and thus requiring the player to flow nap of the earth to collect them, there are two tokens for the special ships (Millennium Falcon and Slave I) that only the first player to reach each can claim for their respective faction -- and then a number of what we can only call utility tokens. Those are Cool Down Tokens that cause your main cannons to recycle (basically reload) faster, and near to the main building on each map there is a token that will repair your fighter. So yeah, cool that!

There are two basic approaches you can take - either focus on the player-characters on the other side for a higher per-kill score, or focus on the AI pilots, who are easier to kill - in order to get your side's kill count up as fast as you can.

Obviously if the other side kill-count is higher than your side's going after the AI pilots makes the most sense - but if YOUR side is in the lead, targeting player-characters makes a lot more sense.

Boosting Rank with FS

The reason that FS is a great way - even the preferred method - for boosting Rank - is down to the massive and easy scores in XP you can obtain via it. For example the following tend to be freely flowing sources of XP for pilots who are at least a little bit good at aerial combat:

• Awards

• Challenges

• Combat (Win or Lose)

• Game Bonus (Win or Lose)

• Objectives (Win or Lose)

• Win Bonus

FS matches have a 10m timer but rarely does it take more than 4 minutes -- what that translates to is the ability to earn between 3K and 4K XP in just under 4 minutes and THAT means you can really pull in Rank unlocks quickly by simply doing a little fighter combat. And how cool is that?

In practical terms and despite the fact that it is probably one of the most important things you will do when you start playing, getting to Rank 13 is really little more than an afternoon of effort, if you are willing to put all of the time in at one go. But you should be willing to do that in one go, because the consequences of getting to Rank 13 are plenty.

First, of course, you unlock the ability to bring a 2nd Hand into the game. Next there is the fact that you unlock the Jump Pack - which you can then purchase for 3,100 Reward Credits. Then there is the fact that you also unlock the T-21 Heavy Blaster.

Ideally, if you are doing your job correctly, you should be able to pay for almost everything you have unlocked - though if you really did your job right, you get to purchase ALL of them in the Card Hand Menu (that being the most important) and then Weapons. What you do in the looks and emotes, well, that is up to you, but personally we recommend you not spend credits there until you have unlocked the tactical stuff - Cards and Guns in other words.