Ultimate Star Wars Zero Company Gunslinger Build and Class Guide

I have always had a soft spot for the characters in tactical games who look like they are one bad decision away from getting surrounded, yet somehow end the fight with half the enemy squad lying on the floor. That is exactly why the Gunslinger immediately caught my attention in Star Wars Zero Company. This isn’t the kind of class you pick if you want to sit safely behind full cover and take one careful shot every few turns. The Gunslinger is fast, aggressive, and built around creating those moments where one successful attack suddenly turns into three.

With its Clone Wars setting and turn-based tactical combat, Star Wars Zero Company has plenty of room for different squad roles. You have characters that can soak up punishment, specialists who manipulate the battlefield, and ranged units designed to control space. The Gunslinger sits somewhere in the middle, but plays much more aggressively than a traditional sniper. When built correctly, this class can reposition, exploit exposed enemies, land critical hits, and turn a seemingly difficult encounter into a surprisingly clean victory.

This Star Wars Zero Company Gunslinger build guide focuses on the playstyle I find the most satisfying: mobility, critical-hit damage, efficient action usage, and aggressive flanking. If you want your Gunslinger to feel like the squad’s resident blaster maniac rather than just another ranged unit, this is the direction I would take.

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Why the Gunslinger Is So Much Fun to Play

The biggest strength of the Gunslinger is its ability to make positioning feel like part of the attack itself. In many turn-based strategy games, moving your character into a better position means sacrificing your opportunity to deal meaningful damage. The Gunslinger can often avoid that trade-off. Abilities such as Run and Gun let you move aggressively while still contributing damage, which makes the class feel considerably more dynamic than a stationary damage dealer.

The class is especially effective at close-to-medium range. You don’t necessarily want to sit at the extreme edge of the map and wait for enemies to expose themselves. Instead, you are looking for angles where you can attack enemies from the side, finish wounded targets, and then use the resulting momentum to keep the turn going.

That is where the Gunslinger’s Flow State mechanic becomes extremely valuable. Critical hits and kills help build momentum, improving important combat statistics such as accuracy, critical chance, and mobility. In other words, the Gunslinger rewards you for doing exactly what the class already wants to do: keep attacking and keep finding vulnerable targets.

Gunslinger Skill Paths: Desperado vs. Drifter

The Gunslinger skill tree essentially offers two different philosophies. Desperado leans heavily into offensive pressure, multiple attacks, and high-risk damage, while Drifter offers more mobility, defensive tools, and utility. Personally, I would not go all-in on either tree. The most interesting setup comes from combining the two while making Desperado the foundation of the build.

Desperado gives the Gunslinger the tools needed to turn a good position into a devastating attack sequence. Drifter, meanwhile, provides enough flexibility to keep you alive when the battlefield doesn’t cooperate. Tactical games love punishing players who assume every turn will go according to plan, so having a few mobility and defensive options can be the difference between a brilliant play and a reload of the previous save.

Core Abilities Worth Building Around

• Quick Draw: A free opening attack that can provide immediate pressure before you commit your main action.
• Run and Gun: One of the most important mobility tools because it allows repositioning and an attack in the same turn.
• Fan the Hammer: Your major burst-damage option for deleting priority targets.
• Deadeye: A critical damage passive that becomes particularly nasty against exposed or flanked enemies.
• Trick Shot: Excellent for dealing with enemies who believe cover makes them untouchable.
• Showdown: A powerful reaction-based ability that can punish enemies for moving through your firing lane.

The key is not simply unlocking powerful abilities and pressing them whenever they become available. The Gunslinger becomes much stronger when you think one turn ahead. If you know an enemy is going to be exposed after your Vanguard destroys cover, for example, that is the moment to prepare your Gunslinger for a high-damage sequence instead of wasting your strongest ability on an ordinary target.

My Recommended Gunslinger Leveling Path

If I were building a Gunslinger for harder encounters, I would prioritize abilities that improve action economy and reward aggressive play. The following progression gives the class a very strong balance between mobility and burst damage.

Fast Hands is one of those abilities that can look less exciting on paper than a flashy damage skill, but I love action-economy bonuses in turn-based games. A free reload doesn’t sound spectacular until you are in the middle of a difficult encounter and realize that one saved action gives you enough time to move, fire, or finish another enemy.

After that, Run and Gun becomes the centerpiece of the playstyle. It allows you to think about movement offensively. Instead of asking, ‘Where can I hide?’ you start asking, ‘Where can I move that gives me the best shot?’ That small change in mindset makes the Gunslinger feel completely different.

Fan the Hammer Is Your Panic Button

If there is one ability I would build the entire character around, it is Fan the Hammer. Having multiple shots available in a single activation gives the Gunslinger the burst potential needed to remove dangerous targets before they get another turn. The accuracy penalty means you shouldn’t blindly use it against a protected enemy at maximum range, but against a vulnerable target it can be absolutely brutal.

I would especially save Fan the Hammer for enemies that have already been softened up by another squad member. Tactical combat is often about combining attacks rather than chasing individual kills, and the Gunslinger is excellent at delivering the final blow. A damaged elite enemy that would normally survive another round suddenly becomes a perfect target for your dual-blaster burst.

Best Gunslinger Gear and Blaster Mods

Gear should reinforce what the Gunslinger already does well rather than trying to turn the character into something they are not. I would prioritize accuracy, critical chance, critical damage, and armor penetration. Mobility is another major consideration because the entire build loses value if your character cannot reach useful firing positions.

For weapons, twin Westar-35-style blaster pistols fit the class extremely well because they complement the mobile, rapid-fire identity. Heavy DL-44 variants can also work if you prefer raw damage over the more flexible feel of lighter pistols.

• Enhanced Holo-Sight: A strong choice for improving medium-range accuracy while increasing your ability to capitalize on weak points.
• Hair-Trigger Assembly: Particularly useful for a standard-attack focused build because additional shots can dramatically improve damage efficiency.
• Overcharged Tibanna Gas: A good offensive option when you need extra armor penetration against tougher enemies.
• Light Skirmisher Plating: I prefer lighter armor for this build because mobility and evasion are too valuable to sacrifice.

Heavy armor may look tempting because more protection is always nice, but I think it goes against the identity of the class. The Gunslinger isn’t supposed to stand in the middle of the battlefield and trade hits with armored enemies. You want to stay difficult to pin down, use cover intelligently, and make the enemy pay whenever they leave an opening.

How to Position Your Gunslinger

This is probably the most important part of the entire Star Wars Zero Company Gunslinger strategy. Damage numbers are great, but positioning is what creates those damage numbers in the first place. Try to end your turns in half-cover or full-cover whenever possible, especially when you know the enemy has enough firepower to punish exposed units.

At the same time, don’t become obsessed with staying in the exact same piece of cover. A Gunslinger sitting safely behind one wall for five turns isn’t really using the class correctly. Look for firing lanes, side angles, exposed targets, and routes that let you move behind or around enemy defenses. Run and Gun is strongest when you use it to transform movement into an offensive advantage.

Trick Shot is also worth remembering when an enemy thinks they are safe. Cover is one of the biggest factors in tactical combat, so having a way to bypass it can completely change how you approach certain encounters. Instead of spending several turns trying to force an enemy out, you may be able to attack them directly through an unconventional angle.

The Best Squadmates for a Gunslinger

The Gunslinger can deal plenty of damage alone, but this is still a squad-based strategy game. The class becomes much more dangerous when other characters create opportunities for it. A support-oriented Tech Specialist or Astromech is particularly useful because defensive buffs, shield manipulation, and battlefield utility can give your Gunslinger the breathing room needed to operate aggressively.

A strong frontline character is equally important. A Vanguard or Jedi-style guardian can attract enemy attention, destroy cover, and force opponents into awkward positions. Once an enemy is exposed, the Gunslinger can use Run and Gun to exploit the opening and deliver the finishing damage.

My ideal sequence would look something like this: the frontline unit creates an opening, the support character improves the squad’s position or disables an enemy, and then the Gunslinger moves into the newly created angle. From there, a critical hit or kill can trigger additional bonuses, potentially setting up another attack. That chain reaction is where the class really starts to feel overpowered.

How I Would Play the Gunslinger on Hard Difficulty

On higher difficulties, I wouldn’t treat the Gunslinger as a traditional glass cannon. The class is aggressive, but aggression without a plan gets punished very quickly. I would spend the first part of an encounter identifying which enemy represents the biggest immediate threat and whether I can create a flank without exposing the Gunslinger to multiple return attacks.

Once the battlefield starts opening up, I would look for wounded targets that can be finished efficiently. Kills are particularly valuable because they can contribute to the Gunslinger’s momentum while potentially triggering reload or other combat advantages. This makes the class increasingly dangerous as an encounter progresses.

Finally, don’t waste Showdown simply because the cooldown is available. It is much more satisfying when you deliberately create a firing lane where several enemies are likely to move. Used correctly, Showdown can turn a choke point into a nightmare for the opposing force, especially when your squad has already limited their movement options.

Final Thoughts

The Gunslinger is one of those tactical classes that rewards players who enjoy taking calculated risks. It isn’t the safest character in the squad, and that’s exactly what makes it interesting. Every time you move forward for a flank, chase a weakened target, or commit to a burst attack, there is a little bit of tension because you are putting your best damage dealer closer to danger.

For me, the ideal Star Wars Zero Company Gunslinger build is built around critical hits, mobility, action efficiency, and smart target selection. Desperado should form the offensive core, while Drifter abilities can provide enough flexibility to survive when things inevitably go wrong. Combine that skill setup with lightweight armor, accuracy and penetration-focused blaster modifications, and a squad that can manipulate enemy positioning, and the Gunslinger becomes an incredibly reliable damage dealer.

Most importantly, don’t play this class like a stationary shooter. Move, flank, finish targets, build momentum, and keep the pressure on. When everything comes together, your Gunslinger stops feeling like another member of the squad and starts feeling like the character who decides when the firefight is over.