Battlefront’s Death Star DLC: Everything we know – part I

 

“That’s no moon.”

We’re likely within a month from Battlefront’s third expansion pack, the Death Star. After last week’s information blowout, I thought it would be useful to compile everything we’ve learned from Star Wars Celebration, gamescom and various Tweets.

Because we actually have a decent chunk of information for this DLC, I’ll be breaking it into three parts. Today I’ll focus on the new heroes Chewbacca and Bossk, as well as all the new playable characters. Look out for part II (maps and modes) on Wednesday and part III (vehicles, weapons and features) on Thursday.

Read part two here. Read part three here.

Chewbacca and Bossk

After Chewbacca and Bossk were possibly hinted at in a Hutt Contracts’ easter egg in the Outer Rim DLC, they were finally confirmed as the heroes for the Death Star DLC in July during Star Wars Celebration.

As shown in the above concept art, Chewbacca will be wielding his famous bowcaster. Hero designer Guillaume Mroz revealed last week that the Wookie’s bowcaster will function differently than the Star Card version that’s currently in-game. In addition, Chewbacca won’t receive damage from his weapons.

Lead designer Dennis Brannvall also commented during a Twitch stream about developing Chewie: “It took a long, long while to get [Chewbaca] in. It’s the fur. Hair in video games is a tricky thing. And this is probably the hairiest guy out there.”

EA/DICE have been largely silent about Chewbacca’s counterpart, the Trandoshan bounty hunter Bossk. However, Bossk’s primary weapon is currently in-game (the Relby-v10); it would make sense for the bounty hunter to use a beefed up version when he arrives next month.

R2-D2

Last week during gamescom, Brannvall revealed that R2-D2 will be a playable character. Brannvall confirmed a number of details regarding the astromech in an interview with BattlefrontUpdates:

• He is fully controllable and isn’t on rails.
• He is slow.
• He can’t jump or use his thrusters.
• He plays a support role. Two abilities have been confirmed: Scan ping and stun (with his shock prod).

In another interview with PLAY!, Brannvall also hinted how R2-D2 might work, saying that the Imperials are trying to “lock him in place.” Perhaps, with enough damage, the Imperials are able to freeze R2 and kick out whoever was controlling him. That’s just speculation for now, of course!

Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader

Luke’s Red 5 X-Wing and Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced will be playable as well. Initially teased in the key art for the Death Star at the top of the page, Brannvall confirmed during the Twitch stream that both characters will feature in the upcoming expansion.

The two will be active in the third and final phase of Battle Station, in which the Rebels must blow up the Death Star. However, Luke and Vader will also be playable in Fighter Squadron on base game maps. When the next DLC comes out, Fighter Squadron will work similar to the infantry modes; once a player grabs a hero pick-up, they will get to choose between heroes.

Brannvall has called Vader’s TIE Advanced a “hybrid of the TIE Fighter and the TIE Interceptor.” The ship features some sort of laser barrage mechanic.

We don’t know too much about the counter to Vader’s TIE yet: Luke’s X-Wing. Because Luke’ll be flying with his trusty astromech, maybe it could have some sort of auto-heal feature?

Hero wingmen

At least in Battle Station, Luke and Vader won’t be flying alone.

They’ll each get a pair of wingmen. Luke’s will be Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles, while Vader will get his Imperial Aces from Episode IV.

Brannvall called these the “honor guard” for the ships. Otherwise, information is scarce. For example, we don’t know if they’ll get different abilities or how they might appear visually. We also don’t know yet if they’ll make an appearance in Fighter Squadron along with Luke and Vader.

Continue to Part II

(Image sources: Key art. Chewbacca concept. R2-D2 is in-game. Darth Vader is in-game. Biggs.)