10 tips for Battlefront’s Rogue One: Scarif expansion

Last week’s update to Battlefront bought with it a slew of new mechanics and details. So, without further ado, here’s a collection of tips and tricks to help you in the battle for galactic dominance:

10. U-Wing gunners can be sniped

A first for this Battlefront, players manning a vehicle can now be directly taken out. Imperials can use a sniper rifle to one-hit kill Rebel gunners positioned in the cargo bay of the U-Wing. It’s certainly difficult, but as the video above shows, is perfectly possible.

Note that if you miss the player, you can still damage the U-Wing itself, which shortens the amount of time the player has up in the skies.

9.  Traits now level up with scoring events, not just kills

I’ve previously touched on this topic before, but I figured it was worth a second mention. Before the Rogue One: Scarif update, traits only leveled up every three kills. Since the update, however, traits level up every six scoring events. Scoring events include kills, headshots, kills near an objective, healing teammates and activating objectives.

Your progress is also shown via a circular bar around the trait icon on the left-side of the UI. Once this bar fills up, you’ll level up your trait and the bar will reset. Note that the highest level you can achieve with your trait is still three.

8. Honor guards can now get faster cooldowns

Honor guards for Princess Leia, Emperor Palpatine and Director Krennic now can refresh their Star Card cooldowns faster when they stay near their respective hero. Note that this only occurs when an honor guard is near their specific hero—so the Royal Guard’s cooldowns won’t refresh faster near Krennic, nor will the death trooper’s cooldowns refresh faster near Palpatine. This system works very similar to the partner system for infantry, so I’m glad to see it implemented as it hopefully encourages better teamplay.

7. Bacta Bombs now heal heroes

While it isn’t an instant health refresh, you can now help injured heroes with your Bacta Bomb or Medical Droid. When a bacta cloud hits a hero, the hero can gain up to 10-percent of their health back. However, the hero’s health regenerates incrementally and stops as soon as they take damage again.

6. You can manually reload the DT-29

The DT-29 heavy blaster pistol bought a new mechanic to Battlefront—reloading. While the weapon automatically reloads when you empty the six-shot energy pack, it’s also possible to reload before you empty your pack. To do so, press the ‘Use’ button (X on Xbox One, Square on PS4 or ‘E’ on PC). This will engage the reload animation and refill your pack. Reloading the pistol can be key in certain situations—especially when attempting to storm a control point for an objective.

5. The TIE Striker attacks where you point your reticle when you activate the pickup

In essence, the TIE Striker pickup works like the Orbital Strike power up as it allows Imperial soldiers to call in air support. However, it lacks the similar interface that the Orbital Strike uses. Still, the essential rules are the same: you point your reticle in the direction of a troupe of enemies and active the power up. A few seconds later, the TIE Striker will then do a couple of passes in the general vicinity of where you aimed after you activate it. (H/T to u/Nighthawkx29 on Reddit for noticing this).

4. Proper timing of the U-Wing’s abilities, maneuvers really help in Infiltration’s stage one

The U-Wing in the opening state of Infiltration has an array of options to help it escape enemy TIE Fighters. Players can activate a shield, radar jammer or speed boost abilities. Aerial maneuvers are also an option.

Timing these abilities and maneuvers are key when attempting to fly through enemy lines. For instance, activate your shield, wait until it deactivates and then activate your radar jammer. Once that turns off, activate your speed boost (this won’t stop enemies from locking on, but will allow you to escape faster). After the U-Wing returns to normal speed, attempt one of your maneuvers if TIE Fighters are still following (this will halt enemies from locking on). At this point, you should hopefully be able to restart the sequence by activating the shield.

Failure to utilize proper timing in this stage can cause your U-Wing to become susceptible to high levels of damage from TIE Fighters.

3. Jump packing with the data tapes in Infiltration’s stage three drops them

This is another one I’ve mentioned before, but it’s still something I see happen all the time. Rebels who jump pack while carrying a data tape on the third stage of Infiltration will drop the data tape at the spot where they left the ground. This data tape then acts as if the Rebel had died and will need to be re-activated within 40 seconds before it returns to the spawn-point terminal.

To not accidently drop the data tape, I’ve found it’s best to equip something other than the jump pack while playing as the Rebels on stage three. Instead, I utilize the Escape Artist trait and personal shield to quickly and safely move across the map.

2. Completing the Sonic Imploder Hutt Contracts aren’t as difficult as they first look

Both Hutt Contracts for the Sonic Imploder are pesky beasts. However, they’re not nearly as difficult as they first seem.

For Grenadier I, which requires 15 Impact Grenade kills, I recommend pairing the Shock Grenade with the Impact Grenade in your hand. This will enable you to shock your enemies and then toss an Impact Grenade for a quick and easy kill.

For Grenadier II, the five Sonic Imploder kills can be rather tricky as it hardly does any damage. However, getting kills with Jyn’s Sonic Imploder (which is much more damaging) also counts towards this total. Interestingly, killing with the death troopers’ Thermal Imploder also counts toward the five kills for this contract.

1. Some Star Cards, traits work with the new weapons

The two new weapons, the A180 and the DT-29, utilize pre-existing Star Cards and traits in interesting fashions.

To start with the A180, equipping the Bounty Hunter trait will quicken the cooldown time for the secondary modes. Note, however, that equipping either the Berserker (damage bonus when firing from the hip) or Sharpshooter (damage bonus when firing zoomed) traits only affect the standard pistol mode and not the secondary Rifle or Sniper attachments.

For the DT-29, using Cooling Cell will give you unlimited ammo for a short period of time. Other weapon augmentations work, too; for instance, the explosive shot won’t cause the pistol to overheat. The weapon also acts as a counter to Disruption as it won’t be affected when an enemy uses it against you.

Do you have any tips for Battlefront since the last update? Share down below in the comments, or give SWGO a shout on Twitter or Facebook.

(Unless otherwise noted, images taken in-game.)