Last Updated: 4/12/2018 through Wave 13

X-wing is a game that has been around for a few years now. The number of ships, pilots and upgrades can become a little overwhelming for those that are new or infrequent players. So today we’re going to continue going through all the different upgrade types and giving some quick points on how best to use them. For each we’re going to give the following information:

Ranking – We’re going to rank each card within an upgrade slot. This is an imperfect ranking as the usefulness of any card is mostly determined by how and where you use it. But it’s an easy number to grasp and can serve as a starting point when trying to pick your upgrades.

– We’re going to rank each card within an upgrade slot. This is an imperfect ranking as the usefulness of any card is mostly determined by how and where you use it. But it’s an easy number to grasp and can serve as a starting point when trying to pick your upgrades. Combos– What are the best pilots, ships or upgrades to pair with this card. When we look at upgrades that can only be equipped to with a limited number of ships, we may skip this section.

Other Guides

Moving past ordnance we begin a look at the final three upgrade types (before we do a multiple month look at EPT’s). First up, the highly coveted System Slot.

Note, we did not include Advanced Targeting Computer in the list because only one ship can equip it. We’ll continue this approach when reviewing Modifications which have a couple examples.

Ships with a System Slot

Rebel B-Wing E-Wing Scurrg H-6 Bomber (w/Title) U-Wing VCX-100

Imperial Lambda Shuttle TIE Advanced (w/Title) TIE Phantom TIE Punisher TIE/sf Upsilon Shuttle

Scum Aggressor G-1A Scurrg H-6 (w/Title) Starviper (w/Title)



Ranked List

Fire Control System Advanced Sensors Collision Detector Accuracy Corrector Trajectory Simulator Sensor Jammer Electronic Baffle Minefield Mapper Reinforced Deflectors Enhanced Scopes

Accuracy Corrector (IG-2000/Starviper Expansions)

Cost: 3 points

When attacking, during the “Modify Attack Dice” step, you may cancel all of your dice results. Then, you may add 2 Hit results to your roll.

Your dice cannot be modified again during this attack.

Ranking – 4 This upgrade is often overlooked in favor of other system slots but it is well balanced for the price. Two guaranteed hit results are excellent for two attack dice and better than average for three attack dice.

– 4 Combos Autoblaster Turret (Turret) This combo nets you two guaranteed damage anywhere at range 1. This functions as a great area denial weapon for keeping Aces out of range 1. Works especially well on Ghost with title and Phantom docked as you can get four guaranteed damage. Twin Laser Turret (Turret) Firing twice means your usual dice modification methods will only be useful once. Two hits on every TLT shot is better than your average results and leaves your action for repositioning or defense. Gunner (Crew)/Baze Malbus (Crew)/IG-88B(Pilot) + Tactician (Crew)/Hot-Shot Co-Pilot(Crew)/Saturation Salvo (EPT) There are some janky combos you can put together exploiting the “may” part of this card. By canceling your attack roll and then not adding the two hits, you can force your first attack to miss and then get a second attack via another ability. This would allow you to trigger some effects multiple times. Such as Tactician. Or use Hot-Shot Co-Pilot to force your opponent to spend their Focus on the missed attack and then attack again when they don’t have it. TIE/x1 (Title) Giving TIE Advanced Accuracy Correctors means their two attack dice will always be two hits. This leaves them free to use their action for other things.



Advanced Sensors (E-Wing/Lambda Shuttle Expansions)

Cost: 3 points

Immediately before you reveal your maneuver, you may perform 1 free action.

If you use this ability, you must skip your “Perform Action” step during this round.

Ranking – 2 Once a very popular upgrade AS has faded some over the years. But that’s due to more options than any fault in the upgrade itself.

– 2 Combos Push the Limits (EPT) If you dial in a green maneuver you can use AS to take an action, push for a second, gain a stress and then move, clearing that stress. Bombs With AS and bombs you gain a lot of options for where you actually drop the bomb. With action bombs you can drop before moving and with reveal bombs you can take a barrel roll or boost to put the bomb in a better position before moving. Lambda/Upsilon/B-Wing/U-Wing/G-1A All of these ships have a fair number of red maneuvers and/or a stop maneuver. Gaining actions even when taking a red maneuver is quite handy. Trickshot (EPT)/ Test Pilot “Blackout” (TIE Silencer) Take full advantage of Trickshot and/or Blackout by ending your maneuver facing an obstacle in order to get your bonus. Then you can use AS to barrel roll before you move next turn to avoid flying over the rock.



Collision Detector (TIE/sf Expansion)

Cost: 0 points

When performing a boost, barrel roll, or decloak, your ship and maneuver template can overlap obstacles.

When rolling for obstacle damage, ignore all Crit results.

Ranking – 3 At zero points, gaining the ability to ignore crits from obstacles is amazing even if you don’t have boost, barrel roll or cloak. Biggest drawback is opportunity cost. If you’re flying a ship with a System slot, it’s probably because you want to put something else in that slot. Ranked pretty high simply for being zero points. You’re already paying for a system slot in base ship costs so having a zero slot upgrade to throw in helps offset that.

– 3 Combos TIE Phantom With CD you don’t have to worry about getting penned in between some obstacles and unable to decloak. Ibtisam (B-wing pilot) or Keyan Farlander (B-wing pilot) + Hera Syndulla (Crew) Hera allows you to take red maneuvers even when stressed. With the addition of CD you can effectively ignore debris fields, have your full maneuver dial and still get some dice modification with either of their pilot abilities.



Electronic Baffle (Mist Hunter Expansions)

Cost: 1 points

When you receive a stress token or an ion token, you may suffer 1 damage to discard that token.

Ranking – 7 Situationally can be used to great effect but mostly dependent on your ship (do you have a lot of red maneuvers) or your opponent (are they using ion).

– 7 Combos TIE Punisher With nine health Punishers can afford to lose a little health in order to take an action off a red maneuver. They could also use Advanced Sensors but sometimes you need to move in order to get into target lock range. EMP Device (Illicit) With this combo you can ignore one of the ion tokens you receive from EMP. And since one of the only ships that can take both is a large ship, Aggressor, you are unaffected by a single ion token. R2-D2 (Astromech)/R5-P9(Astromech)/Gonk Droid (Crew) With regeneration abilities the damage you deal yourself isn’t as much of a drawback.



Enhanced Scopes (Rebel Aces/TIE Punisher Expansions)

Cost: 1 points

During the Activation phase, treat your pilot skill value as “0”.

Ranking – 10 I’ve never used this upgrade. You still get to shoot first but beyond a few fringe special cases, I can’t imagine a situation where you want to move first. If it said “you may treat your pilot skill as ‘o'” it would be far more tempting.

– 10 Combos Cluster Mines (Bomb)/Proximity Mine (Bomb) With mines that detonate as soon as they overlap being able to ensure you move first, and therefore know where every other ship is, allows you to drop the mine exactly on the target you want. Hef Tobber (U-Wing) Hef gets free actions whenever someone bumps into him. By moving at PS 0 he has good odds of causing blocks, denying your opponent actions and getting some himself.



Fire Control System (B-wing/TIE Phantom Expansions)

Cost: 2 points

After you perform an attack, you may acquire a target lock on the defender.

Ranking – 1 The gold standard for system slot. If you have a system slot and you are not sure what to put in it, add FCS.

– 1 Combos Corran Horn (E-wing Pilot)/IG-88B (Aggressor Pilot)/Quickdraw (TIE/sf pilot)/Ghost (Title)/Gunner (Crew)/Luke Skywalker (Crew) All of these pilots/upgrades give you a chance at a second attack in a round. FCS gives that second shot better odds of hitting.



Minefield Mapper (Scurrg H-6 Expansion)

Cost: 0 points

During Setup, after the “Place Forces” step, you may discard any number of your equipped Bomb Upgrade cards. Place all corresponding bomb tokens in the play area beyond Range 3 of enemy ships.

Ranking – 8 Obviously, this upgrade is useless on anything that doesn’t carry bombs. That immediately makes it of limited use. Like all Deployment abilities (Nu-Han/Lt. Dormitz) you have to have a particular strategy in mind to make it more than just a gimmick.

– 8 Combos Extra Munitions (Torpedo) Deploy some bombs at the start of the round and still have some to use later. Captain Nym (Rebel Scurgg Pilot) After deploying your mines at the start of the game you can then keep one from detonating after your opponent sends a sacrificial low PS ship through as a minesweeper, preserving it for the better target. Sabine Wren (Crew)/Cad Bane (Crew) Both of these crew add bomb slots to any ship increasing the number of ships that could potentially combo with Minefield Mapper from a mere three (Scurgg/Aggressor/TIE Punisher) to seven (B-wing/U-wing/VCX-100/G-1A).



Reinforced Deflectors (Ghost Expansion)

Cost: 3 points

(Large Ship Only)

After defending, if you suffered a combination of 3 or more damage and critical damage during the attack, recover 1 shield (up to your shield value).

Ranking – 9 Because this upgrades triggers after suffering three or more damage and critical damage it actually can be very effective in keeping a big ship alive far longer than it should. A VCX can take six three-hit attacks naturally. With Reinforced Deflectors it could survive an extra attack and still have two health left, meaning a minimum of eight attacks of three damage to kill it. That could give you an extra few rounds of life.

– 9 Combos VCX-100 (Any) To get the most out of this upgrade you need to actually take 3 or more damage in a hit. An Aggressor with its three agility, hopefully, won’t take that damage often. At zero agility, VCX’s will suffer three damage quite frequently.



Sensor Jammer (Lambda Shuttle/U-Wing Expansions)

Cost: 4 points

When defending, you may change 1 of the attacker’s Hit results into a Focus result.

The attacker cannot reroll the die with the changed result.

Ranking – 6 This is a pretty handy defensive upgrade. It, unfortunately, is just very expensive.

– 6 Combos Hot Shot Co-Pilot (Crew) If you can force your opponent to spend his Focus before he shoots then you avoid at least one damage on his attack. HotCop, if you have higher PS, ensures that. Juke (EPT) With Juke your opponent is either taking an extra damage when you attack or losing a damage on his attack since most ships only get one focus token a turn. Autothrusters (Modification) Double defensive modifications can be very effective in keeping yourself alive. TIE Advanced w/Title The x1 title gives a TIE Advanced a system slot and reduces the cost of that system by 4. So Advanced can take Sensor Jammer for free. If Storm Squadron had an EPT slot, four of them with Juke would be a legit squadron.



Trajectory Simulator (Resistance Bomber Expansion)

Cost: 1 points

You may launch bombs using the 5 straight template instead of dropping them. You cannot launch bombs with the “Action:” header in this way.

Ranking – 5 Like minefield mapper, only useful on ships that carry bombs. But really fun for messing with your opponent’s maneuvers. They can’t get behind you and don’t want to be in front of you either.

– 5 Combos Captain Nym (Either) Again, Nym loves bombs. The Rebel version can throw a bomb forward and then let it hang out if everyone dodges or throw it forward, fly into its range and keep it around for next round. Scum Nym can throw one forward and fly right into it without worrying about damage. Proton Bomb Sure, any reveal bomb is great proton stands out because they are the scariest bomb.



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