In Star Wars: Zero Company, you can scout planets before battle

One of the most interesting things Bit Reactor revealed about Star Wars: Zero Company is surprisingly easy to overlook.

The game is primarily a turn-based tactics game, but some story missions begin before the tactical battle begins. Hawks can explore small areas from a third-person perspective, conducting reconnaissance and gathering information before the camera pans back and blaster fire begins.

And this is not just sightseeing. What Hawks discovers during these spy episodes can yieldintelligence and advantage points, providing your squad with tangible benefits early in the fight.

Zero Company wants you to prepare for battle

These research sites will not appear before every mission. Bit Reactor states that they are tied to certain story missions, where Hawks has the opportunity to explore the area before engaging in turn-based combat.

This fits the idea quite well. Zero Company is supposed to be a covert unit operating in the less glamorous corners of the Clone Wars, rather than a group that simply arrives on every planet and immediately starts shooting.

Even James Bond sometimes looks at the floor plan first.

The intelligence also confirms what we have already seen elsewhere. Planets in Zero Company are more than just a backdrop, and the campaign is built on the transition from tactical missions to strategic decisions and operations throughout the galaxy.

Advantage can change your first move.

The most useful reward seems to be advantage points.

Advantage is a unit's shared resource, used to activate powerful abilities during combat.Starting a fight with an extra advantage can allow you to make a much stronger first move, get out of an awkward position, or activate an important ability before your opponent can get into an advantageous position.

This gets especially interesting because the Zero Company squad is made up of operators with completely different roles and backgrounds. We already know, for example, that the team is intentionally limited to a single Jedi operator, while the rest of the team includes clones, Mandalorians, mercenaries, and various people who probably wouldn't be worth leaving all alone in the same room.

Preparation can be almost as important as firepower.

Intelligence issues are important not only on the battlefield.

Intel has a broader campaign function.

Between tactical missions, Zero Company returns to the lair, where players use a holographic table to select operations on the galaxy map. The intelligence obtained during these operations can be used to obtain credits, equipment, auxiliaries and other rewards.

This creates a neat closed loop of exploration, intelligence gathering, fighting, returning home, and deciding where those resources should go next.

This also helps explain why Zero Company avoids microtransactions and keeps progress within the game. The campaign seems to be built around earning resources, gear and benefits for completing missions rather than constantly being pushed towards an external store.

Intricate concept. We remember them.

This is more than just “XCOM with clone troopers.”

The obvious comparison with XCOM will not go away. Bit Reactor is developing a team-based Star Wars tactics simulator, and several of the developers working on it have extensive experience in the genre.

But it is in details like these that Zero Company can begin to forge its own identity.

The ability for Hawks to roam freely, explore a location, and find something actually useful in the upcoming battle makes the spy concept more tangible.This gives the player a break before the tactical mechanics kick in, and makes the ensuing firefight feel like a build-up rather than just loading the next level.

You look around. You are collecting information. You find an advantage.

The camera then pulls back.

And the shooting begins.

Star Wars: Zero Company will be released on August 27, 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.