Star Wars Zero Company: The Den Explained

If you have been following Star Wars Zero Company, you have probably seen The Den mentioned quite a bit. But what exactly is The Den, and what can you really do there?

The Den is basically Zero Company’s base of operations. It is located inside a large hangar on the Ring of Kafrene. This is where you will prepare your squad between missions, recruit new Operators, manage their equipment, deal with injuries, and build relationships between members of the team. The Den also serves as the main management hub for the campaign, with a few different Facilities dedicated to different parts of Zero Company’s progression.

Unlike the game’s turn-based battles that use an isometric perspective, The Den is explored from a third-person perspective.

And you will want to spend quite a bit of time here, because a lot of the decisions you make between missions can directly affect how your next operation plays out.

What Can You Do in The Den?

There are different Facilities inside The Den, each with its own purpose. Here is what you can expect to manage there.

HoloTable

The HoloTable is essentially your starting point whenever you are deciding what to do next. From here, you can launch Tactical Missions, begin Operations, and check Zero Company’s Influence across different regions.

Operations are shorter assignments that do not involve the game’s tactical combat. Instead, they can provide things like Credits, Weapon Mods, Utilities and Intel, and some Operations also present choices that can affect your relationships with other Operators or even influence how the enemy develops.

Tactical Missions are the game’s main combat encounters, where you will take your squad to different planets and fight through turn-based battles. Completing Tactical Missions also gives you Intel, and that is then used to undertake Operations.

There is an important detail to remember, though: both Operations and Tactical Missions are linked to the campaign’s Cycle system. Some activities will disappear if you do not complete them in time, and certain Tactical Missions are required to advance the main story.

So you will not necessarily be able to sit around in The Den forever before deciding what to do next.

Zone Influence

Your activities also contribute to Zone Influence in the region where you are operating.

Earn enough Influence, and you will unlock Zone Rewards. These can include upgrades, powerful Utilities, and Contacts.

Contacts can then be used to gain even more Influence, giving you another reason to pay attention to the strategic layer instead of simply rushing from one story mission to another.

Recruitment

As your campaign progresses, you will need more Operators to keep Zero Company running. That is where the Recruitment Facility comes in.

New Custom Operators can be recruited here using Credits. Each Cycle provides a selection of recruits, with each character coming with their own name, Talent, Primary Specialization, weapon type, and backstory. You can then adjust many of those characteristics after recruiting them.

Don’t like the current selection? You can refresh the available recruits.

You can also create your own pool of Custom Operators for the Recruitment Facility, giving you more control over the kind of characters that can show up. There is one limitation, though. The Den has a Roster Capacity, meaning you cannot simply recruit an unlimited number of Operators. You will need to increase your capacity through upgrades as the campaign progresses.

Personnel

The Personnel Facility is where you will manage the development of your Operators. You can check their combat statistics, manage their Focus Tree, and keep track of their relationships with other members of Zero Company.

The Focus Tree lets you spend Focus Points to improve an Operator’s Talents, Abilities, and Passives.

You can also change most Operators’ Specializations from here, meaning you are not permanently stuck with the role you initially gave someone. That is particularly useful considering the game’s class system allows Operators to eventually combine different classes. Keep in mind that some operators are exceptions, though. They will have a set base class, and you cannot change that. A good example is the Jedi. You can only have one, and it will be that character and no one else.

Bonds

One of the more interesting systems managed through Personnel is the Bond system. Every pair of Operators has a relationship with each other that can initially be neutral or even negative. As your squad members fight together and complete Operations, Tactical Missions, and other activities, those relationships can improve.

Increasing a Bond can unlock Cross Training, giving both Operators permanent combat bonuses. Reach the maximum Bond level, and they will unlock an even stronger Cross Training benefit through a Passive Ability.

Your decisions can also affect these relationships. At certain points in the story, Hawks will face Dilemmas, with members of Zero Company giving their opinions on what you should do. Choosing one option over another can change your Bond with specific Operators.

So the Den is not simply where you upgrade numbers. It is also where you evolve the relationships within your squad.

Armory

Need better equipment? The Armory is where you will handle Zero Company’s weapons and Utilities. Every Operator starts with a default weapon, but you can change their equipment here. There are four weapon types:

• Longarm
• Repeater
• Rifle
• Pistol

Weapons can also be modified using Weapon Modifications, and those alter their stats and can give them additional effects. Weapons have a limited number of Modification Slots, and you will be able to increase those slots as you progress through the campaign. You can also customize the appearance of your weapons with different blaster models and colors.

Utilities

The Armory also handles Utilities. These give Operators additional abilities to use during combat, such as Impact Bombs and Concussion Grenades. The number of Utilities an Operator can carry depends on their Specialization, so you will need to think about how you want to distribute your equipment across the squad.

You can also purchase Weapon Modifications and Utilities from the Black Market using Credits.

Upgrades

The Upgrade Facility is where you improve The Den itself and unlock additional capabilities for Zero Company. Upgrades can improve the infrastructure of your base or provide benefits to your entire roster. For example, you can build a Droid Bay that allows you to recruit Astromech Custom Operators. Other upgrades can provide various improvements to your Operators.

However, these upgrades are not instant. Building one takes at least one Cycle and requires an available Build Slot. You will unlock Build Slots as you progress, so you can work on multiple upgrades simultaneously. But once again, deciding what to build and when becomes part of the campaign’s strategic layer.

Medbay

Missions are dangerous, and not everyone is going to walk away without injuries. The Medbay is where you will send injured Operators to recover.

Standard beds take one Cycle to heal an Operator, and the Bacta Tank can provide an instant recovery. Neither option is completely free, and healing an injured Operator costs Credits. That means you will need to decide when it is worth spending your money to get someone back into the fight, and you might want to keep some savings on the side, just in case you need an emergency express recovery.

Customization

The Customization Facility is where you can change how your Operators look. You can modify their outfits and other cosmetic options, but there is more to it than simply changing armor colors. Hawks and Custom Operators can also change species. The following options are available:

• Hawks:
  • Devaronian
  • Human
  • Mirialan
  • Togruta
  • Twi’lek
  • Zabrak
• Custom Operators:
  • Devaronian
  • Human
  • Mirialan
  • Neimoidian
  • Ovissian
  • Rodian
  • Togruta
  • Twi’lek
  • Weequay
  • Zabrak

Custom Operators have a bit more choice than Hawks, but at least, even though Hawks is your main character, you are not locked into a single appearance throughout the campaign.

Memorial

Unfortunately, some members of Zero Company may not make it to the end. The Memorial is dedicated to Operators who die during the campaign. You can visit it to look back at their service and see the statistics and accomplishments they recorded before their death. It is a small feature, but it fits particularly well with the game. Your choices have consequences, and sometimes, these are bad consequences, and someone will die. But at least, you can always remember them, and make sure you do not make the same mistake twice.

If you are playing with permadeath enabled, losing a character you have spent hours developing and building Bonds with should make the Memorial a little more meaningful as well.

The Den Is Basically Your Home

The easiest way to think about The Den is as the home of Star Wars Zero Company. When you are not fighting, this is where you will be making most of your important decisions. You can:

• Recruit and manage Operators
• Upgrade your squad
• Change Specializations
• Improve abilities through the Focus Tree
• Build Bonds between Operators
• Equip weapons and Utilities
• Modify weapons
• Heal injured Operators
• Upgrade The Den
• Manage Credits and Intel
• Complete Operations
• Track Zone Influence
• Customize your characters
• Create Astromech Operators
• Review fallen Operators at the Memorial

And because many of these systems interact with each other, it is not just a collection of unrelated menus. You might recruit a new Operator, change their Specialization, give them different equipment, pair them with another character to build a Bond, and then take both into a Tactical Mission. What happens in that mission can then affect their Injuries, Bonds, progression, and the resources you will have available when you return to The Den.

That is ultimately what makes The Den important. It is the home you return to after an important mission, and also where you prepare Zero Company for the next battle.

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