So, we've had several "How do I make this ship viable" posts in our history.

However, Upgrade Cards are also things. That exist.

or something.

Anyway, there are several upgrade cards that have traditionally been considered sub-par which are coming back into viability.

For example, Expose. Not nearly as terrible now that Experimental Interface and Decimators are things.

Now, what do you think is the worst upgrade in the game, and what would you need to make it preferable to the other ships in it's upgrade style?

E.G. What could I do to make an Autoblaster better than a Mangler or an HLC?

Easy way to make autoblaster great - a pilot like Rhymer but for cannons.

Worst upgrade IMO? R5-K6. 5/8 chance it won't work, only lets you TL the defender so if you destroy the defender it is a waste, and even if it does work, it can't be used on the current attack. All that awesomeness for 2 points. I'll let someone else come up with a way to make that a good option.

Easy way to make autoblaster great - a pilot like Rhymer but for cannons.

Range Extension is good. So would having a ship that is mobile enough to usually have that shot, in a meta where high agility is currently ruling.

Worst upgrade IMO? R5-K6. 5/8 chance it won't work, only lets you TL the defender so if you destroy the defender it is a waste, and even if it does work, it can't be used on the current attack. All that awesomeness for 2 points. I'll let someone else come up with a way to make that a good option.

BTL-A4 on "Dutch" Vander makes it pretty close to viable. You get lots of benefits from it, as you get to use the TL on the second attack, with a chance at throwing out 2-3 target locks to fellow pilots.

The benefits at that point are definitely potent enough to allow for the drawback of unreliability, and a straight FCS option would simply be way too good.

Easy way to make autoblaster great - a pilot like Rhymer but for cannons.

Range Extension is good. So would having a ship that is mobile enough to usually have that shot, in a meta where high agility is currently ruling.

Worst upgrade IMO? R5-K6. 5/8 chance it won't work, only lets you TL the defender so if you destroy the defender it is a waste, and even if it does work, it can't be used on the current attack. All that awesomeness for 2 points. I'll let someone else come up with a way to make that a good option.

BTL-A4 on "Dutch" Vander makes it pretty close to viable. You get lots of benefits from it, as you get to use the TL on the second attack, with a chance at throwing out 2-3 target locks to fellow pilots.

The benefits at that point are definitely potent enough to allow for the drawback of unreliability, and a straight FCS option would simply be way too good.

Still going to fail more than half the time on average. FCS and R5-K6 are the same cost. Not only does FCS not require you to have spent a TL it triggers 100% of the time. Boggles my mind how bad r5-K6 is in comparison. Dutch is the only pilot even remotely worth having it on.

I was thinking about the IG with autoblaster, but for two more points you would have HLC, giving you 4 attack dice at any range.

Worst upgrade IMO? R5-K6. 5/8 chance it won't work, only lets you TL the defender so if you destroy the defender it is a waste, and even if it does work, it can't be used on the current attack. All that awesomeness for 2 points. I'll let someone else come up with a way to make that a good option.

BTL-A4 on "Dutch" Vander makes it pretty close to viable. You get lots of benefits from it, as you get to use the TL on the second attack, with a chance at throwing out 2-3 target locks to fellow pilots.

The benefits at that point are definitely potent enough to allow for the drawback of unreliability, and a straight FCS option would simply be way too good.

Still going to fail more than half the time on average. FCS and R5-K6 are the same cost. Not only does FCS not require you to have spent a TL it triggers 100% of the time. Boggles my mind how bad r5-K6 is in comparison. Dutch is the only pilot even remotely worth having it on.

Yes. FCS is straight up better than R5-K6 on the E-Wing.

That's the only ship that can take either.

An FCS on "Dutch" with the BTL-A4 two-attack title is simply far too good to be balanced.

Meanwhile, R5-K6 on that same ship? Worse, aye, but suddenly has potential.

I was thinking about the IG with autoblaster, but for two more points you would have HLC, giving you 4 attack dice at any range.

What does Autoblaster do that HLC doesn't?

• Attack at Range 1
• Punish builds with high dice-cancellation

So, if there's ever a ship that can consistently attack at Range 1, or an opposing ship that can consistently be attacked at Range 1 with a silly amount of agility...

The problem is that 4 attack is ussually decent enough even against high agility ships, while it is very good against everything else. And, you don't have a range limitation. The problem is always the dice modification, and to reliabily get into range 1, you need to use actions for maneuvers very often, and you need very high PS.

Autoblasters on an Outrider wouldn't be complete garbage (not as easy mode as HLC/Mangler) but Range 1 of a large base isn't exactly a small area, and when you factor in boost/BR it could be a fun alternative to use every once in a while

Hmm, I guess try to make half the astromechs we have good.

Maybe have r4-d8 trigger on someone that likes stress and low agility? Like Keyan?

Autoblasters I thought could be useful on an interceptor type ship that has the ability to get in close but out of arc.

For 3 points the Autocannon would be worthwhile.

Any other upgrade to make it 'work' and 'useful' just make it more expensive as well - so you could just take the HLC anyway.

For Rhymer I fear all hope is lost. 5 points for his ability is just ... nah ... even if he had a Rhymer special cannon slot, it would be 10 points for the Autoblaster. Would you use an Autoblaster range 1-2 for 10 points?

Maybe have r4-d8 trigger on someone that likes stress and low agility? Like Keyan?

D6, you mean?

Honestly,with Y-Wings coming back into prominence, it might already be a thing.

Better would be a 0 agility ship with good stress-clear.

Now that you can run 5 HLCs in a fleet, this is worth looking into again.

Worst upgrade IMO? R5-K6. 5/8 chance it won't work, only lets you TL the defender so if you destroy the defender it is a waste, and even if it does work, it can't be used on the current attack. All that awesomeness for 2 points. I'll let someone else come up with a way to make that a good option.

BTL-A4 on "Dutch" Vander makes it pretty close to viable. You get lots of benefits from it, as you get to use the TL on the second attack, with a chance at throwing out 2-3 target locks to fellow pilots.

The benefits at that point are definitely potent enough to allow for the drawback of unreliability, and a straight FCS option would simply be way too good.

Still going to fail more than half the time on average. FCS and R5-K6 are the same cost. Not only does FCS not require you to have spent a TL it triggers 100% of the time. Boggles my mind how bad r5-K6 is in comparison. Dutch is the only pilot even remotely worth having it on.

Yes. FCS is straight up better than R5-K6 on the E-Wing.

That's the only ship that can take either.

An FCS on "Dutch" with the BTL-A4 two-attack title is simply far too good to be balanced.

Meanwhile, R5-K6 on that same ship? Worse, aye, but suddenly has potential.

Being able to take crew on a Y-Wing would let you take C-3PO and make R5-K6 a very expensive FCS alternative.

I would like to see a pilot ability that could extend the range on ordinance (and TL) out to range 4-5, similar to Maj Rhymers ability, wouldn't that make the cost of Torps more worth it if they could hit outside of the range of primary weapons.

Actually, i would like to see this as a general rule for all pilots.

I wonder if the IG2000, as the first ship with two cannon slots, might be the ship that makes autoblasters viable - HLC for ranges 2-3 and autoblaster for range 1.

I wonder if the IG2000, as the first ship with two cannon slots, might be the ship that makes autoblasters viable - HLC for ranges 2-3 and autoblaster for range 1.

It would need to have a pilot ability than affects only secondary weapons to make it worth paying 5 points for 3 dice attack with unavoidable hits instead of just taking the free 4 dice attack.

Now, what do you think is the worst upgrade in the game, and what would you need to make it preferable to the other ships in it's upgrade style?

R4-D6: Requires something that turns into to ensure the ship never suffers more than two points of damage.

Gunnery Team: Requires higher energy generation each round.

Enhanced Scopes: Require APL, barrel roll, boost and intelligence agent on the same ship.

Munitions Failsafe: Easily one of the worst upgrades in the game, I have no idea which additional hypothetical upgrade card could make it viable.

Most Torpedoes and Missiles: Require a miracle.

Tantive IV: Requires four useful team upgrades, which excludes gunnery team (see above).

Slave 1: Requires

a) a useful Torpedo (see above) or

b) to be run without torpedo.

Munitions Failsafe: Easily one of the worst upgrades in the game, I have no idea which additional hypothetical upgrade card could make it viable.

Got an idea. Required pilot ability: When attacking, the defender is not hit by your attack, even if he suffers damage.

Now, what do you think is the worst upgrade in the game, and what would you need to make it preferable to the other ships in it's upgrade style?

R4-D6: Requires something that turns into to ensure the ship never suffers more than two points of damage.

Gunnery Team: Requires higher energy generation each round.

Enhanced Scopes: Require APL, barrel roll, boost and intelligence agent on the same ship.

Munitions Failsafe: Easily one of the worst upgrades in the game, I have no idea which additional hypothetical upgrade card could make it viable.

Most Torpedoes and Missiles: Require a miracle.

Tantive IV: Requires four useful team upgrades, which excludes gunnery team (see above).

Slave 1: Requires

a) a useful Torpedo (see above) or

b) to be run without torpedo.

Now, what do you think is the worst upgrade in the game, and what would you need to make it preferable to the other ships in it's upgrade style?

R4-D6: Requires something that turns into to ensure the ship never suffers more than two points of damage.

Gunnery Team: Requires higher energy generation each round.

Enhanced Scopes: Require APL, barrel roll, boost and intelligence agent on the same ship.

Munitions Failsafe: Easily one of the worst upgrades in the game, I have no idea which additional hypothetical upgrade card could make it viable.

Most Torpedoes and Missiles: Require a miracle.

Tantive IV: Requires four useful team upgrades, which excludes gunnery team (see above).

Slave 1: Requires

a) a useful Torpedo (see above) or

b) to be run without torpedo.

Failsafe interacts with Hot Shot Blaster, which can be fairly useful.

Munitions Failsafe: Easily one of the worst upgrades in the game, I have no idea which additional hypothetical upgrade card could make it viable.

Munitions Failsafe is only bad because torpedoes and missiles are bad. If it made more sense to spend 6+ points on ordnance for a ship Munitions Failsafe becomes a better buy. More ordnance that have an effect when they miss (like Flechette topedoes) would also help this card.

Enhanced Scopes: Require APL, barrel roll, boost and intelligence agent on the same ship.

Enhanced Scopes are decent on Sigmas and a Shuttles. Unfortunately the pilots (Oicunn and Arvel) that could best use Enhanced Sensors don't have Systems slots.

How about slave-1's just need to be in stock to make it viable for new players.

Ditto with some of the other ships.

The other way around:

I'm missing a crisp generic 2 point elite training for generic pilots with EPT slot.

So I wished there was something for 4 x Sabers + Autothrusters.

Yes, I could use Elusiveness.... but ... yeah ... you should have Yorr around then...

Would Intimidation be better? I don't think so.

Expert Handling would shake TLs .... hmm

I'm not sure.

How about slave-1's just need to be in stock to make it viable for new players.

Ditto with some of the other ships.

It looks like Slave-1s and Falcons are starting to come back into stock.