I've been using it incorrectly then, thanks for pointing that out. So Overload Pulse is basically a 'use 'em or lose 'em' effect. That's still good though.

That's not accurate, the only place you can resolve a critical effect is at the beginning of the "resolve damage" step (Rules ref pg 2 & also pg 4).

Ah my bad. So does that mean that getting a crit with Overload Pulse means the defender gets to use their defense tokens, and then the crit effect exhausts any remaining tokens?

Yes, exactly. But given the Accuracy Results and ability to manufacture them with upgrades you can look to lock them from doing so. Or simply allow them to overspend defense tokens on what was already a low damage attack from the side of the CR90.

It does mean a ship with Evade or Scatter could cancel your Crit though.

It does mean a ship with Evade or Scatter could cancel your Crit though.

Evade could if it cancelled a crit die and that was the only crit icon. Scatter would always prevent crits but currently its only available on some fighters which ignore crits anyway.

Your correct but currently only on Squadrons doesn't mean we won't see it on a ship (my guess would be an upgrade if at all). Mostly though it's the fact that there are ways to remove the Crit result before it's ability can trigger that makes the correct timing structure paramount.