I have updated the guide. I fixed some typos and wording issues. I also added the new TIE Fighters and Agent Kallus from the new Imperial Assault Carrier expansion.

Really, please do update it everytime new ships come out. It is really essential for the community and newcomers! Great job again!

I definitely plan on it. :-)

Wow. As a brand new player with a Core Set deciding on my first 100 points, this is amazing . I know the floundering around and learning is part of the game, but this guide will help me to start having fun a lot faster. It has already saved me having to post half a dozen silly questions. For us noobs this thing is going to be huge ,

Excellent resource and possible the best out there right now. Thank you.

Thanks for posting this, i just shared it with my local groups as there are several new players here and this will be of great help for them.

This is actually uber cool and thorough. Brings a new player up to speed quite fast if they're addicted like I was when I started!

Can I ask that you consider if you'd ever go back through the thing to really emphasize blocking extremely early on and throughout the guide ? We consider blocking to be a "high skill" strategy, but the problem is that most players who get frustrated have no concept of how to do it.

Having blocking mentioned immediately and over and over again would show a new player that this skill is of utmost importance and to begin thinking about it immediately. Each ship can also be shown to then have a "blocking usage" gauge like a bomber. For instance, the tie fighter would probably have a 3/3 blocking usage requirement.

You can then show how various blocks with certain lists are created. For example:

tie fighters: commonly flying not in rocks, you create bumps via your "extreme-dial" or BR. For instance you send your wounded tie out forward at 5 straight, but then BR into a position to block one of your opponents ships. The follow up the rest of your squad with a measly 3 or 4 straight to put all their guns on that one blocked ship.

Another example: using the 1 hard turn and then BR to place yourself to block an enemy ship turning when you have fully engaged in a furball.

In contrast!!:

Zs block within rocks. You want to fly through the rocks and use them to also limit flying space. Then as you're about to engage, throw a Z through the center of two rocks where the obvious flight path will be. This makes your opponent either avoid that place, spending actions on repositioning/BR/Boost or lowers their jousting potential, while upping the Zs power as the fundamental best jouster.

In contrast:

Tie interceptors in multiples would block by engaging at R3 first, then using one to block like ties... However this is on opening.

Let's assume that since you took tie interceptors, you might now be shy a few ships as they die quickly. The next step is to alternate 2 ships as blocker and striker. The blocker can use their 1 turn and 3 turns and BR to force blocks on k-turns and on enemy hard turns in open field combat. The other ship should swing a little wide to get a different angle.

If you can't block, the other option is to deny one lesser-possible position via a block and face the more likely position with your guns.

Note I do not say to get an attack! This is important: If you are left with 2 interceptors of lower PS you need to be a little cautious. You have much higher maneuverability, so you can now try for 2 blocks in a row! Controlling your opponent so you can get 1 shot every 2 turns. In this way, a very skilled player could even take 2 Alphas and beat Whisper and Vader.

Can I ask that you consider if you'd ever go back through the thing to really emphasize blocking extremely early on and throughout the guide ? We consider blocking to be a "high skill" strategy, but the problem is that most players who get frustrated have no concept of how to do it.

Having blocking mentioned immediately and over and over again would show a new player that this skill is of utmost importance and to begin thinking about it immediately. Each ship can also be shown to then have a "blocking usage" gauge like a bomber. For instance, the tie fighter would probably have a 3/3 blocking usage requirement.

You can then show how various blocks with certain lists are created. For example:

tie fighters: commonly flying not in rocks, you create bumps via your "extreme-dial" or BR. For instance you send your wounded tie out forward at 5 straight, but then BR into a position to block one of your opponents ships. The follow up the rest of your squad with a measly 3 or 4 straight to put all their guns on that one blocked ship.

Another example: using the 1 hard turn and then BR to place yourself to block an enemy ship turning when you have fully engaged in a furball.

In contrast!!:

Zs block within rocks. You want to fly through the rocks and use them to also limit flying space. Then as you're about to engage, throw a Z through the center of two rocks where the obvious flight path will be. This makes your opponent either avoid that place, spending actions on repositioning/BR/Boost or lowers their jousting potential, while upping the Zs power as the fundamental best jouster.

In contrast:

Tie interceptors in multiples would block by engaging at R3 first, then using one to block like ties... However this is on opening.

Let's assume that since you took tie interceptors, you might now be shy a few ships as they die quickly. The next step is to alternate 2 ships as blocker and striker. The blocker can use their 1 turn and 3 turns and BR to force blocks on k-turns and on enemy hard turns in open field combat. The other ship should swing a little wide to get a different angle.

If you can't block, the other option is to deny one lesser-possible position via a block and face the more likely position with your guns.

Note I do not say to get an attack! This is important: If you are left with 2 interceptors of lower PS you need to be a little cautious. You have much higher maneuverability, so you can now try for 2 blocks in a row! Controlling your opponent so you can get 1 shot every 2 turns. In this way, a very skilled player could even take 2 Alphas and beat Whisper and Vader.

I just saw this today. I will see if I can think of how to best implement blocking information. I agree with you that my guide could use more information on blocking. Thanks for the advice!

V3.0 is up! All the wave 8 ships and upgrades are added to the Beginner's Guide!

V3.2 Small update is up! It was a few clarifications before Imperial Veterans Comes out.

As a brand new player, I have really been looking for something lke this. Just downloaded it. Have not read it yet, but really look forward to it. Thank you for putting this together!

Being a newbie myself, I am very grateful for the amount of time and effort you've put into this guide. After reading many different posts, articles, suggestions, and alot of other information about building lists and what works with what, this guide is great to form an introduction to the ships, pilots, and skills available to help me better understand how each ship works.

Thank you again for your time and effort into putting this great piece or reading material together.

So sorry for the long delay! My summer months consist of 80 hour work weeks, so working on the guide becomes impossible. This update was also HUGE! I added Imperial Veterans, Wave 9, and ALL upgrade cards in the game. I found that more and more, the fact that upgrade cards were not discussed directly was hampering the guide, so I added them. I also added the suggested casual play errata to each individual ship and upgrade that is affected by it; feel free to ignore the errata if you only play competitively.

Let me know what you think of the upgrade section! Remember, the ranks do not mean how good they are, they mean how easily they slot into squads. I go over the upgrade ranking system in detail in the overview of the Upgrade Section.

Thank you!

My next step is to revamp the "Suggested Squads" section to incorporate all of the new ships, but I'll wait until Heroes of the Resistance drops for that update.

*sections

A friend of mine recently got into X-wing, and she was very excited to play, but she was overwhelmed by the plethora of choices that X-wing has. With all of the various ships and upgrades available, sorting through all of it can be a daunting task. I made this guide to help her decide on which squads to play and to help show the various strengths and weaknesses of the various ships in the game, as well as some foundations of X-Wing.

Just curious [as I started looking to play about this time] - is your friend still playing just as keenly, has she succumbed like so many of us to "plastic crack", and what do you & she think of this years releases so far and those to come ?

Cheers

A friend of mine recently got into X-wing, and she was very excited to play, but she was overwhelmed by the plethora of choices that X-wing has. With all of the various ships and upgrades available, sorting through all of it can be a daunting task. I made this guide to help her decide on which squads to play and to help show the various strengths and weaknesses of the various ships in the game, as well as some foundations of X-Wing.

Just curious [as I started looking to play about this time] - is your friend still playing just as keenly, has she succumbed like so many of us to "plastic crack", and what do you & she think of this years releases so far and those to come ?

Cheers

She does not own any ships haha, as she just uses mine.

Finally, personally I've really liked the last wave (and what heroes is shaping up to be). I like the new design for pseudo turrets in the mobile firing arc, as it still behaves like a turret but there is still thinking and decision making involved in lining up the shot the shadow caster. Stress punishing cards like BMST and Latts will crub the power of PtL aces a good bit. BMST MAY be a little too good due to its range 1-2 reach. Range 1 would have been enough I think, but I like that it makes stress a more scary thing, which I think the game needed at this point. There needs to be a better reason for the ace to not PtL sometimes.

I also really enjoy the design space explored through small base ships that have auxillary arcs and that scum FINALLY has a dedicated arc-dodger. The fact that each wave continues to release new and exciting mechanics and truly unique ships that aren't a carbon copy of others is testament to good design imho.

Man, that's a good guide. No wonder so many noobs keep beating me...

Keep up the good work!

BTW, why isn't the TIE Phantom all the way over on the arc dodger end of the spectrum? I thought those guys were pretty much the archetypal arc dodger? Other than that, looks spotless! I love the recommended upgrades!

Man, that's a good guide. No wonder so many noobs keep beating me...

Keep up the good work!

BTW, why isn't the TIE Phantom all the way over on the arc dodger end of the spectrum? I thought those guys were pretty much the archetypal arc dodger? Other than that, looks spotless! I love the recommended upgrades!

Arc-dodgers use their high PS to know the location of all other ships on the board, and then use re-positioning actions to arc-dodge. The TIE Phantom is tricky to categorize, as it definitely has the greatest lateral movement capacity of any ship, but this movement is done before any ships move, so it is different from arc-dodging. It definitely has re-positional capacity to the extreme, but the way cloak works doesn't let it dodge arcs, unless you guess right, which any ship can do. I understand that an argument can be made either way, but I've always felt since the change to cloak, that the TIE Phantom transformed itself into a super jouster, with cloaking Device. Does that make sense? Because both sides have a point, I rate the Phantom in the middle in regards to its arc-dodging capacity.

Woops...just realized I forgot the maneuvers for the wave 9 ships... Won't be able to add them till Tuesday, as that's when I get wave 9. I need the images from the physical copies as the internet is not very helpful

[updated 09/22/16]

[This Guide is also found under MajorJuggler's pinned post: "Index of Useful Links"]

Hello all,

A friend of mine recently got into X-wing, and she was very excited to play, but she was overwhelmed by the plethora of choices that X-wing has. With all of the various ships and upgrades available, sorting through all of it can be a daunting task. I made this guide to help her decide on which squads to play and to help show the various strengths and weaknesses of the various ships in the game, as well as some foundations of X-Wing.

It dawned on me recently that others in the community who recently bought into X-Wing may be in a similar situation, so I thought I would share this guide for the internet to see. I do not claim to be an expert on anything X-Wing related, but I did read a lot of information presented by those experts (like MajorJuggler and Theorist to name a few). That being said, there were many places in the guide where I was sorting through information on my own, without having any “expert” information to base my guide on. Therefore, please do not be too harsh if you find that a specific ship or upgrade is not represented completely correctly. Instead, TELL ME, so I can change it.

My goal is to help the community, and hopefully some people find this useful. If not, it’s not a big deal, as it was created to help my friend, who still uses it a lot. I will continue to update it with new releases. Let me know what you think and how I can make this guide better!

Note: This current guide contains ships and upgrades from everything from wave 1 through wave 9. I’ll add new expansions post-release, once I’ve done my research on the release.

12/22/15 V2.0 Edit: I have updated the guide; I also added the new Force Awakened ships.

01/04/16 V2.2 Edit: I have edited some typos and I added the new ships and upgrade from the Imperial Assault Carrier Expansion.

03/24/16 V3.0 Edit: I have added the wave 8 ships and upgrades.

05/16/16 V3.3 Edit: I added a few clarifications to some of the strategy section. I also added a suggested errata section; this is small update before Imperial Veterans comes out.

0/9/22/16 V4.0 Edit: So sorry for the long delay! My summer months consist of 80 hour work weeks, so working on the guide becomes impossible. This update was also HUGE! I added Imperial Veterans, Wave 9, and ALL upgrade cards in the game. I found that more and more, the fact that upgrade cards were not discussed directly was hampering the guide, so I added them. I also added the suggested casual play errata to each individual ship and upgrade that is affected by it; feel free to ignore the errata if you only play competitively. ... my next step is to revamp the "Suggested Squads" sections to incorporate all of the new ships, but I'll wait until Heroes of the Resistance drops for that update.

Please enter the link below to see the guide.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8kpIwVBYEHUMVJMZnYzRFNWQTg/view?usp=sharing

This is great and has kept me occupied at work today!

0/9/22/16 V4.0 [...] ... my next step is to revamp the "Suggested Squads" sections to incorporate all of the new ships, but I'll wait until Heroes of the Resistance drops for that update.

I can't wait to see this. Thanks

Edit: Fixed a handful of typos and added the maneuvers for the wave 9 ships.