So Drea Renthal with R4-B11 has been my white whale in this game: I desperately want to make her work, but it's been rough so far. Getting her a reliable Focus might be a way to overcome that, and having an option to give her a new Target Lock if she misses her off-ramp would be good.

Enter Manaroo.

But you don't want Manaroo to be left without tokens herself, so you think "Mindlink", but Drea doesn't have an Elite slot.

Enter Guri. If Guri starts combat at Range 1 of an enemy ship, she gets a free Focus token. Manaroo's token-passing ability is also "start of combat", so you can choose to resolve Manaroo before Guri, meaning Manaroo winds up with a Focus through the link.

It's probably too fiddly, relying on an interaction between three ships that aren't super tanky, but I want to see if I can make it work. Here's what I've got so far:

Drea Renthal (22)

R4-B11 (3)

Guidance Chimps (0)

Plasma Torpedoes (3)

Extra Munitions (2)

Dorsal Turret (3)

Guri (30)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Autothrusters (2)

Manaroo (27)

Attanni Mindlink (1)

Dengar (3)

That only comes to 97 points, so we could upgrade Drea's turret or give Guri or Manaroo slightly better stuff, but I don't know what. Unhinged on Manaroo? R4 Agromech on Manaroo instead of Dengar? Virago and FCS on Guri? Virago and Electronic Baffle?

What's your best build for this combo, board?

I'd probably go title and FCS on guri. I'd probably do TLT instead dorsal and no munitions on drea. Usually your probbaly not usually going to get 2 torpedo shots off (since she's not great at turninng around once she's stress. Would also give you a couple more points for other upgrades somwhere.

Edit: I also kinda like recon specialist on Manaroo if you go with TLT. Lets drea have 2 focus to spend for her TLT shots. 2 target locked focused shots that also make the defender reroll their natural evades is almost guaranteed to hit.

I like the idea of Manaroo resetting Drea's TL's. Kinda stinks that there's not really enough room for the Punishing One title in the list. I'd probably start with something like this:

Guri (30)

+ Predator (3)

+ Autothrusters (2)

Manaroo (27)

+ K4 Security Droid

+ Push the Limit (3)

+ Unhinged Astromech (1)

Drea Renthal (22)

+ Twin Laser Turret (6)

+ R4-B11 (3)

Pred/AT on Guri is a pretty solid budget build. PtL/K4/Unhinged gives Manaroo a wide array of options for Focus+TL, either to pass or keep. And TLT/B11 on Drea allows her to be pretty autonomous, with the precise 1 damage per TLT shot giving you the best knowledge of when to switch your TL to a new target.

I came up with:

I had a fun similar list with Palob in place of Manaroo called Five Finger Discount (since they were all PS5). To add Manaroo you could go:

Guri

• Autothrusters
• FCS
• Virago
• Attani mindlink

Drea

• R4-B11
• TLT

Manaroo

• Attanni Mindlink
• K4 Security Droid
• R4 Aggromech

Manaroo (PS4) takes green maneuver, acquires a TL, takes a Focus action, Guri gets a free Focus. Drea and Guri move. Start of combat, because it's simultaneous, Manaroo gives all tokens to Drea, then Guri gets her free focus from being at range 1 of an enemy, Manaroo gets a focus. Manaroo can now spend the focus on her attack and gain a TL to also use thanks to the droid.

Manaroo takes a red maneuver. Guri gets a stress. Guri takes a green maneuver, clears stress, takes a Focus, gives one to Manaroo. If Guri is at range 1 of an enemy, can still pull of the chain and get Drea a Focus token.

If Guri has to take a red maneuver then Manaroo focuses, gives Guri her focus at start of combat, gains one herself.

Guri and Manaroo make a good combo with Attani Mindlink. It's sad that you can't fit in the title so that Manaroo is rolling more than two attack dice. Would have to butcher some upgrades (Autothrusters, Virago, FCS, K4 Security droid only comes to 8). Could drop Drea for someone cheaper.

I like the idea of Manaroo resetting Drea's TL's. Kinda stinks that there's not really enough room for the Punishing One title in the list. I'd probably start with something like this:

Guri (30)

+ Predator (3)

+ Autothrusters (2)

Manaroo (27)

+ K4 Security Droid

+ Push the Limit (3)

+ Unhinged Astromech (1)

Drea Renthal (22)

+ Twin Laser Turret (6)

+ R4-B11 (3)

Pred/AT on Guri is a pretty solid budget build. PtL/K4/Unhinged gives Manaroo a wide array of options for Focus+TL, either to pass or keep. And TLT/B11 on Drea allows her to be pretty autonomous, with the precise 1 damage per TLT shot giving you the best knowledge of when to switch your TL to a new target.

Manaroo (27)
Deadeye (1)
Extra Munitions (2)
Proton Torpedoes (4)
Zuckuss (1)
R4 Agromech (2)
Guidance Chips (0)

Drea Renthal (22)
Dorsal Turret (3)
Extra Munitions (2)
Proton Torpedoes (4)
R4-B11 (3)
Guidance Chips (0)

4-LOM (27)
Bossk (2)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Manaroo (27)

Deadeye (1)

Extra Munitions (2)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

Zuckuss (1)

R4 Agromech (2)

Guidance Chips (0)

Drea Renthal (22)

Dorsal Turret (3)

Extra Munitions (2)

Proton Torpedoes (4)

R4-B11 (3)

Guidance Chips (0)

4-LOM (27)

Bossk (2)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

The judges have deducted a point for not using Mindlink, but otherwise that looks like an interesting list. Is Manaroo just passing tokens to Drea when she doesn't have a shot, or after she's run out of torpedoes?

I took another look at how to get 3 female Scum pilots. Love Drea but Serissu is another option that might be uniquely suited to this list.

JumpMaster 5000: · Manaroo (27)

Draw Their Fire (1)

Recon Specialist (3)

Add R5-P8 or APL/ion projector & Unhinged

M3-A Interceptor: · Serissu (20)

Juke (2)

Hull Upgrade (3)

"Heavy Scyk" Interceptor (2)

"Mangler" Cannon (4)

StarViper: · Guri (30)

Autothrusters (2)

Predator (3)

So. Manaroo tries to block while passing double focus to one of the others and draw ing crits away. Once Manaroo loses shields, she can run away and continue support from afar.