C-3PO was once a very sought after card and was hard to get your hands on it unless you wanted to fork over a lot of money for the corvette. After the winter kit release however, it's fairly easy to add to your collection as you can find his card on E-bay for as low as $10.00.

So with the huge influx of C-3PO cards and new players, I thought it would be nice to offer a little advice collectively with the community to talk about how and where to use him. Please add anything you think might be helpful to a new player. What ships does he do well on? Where does he fit in the meta?

C-3PO does well of course on the Falcon. (see Paul Heavers worlds 2014 list) The falcon has a lot of shields and hull which makes for a good candidate for him to be a crew member of. To use him, just follow the card but most people "guess" zero evades as it guarantees you an evade result. He is great in that he is only three points and as long as you get one use out of him then he will be worth his points.

Ships I have seen that work well with him is the YT-1300, and the K-wing piloted by Miranda.

Keep in mind that your opponent can Crackshot the 3PO result.

C3PO basically means a guaranteed evade on a 1 agility ship (if you guess "0"). But now that tractorbeam has become available I'm curious how C3PO will fare in the new meta.

Note that you can't use him if you're rolling no dice (on the VCX-100, Range 2 or less, no obstructions) - since it says "Before rolling 1 or more dice"

so no "I guess xero" and rolling no dice.

The important question is, do we use the alt-art card, which is nicer, but common, or the original card, to show off how hardcore we are?

Any use on a Bwing modded for Crew?

Ghost with C-3PO and Lando Crew + Experimental Interface : C-3PO the Lando action.

With juke and tractor beams around creepio is far less effective than he used to be, a ship with one agility is easily taken out by a one point cannon.

Any use on a Bwing modded for Crew?

Conventional wisdom on B-wings is that more points is usually a bad investment. Not saying he won't provide some utility there but B-wings do best when they are not a priority target anyway.

So far as Tractor Beam and 3PO, just use 3PO to help dodge the TB shot.

Edit- (It's twin laser turret that made 3PO not so super)

Any use on a Bwing modded for Crew?

Conventional wisdom on B-wings is that more points is usually a bad investment. Not saying he won't provide some utility there but B-wings do best when they are not a priority target anyway.

So far as Tractor Beam and 3PO, just use 3PO to help dodge the TB shot.

Edit- (It's twin laser turret that made 3PO not so super)

3 red vs 1 green is bad odds even with creepio as 3 attacks with a focus is 2.25 hits that's one more than he can stop.

Put that tractor beam on vessery that's three attacks with a reroll and focus token and its never going to miss.

If you have a titled falcon, and you know that you need to evade a 3 hit result (tractor or otherwise), just guess 1 and hope it works. The evade token will make it 3 evades.

Tractor beams seem like a great counter till you look at the hidden cost. You need a ship that is high enough PS to go before your other ships, your giving up a cannon slot, and you need to hit, and then it might work. Tractor beams seem rather Jank.

You need a ship that is high enough PS to go before your other ships

That's not hard if your other ships are the cheapest TLT carries you could find though.

The important question is, do we use the alt-art card, which is nicer, but common, or the original card, to show off how hardcore we are?

I'm glad someone else feels the real dilemma here. this is the one thing i've been wrestling with since the card was announced. #firstworldproblems

dont forget! c3po is before mods, so you can get juked

and if you roll a focus on your "guess 0" you can spend for an additional evade!

The important question is, do we use the alt-art card, which is nicer, but common, or the original card, to show off how hardcore we are?

The original card is bought. The alternate one is earned.

The important question is, do we use the alt-art card, which is nicer, but common, or the original card, to show off how hardcore we are?

The original card is bought. The alternate one is earned.

but only by the top 32

which, in quite a few cases, is all or more of the participants

alt art is far superior, though, because it's Empire Strikes Back

Don't use on a ship with more than 1 Agility.

With any more green dice than 1, it's likely that crew slot could be put to better use than a droid you're hardly ever likely to guess correctly with. He could be viewed as worst-case insurance, guessing "0" every turn for those times your greens blank out, but that hardly seems worth the 3 points or the crew slot.

Don't use on a ship with less than 1 Agility.

Seems obvious, but since we're addressing new players it must be stated. Read the card carefully.

Don't use on a B-Wing.

A B-wing isn't durable enough to support C3P0, even more so in the emerging alpha-strike/ordnance meta. "But Miranda only has 1 more health!", you might say. She also has the ability (late in the round) to simply Slam away from shots, or Slam into opponents. She has a built-in regen ability, and even a turret. Your B-Wing has none of this. It's entirely possible that your B-Wing will get to use C3P0 exactly once (HAHA, you rolled an evade!) and then die. It's very unlikely you'll ever use him more than twice. Waste of points (including that extra point for the B-wing title).

Do use on Fat Han, who has the native ability to mod his dice rolls, as well as dodge some arcs via EU. That guaranteed evade per round (not to mention the Falcon title) makes a huge difference, especially on a tank of a ship that doesn't die easy to begin with.

Do use on Miranda, who sometimes has to choose between dodging an arc (and not firing) or staying in arc in order to get a regen. That single evade can allow you the opportunity to soak a shot and regen while shooting back. Between the regen and C3P0, it's a guaranteed 2 damage mitigation, which is fantastic if only a single ship can shoot at you.

Possibly use on other Falcons or K-wings. I'm sure a decent argument could be made for it. Those ships have the right agility value, and the right defensive capabilities (tanky or SLAM). But it can also be difficult to dodge arcs at a low PS, so not ideal. Your top two choices are listed above.

"Don't use on a ship with more than 1 Agility" has always been suspect advice, and in the era of the Tractor Beam, it's actively bad advice.

A 2-Agility ship will roll 0 evades about 40% of the time.

A 2-Agility ship will roll 2 evades about 14% of the time.

That leaves 46% of the time a 2-Agility ship will roll exactly 1 evade.

Using C-3PO on a 2-Agility ship has always allowed flexibility: Do I want a guaranteed evade, or do I want "burst defense," either because I need it to survive or because it will be demoralizing to my opponent?

And C-3PO allows a 2-Agility ship to generate a 3-evade result, something that can be very important. Doing so is only 14% without a focus token, but it remains an option for when not generating three evades means destruction. And it is significantly easier to do when holding a focus token.

C-3PO on, say, the YT-2400 has always been a good choice of crew. It's never been a popular choice of crew, but those are different things.

Finally, C-3PO on a 2-Agility ship that's been hit by a Tractor Beam is, of course, C-3PO on a 1-Agility ship.

The important question is, do we use the alt-art card, which is nicer, but common, or the original card, to show off how hardcore we are?

The original card is bought. The alternate one is earned.

Speak for yourself, I bought mine.

Wasn't it the taking part prize anyway? 's not really earned is it.

All of the following only applies to a 1 agility ship (K-Wing, Falcon or if you really want to, a B-Wing)

When to guess 0:

Almost all the time. In most scenarios the guarantee of mitigation is better than the 37.5% chance of 2 evades.

When to guess 1:

When only getting one evade will result in your untimely death. A 37.5% chance of surviving is a heck of a lot better than 0%. Example: you have 2 health and the attacker rolls 3 hits. One evade means you die anyway. Guess one and maybe you live.

Also, similar to above, when an attack does set damage and the attacker rolled 2 hits (or 3 if you have an evade token through some means). For example, against an ion turret/cannon or a TLT, if one evade won't make the attack miss, you get no mitigation at all. Just guess one and hope for the best.

Also, for new players, bear in mind that you must ROLL an evade, not change a focus to an evade. If you guess 1 and get a focus, then turn that to an evade, you don't get the extra from threepio. However, if you guess 0 and roll a focus, you get the extra evade and can then use your focus to have 2 evades.

So, some more math (as I understand it, my numbers may be wrong)

Guess 1 (no focus): 37.5% chance of getting two evades, 62.5% chance of getting nothing

Guess 1 (focus): 37.5% chance of getting two evades, 37.5% chance of nothing, 25% chance of 1 evade

Guess 0 (no focus): 100% chance of getting one evade, 0% chance to get nothing, 0% chance to get two evades

Guess 0 (focus): 25% chance of getting 2 evades, 75% chance of getting one evade

Guess more than 1: why is threepio on a ship with more than 1 agility?

So guessing 0 is almost always better, except in those situations above where that extra chance at getting 2 evades is your only hope.

The important question is, do we use the alt-art card, which is nicer, but common, or the original card, to show off how hardcore we are?

The original card is bought. The alternate one is earned.

Speak for yourself, I bought mine.

I bought mine too.

With iron. Greyjoy style.

The important question is, do we use the alt-art card, which is nicer, but common, or the original card, to show off how hardcore we are?

The original card is bought. The alternate one is earned.

Speak for yourself, I bought mine.

I bought mine too.

With iron. Greyjoy style.

We pay the plastic price!

...that's three attacks with a reroll and focus token and its never going to miss.

LOL. Someone hasn't seen me rolling dice....

The important question is, do we use the alt-art card, which is nicer, but common, or the original card, to show off how hardcore we are?

The original card is bought. The alternate one is earned.

Speak for yourself, I bought mine.

I bought mine too.

With iron. Greyjoy style.

I bought mine with money, Lovejoy style.

I think there are several light builds B Wing builds that would work with C3PO. A Blue Squad Or a dagger squad with only the Crew bin and C3PO give you cheap very durable 26-28 point ships I would Fly in games.