After realizing I hadn't heard anything about the new Gonk crew for a while, I did some searching and it doesn't seem like anyone is talking about the little guy anymore. It looks like that unofficial (official?) ruling that calls both Gonk card actions the same action (which prevents using it with Experimental Interface) really took the energy out of what seemed like a promising new crew for Scum. Has anyone found a place for him? Or is he doomed to collect dust on a sandcrawler?

There's simply too many good Scum crew (Boba, Dengar, Zuckuss, Bossk...) and couple with only a few ships can carry a crew in Scum (Firespray, HWK, YV-666, G1-A).

I put Gonk on my Palob once. It helps a bit if the opponent has only a few ships left, but since it's only 1 shield and you have to use an action to do it, it's simply not as effective as I thought it would be.

The ruling that you can only use either or action killed it.

My opinion on gonk is that even without the ruling he costs 2x actions to recover one shield at the cost of 2 points. This is insanely bad action economy and you are probably better off defensively taking 2 other actions instead of getting your shield back.

Compare gonk to R5-P9 it costs one point more but it only takes 1 action to recover the shield, on top of that the 1 action (focus) can be used if the focus is going to be more beneficial then the shield regeneration like blocking 2 hits (converting focus on defense). and R5-P9 is not taken that much, with gonk being much worse (ruling or not) i cant see him seeing much play. Even if gonk did not require you to bank sheilds and simply read "Action: recover one shield" it would still be worse then R5-P9 as it stands I cant see him being useful.

I am a pretty strong defender of the balance in this game, however they did totally screw up gonk.

The ruling that you can only use either or action killed it.

he will be good in epic, but in normal games the ship he is on usually has 1 or 2 agility and dies too fast

My opinion on gonk is that even without the ruling he costs 2x actions to recover one shield at the cost of 2 points. This is insanely bad action economy and you are probably better off defensively taking 2 other actions instead of getting your shield back.

I get what you're saying, there can be better options, especially when it takes two actions to get the shield. But Gonk becomes useful if you don't use it as a crutch, and I think it's almost for the best that it can't be used with EI because it's not going to be effective if you use it every turn. But if you use the 2-3 turns before combat to convert what would be wasted actions into charged shields you have 2-3 shields that are now much more appealing uses of actions. Charge the Gonk during "down" turns when you're repositioning and benefit from the scum support abilities (Palob, Manaroo, Atanni) to get free actions when you absolutely need to Gonk. Gonk is just another tool at a decent 2 points.

Gonk really isn't that good of a crew. It is a subpar R2-D2. Sure rebel shield regeneration is now all the rage these days with TLT and what not but as far as Gonk going spending 2 actions to get 1 shield just won't cut it especially when the other shield regeneration upgrades spends 0 actions.

It could be good on Tur (that zombie that self resurrects.) Assuming your opponent doesn't reserve all his firepower to kill him twice in one turn. I don't know Tur with R5-P8 and gonk. Get to hit back and if you banked shield tokens and survive you can get another shield going from 1 hit away to 2. Of course to be sure you would always want to regen a shield when possible. Player attack to remove ships so banking shield tokens would just result in unused tokens when gonk and the jumpmaster bite it.

I think if the actions worked with IE and even if stressed, it'd be worthwhile...but as of now it is indeed a dud. I ain't mad though, the less regen in the game, the better.

I think if the actions worked with IE and even if stressed, it'd be worthwhile...but as of now it is indeed a dud. I ain't mad though, the less regen in the game, the better.

If it was a single action to recover a stress token it would be awesome. Heck it could have even taken a stress or ion in addition to a shield token and it still would have been great without reaching R2-D2 levels of ridiculous power.

I'm not sure the requirement to take two actions is that big a deal. You can usually charge him up with 2-4 shields before you are forced to engage the enemy. That's typically as many as you're going to use.

Honestly, it's not that he's a bad choice. I think if Imperials, for example, had access to gonk we'd see him as a staple on Decimators for sure. Rebels might also make use of him too. Scum just have such amazing crew. Dengar is absurd for 3 points. A better version of predator for a crew slot? Yes please! Zuckuss can be hugely powerful especially in conjunction with his mate 4-LOM. The good ol' K4 droid is a nice reliable action economy. All of them don't require an action to use either, unlike Gonk.

I've used Gonk on Tel with the gimmick of just not dying and even if she dies, she can resurrect, potentially with 2 hull, then try and run away and regain shields with Gonk.

Tel plus Gonk works. Anything else, except my be some weird YV builds, not so much.

He's always been an underwhelming card in my book. I didn't understand all the hype when he was announced, despite the excitement amongst my local community.

Two actions for a Regen, at the cost of a crew slot and 2 points?

Compare that yo just doing a green maneuver for three points with r2d2 - often in.a.build where you're stressed from Ptl and would be doing greens anyway

Or compare it to r5p9 on poe, who will be retaining his focus anyway.

Or compare it to Miranda reducing one of 6 red dice

Way too much of a cost compared to the other versions of Regen - of course these are all for a different faction, but still. Too much.

As has been stated, it just simply isn't a very effective crew card, and that's why it's not discussed. Action based upgrades have historically been bad, and this is no exception. And, along with that, scum has some absolutely incredible crew options. Boba, Dengar, 4LOM, Zuckuss, K4, Outlaw Tech... Even Bossk and Greedo are pretty dang solid. You put all of these into a hat along with Gonk, and I'm only irked if I pull Gonk out of that hat.

And on another note- Experimental Interface just simply isn't a good upgrade either, and I don't think the combo before the ruling on Gonk was even that good. EI is a PTL which forces the use of a specific action, costs 3+the upgrade option it is pairing with, and takes up an incredibly valuable slot as a modification. I think if EI was either a) 1 or 0 points as is, or b) did not give stress, it could be a valuable upgrade. Sadly, neither of those things can be changed, and what it was looking to do (make action based upgrades usable), is likely a lost addition to the game which would have added some fun depth to otherwise useless cards.

You can still use him with EI just not twice in a turn. You just do your normal action then bank a token with IE for the first couple turns then later on you get your normal action plus regen for a stress. Double tapping him was never a good idea because you sacrifice normal dice modding actions to do it.

I think GONK got put on Palob.

It's a pretty awesome crew on Palob, haha.

Another thing is that, even if Gonk was good (I don't think he is very good), the direction the game is going (U-boats, the likely resurrection of Bombers post Veterans, Crack Swarms) doesn't make Regen a winning strategy anymore.

And on another note- Experimental Interface just simply isn't a good upgrade either, and I don't think the combo before the ruling on Gonk was even that good. EI is a PTL which forces the use of a specific action, costs 3+the upgrade option it is pairing with, and takes up an incredibly valuable slot as a modification. I think if EI was either a) 1 or 0 points as is, or b) did not give stress, it could be a valuable upgrade. Sadly, neither of those things can be changed, and what it was looking to do (make action based upgrades usable), is likely a lost addition to the game which would have added some fun depth to otherwise useless cards.

That's interesting. EI used to be everywhere (especially before authothrusters). I think that given it is PTL for ships that can't take PTL, it definitely has a niche and I don't think it needs to be cheaper. It's pretty amazing on K-wings, VCX's and other EPT-less ships with crew slots. But I'll certainly concede that I see EI way less than, say, a year ago.

Another thing is that, even if Gonk was good (I don't think he is very good), the direction the game is going (U-boats, the likely resurrection of Bombers post Veterans, Crack Swarms) doesn't make Regen a winning strategy anymore.

I've tried and tried with Poe + R5-P9 and Red Ace + R2-D2 and you can grind out to an eventual win or get decimated by overwhelming damage in the first few rounds. You certainly aren't going to take anyone by surprise!

At the SC here, I ran a list with moralo + k4 + outlaw tech + hlc + gonk, and gonked myself plenty

Yeah shield-regen had it's 5 minutes of fame and then wave 8 came and it was out of vogue fast. I think it still has certain advantages in the meta (it can handle palp aces through sheer grind, for example), but it is a dying breed. Not desperately upset about that, shield regen can be very frustrating to play against.

Granted I fly pretty dern casual, but Gonk has been on my YV-666 since the card was spoiled. Love it.

And on another note- Experimental Interface just simply isn't a good upgrade either, and I don't think the combo before the ruling on Gonk was even that good. EI is a PTL which forces the use of a specific action, costs 3+the upgrade option it is pairing with, and takes up an incredibly valuable slot as a modification. I think if EI was either a) 1 or 0 points as is, or b) did not give stress, it could be a valuable upgrade. Sadly, neither of those things can be changed, and what it was looking to do (make action based upgrades usable), is likely a lost addition to the game which would have added some fun depth to otherwise useless cards.

That's interesting. EI used to be everywhere (especially before authothrusters). I think that given it is PTL for ships that can't take PTL, it definitely has a niche and I don't think it needs to be cheaper. It's pretty amazing on K-wings, VCX's and other EPT-less ships with crew slots. But I'll certainly concede that I see EI way less than, say, a year ago.

Now I'm interested in your comment in return, as I don't recall ever seeing EI used competitively since it's release. Do you mind me asking what builds were typical in your area? I know there is the Expose combo for the Deci, but even that saw minimal use in my area.

Id be interested to know of the people who have condemned the card in this thread have actually used it.

I found it incredibly easy to bank shields in the beginning of the match.

The real issue is new found burst damage!

I used him on YV-666 and I liked him. Like others mentioned above, nothing prevents you to stack a bunch of shields on him in the first few rounds.

Just slow roll him 3-4 turns to get that amount of shields on the card and release them one by one later on with your EI.

Combine him with Dengar Crew on YV, so you don't have to target lock and you can both focus and Gong in the same turn, and use all actions available to that ship anyway.

I managed to fully heal a YV-666 this way in a game recently.

Just make sure the YV isn't focused fired upon, which is what you should be worried in the first place when you bring that ship in play.