I'm sure this has been asked before: Do Darth crits apply to a ship still equipped with active shields, or only after the shields are down? Thanks

crits are damage. if a ship has shields a critical hit removes a shield like a normal damage. without shields you deal face up a damage card per cit

Unless an effect specifically deals a damage *card*, it goes to shields first. If it does specifically deal a damage card, it ignores shields.

This could also be applied to proton bombs as well, I suppose. Is a faceup card dealt regardless, or only after shields are down?

Read the card. If the card says 'deal a (face up or face down) damage card' it ignores shields. If it says 'deal/suffer a (critical) damage' it is absorbed by shields first.

Proton Bombs are the former.

I'm sure this has been asked before: Do Darth crits apply to a ship still equipped with active shields, or only after the shields are down? Thanks

Darth's "crit" applies to a ship even if it has Shield Tokens.

It is just that a "crit" applied to a ship with a shield token only removes a shield token. This is just like an other attack.

If something would deal a "card" directly to a ship it will say so.

Remember "suffer goes to shields, deal a card deals a card". If the upgrade or pilot ability you're looking at says "suffer", then it's treated exactly the same as normal hits or crits from an attack, which means it hits shields first. If it says "deal a card" or "deal a faceup card", then you literally do what it says and deal a damage card, regardless of whether the target has shields or not.

Can Darth Vaders pilot card be used in the same game with his upgrade card? For example. Can I use Darth Vader in his Tie Advance and also use Darth Vader crew upgrade in the Decimator?

If the card says they suffer a crit, it hits shields. However, Vader says "deal one faceup damage card" which is not a hit, its a straight up draw a card. That ignores shields.

ive killed a R2-D2 regenning ratfink with Vader before because i could NOT do more than 1 damage to him and he'd just regen it, but every time i fired i did a faceup damage so i got him in 3 rounds anyway. Course i took 6 damage for it.... lol

If the card says they suffer a crit, it hits shields. However, Vader says "deal one faceup damage card" which is not a hit, its a straight up draw a card. That ignores shields.

ive killed a R2-D2 regenning ratfink with Vader before because i could NOT do more than 1 damage to him and he'd just regen it, but every time i fired i did a faceup damage so i got him in 3 rounds anyway. Course i took 6 damage for it.... lol

Vader doesn't say anything about dealing a faceup damage card. He causes the target ship to suffer 1 critical damage, which is NOT dealing a damage card if the ship still has shields.

If the card says they suffer a crit, it hits shields. However, Vader says "deal one faceup damage card" which is not a hit, its a straight up draw a card. That ignores shields.

ive killed a R2-D2 regenning ratfink with Vader before because i could NOT do more than 1 damage to him and he'd just regen it, but every time i fired i did a faceup damage so i got him in 3 rounds anyway. Course i took 6 damage for it.... lol

Piling it on but this is completely WRONG. Vader DOES NOT deal direct card damage. Parravon linked Vader's card which shows nothing about dealing cards. Perhaps there is some alternative language version that doesn't get the translation completely correct but saying a card says to do something it clearly doesn't, and never has, needs to be squashed.