So here's the thing about them. They are really, really cheap. Let's consider for a moment R2-D2. He costs 4 points, a fairly expensive upgrade, but he lets you restor shields for a green. But how worth it is he? You become more predictable in exchange for some regen. It's a bargain. Shield upgrade, taking the modification slot would cost you 4 pts, so if R2-D2 goes off more than once, he has more than served his purpose and you were more durable than you would have been for a straight shield upgrade. Even some of the "worst" astromechs are really darn strong. R5 Astromech, for only one point pt let's you flip crits faced down during the end phase. Many crits don't take effect until the next turn, and still more steal your action economy. Even direct hit can be shrugged off, assuming you survived the initial attack. For 1 pt, when you consider how badly a crit can cripple a ship this is a great one pt investment. Now when we consider integrated astromech you have a BETTER shield upgrade for an effective 1 pt that gives you another ability. Yeah the 2 combined take your modification slot, but I think this is a fair enough trade. Simply put, I think the Astromech is one of the best slots in the game, for its variety and point effeciency.

Agreed. IMO, astromechs are some of the most fun and powerful (for their point cost) upgrades. The problem is that many of the ships that use them are either pigeon-holed into certain roles (i.e. y-wing) that limit the usefulness of many of the astromechs that or need more help than an astromech can provide to be competive and/or fun to fly (x-wing). Remains to be seen how the ARK will fare.

That said, I still love to fly them and try them out. When/if some more love for the x-wing is released, I think more will realize how awesome they are.

There are a couple of crap and overcosted Astros though too.

R5-K6 is FCS that works ~37% of the time and costs the same amount of points as a FCS. Not good (actually that's being generous, it is in the running for worst card in the game).

R5-D8 is horrible. It costs an action and might not work (~37% chance it won't). Also, its 3 points... You are better off with R5-P9 on pretty much any build. Maybe if it was only a point I could see some use for it and if it removed crits.

R5-X3 is 'meh'. Much better off with R5 or and R2. You may never get to use X3. Also, if you expel X3 into the rock, then you don't get the benefit of integrated astromech. Should have been 0 points or reworded to only work in the activation phase, but you don't have to discard it. Probably have to be at least 2 points then.

Targeting Astromech would be better if we were still in the wave 3 meta. Not much use for it now. Maybe it will find a nice home on the ARC since it apparently has a pretty red dial.

R2-F2.. garbage. Just focus. Action. 3 points. green dice... yeah no.

R7-T1 I feel is too expensive for what it does. You might find more use for it if it was 2 points.

So yeah, about half the Astromechs are sub par to just bad.

I think you are being very unfair to a few of them. R2-F2 on an experimental interface E-Wing is fairly intimidating, and R5-D8 can outright remove face down damage, which is very rare and awesome for say a Y-Wing that has only a few actions anyway. As for R7-T1 he's a double action for no stress... Yeah it's a bit situational but it's good on any ship that could take an Astromech.... I won't defend the others at this time, but I think these guys are better than popular opinion.

R2-F2 with EI is throwing more points into a bad card. Even on an E-wing with natural 3 agility. You are much better off running Push the Limit and just focus/evading or R2-D2. You'll be having to do greens anyway. 6 points and a stress to get 1 extra green and an action is just not worth it.

R5-D8 can outright remove face down damage

Keyword is can. It can fail on you and now you don't get any action! For 3 points too? This is a card I can honestly say I've never seen anyone run and I can see why.

As much as I don't like R5-K6 (Wave 1 stuff is weird...) the rest of them are pretty good if situational at times. I remember vividly that everyone crapped on poor R5-P9 and now everyone loves 'em.

That said I'm always interested in what new astromech cards we can use in the future, especially with an entirely new ship and I'm very curios what R3 units will bring. Lore wise they're expensive and the best thing money can buy, also coupled with really friendly personalities, so I hope they're cool. :3

r5 p9 only got useful when they introduced a pilot who specifically hoards a focus every turn

r2d2 isn't cheap as much as shield upgrade is HORRENDOUSLY OVERPRICED to keep it from being an auto-include upgrade

personally not a huge fan of the slot, but moreso because the ships that can take it are so dang limited in what they do

with the arc coming, though, the slot might be able to show its stuff without just being r2-d2/r5p9 on Poe and r3-a2 on a btl-a4

The only reason that R7-T1 isn't used is that the pilots he would go best with are using R2-D2 or R5-P9.

R7-T1 is quite good on Dutch, though you just don't see him used lately for various meta reasons.

R2d2 should be at least double the price and/or have a limit of how many times he can be used.

There are a couple of crap and overcosted Astros though too.

R5-K6 is FCS that works ~37% of the time and costs the same amount of points as a FCS. Not good (actually that's being generous, it is in the running for worst card in the game).

R5-D8 is horrible. It costs an action and might not work (~37% chance it won't). Also, its 3 points... You are better off with R5-P9 on pretty much any build. Maybe if it was only a point I could see some use for it and if it removed crits.

R5-X3 is 'meh'. Much better off with R5 or and R2. You may never get to use X3. Also, if you expel X3 into the rock, then you don't get the benefit of integrated astromech. Should have been 0 points or reworded to only work in the activation phase, but you don't have to discard it. Probably have to be at least 2 points then.

Targeting Astromech would be better if we were still in the wave 3 meta. Not much use for it now. Maybe it will find a nice home on the ARC since it apparently has a pretty red dial.

R2-F2.. garbage. Just focus. Action. 3 points. green dice... yeah no.

R7-T1 I feel is too expensive for what it does. You might find more use for it if it was 2 points.

I don't agree on R7-T1, but this one would be specially nice on an arc dodger if only a-wing had the astromech... as someone said it, it's quite nice on e-wing

R5D8 is not that bad on Y-wing and Arc170, the problem is that there's indeed some betters astro.

R5K6 is way better than what you say since the arc 170 is on the way...

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/build/510143

look at this, with that nice combo, you have 61% chance to have at least 1 proc, over 14% to proc it twice and even some chance to proc 3 time or more

and each time you take 1 TL back, you get another one if you already spend both !

definitly an astromech that we'll see with the arc170.

The targeting astromech is even better with the arc170, i think he have the best rebel combo

add kyle katarn and a wingman on anither ship and your red manoeuvre will not only give you a target lock but a focus on the same turn.. ok this will work only for 1 ship, but you could give this to

http://xwing-builder.co.uk/view/510480/mobile-arc#

with this build, one of your arc will always have 2 actions and the other one 1 depending on if you do a red manoeuvre or not and since the one who do 2 action when you don't stress is sharra, norra will be able to use her target lock like she did 2 actions if you need it.

but sure, targeting astromech sucks

@themanonthemoon

R5P9 works quite well on Poe and there's a few combo to give a focus to one of your ship and benefits from that astro

hwk with kyle katarn can give an extra focus in case you spend one, you have the other one.

kwing esege, allies can use your focus, give him recon specialist and you might have 1 focus for R5P9

Arc170 with crew + astro, just go for recon specialist and you might keep 1 of your 2 focus for your mech

R2d2 should be at least double the price and/or have a limit of how many times he can be used.

palpatine is like an r2d2 that doesnt require greens and can be used on offense or grant evades to anything not just one ship for 8 points. this seems disproportionate and upon further taste-testing, very salty.

Arc170 with crew + astro, just go for recon specialist and you might keep 1 of your 2 focus for your mech

BB-8 + Kyle Katarn + PTL could be very good fun if there are as many greens on the dial as claimed. You should be able to get a BR, TL and 2 Focus tokens. Slap on EU if you want even more options or possibly that mysterious new Torpedo that looks like it takes an Action to fire....

Problem with arc crew is c3po is blowing almost everyone out of the water unless tbeams become dominant

Exceptions for Hera (SoT, targeting/r3a2) and Sabine (bb8 seismics)

Bb8 ptl Kyle also seems fun on Norra specifically, but unless you're bumping a lot you can get the same effect without Kyle and just use c3po