I've been flying the hot shot/gunner combo on my deci lately. I'm having a hard time deciding if I should go for max damage on my first attack roll or go for the least damage and hope they miss. Seems like whatever decision I make is the wrong one. I'm assuming I should go for max damage on any range one shot and minimal on anything else. Like I said it never seems to work out for me or at least it doesn't consistently work for me. What do you guys suggest?

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, sorry! Can you provide a bit more info about your problem?

It depends on if the target has a Focus and/or other tokens and how good you roll on the first shot. The more tokens they have, the more you want to miss the first shot to strip tokens, then go all-in on the second shot.

If your first natural roll is such that you are guaranteed to deal damage no matter what their green dice do, then forget about Gunner because it won't get triggered anyway. Spend all the mods you have to maximize the damage.

If your first natural roll is such that you are unlikely to deal damage or force much token spending after modding, then don't mod it. (e.g. you rolled hit-blank-blank at range 3 and only have a target lock against a foe with Focus+Evade).

If your first natural roll is amazing and spending mods will make it perfect, then you MIGHT want to mod it, but it's a tough call. (e.g. you rolled eye-crit-crit-hit on RAC at range 1)

If your opponent has very little HP left and your first natural roll is good, you might want to mod it for the sake of stripping more tokens, because the enemy doesn't have the freedom to just take 1 damage and deny you a chance to do more with Gunner.

If you can mod your first roll without spending tokens (e.g. Predator or RAC's ability), and the enemy has a lot of tokens/dice/Palpatine, then use your free mods anyway, just to make them spend more tokens. But save mods that require you to spend resources (e.g. Target Locks) until the second roll after tokens have been stripped.

Remember that pushing damage through with Gunner isn't your only goal. You're also stripping tokens so the opponent has less to defend against your other ships and shoot back with.

It depends on if the target has a Focus and/or other tokens and how good you roll on the first shot. The more tokens they have, the more you want to miss the first shot to strip tokens, then go all-in on the second shot.

If your first natural roll is such that you are guaranteed to deal damage no matter what their green dice do, then forget about Gunner because it won't get triggered anyway. Spend all the mods you have to maximize the damage.

If your first natural roll is such that you are unlikely to deal damage or force much token spending after modding, then don't mod it. (e.g. you rolled hit-blank-blank at range 3 and only have a target lock against a foe with Focus+Evade).

If your first natural roll is amazing and spending mods will make it perfect, then you MIGHT want to mod it, but it's a tough call. (e.g. you rolled eye-crit-crit-hit on RAC at range 1)

If your opponent has very little HP left and your first natural roll is good, you might want to mod it for the sake of stripping more tokens, because the enemy doesn't have the freedom to just take 1 damage and deny you a chance to do more with Gunner.

If you can mod your first roll without spending tokens (e.g. Predator or RAC's ability), and the enemy has a lot of tokens/dice/Palpatine, then use your free mods anyway, just to make them spend more tokens. But save mods that require you to spend resources (e.g. Target Locks) until the second roll after tokens have been stripped.

Remember that pushing damage through with Gunner isn't your only goal. You're also stripping tokens so the opponent has less to defend against your other ships and shoot back with.

Great answer! One small subtlety that wasn't immediately obvious to me with this combo until playing with it (also implied in the above response but not made explicit): this combo is really only worth it's point on RAC (because of innate dice mods and higher PS) with VI or Adaptability (to help make sure your combo is shooting first to strip tokens for your other guys). Might be obvious to others but wasn't for me, so hope this helps!

I would do what you said, max damage at range 1, at range 2-3 it depends on the ship. If it's high agility and tokened up, go for the miss, low agility is go for the max, but be ok if it misses. If you are running predator, i would always reroll the hit if you only roll one, and reroll a blank if you get hit/focus (if you have a focus). If you roll hit/focus/focus with a focus, then you have the conundrum. Do you spend it or wait for the reroll?

best thing is just not to worry and go max mods

murphy's law dictates you're only ever going to do 1 damage anyway

I do have it on RAC. Most of the time with me I roll hit hit focus and I don't change the crit. Then they blank out. Or if I do change it they evade two and only one goes through.

im interested in places for Hotshot + Baze...

I like it with predator. If you roll one hit on your roll, you can reroll the hit and try and get all misses.

Always go for the miss unless they don't have a focus, or its a 1 agility ship and you rolled 2 hits, or just need the 1 hit to kill the ship. Your objective with HSCP is to strip focus tokens. Plural. Attack anyone within range to strip their token, then fire at another ship you actually want to damage (or weaken). Stripping tokens means their attacks are weaker, keeping your ships alive longer. If the opponent is taking evades or TLs instead then HSCP is kind of doing its job without you needing to actually use it and damaging their ships will be easy. If a 3agi + evade ship is allowing damage to go through, that is always a good thing. Once shields are stripped and your crits are counting, they wont be so generous

It depends on if the target has a Focus and/or other tokens and how good you roll on the first shot. The more tokens they have, the more you want to miss the first shot to strip tokens, then go all-in on the second shot.

If your first natural roll is such that you are guaranteed to deal damage no matter what their green dice do, then forget about Gunner because it won't get triggered anyway. Spend all the mods you have to maximize the damage.

If your first natural roll is such that you are unlikely to deal damage or force much token spending after modding, then don't mod it. (e.g. you rolled hit-blank-blank at range 3 and only have a target lock against a foe with Focus+Evade).

If your first natural roll is amazing and spending mods will make it perfect, then you MIGHT want to mod it, but it's a tough call. (e.g. you rolled eye-crit-crit-hit on RAC at range 1)

If your opponent has very little HP left and your first natural roll is good, you might want to mod it for the sake of stripping more tokens, because the enemy doesn't have the freedom to just take 1 damage and deny you a chance to do more with Gunner.

If you can mod your first roll without spending tokens (e.g. Predator or RAC's ability), and the enemy has a lot of tokens/dice/Palpatine, then use your free mods anyway, just to make them spend more tokens. But save mods that require you to spend resources (e.g. Target Locks) until the second roll after tokens have been stripped.

Remember that pushing damage through with Gunner isn't your only goal. You're also stripping tokens so the opponent has less to defend against your other ships and shoot back with.