So I’ve been thinking for awhile about pilots and why some get play and others don’t. So I started looking at it by ship, and came to the following conclusion – almost every ship has at most 1 named pilot “worth” flying. Let’s take a look at who those are:

Rebels:

A Wing – Jake Farrell

ARC-170 – Norra Wexley

Attack Shuttle – N/A (as a standalone option at least)

B Wing – N/A

E Wing – Corran Horn

HWK-290 – N/A

K Wing – Miranda Doni

T-70 X Wing – Poe Dameron

T-65 X Wing – Biggs Darklighter & Wes Janson

Y Wing – N/A

Z-95 Headhunter – N/A

VCX-100 – Kanan Jarrus

YT-1300 – Rey & W2 Han Solo

YT-2400 – Dash Rendar

Imperials:

TIE/sf – N/A

TIE/x1 – Darth Vader

TIE/v1 – The Inquisitor

TIE/sa – N/A

TIE/x7 – Countess Ryad & Colonel Vessery

TIE/ln – Howlrunner

TIE/in – Soontir Fel & Carnor Jax

TIE/p – Whisper

TIE/fo – Omega Leader

Firespray-31 – N/A

Lambda – N/A

VT-49 Decimator – Rear Admiral Chiraneau

Scum:

G-1A Starfighter – N/A

HWK-290 – Palob Godalhi

Kihraxz Fighter – N/A

M3-A Scyk – N/A

Protectorate Starfighter – Fenn Rau & Old Teroch

Starviper – N/A

Y wing – N/A

Z-95 Headhunter – N/A

Aggressor – IG-88B

Firespray-31 – N/A

JumpMaster 5000 – Manaroo & Dengar

Lancer – Asajj Ventress

YV-666 – Bossk

So, there are 2 rebel ships, 2 imperials, and 2 scum ships that have more than 1 named pilot that sees regular play. As far as I can tell, the reason there’s typically only 1 pilot that gets used is because of the marginal efficiency of one pilot vs another, one will always be slightly better than the others, and that will be the one that gets used more. So what’s going on with those 6 exceptions such that there are numerous viable options? Well let’s take a closer look at them. Wes, Carnor Jax, and Old Teroch are all the second tier pilots of their ships, and they all have a similar roll, mess with your opponent’s tokens. Clearly screwing with your opponent’s action economy is a good enough ability to warrant consideration during list building. Manaroo and Colonel Vessery on the other hand grant you additional action efficiency. I think we all know how powerful Manaroo has become recently, but I think Vessery is on this list just because he’s the cheapest defender to pair with Ryad. Which brings us to Han & Rey – which really is just a meta thing.

So is this a valid analysis of why we really only get 1 viable named pilot (if any) from most expansions? What are your thoughts on this topic?

9 minutes ago, Khyros said:

*snip*

Rebels:

A Wing – Jake Farrell

ARC-170 – Norra Wexley

Attack Shuttle – N/A (as a standalone option at least)

B Wing – keyan farlander

E Wing – Corran Horn

HWK-290 – jan ors

K Wing – Miranda Doni

T-70 X Wing – Poe Dameron

T-65 X Wing – Biggs Darklighter & Wes Janson

Y Wing – N/A

Z-95 Headhunter – N/A

VCX-100 – Kanan Jarrus

YT-1300 – Rey & W2 Han Solo

YT-2400 – Dash Rendar

Imperials:

TIE/sf – Backdraft

TIE/x1 – Darth Vader

TIE/v1 – The Inquisitor

TIE/sa – N/A

TIE/x7 – Countess Ryad & Colonel Vessery

TIE/ln – Howlrunner

TIE/in – Soontir Fel & Carnor Jax

TIE/p – Whisper

TIE/fo – Omega Leader

Firespray-31 – N/A

Lambda – N/A

VT-49 Decimator – Rear Admiral Chiraneau

Scum:

G-1A Starfighter – N/A

HWK-290 – Palob Godalhi

Kihraxz Fighter – N/A

M3-A Scyk – N/A

Protectorate Starfighter – Fenn Rau & Old Teroch

Starviper – Guri

Y wing – Kavil

Z-95 Headhunter – N'dru Suhlak

Aggressor – IG-88B

Firespray-31 – N/A

JumpMaster 5000 – Manaroo & Dengar

Lancer – Asajj Ventress

YV-666 – Bossk

*snip*

There we go

(bolded pilots are ones i added)

TIE/defender should have maarek on there, for the same points as Vessery he's appearing more and more when you don't have the ability to trigger Vess's ability. Oicunn should appear for the Decimator, because it just depends on the role you want it to play whether you go for RAC or Oicunn.

Some pilots were perhaps made with epic play in mind. The game behaves differently at that scale and some pilots, especially the support abilities, become more useful.

You left a ton of very popular and powerful pilots out of that list brah...

Backdraft is outright insane, easily the best sf pilot and the only pilot that makes that ship actually a threat.
Braylen stressboat would like a word with you about the ARC only having 1 pilot worth using
Echo is used more than Whisper in my area, both locally and in a good radius for tournaments.
Keyan turns the Bwing's weakness into a "free focus" for attacks.

Just to name a few anyway.

I think you're painting with a very broad brush.

Just because you haven't figured out how to use something doesn't make it useless. I do vile things with Kenkirk, so frankly I think all three named pilots for that ship are viable. Backdraft does disturbing things. Kath Scarlett is viable in both factions, but mostly scum.

So in short, lern 2 fun better.

1 minute ago, JasonCole said:

Just because you haven't figured out how to use something doesn't make it useless. I do vile things with Kenkirk, so frankly I think all three named pilots for that ship are viable. Backdraft does disturbing things. Kath Scarlett is viable in both factions, but mostly scum.

So in short, lern 2 fun better.

^this

all ships are in fact good in the right hands

(except fel's wrath, he's a goner)

The answer is all the pilots are viable for something. You just need to figure out how to incorporate them. Some are just easier to do than others.

Thane and Braylen are both seeing lots of play, making top 32 in quite a few regionals. Backdraft and Quickdraw are also getting quite a bit of play. Even making top 8 here and there. And like others have said, Echo gets plenty of play right now as well.

I think you're underestimating a bit. Horton Salm is fine, Hera VCX is good, Tel in a jumpmasters is fine. Theres more than that too but I'll leave it at this for now. What it comes down to is personal choice and opinion.

I'm assuming you are speaking on the competitive scene, because I see a lot of variety in casual games. (I play both)

1. Pilot Skill. Higher PS is generally better when discussing unique pilots. Soontir wouldn't have been near as prevalent if he was PS7 or PS8 because he would lose out on a lot of his arc-dodging.

2. Abilities. Some abilities are just plain better. In the last few waves the designers have been trying to encourage the use of sub PS9 pilots by designing great abilities and sticking them on lower PS pilots for balance. Ryad, Guri, Pure Sabacc, would be terrors if they were PS8-PS9 for example.

3. The Designers are Human, and thus, not perfect. When I look at the scope of X-Wing and all of the upgrades and pilots, things are really pretty close. Good players will find the most efficient combinations given a little time, then people take the path of least resistance. All lists require some practice to win consistently but some are a little better and get results a little easier than others.

This doesn't mean that all the pilots we don't regularly see are plain bad; so much as they take more work to be effective and get set aside for the stars.

If you're looking at competitive play, you're generally not going to see second-best options taken. The game isn't so perfectly designed that there isn't generally a best choice, so the best choice is the one you see.

10 minutes ago, wurms said:

Thane and Braylen are both seeing lots of play, making top 32 in quite a few regionals. Backdraft and Quickdraw are also getting quite a bit of play. Even making top 8 here and there. And like others have said, Echo gets plenty of play right now as well.

After seeing Marcel from Gold Sqaudron make top 4 at Springfield with BOTH Backdraft and QuickDraw, I'm itching to try them out, especially now that we have lightweight frame.

I think in general there are Limited COMPETITIVE pilots in each ship or at least far more than I would like. A lot of that was an initial game design choice- Highest PS gets best ability. Some of it is limited build viability- Tie Phantom is a good example: ADV cloak only really works on high PS.

But your list is pretty light and some pilots excel in Epic.

Wow, lots of hate in here. So obviously people disagree with my assessment that there are typically only 1 viable pilot per ship. So I guess then I should ask what's wrong with Gemmer, Arvel, Tycho, Nera, Ibby, Ten, Et'ahn, etc that they see a much reduced representation at the top level competition than their counterparts? I mean, if you ask that question of Biggs, it's fairly obvious, he protects ships worth flying, and therefore makes the T65 viable. The rest of the T65 pilots are stuck in a T65 and thus are not competitive.

To whomever pointed out Tel as an example, I agree there's nothing wrong with her, but it seems that she's rarely flown over the other two choices.

While your analysis isn't perfect (as some other users have mentioned, there for sure isn't just 1 usable pilot with a number of ships you listed), there is some truth behind your assessment and reasons why it is such.

Reason 1 - Pilot skill is so valuable that the highest PS pilot is going to see more play than the rest unless their ability is far poorer than the other options (Rexlar Brath), or they are atrociously overpriced (i.e. Ten Numb, Major Rhymer).

Reason 2 - For whatever reason, FFG chooses to almost always give the best pilot abilities to the highest PS pilot. This is bad for the game as far as diversity is concerned, because instead of having to choose between having a stellar ability or stellar PS, you have both ability and PS on one pilot, meaning there really isn't any reason to take anything other than that pilot. FFG is possibly getting a bit better at this with examples such as the named Defender pilots, Kanan and Asajj being strong options despite lower pilot skill, but cutting out elite talents of the lowest PS named pilots really needs to stop unless their ability is absurd.

Reason 3- This applies only to ships with post maneuver maneuverability, but FFG continues to fail to appropriately take into account the value of boost and barrel roll diminishing with lower pilot skill. This is especially crippling to ships which depend on these to be competitive. Because many of these ships are priced linearly from top to bottom, it essentially means the lower PS pilots, especially the generics, are "dead on arrival" from a competitive standpoint.

So, for more competitive options to be available for each ship, these things need to happen and happen consistently-

1- Put the best abilities on the lower pilot skill pilots, and more situational abilities on the higher PS pilots. The Defender does this nearly perfectly, and all Defender pilots see some amount of play (although Rexlar could probably use a bit of help).

2- Give every named pilot an elite , unless a) the ship is supposed to represent a "lumbering" ship that takes exquisite skill to fly "elitely" (i.e. Uwing, Upsilon shuttle), b) no pilot flying the ship has an elite, or c) the pilot ability is so incredible it would negatively impact the game if it had an elite (Biggs might meet this criteria)

3- Don't cost arc dodgers linearly . Instead, give heavier price reductions to ships with lower PS to counter the loss of post maneuver arc dodging.

1 minute ago, Khyros said:

Wow, lots of hate in here. So obviously people disagree with my assessment that there are typically only 1 viable pilot per ship. So I guess then I should ask what's wrong with Gemmer, Arvel, Tycho, Nera, Ibby, Ten, Et'ahn, etc that they see a much reduced representation at the top level competition than their counterparts? I mean, if you ask that question of Biggs, it's fairly obvious, he protects ships worth flying, and therefore makes the T65 viable. The rest of the T65 pilots are stuck in a T65 and thus are not competitive.

To whomever pointed out Tel as an example, I agree there's nothing wrong with her, but it seems that she's rarely flown over the other two choices.

Gemmer - Low PS on a ship that relies on arc dodging

Arvel- Same issues as Gemmer also a pilot ability that suffers from being in the middle would be much better as a low ps, would also like the second ept

Nera, Ibby, Ten - expensive B-wing syndrome die to quick if you put a lot of points in them and make them a prime target.

Et'ahn - A support ship that is to expensive to field a good fleet for it to support. Can be decent in epic

Talonbane Cobra has shown up from time to time, and is basically the only Khiraxz pilot you ever see (which makes sense, since Graz the Hunter's pilot ability just makes him a StarViper).

Many of the named pilots suffer from lack of EPT access. Graz, Emon, Horton, Hera, Arvel, Laetin, Chaser and almost all Interceptor pilots fall into this category.

And some just have pilot abilities that are garbage. For example, Tetran Cowall has a bonus to K-turns on a ship that never wants to K-turn. Imperial Boba gets a bonus when executing banking maneuvers.

Soontir & Carnor

Fenn & Terry

Norra & Braylen

Vess & Ryad

Asajj & Ketsu

Kaanan & Chopper

Manny & Dengar

Chirpy & Oicunn

Rey & Han

The list goes on. Imo there are usually 2 'viable' pilots and 1 (sometimes 2) viable generics. You just have to ignore the 'meta' and try them cause alot of them are very viable tournament ships. You just have to practice with them.

I think there are many more than 1 pilot per ship; it really depends on playing style, ability of the player, and how those starfighters are flown; it just generically throw out a statement like that really is a broad assumption. Even a the highest levels of the META you see double ship builds (w/unique pilots), you see ship builds that include ships not recognized on the list you made; What make a ship/and pilot is the player's creativity, ablity to fly said ship and synergy. Not which ship has the best pilot.

If youre looking at the competitive scene, that changes all the time. Any idea how long people scoffed at Manaroo before suddenly Dengaroo became a thing? You NEVER saw Manaroo prior to that.

1 minute ago, Vineheart01 said:

If youre looking at the competitive scene, that changes all the time. Any idea how long people scoffed at Manaroo before suddenly Dengaroo became a thing? You NEVER saw Manaroo prior to that.

This is what i call the 'Palp Syndrome'. Remeber Palp was considered overpriced by many. Now he is arguably one of the most powerful cards in the game.

Manny was considered by many to be DOA. Now alot are calling for a nerf.

Just play everything and see what works for you. It doesn't have to be 'viable' for you to use it. Good flying wins any day.

17 minutes ago, Khyros said:

Wow, lots of hate in here.

Not much hate at all. Just disagreement.

11 minutes ago, Khyros said:

Wow, lots of hate in here. So obviously people disagree with my assessment that there are typically only 1 viable pilot per ship. So I guess then I should ask what's wrong with Gemmer, Arvel, Tycho, Nera, Ibby, Ten, Et'ahn, etc that they see a much reduced representation at the top level competition than their counterparts? I mean, if you ask that question of Biggs, it's fairly obvious, he protects ships worth flying, and therefore makes the T65 viable. The rest of the T65 pilots are stuck in a T65 and thus are not competitive.

To whomever pointed out Tel as an example, I agree there's nothing wrong with her, but it seems that she's rarely flown over the other two choices.

No hate here Khyros, just a difference of opinion. It's an interesting topic, but one that there's probably not going to be a strong consensus on. At the highest tournament levels you're probably close in your opinion, but I've seen local stores vary widely in named pilots people fly, even in store tournaments. I guess I would say all ships have at least one decent named pilot and a decent amount have 2 or more.