With chewbacca can you use it when you had taken hits and you were almost dead or is it a one chance thing

I'm in the

middle of a game so I need to know asap

You decide whether or not to use Chewbacca each time you're dealt a damage card. Whether you do that on the very first or save him until you're closer to dead is up to you, but generally there's little reason not to use him straight away.

Sweat thank you so much

With Chewie crew you get to wait to see the incoming damage card. This means you can let face-down cards pass by before jumping out and taking out a face-up card you'd rather not deal with.

I'd say there are three times you want to pop Chewie:

1. You are about to take a Face-up damage card you'd rather not deal with.
2. The damage card that is about to destroy you or maybe the one before.
3. When the damage you'll take will reduce you to 50% of your starting 'hit point' thus allowing you to avoid/delay giving up half points for a large ship during competition. Chewbacca sitting on a ship under 50% hitpoint unfortunately does nothing even if he could have been used to keep a ship above the 50% mark (between preventing a damage card and giving back a shield) and thus not award half points.

12 hours ago, StevenO said:

1. When the damage you'll take will reduce you to 50% of your starting 'hit point' thus allowing you to avoid/delay giving up half points for a large ship during competition. Chewbacca sitting on a ship under 50% hitpoint unfortunately does nothing even if he could have been used to keep a ship above the 50% mark (between preventing a damage card and giving back a shield) and thus not award half points.

Technically, it can, if you time it JUST right. If there's only one damage coming in, and you're sitting at no shields, 6 hull (just below the halfway mark), you can pop Chewie on that one damage to switch to 1 shield, 6 hull... which is just above half. In all honesty, though, you should probably save it for a more critical damage result, unless you're on the verge of finishing the game next round (your final shot, or time expired).

9 minutes ago, emeraldbeacon said:

Technically, it can, if you time it JUST right. If there's only one damage coming in, and you're sitting at no shields, 6 hull (just below the halfway mark), you can pop Chewie on that one damage to switch to 1 shield, 6 hull... which is just above half. In all honesty, though, you should probably save it for a more critical damage result, unless you're on the verge of finishing the game next round (your final shot, or time expired).

The window that could take a ship from half points to not using Chewbacca is pretty small.

Just now, StevenO said:

The window that could take a ship from half points to not using Chewbacca is pretty small.

100% agreed.

14 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

Technically, it can, if you time it JUST right. If there's only one damage coming in, and you're sitting at no shields, 6 hull (just below the halfway mark), you can pop Chewie on that one damage to switch to 1 shield, 6 hull... which is just above half. In all honesty, though, you should probably save it for a more critical damage result, unless you're on the verge of finishing the game next round (your final shot, or time expired).

If you'd have used Chewie on the first damage card delt, however, that's the same number of damage prevented over the course of the game, and you'd never have dropped below 50% in the first place.

The optimal usage seems to [1] a crit which is bad [2] the first of two uncancelled crits, even if the first one is not that bad--the added shield will block the second crit.

1 hour ago, theBitterFig said:

If you'd have used Chewie on the first damage card delt, however, that's the same number of damage prevented over the course of the game, and you'd never have dropped below 50% in the first place.

The optimal usage seems to [1] a crit which is bad [2] the first of two uncancelled crits, even if the first one is not that bad--the added shield will block the second crit.

Using Chewie on the first damage card would effectively save two damage which is as much as it could save at any time. It's just that it is far from optimal unless you know those that two damage will not come back to give up points. If you're going to lose the points anyway it's better to use it as described or to stop the death blows.

11 hours ago, StevenO said:

Using Chewie on the first damage card would effectively save two damage which is as much as it could save at any time. It's just that it is far from optimal unless you know those that two damage will not come back to give up points. If you're going to lose the points anyway it's better to use it as described or to stop the death blows.

It's no different than using chewie to give you back the 50% right on the edge of the trigger health, unless you know you weren't going to get attacked for the rest of the match.

Discarding crits seems to be the optimal choice, especial now we have several effects triggering off it

15 hours ago, Ralgon said:

It's no different than using chewie to give you back the 50% right on the edge of the trigger health, unless you know you weren't going to get attacked for the rest of the match.

Discarding crits seems to be the optimal choice, especial now we have several effects triggering off it

It may not be possible but I'm thinking of a case where a ship could have damage cards yet not be below 50% hp. You're saving Chewie in case you get that inbound face-up but there's potential for it to put you back over the 50% mark if you don't see the crit.

In the grand plan that is probably one of the less optimal uses but using it on some face-down damage card before you're dead but while you'll still be below 50% hp is less optimal.