Hi to all and sorry if this has been asked before. So, when you have the R3 Astromech on a ship, when you perform a Target Lock action you may acquire 2 locks on different ships at the same time? Is it like the old Weapons Engineer?

3 hours ago, Metallian said:

Hi to all and sorry if this has been asked before. So, when you have the R3 Astromech on a ship, when you perform a Target Lock action you may acquire 2 locks on different ships at the same time? Is it like the old Weapons Engineer?

Pretty much, yes.

Pretty much. It doesn't have to be ships. You can acquire locks on obstacles.

Mostly yes. The effect is that you get two locks after you take a Lock action.

Under the hood: You only acquire one Lock when you perform the Lock action. However, R3 Astromech has an ability that, after you perform a Lock action,* you can acquire an additional target lock (not as an action, or part of the original action, but as an extra effect).

This is a little different from the old 1e Weapons Engineer, which would give you two locks any time you acquired a lock whether or not it came from an action (say, from 1e Fire Control System). R3 only gives you two locks after you perform a Lock ACTION . For example, if Wedge has R3 Astromech, and Dutch Vander uses his ability to allow Wedge to acquire a lock, R3 does not trigger. Wedge would have to take an action if he wanted more than one lock.

*R3 Astromech also require the lock action to not fail. That's not on the card itself, but in the rules on failing actions, which state that failed actions cannot be used for triggers. This is kind of irrelevant, since Lock actions cannot fail under realistic game conditions, because you could lock a friendly ship or any other object.

Thank you for your answers! So, on the issue of locking an obstacle, is it mostly about determining whether the Lock action fails or not? I mean, I cannot lock an enemy ship, because it is off range 3, but I can lock an obstacle in range, so the action doesn't fail? Why else would I want to lock an obstacle since I can't attack it, apart from Qi'ra's ability for example?

12 minutes ago, Metallian said:

Thank you for your answers! So, on the issue of locking an obstacle, is it mostly about determining whether the Lock action fails or not? I mean, I cannot lock an enemy ship, because it is off range 3, but I can lock an obstacle in range, so the action doesn't fail? Why else would I want to lock an obstacle since I can't attack it, apart from Qi'ra's ability for example?

There are edge cases when this is useful: If your opponent has the ability to assign Jam tokens to you, having an existing lock can make it harder for Jam tokens to stick to you before your activation. It's not a terrible decision to, if facing Jammers, take a lock on the first asteroid you can, during the first round, when combat is exceptionally rare.

Nice tip, I hadn't thought of this, thanks!

Let's say that I have Vander in a Y-Wing with R3 Astromech. He performs the Lock action and acquires two locks on two different ships. I choose one friendly ship in range equipped with R3 Astromech as well and use Vander's ability. Can this friendly ship acquire two locks on the two ships Vander has locked or only one?

Just one. It didn't perform a Lock action, so R3 doesn't trigger for it. However, if it already has one, it can acquire a second without losing the first.

Dutch Vander--like R3 Astromech--is a trigger from having performed a Lock action, rather than having acquired a lock, so it will only trigger once. One won't really interact with the other.