I ran into an interesting situation flying Dengar recently that none of us could quickly figure out an answer for...

Dengar had one health left and was shot at by an Ini 4 pilot. The pilot was in Dengar's front arc (and the turret arc was also in the front arc, so the return fire ability could trigger), and Dengar hadn't used the ability yet that engagement round. The Ini 4 pilot got the last hit needed to destroy Dengar through, and Dengar was destroyed. The question that we couldn't figure out was whether Dengar's return fire ability was usable outside of his initiative 6 engagement slot before he was destroyed , since simultaneous engagement had already been passed. I can't seem to find a lot of information on 2.0 Dengar interactions on these forums, although there's a substantial bit on 1.0 Dengar, so I was wondering if I could get some input from y'all.

Dengar's attack falls in the Aftermath step, before the triggering attack is completely resolved, which is well before destroyed ships are removed, at the end of the initiative step of the destroying ship.

Whether Dengar has used his normal engagement shot yet, is irrelevant.

Dengar's bonus attack can happen at any initiative step depending the initiative of the ship attacking him.

Even if he is destroyed, his ability triggers in step 6 "Aftermath" c "after defending" and is resolved before he is removed from the game.

Thanks, @Ximatique and @thespaceinvader . I thought the same, and would have played it through, but we weren't sure whether it was valid.

3 hours ago, Ximatique said:

Even if he is destroyed, his ability triggers in step 6 "Aftermath" c "after defending" and is resolved before he is removed from the game.

Even more generally, all effects that trigger during or after an attack get a chance to resolve before any ships are removed from the board.