“Princess Leia is wondering about Master Luke. He hasn’t come back yet. She doesn’t know where he is.”
–C-3PO, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

As the Imperial Navy draws closer to the ice planet, Hoth, one of the light side’s greatest heroes has gone missing…

The Search for Skywalker , the second Force Pack in The Hoth Cycle for Star Wars ™: The Card Game is now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore !

Inspired by the early scenes from The Empire Strikes Back , The Search for Skywalker carries players deeper into one of the greatest battles in the galaxy. Its sixty cards contain five new objective sets, three of which are built around the new Hoth trait. Like Sensors Are Placed ( The Search for Skywalker , 203), these Hoth -traited objectives can provide players with powerful benefits, and as players battle for control of the game’s Hoth objectives, the cards from this new Force Pack further immerse players in the conflict developing on and around the frozen planet of Hoth.

As light and dark side forces prepare for all-out war, The Search for Skywalker expands the universe of Star Wars : The Card Game with new characters, vehicles, Star Destroyers, and Rebel defenses. Meanwhile, agents of the dark side’s Scum and Villainy affiliation mass on Tatooine at Jabba’s palace, and an elite squadron of soldiers assembled by Han Solo conducts a series of vital covert operations.

Renegade Squadron Mobilization

Organized by Han Solo and Col Serra, Renegade Squadron was made up of smugglers and outlaws hired by the Rebel Alliance to help fight the Empire. In The Search for Skywalker , these elite and cunning warriors come to life in a new set built around the objective, Renegade Squadron Mobilization ( The Search for Skywalker , 208).

• Accelerated card draw is a vital component of success in nearly every card game. In Star Wars : The Card Game, draw is particularly valuable as the game’s edge battles place constant demand upon your hand. Accordingly, the card draw that Renegade Squadron Mobilization delivers whenever your opponent’s unit leaves play allows you some convenient relief from this constant pressure. The most common way to remove an opponent’s unit from play is to destroy it during an engagement with damage, but there are other means available, including the Smugglers and Spies event, Swindled ( Core Set , 130). Then, once you discover the ability to refill your hand in the middle of your combat phase, Renegade Squadron Mobilization frees you to attack your opponent’s objectives a bit more aggressively. Meanwhile, the objective’s draw may also discourage your opponent from starting early engagements with sacrificial units since the tactic won’t necessarily turn the balance of cards in hand to their favor.
• Renegade Squadron ( The Search for Skywalker , 209) appears, itself, as an Elite, unique unit with the ability to rescue captives when it strikes. As a Vehicle with five damage capacity and three standard combat icons ( , , and ), as well as an edge-dependent icon, Renegade Squadron possesses some real staying power and offers true versatility in combat. Of course, as the objective set’s featured card, Renegade Squadron quickly becomes better as it gains synergies with the set’s other cards.
• For the cost of two resources, the Renegade Squadron Operative ( The Search for Skywalker , 210) can serve as a solid, defensive unit, standing between your objectives and your opponent with its two icons and two damage capacity. At first glance, the Renegade Squadron Operative may not appear to add much versatility to your Renegade Squadron, but both units share the Renegade Squadron trait, which offers synergies driven by the objective set’s fifth card.
• However, before we get to the set’s fifth card, we have its fourth card, the Munitions Expert ( The Search for Skywalker , 211). This Character offers an inexpensive option for an edge-dependent icon. However, as players have come to realize the tremendous value of fate cards like Heat of Battle ( Core Set , 169) and the vulnerability of units that enter engagements with just one damage capacity, the Munitions Expert catches the eye with its Action , “Focus this unit to have a target unit gain until the end of the phase.” This ability allows the Munitions Expert to contribute to an engagement even as it remains safely outside of striking distance. Even better, it allows your Munitions Expert to contribute even if you don’t win the edge battle, and because there’s an action window before every strike in an engagement, you can save the Munitions Expert’s ability until you know which unit it needs to target. When you consider this, it’s easy to imagine a scenario in which the Munitions Expert allows your Renegade Squadron to destroy a dark side unit with two damage capacity, and it’s equally possible to imagine a scenario in which the Munitions Expert’s contribution of one could permit your Renegade Squadron Operative to strike against Emperor Palpatine ( Core Set , 51) and defeat him.
• Much as the Munitions Expert allows you to share its icon, Echo Caverns ( The Search for Skywalker , 212) allows you to swap combat icons between units that share a Trait . This ability to mobilize your combat icons to the units that need them the most, when they most need them, lies at the heart of the objective set. You can move icons to units when they strike, thus mustering enough icons to destroy enemy units, forcing them to leave play and affording you card draw from your Renegade Squadron Mobilization. You can pull your icon off Renegade Squadron and give it to your Renegade Squadron Operative so that he can exhaust an enemy unit in addition to the one he destroys with his icons. Of course, since the Echo Caverns permit you to choose any two units that share a trait, you can use them to enable skill swaps between your Force Users or your Vehicles , or you can target whichever two units and combat icons whose sudden swap provide the maximum efficiency and surprise.
• With such a tight focus upon creating synergies between these cards’ abilities to generate an element of surprise, it’s fitting that the set’s final card is the fate card, Target of Opportunity ( The Search for Skywalker , 133). By now, Star Wars : The Card Game players have all grown familiar with fate cards, but players’ familiarity with the cards hasn’t mitigated their punch in the slightest. It’s one thing to be familiar with the card type, but it’s another thing entirely to know how to use them and to play around them during the game’s edge battles.

Mobilize Your Defenses

Draw upon the talents of the Renegade Squadron’s elite soldiers to launch daring raids upon your opponent’s objectives! The Renegade Squadron Mobilization objective set is just one of the ten new objective sets (two copies each of five different objective sets) in The Search for Skywalker .

You can find The Search for Skywalker at your local retailer, or you can order it online through our webstore . Pick up your copy today!