I mean aside from augmenting rolls. The book only seems to give examples from a players perspective. Looking for some advice here.

Whenever you want. If you feel like you have too many, you can spend some to do things you would have done anyway, like call in reinforcements, or have the bounty hunters show up just as the players are on their way off world. The book even says you can upgrade dice pools (out of combat, though) without a Destiny point if you feel you need to, so GM point use really doesn't have any binding rules going with it.

Make it seem like it's the dark side arranging these things against them, but you're really flipping them just so they can get flipped back.

To prevent the Darkside points from piling up on your side. Instead of making bad things happen. Pretend like you spend points to make bad things happen. That way there's a constant back and forth.

Honestly with everything else I am tracking, I usually forget to use mine. The only time I remember to use them is if they are rolling really good and taking out a nemesis before he can even get a shot off, and that is just to let him make it out of thes first round alive.

In the end of the beginner box my, 2 pc's had a fire fight with Trex inside the Kryat Fang. I had him behind cover(the holotable booth) waiting for the PC's to come at him, and he still barely survived one round. I tried everything I could to get him to escape, but they crippled him with a critical and he is now a resident of one of the holding cages in Number Three Hold. They wanted to capture him and sell him off. I have no idea who would be interested in him tbh. Nyn makes the most sense, but they don't have a lot in terms of resources.

Use them mostly in combat, it will help balance out the combat with PCs then stop using them if you gain the upper hand or you want to wrap up the combat quickly.

I also tend to use them if I have an awesome idea for despair.

I need to utilize the Destiny point economy more; we do use them outside combat but I need to get over the "I'm screwing you over, have a Dark Side point" mentality.

I need to utilize the Destiny point economy more; we do use them outside combat but I need to get over the "I'm screwing you over, have a Dark Side point" mentality.

Think of it as "I want thus to be more dramatic" I don't want my players to fail the check, I want them to roll despair so I can make it more dramatic.

That tends to be my issue. I usually try to 'give' them destiny points back during combats as I know they can take it rather than screwing up that important roll.

I do like the idea of reinforcements or other things. Maybe one of the bad guys has a couple of grenades to toss out.

I need to utilize the Destiny point economy more; we do use them outside combat but I need to get over the "I'm screwing you over, have a Dark Side point" mentality.

Think of it as "I want thus to be more dramatic" I don't want my players to fail the check, I want them to roll despair so I can make it more dramatic.

I would, if we didn't have a habit of rolling the really good stuff and really bad stuff nearly every time we do.

I switched DPs from being a roll-based resource to a scene-based one.

Whatever DP there are on the table is the maximum amount of DP that can be spent that in that scene. When someone spends a DP, it flips but does not become available for use again until the scene is over.

The result: fewer DP get spent, but when they do, they have more damatic impact at the table, and their use is not immediately countered by the other side. The GM can "spend" DP for narrative setbacks (e.g.: the villian gets away) and have it be more meaningful (also, less of an impression that the GM is going to hose the party all the time). The GM doesn't need to worry so much about spending DP: he can "beef up" an otherwise easy fight (to give it a more dramatic punch) by upgrading an opening shot or two, and his DP-spending work is done.

My favorite Dark Side point expenditure was definitely when the GM caused the droid we were fighting to trigger its self destruct upon deactivation.

If you want to introduce the possibility of Despair, that's a good way of using it. The "deus ex machina" or "dumb luck" or whatever it's called doesn't really apply for GMs unless you get creative, like, "omg, that guy wasn't really dead!!"

That's the only way I've used it so far, to introduce a possibility of Despair. But I do like the idea of reviving a downed enemy with just enough wounds to stagger away and alert the base...