This article is written and published on behalf of Andraskisjl Thanks for his awesome work !

Ships are a bit of a difficult area of the game to get into, similarly to modding, it requires a little know-how to achieve the best results. This guide is a one stop shop for everything you need to know about Fleet Arena in its current state, and how to achieve the best results.

Index

/1. Why Fleet Arena over Squad Arena

Well, not everyone is able to achieve good results in Squad Arena. Squad Arena is usually highly competitive, and depending on the meta, can be much harder to get into. Squad Arena has the potential to reward you with more crystals, but will most likely be very hard for you to achieve highly in if you haven’t farmed the right toons and gotten lucky with strong mods.

Fleet Arena is the under appreciated little brother of Squad Arena, often looked down on for being unfun (not untrue) and not synergising well with other areas of the game. Make no mistake, if you farm fleet toons and ships, you will likely miss out on strong toons that are necessary for special events or raids, unless you’re a well established player or a big spender.

However, Fleet is less likely to change. It has a stale meta that changes much slower than Squad Arena, meaning your strong team you farmed up will likely stay strong for a long time. It also gets you both Fleet currency (useful for Zeta mats and a wide variety of toons and ships) and those precious crystals for your daily energy refreshes. Lastly, Fleet Arena does not require you to farm mods. You simply need a full set of upgraded 5-dot mods to achieve the best results, no need to farm for speed secondaries.

/2. Toons and Ships and where to farm them

Ship Crew Ship Shard Location/s Toon/s Shard Location/s Overall Farm Difficulty
Ahsoka Tano’s Jedi Starfighter Ahsoka Tano Galactic War Store, Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store 4-C (Hard, DS), 5-D (Hard, LS), Fleet Arena Store & Cantina Battles Store Easy
Biggs Darklighter’s X-Wing Biggs Darklighter Galactic War Store & Fleet Arena Store 3-G (Cantina), 4-A (Hard, DS), Fleet Arena Store & Galactic War Store Easy
Bistan’s U-Wing Bistan & Scarif Rebel Pathfinder Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store Bistan: Cantina Battles Store, Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store. Scarif Rebel Pathfinder: 1-D (Cantina), Guild Events Store & Fleet Arena Store Average
Cassian’s U-Wing Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso & K-2SO Cantina Battles Store and Guild Events Store Cassian: Squad Arena Store. Jyn: Guild Store. K-2SO: Galactic War Store & Guild Events Store Easy (Jyn is difficult)
Chimaera Grand Admiral Thrawn Legendary Event Legendary Event Difficult
Clone Sergeant’s ARC-170 Clone Sergeant - Phase 1 Galactic War Store, Fleet Arena Store, Guild Events Store 1-B (Hard, DS), 3-E (Hard, DS), 5-E (Hard, LS), Guild Store, Fleet Arena Store, Guild Event Store Average
Endurance Mace Windu Ship Challenges and a monthly event 2-E (Hard, LS), 4-A (Cantina), Squad Arena Store & Fleet Arena Store Easy
Executrix Grand Moff Tarkin Ship Challenges and a monthly event Squad Arena Store, Fleet Arena Store & Guild Event Store Easy
First Order SF Tie Fighter First Order SF Tie Pilot Guild Store Guild Store Difficult
First Order Tie Fighter First Order Tie Pilot Galactic War Store, Guild Events Store & Fleet Arena Store 6-B (Hard, DS), 6-D (Hard, DS) & Fleet Arena Store Easy
Gauntlet Starfighter Gar Saxon & Imperial Super Commando Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store Gar Saxon: 8-E (Cantina). Imperial Super Commando: 8-D (Cantina) Difficult
Geonosian Soldier’s Starfighter Geonosian Soldier 9-D (Hard, LS), Galactic War Store, Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store 1-A (Cantina) & Fleet Arena Store Easy
Geonosian Spy’s Starfighter Geonosian Spy Galactic War Store, Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store 4-D (Cantina) & Fleet Arena Store Easy
Ghost Hera Syndulla, Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios & Kanan Jarrus 9-C (Hard, DS), Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store Hera: 1-F (Cantina) & Guild Events Store. Zeb: Galactic War Store & Guild Events Store. Kanan: Squad Arena Store & Guild Events Store Average
Home One Admiral Ackbar Ship Challenges and a monthly event Squad Arena Store, Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store Easy
Imperial Tie Fighter Tie Fighter Pilot Galactic War Store, Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store 4-B (Cantina), Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store Easy
Jedi Consular’s Starfighter Jedi Consular 8-D (Hard, DS), Galactic War Store, Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store 3-A (Cantina), 6-E (Cantina), 1-B (Hard, LS), 1-D (Hard, DS), 3-C (Hard, DS) & Fleet Arena Store Easy
Kylo Ren’s Command Shuttle Kylo Ren, Captain Phasma & First Order Stormtrooper 9-A (Hard, LS) Kylo Ren: 4-C (Cantina), 6-C (Cantina) & Guild Store. Captain Phasma: Galactic War Store. First Order Stormtrooper: 2-A (Hard, DS), 2-B (Hard, LS) & 9-A (Hard, LS) Difficult
Millenium Falcon (ep. VII) Finn & Rey (Scavenger) 5-D (Hard, DS) Finn: 3-E (Cantina), 5-C (Cantina), 7-A (Hard, LS) & Guild Store. Rey: 2-A (Hard, LS), 5-D (Hard, DS), 7-B (Hard, LS) & Guild Store Difficult
Phantom II Sabine Wren, Chopper & Ezra Bridger 9-D (Hard, DS), Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store Sabine: 1-A (Hard, DS) & Guild Events Store. Chopper: Cantina Battles Store & Guild Events Store. Ezra: 2-B (Cantina), Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store Difficult
Plo Koon’s Jedi Starfighter Plo Koon 7-F (Cantina), Galactic War Store, Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store 4-G (Cantina), 7-C (Hard, DS) & Fleet Arena Store Easy
Poe Dameron’s X-Wing Poe Dameron Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store 7-A (Hard, DS), 7-B (Hard, LS), Cantina Battles Store & Fleet Arena Store Average
Resistance X-Wing Resistance Pilot Galactic War Store, Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store Galactic War Store & Fleet Arena Store Easy
Rex’s ARC-170 CT-7567 “Rex” Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store Guild Store & Fleet Arena Store Average
Scimitar Darth Maul Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store Guild Store & Fleet Arena Store Average
Slave 1 Boba Fett Fleet Arena Store 2-B (Hard, DS), 4-E (Hard, DS), 8-A (Hard, LS), Cantina Battles Store & Fleet Arena Store Difficult
Sun Fac’s Geonosian Starfighter Sun Fac Galactic War Store, Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store Guild Store & Fleet Arena Store Average
Tie Advanced x1 Darth Vader Fleet Arena Store Fleet Arena Store and Achievements Difficult
Tie Reaper Shoretrooper & Death Trooper 9-B (Hard, LS) Shoretrooper: 9-B (Hard, LS). Death Trooper: 8-A (Cantina) Difficult
Tie Silencer Kylo Ren (Unmasked) 3-F (Cantina) 3-F (Cantina) Easy
Umbaran Starfighter CT-5555 “Fives” Galactic War Store, Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store 2-D (Hard, DS), 4-F (Hard, LS), Cantina Battles Store & Fleet Arena Store Easy
Wedge Antilles’s X-Wing Wedge Antilles Galactic War Store, Fleet Arena Store & Guild Events Store 6-F (Cantina) & Fleet Arena Store Easy

/3. Meta ships and reasoning behind each ship’s inclusion or exclusion

Top Meta Ships

Biggs Darklighter’s X-Wing

Biggs is one of the two best choices for a tank in current meta teams due to his auto taunt and protection recovery whenever an ally inflicts target lock. Most teams will run Biggs as their taunter

Bistan’s U-Wing

Bistan’s U-Wing is an interesting tech choice that can be interchanged with the Tie Advanced x1. Both have irresistible target lock and basics that can’t be evaded. The chief difference is Bistan gives allies tm, while Tie Advanced has other advantages

Chimaera

The Chimaera is the most powerful capital ship in the game at the moment. This is mainly due to its basic, AoE and Unique. It has the ability to call an ally to assist on its basic, which is invaluable, it’s AoE does a lot of damage, and it’s Unique gives extra critical chance and damage, as well as stacking tenacity bonuses when enemies are defeated, making it harder for enemies to inflict target lock

Executrix

Tarkin’s Ship is a close second for strongest capital ship in the game at the moment. Its basic can’t match Chimaera, and its AoE is weaker, but it has the best ultimate ability in the game and its special gives allies tm and offense up and Empire allies Potency up. This is an insanely good ability that allows you to finish up most matches. If you’re able to survive Chimaera’s initial onslaught, Executrix is the best finisher in the game currently

First Order Tie Fighter

First Order Tie Fighter is a monster. An absolute monster. It gains tm every time you attack a target locked enemy, which results in it being the fastest ship in the match. It can attack twice on its basic, and both attacks have a chance to inflict target lock, as well as dealing a lot of damage. And lastly its special hits like a truck and gives you a better option vs enemies that have retribution

Imperial Tie Fighter

The classic Tie Fighter is one of the best ships in the game at the moment, for one main reason: capital ship turn meter manipulation. Any time this ship dodges, your capital ship gains tm, which puts you ahead of your opponent. The reason this is good is because it forces your opponent to work around the Tie Fighter, often making players think twice about using an AoE, and if the AI uses an AoE, there’s a good chance your Tie Fighter will dodge and give you tm. It also inflicts target lock with its basic, which is nice

Poe Dameron’s X-Wing

Poe’s X-Wing is good for one main reason: its unavoidable special. It deals a ton of damage and is great for dealing with the last bit of health on a Tie Fighter when you don’t want to give the enemy capital ship tm. Its very rarely run on the front line, usually just as a 2nd, 3rd or 4th reinforcement, to be called when needed

Scimitar

Scimitar is one of the most painful ships to deal with in the whole game. Its special makes it the single best 1st reinforcement, forcing you to focus on one enemy ship and get hit with constant counterattack’s from it. This is especially nasty when used on Tie Advanced x1, Wedge’s X-Wing or Tie Fighter

Sun Fac’s Geonosian Starfighter

Sun Fac’s Starfighter is a potential replacement for Bigg’s X-Wing as the designated taunter, or a good reinforcement to call if you want to keep protecting your Tie Reaper or Tie Advanced x1. It also works really well under a Chimaera lead, because its basic inflicts target lock when called to assist. Its taunt is a little more conditional than Biggs’ however, so it doesn’t see as much play as he does

Tie Advanced x1

One of the main damage dealers and utility ships in the meta, Tie Advanced is on almost every single team for its extremely good kit. It inflicts irresistible target lock on its basic that can’t be evaded, giving a tool to deal with Tie Fighters. It can dispel target locked enemies and it dishes out turn meter to empire allies when they attack target locked enemies

Tie Reaper

Tie Reaper is the backbone of the current meta and the most important ship on the board in every match. It removes turn meter from the enemy capital ship whenever a ship is destroyed (allied or enemy), and this puts it squarely at the top of your ‘must have’ list. Trying to beat Tie Reaper teams without a Tie Reaper of your own is very very hard. It also has a decent kit, with buff removal and protection regen for target allies

Umbaran Starfighter

Fives’ Ship is a solid reinforcement. Some people have it on their opening line, but this usually crippled the team a bit by removing what the usual meta ships bring to the table. Fives is definitely a utility ship, since its basic removes buffs from target locked enemies, it’s very good at getting around taunt and retribution. It also can inflict irresistible target lock with its special, which also hits all enemies with target lock, giving you reach beyond stealth and taunt of you just need a little more damage to finish off a persistent enemy ship

Useful Ships

Ahsoka Tano’s Jedi Starfighter

Ahsoka’s ship isn’t very powerful, but it is very easy to farm, and it has the ability to remove buffs, which comes in handy. This ship sees play in early shards, or as a 3rd-4th reinforcement to be called in to remove taunt or retribution

Cassian’s U-Wing

Cassian’s U-Wing has a lot of utility, being able to stealth allies, inflict target lock and call assists. Also has some interesting target lock synergy. Unfortunately the ship doesn’t have quite the right abilities to make it powerful, and is also difficult to farm to max out due to Jyn being only in the Guild Store. It can however, participate in the Chimaera event, and makes a decent reinforcement for its stealth granting and assist calling capabilities. It is also an easier to farm option than Bistan’s U-Wing for the Chimaera event

Endurance

Mace Windu’s Capital Ship is quite powerful in its own right, giving allies taunt, crit immunity and damage immunity, while also giving itself a lot of turn meter with Valor, and being able to inflict target lock and use an AoE that hits target locked enemies behind taunt and stealth. However, Tarkin’s ultimate, combined with his Empire Synergy and speed advantage put him ahead of Mace, and Thrawn’s powerful basic and unique, combined with Tie Reaper’s tm removal on both sides make it a better choice too. You can still win with Endurance, but you have the disadvantage against meta teams and fall on Defense

First Order SF Tie Fighter

This Ship is pretty decent, but doesn’t really have a place in meta teams at the moment. Swapping a meta ship out for this you will be losing something and not gaining enough to make it worthwhile. This ship is also a difficult farm, meaning it doesn’t make it into meta teams very much

Gauntlet Starfighter

Another difficult farm that doesn’t quite bring enough to the table to make it worthwhile to replace a ship from a meta team. It is a strong ship however, with the ability to cleanse all allies, inflict buff immunity and a unique that benefits Empire teams greatly. If the meta were to shift away from teams that focus on removing tm from the enemy capital ship, Gauntlet Starfighter could potentially find a place in the meta

Geonosian Soldier’s Starfighter

This Ship is quite weak, and only makes it onto some early teams because it is easy to farm, its Crew is easy to gear up, it has the ability to call an assist, and it can occasionally assist other allies on their turns

Ghost

The Phoenix Ships are a pretty solid tag team duo that work best when paired together. Ghost has a solid AoE, can call multiple allies to assist, weakens enemy ability to inflict target lock and if Phantom II is active, cannot be target locked. It is necessary for the Chimaera event, however it doesn’t make it onto meta teams, and can be a bit of a grind to farm up

Home One

Ackbar’s capital ship suffers from much the same problems as the Endurance. Not quite good enough to replace Thrawn or Tarkin, but still good enough to be used on offense. Home One provides healing and buff synergy, allowing buff-heavy teams to survive longer and deal a lot of damage

Jedi Consular’s Starfighter

Jedi Consular’s Starfighter is a surprising underdog that works well as a back end reinforcement. It has the ability to call a targeted assist which also heals the target ally’s protection, as well as being able to restore protection with its second special. It’s a very simple, basic kit, but still strong enough to be a part of the meta. The fact that it’s one of the easiest ships to farm helps too

Phantom II

Phantom II goes best with Ghost, and basically does a lot of what Chopper does in Squads. It taunts while being evasive, it gives Ghost stealth. It can also inflict target lock. Phantom II is very annoying to face, but not particularly powerful. It’s most useful for the Chimaera event, which both it and Ghost are necessary for

Plo Koon’s Jedi Starfighter

Plo Koon’s Ship is similar to Ahsoka’s ship in that it’s mostly not very good, but it fulfils one purpose and is an easy farm. It can give an ally taunt, which can be annoying when placed on Imperial Tie Fighter or a durable ship like Umbaran Starfighter. This ship can serve as a temporary stand-in for Scimitar in early teams

Slave 1

A lot of people will probably protest upon seeing Slave 1 placed here instead of on meta teams. The unfortunate fact is that Boba’s kit, while undoubtedly strong, doesn’t fulfil the right criteria to be part of the meta team right now. It can still serve as a reinforcement, and it does solid damage, however its primary use is its AoE ability block that targets target locked ships. And while Umbaran Starfighter can’t inflict ability block, it can hit targets behind stealth or taunt to finish off a nearly dead Tie Reaper or Tie Advanced, which is the main purpose of Boba’s target lock AoE, and Umbaran Starfighter’s dispel puts it above Slave 1 in terms of utility. Slave 1 sees a lot of play though, especially on new shards, because it’s a strong early game ship, but it’s best to not devote too much time and resources to gearing up Boba for Fleet, since he will be replaced eventually

Tie Silencer

Tie Silencer is a really strong ship with a great kit. But it’s in much the same boat as the Slave 1. It doesn’t do anything strong enough to warrant it replacing another meta ship. Stunning, which is about half of Silencer’s usefulness, isn’t as good as target lock, unavoidable attacks, the immense tm gain of First Order Tie Fighter or Tie Reaper’s capital ship tm removal and buff removal. And while it can definitely deal a huge amount of damage, it needs a lot of build up before it can do so, and rarely does better than the ships it might replace. Like the Gauntlet Starfighter, if the meta shifts away from capital ship tm manipulation, Tie Silencer may find a place, especially since it’s such a huge damage dealer, but for now it’s more likely to make you a target on defense

Wedge Antilles’ X-Wing

Wedge’s X-Wing is a great ship with a simple, yet powerful kit. It doesn’t hold up as the shard gets older, but it’s great for beginners and is an easy farm for the Chimaera event. It deals a ton of damage and can become a huge threat when given retribution and pseudo taunt by Scimitar. Well worth investing in early on, but will be replaced by better ships later

Rarely Included Ships

Clone Sergeant’s ARC-170

Clone Sergeant’s Ship is unfortunately one of the few ships with a very poor kit. Its best attributes are it’s protection restoration, durability and low chance to inflict target lock. Overall it’s very bland, and Clone Sergeant isn’t a toon many people invest in, since it doesn’t have much use outside a clones team, which unfortunately (I love clones, they need a rework) doesn’t do much in the game at the moment

Geonosian Spy’s Starfighter

Geonosian Spy’s Starfighter is, in my opinion, the most useless ship in the game at the moment. The only way it will ever see play is if we see a stealth meta for Fleet Arena, since it can call all stealthed allies to assist with its special. Otherwise its kit is bland and pretty useless. The crew member is a toon you’re not going to invest in unless you’ve starred, levelled and geared up about 95% of all other toons either, since it too, is incredibly useless

Kylo Ren’s Command Shuttle

Kylo’s Command Shuttle has the potential to be strong, but unfortunately it doesn’t have much active effect on the enemy team. It’s kit is based on synergy with allies. And because it’s such a long and excruciating farm (like the Millenium Falcon), very few people have it. It can potentially be a decent reinforcement, but you’re crippling yourself if you replace a frontline ship from a meta team with the Command Shuttle at the moment

Millenium Falcon (Ep. VII)

The Millenium Falcon suffers the same problem as most other strong ships that aren’t on meta teams. It has a great kit that can deal a lot of damage, but it doesn’t do enough to replace anything from a meta team. At best currently it might see play as a reinforcement. The fact that it is an extremely hard farm doesn’t help either

Resistance X-Wing

Resistance X-Wing has a bland kit. The only thing it offers is target lock on special. Most other ships have more utility

Rex’s ARC-170

Rex’s Ship is another ship with a decent kit that doesn’t do well in the current meta. Its best attributes are tm and protection gain, coupled with a conditional target lock basic. But, as I’m sure you’re sick of me saying, it can’t replace any meta ships right now. It does however provide an interesting interaction with Ghost, since Ghost reduces enemy Potency and Rex increases ally tenacity, potentially making it very hard for enemies to inflict target lock. I don’t think that’s enough to shift the meta however

/4. In-depth breakdown of each meta ship and the role they play in your team

Typical meta team makeup:

Capital Ship:

  • Chimaera/Executrix

Opening Lineup:

  • Biggs Darklighter’s X-Wing/Sun Fac’s Geonosian Starfighter
  • Imperial Tie Fighter
  • First Order Tie Fighter
  • Tie Advanced x1/Bistan’s U-Wing
  • Tie Reaper

1st Reinforcement:

  • Scimitar/Sun Fac’s Geonosian Starfighter

Other Reinforcement Options:

  • Umbaran Starfighter/Ahsoka Tano’s Jedi Starfighter
  • Poe Dameron’s X-Wing
  • Jedi Consular’s Starfighter/Cassian’s U-Wing/Geonosian Soldier’s Starfighter
  • First Order SF Tie Fighter/Ghost/Millenium Falcon/Slave 1
  • Plo Koon’s Jedi Starfighter/Sun Fac’s Geonosian Starfighter
  • Wedge Antilles’ X-Wing/Tie Silencer

Chimaera vs Executrix

Chimaera is the stronger ship in the meta, but not by a whole lot. The strategy of meta teams revolves around preventing your opponent from calling in reinforcements and getting to their ultimate ability, while calling in your own reinforcements and getting to your own ultimate ability.

Basic

Chimaera calls an ally ship to assist with 35% extra offense. This is extremely useful because your ships basics inflict target lock, which gets Biggs’ taunt up and provides him protection. If you call Tie Advanced, you’re guaranteed target lock as well as an irresistible attack. Calling Sun Fac inflicts target lock very reliably. Calling First Order Tie Fighter does the most damage. Calling Umbaran Starfighter dispels. Executrix on the other hand just does some damage and exposes the enemy. Expose is nice, but nowhere near as good as Chimaera’s assist call.

AoE Special

Chimaera removes turn meter and does more damage, while Executrix inflicts ability block and deals a little more damage to debuffed enemies. Chimaera’s AoE is better, since ability block is only marginally useful anyway.

Ally Buff Special

Chimaera restores health and gives attackers offense up, supports, foresight and tanks, Defense up. It should be noted that this is an attack boost to First Order Tie, Imperial Tie and Tie Advanced, foresight (free dodge) to Tie Reaper and Defense up to Biggs. All of those are welcome buffs. Chimaera also inflicts the opposite buffs on enemies, so: offense down on opposing FOTF, ITF and TA, ability block on Reaper and Defense down on biggs. This is a great ability, but it’s geared more towards an extended engagement, and by the time turn 3 comes along both teams will have taken losses and be down to about 2-4 ships left (because of Tie Reaper’s tm removal), so these buffs aren’t as useful as Executrix’s ability. Executrix gives all allies +40% turn meter and offense up. This is far and away better when you’re down to the last legs of a battle, boosting your ships to go again sooner than your opponent and increasing their attack strength for that final push.

Unique

Chimaera gives +25% critical damage (+50% to Empire allies), +15% critical chance and +5% stacking tenacity up to all allies whenever an enemy is defeated. The reinforcement bonus is critical chance up for 2 turns. This gives your ships extra bang to be able to bring down the enemy faster, plus the stacking tenacity cements your lead by making target lock harder to achieve later in the match. Executrix has a more straightforward powerup with its unique. Allies gain 15% offense for each debuffed enemy. That’s up to 75% offense. That’s a lot. However, unless you get off an AoE ability block, that rarely happens. You’re more likely to end up with 15-45% offense up, which is still strong. Not to mention it’s doubled for Empire allies, bringing it up to 30-90% for Tie Advanced and Tie Fighter. On top of that Executrix’s reinforcement buff is retribution, giving reinforcements 100% counter chance. This isn’t immediately noticeable, but in longer matches, if you call in a taunter like Sun Fac, this can give real value. Overall both ships have about the same level of use here, though perhaps Executrix gets a slight edge for the reliability of its extra damage bonus.

Ultimate Ability

Chimaera’s Ultimate has the same issue as its ally buff: it’s geared toward an extended encounter. It destroys one enemy ship and deals percentage damage to all enemy’s health, then cleanses and buffs one ally and heals all allies, before increasing the enemy capital ship’s cooldowns by 1. This is a great ability, but Executrix’s ultimate is a straight up ‘I win’ button if the enemy has 3 or less ships. On top of that, Executrix’s ultimate can’t be evaded, meaning it will wipe out an evasive Tie Fighter that you’ve saved till last. Chimaera will give you an advantage in the last legs of a tight battle, and possibly pull you back from a near loss, but Executrix will win you the battle in most situations. Executrix is the better option here.

Summary

Both Ships have advantages over each other, but the nature of the current meta lends itself better to Chimaera, which has better opening abilities and suffers less from having its turn meter reduced by Tie Reaper

The roles of the opening team

Your opening team is made up of a taunter, a damage dealer, an irresistible target lock utility ship, an AoE preventer and a capital ship turn meter manipulator

The Taunter

This is Biggs or Sun Fac. The purpose of this ship is to absorb damage and keep more important ships, like the Tie Advanced and Tie Reaper, alive. Biggs is exceptional here because his taunt stays up longer than Sun Fac, and he regains protection when an ally inflicts a target lock. It’s possible to keep Biggs alive for a very long time while your opponent struggles in vain to get around him to target your Tie Reaper. Sun Fac is more durable, and has a different auto-taunt. He only taunts when a buffed enemy starts their turn, until they end their turn. When a non-buffed enemy takes a turn they are free to attack whoever they want, in the opening lineup only Tie Fighter, Bistan’s U-Wing and Biggs usually have a buff for any reason. Sun Fac works better later into the game when opponents have stealth or buffs granted by the capital ship.

The Damage Dealer

This is First Order Tie Fighter. Some people like to put Tie Silencer in, but Tie Silencer requires more build up before it can start dealing big damage. Whereas First Order Tie Fighter is good to go right from the start. FOTF’s main purpose is to go as quickly as possible and try to inflict target lock on enemy Tie Reapers or Tie Advanced x1s. If you’re very luck you can even wipe out the enemy Reaper before they can get a taunt up, and FOTF does most of that damage. FOTF is the meat of your team, dealing most of the damage and finishing off opponents with strafe. Side note: if an opponent has retribution up and you must attack with FOTF, use strafe instead of his basic to avoid a double counterattack. FOTF also makes a good Scimitar target if Tie Fighter is gone already, since every basic fan hit twice.

The Irresistible Target Lock Utility Ship

Tie Advanced x1 usually goes in this slot, but Bistan’s U-Wing can also go here. Bistan’s U-Wing has a very slight speed advantage thanks to its unique that grants +20% speed. Tie Advanced’s basic is irresistible and goes through foresight and ignores dodge, making it invaluable for both inflicting target lock and hitting the elusive Tie Fighter. Tie Advanced also can dispel target locked enemies and gives 10% turn meter to empire allies when they attack a target locked enemy. This makes Tie Advanced more straightforward and reliable, needing no conditions for its target lock and irresistible attack. Bistan’s U-Wing however, can only inflict irresistible target lock on its special, and must be stealthed to have an irresistible basic attack. It does however give out a lot of turn meter, in the form of +30% to a random ally whenever target lock is inflicted on an enemy, and +19% to an ally whenever they destroy a ship. Overall they both have strengths and weaknesses.

The AoE Preventer

This slot is filled by Imperial Tie Fighter, and goes a little beyond just preventing AoE. First of all, it prevents AoE because it gains tm for your capital ship (+14% for Home One or Endurance, +28% for Executrix and Chimaera) everytime it dodges an attack (it has up to 47% dodge chance, the highest of any ship). In the current meta this is very powerful, and as a result people avoid attacking Tie Fighter, if they are smart, going so far as to choose not to use an AoE attack to avoid triggering that tm gain. Tie Fighter also acts as extra damage and inflicts target lock, but that’s not essential. It really shines when you can put Scimitar’s special on it, and your opponent is forced to attack it, hopefully giving you a lot of tm.

The Capital Ship TM manipulator

Here we find Tie Reaper. Tie Reaper is the only choice for this slot and is almost compulsory. Tie Reaper’s unique removes 35% turn meter from the enemy capital ship whenever a ship (any ship) is destroyed. This is beyond invaluable. As stated before, your goal is to prevent the enemy from getting reinforcements, so you can whittle down their ships for the win. Reaper also has buff removal on its special and can restore some protection to an ally and itself. Its basic inflicts offense down too. But the most useful trait is far and away the tm removal

Reinforcements

First Reinforcement

Your first reinforcement is almost always Scimitar, though you can swap in Sun Fac effectively. The reasoning for this is sustainability. The first ship you lose is most often your tank, leaving your softer, more useful ships open to be attacked. Bringing in Scimitar or Sun Fac gives you more protection for them. Scimitar however has more utility, since you can choose which ship to put the pseudo taunt onto, and buff removal also doesn’t remove the effect, since all stealthed ships stay stealthed. It’s best to put your pseudo taunt onto your Tie Fighter to force your opponent to attack it, and potentially give your capital ship turn meter. Though it should be noted that if another ship on your side has taunt, scimitar’s stealth won’t affect it, so put the pseudo taunt on your Biggs/Sun Fac if they are still alive. The effect is also strong on First Order Tie Fighter and Tie Advanced, since they can both deal solid damage with counterattacks. We keep Scimitar in 1st position mostly because it’s very difficult to deal with on Defense. Your results will be better this way

Other reinforcements

The second, third and (if you have it) fourth reinforcement slots aren’t particularly important on Defense. You may get your second reinforcement out, but there is almost no chance of getting the third and fourth ones out too. Instead aim to put something durable in your second slot (like Umbaran Starfighter or Sun Fac’s Geonosian Starfighter), since at this point you’re likely running low on ships on Defense, and a tougher ship will last longer, giving you more hope of reaching your ultimate or timing out (very rare, but it may happen), both of which increase your odds of a successful Defense. On offense it doesn’t matter which ship you have where, as you can call any ship you like regardless of which reinforcement slot they are in. Good choices are:

Umbaran Starfighter

Because it can dispel buffs on its basic if the target is target locked, which can help you get around a nasty taunt. It also can inflict irresistible target lock (can be evaded however) and hit other target locked enemies with its special. Basically it gives you tools to get through stealth or taunt.

Ahsoka Tano’s Jedi Starfighter

For its buff removal. It also has evasion bonuses, meaning it has the potential to soak up attacks, keeping your team alive longer.

Poe Dameron’s X-Wing

Good because it has an attack that can’t be evaded, meaning you can hit Tie Fighter. This is useful if you just need a little more reach to finish it off. This ship also does some decent damage.

Jedi Consular’s Starfighter

Only used to call an assist from your other, stronger ships like First Order Tie Fighter, in order to deal any last damage you need. Can also be good when used on Tie Advanced to finish off Tie Fighter.

Cassian’s U-Wing

Serves the same purpose as Jedi Consular’s Starfighter, calling an assist. It’s a little more useful however, because you can stealth an ally and inflict irresistible target lock with its two other specials.

Geonosian Soldier’s Starfighter

Another assist caller, this is a cheap option for if you don’t have anything better, as this is strictly worse due to the assist being random. Overall not a very good ship though.

First Order SF Tie Fighter

This ship is mainly here as an AoE to clear off a ship from behind taunt if there’s no target lock on it. It also can call a random assist with its other special.

Ghost

Another AoE ship to finish off low health ships behind stealth or taunt, Ghost has the added bonus of being able to call more than one assist if you have any Rebel ships on board. Doesn’t quite fit the meta however, and can’t match the damage output of the Millenium Falcon as an AoE dealing reinforcement.

Millenium Falcon

The Falcon is a powerful ship in the wrong meta. Currently it makes a solid reinforcement that can dish out a lot of damage, unfortunately it needs some build up to reach its fullest potential, but it still serves the purpose of hitting nearly dead enemies behind taunt/stealth.

Slave 1

Boba’s ship isn’t the best option out there, but it does great damage, inflicts target lock and has two AoE’s. Unfortunately the stronger AoE takes a while before its ready, which doesn’t tend to happen unless the ship is on your front line. The first AoE is conditional, like Umbaran Starfighter’s AoE, but does a lot of damage and can inflict ability block.

Plo Koon’s Jedi Starfighter

Not the best reinforcement out there, but still useful enough to see play. This ship can give taunt to an ally and give all allies turn meter, which isn’t too bad.

Wedge Antilles’ X-Wing

Wedge’s X-Wing is a big damage dealer, especially vs debuffed enemies. Good to have as a finisher, but unfortunately not strong or useful enough to see a lot of play. It is strong under Tarkin as a reinforcement however, getting retribution upon being summoned.

Tie Silencer

Silencer is a difficult ship to place currently. It needs to take damage or attack target locked enemies to reach its fullest potential, which obviously works better if it starts on the front line. It does however possess the ability to stun (sometimes), and deal solid damage, making it not the worst reinforcement. It works particularly well under Tarkin as a reinforcement, since it gets retribution.

/5. How to make your ships stronger

Increasing the power of your ships relies on 8 factors:

  • Ship level
  • Ship stars
  • Ship abilities
  • Crew level
  • Crew stars
  • Crew abilities
  • Crew gear
  • Crew mods

Each one of these things, when increased/added to, increases the power and stats of the ship.

It’s important to note that gear levels provide the biggest and most consistent increase to a ship’s power, and the relative ‘quality’ of mods isn’t important. A full set of 5-dot health mods upgraded to lv15 will have the same effect as a rare speed and crit damage set with high speed secondaries. So don’t waste good mods on Fleet-only toons.

Unfortunately powering up ships isn’t an exact science, as any increase in the above mentioned fields increases ship stats across the board. So you can’t tailor your ships to be faster or have higher Potency. You get what you get, you just have to power up your ships as best you can.

It should be noted that certain ships, like Scimitar, don’t rely on speed, offensive power or durability, so they don’t need to be highly geared. Tie Reaper is another, you can get away with G10 Crew, though there’s no harm in gearing them further. Since they are strong toons outside of fleet, and if you can keep your Tie Reaper alive longer your odds of winning go up substantially. Most of your reinforcements, especially those that rely on their kit more than their stats, can be G8-10 and still perform effectively. But again, gearing them up can only help your team.

Finally, if you’re interested in figuring out the speed of a ship based on its gear, levels, mods and Zetas use the Speed Simulator.

Afterword

So that’s it for my guide to Fleet. Thanks for reading, and please, if you notice any errors do let me know so I can fix them. Or if you have any insight into Fleet that hasn’t been covered here, share it in the comments. Happy battles folks. Here's a link to the original Reddit post