Operators who stay behind at the Den normally do nothing while the rest of the squad is out on a job. The Lounge changes that. Once it exists, every operator sitting on the bench earns Bond XP each time you deploy, which quietly turns your reserve roster into a second progression track.
Quick answer: Open the Upgrade terminal in the Den, go to the Crew tab, pick Unlock Lounge in the Teamwork row, and hit Build. It costs 2 Build Slots and 2,250 Credits, and finishes after two cycles.
What the Lounge does in Star Wars Zero Company
The upgrade description is short and literal. Operators remaining at the Den during a mission gain +5 Bond XP. That applies to the crew you did not bring along, so the bigger your bench, the more total Bond XP each deployment generates.
Bonds matter because they feed operator relationships and the perks tied to them, and the usual way to build them is to keep pairing the same operators on missions. The Lounge removes the trade-off. You can run a tight core squad without freezing progress for everyone else.
Lounge unlock cost and build time
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Upgrade name | Unlock Lounge (Crew Upgrade) |
| Menu path | Upgrade terminal → Crew tab → Teamwork |
| Credit cost | 2,250 Credits |
| Build slots | 2 |
| Build time | 2 turns (cycles) |
| Effect | +5 Bond XP for operators left at the Den during a mission |
Two build slots is a real commitment early on, since anything else you queue has to wait. Credits are also tight in the campaign, so it is worth clearing your must-have Facilities purchases first and then committing to Teamwork once the basics are in place.
How to unlock the Lounge at the Upgrade terminal
How to confirm the Lounge is finished
Two cycles after you press Build, the BUILDING UNLOCK LOUNGE entry disappears from the queue and the Lounge shows up as a facility on the map of the Den alongside the Command Center, the Pit, the Office, the Medbay, and the Memorial. From that point, operators you leave at base collect Bond XP whenever the squad is out.
If nothing has changed, the usual reason is that the counter has not moved. The build advances per turn, and turns advance when missions do. Sitting in the base or spending Intel on operations without launching a mission leaves the timer where it was. The other common blocker is the cost itself, since the purchase will not go through without both free build slots and enough Credits on hand.
When to buy Teamwork in a campaign
Teamwork sits deep enough in the Crew tree that it is rarely a first purchase. The Black Market on the Facilities side is the more common opening pick, since it starts feeding your operators specialized equipment, and the Droid Repair Bay and first Medbay upgrade cover the maintenance side.
Once those are handled, the Lounge is the Crew upgrade worth clearing space for. The earlier it goes online, the more deployments it gets to compound across, and that compounding is the whole reason to spend two build slots on a room nobody fights in.
