Star Wars Zero Company: How to Beat the Slugrats in Raid the Slugrat HQ

The Slugrat headquarters raid is a defensive fight dressed up as an assault. Zero Company drops into an open courtyard with Slugrat Enforcers holding the flanks and Slugrat Strikers waiting to close the distance, and the objective banner reads simply “DEFEAT THE SLUGRATS.” Push forward too fast and the reinforcement wave arrives while your squad is standing in the open with no cover and no Action Points left.

Quick answer: Kill the flank Enforcers first from cover, hold a choke point with Overwatch when “REINFORCEMENTS INCOMING” appears, and use an Impact Bomb on any cluster of three or more. The objective flips to “EXPLORE THE WAREHOUSE” the moment the last Slugrat dies.

What you are fighting in the Slugrat HQ

Two enemy types carry the encounter, and they demand opposite answers. Ranged Enforcers sit behind cover and trade shots, so they need cover stripped or a flanking angle. Strikers run at you, which makes them free kills if a reaction shot is already aimed at the route they have to take.

Enemy	Threat	How to answer it
Slugrat Enforcer	Ranged blaster fire from cover, holds the flanks at the start	Concentrated fire or an Impact Bomb to remove cover, then finish with a second Operator
Slugrat Striker	Melee rusher, punishes Operators caught in the open	Overwatch on the approach lane so it is hit before it reaches you

A squad of Hawks, Trick, Fred, and Jae Mordant handles the fight comfortably, but any four-Operator group works as long as one of them carries an Impact Bomb and one has a reliable ranged weapon for Overwatch duty.

Clear the flanks before you advance

Spread your four Operators across the starting cover instead of bunching them. Anything grouped tightly gives the Enforcers a clean line on multiple targets at once.

Zero Company squad spread across cover at the start of the Slugrat HQ fight — The opening deployment, with Operators split across cover and the first Slugrat Enforcers marked on the flanks. Image: Bit Reactor

Target the Enforcers on the outside edges first. Removing the flanking shooters shrinks the number of angles firing into your position and makes every later turn safer.

Stack two Operators onto the same Enforcer rather than spreading damage. One shot strips cover, the second finishes the kill, and the enemy never gets a turn to retaliate.

Fire Longarm Blaster selected against a Slugrat Enforcer, showing a cost of AP 2 — Fire Longarm Blaster queued against a Slugrat Enforcer for 2 AP, with Confirm ready. Image: Bit Reactor

Spend Combat Stim on anyone who took a hit while the fight is still small. Healing is cheapest to apply before the reinforcement wave forces every Action Point into shooting.

Move up using explosive barrels and Impact Bombs

Once the flanks are quiet, the squad can creep forward, but only from cover to cover. The courtyard has explosive barrels scattered near enemy positions, and shooting one deals damage to everything beside it while wrecking the cover the Slugrats were relying on.

Radial action menu open in combat with a teal ability slot highlighted — Selecting an ability from the radial action wheel before the squad advances. Image: Bit Reactor

The Impact Bomb is worth holding until the Slugrats bunch up. It hits grouped targets hard, tears down their cover, and can interrupt Overwatch they have already set, which is what makes the follow-up blaster shots land. One well-placed throw usually softens three enemies at once and turns a stalled turn into three kills.

Weapon overlay with Fire Repeating Blaster highlighted and Confirm available — Swapping to Fire Repeating Blaster mid-fight to clean up softened targets. Image: Bit Reactor

Note: never end a turn standing between two open lanes. Deflection and armour do nothing against a Striker that reaches you, and a single Down here costs an Injury that follows the Operator back to the Den.

Hold the choke point when reinforcements arrive

Partway through the fight a “REINFORCEMENTS INCOMING” warning appears and a fresh group of Slugrats enters the courtyard. This is the moment where the encounter is won or lost, and the correct response is to stop advancing entirely.

Pull every Operator back into cover that faces the spawn side. Give up any ground you took if it means keeping a wall between you and the new arrivals.

MOVE command highlighted at AP 2 while plotting a path to cover — Plotting a fallback move to cover ahead of the reinforcement wave. Image: Bit Reactor

Set Overwatch with two Operators aimed at the narrow route the reinforcements must walk through. A tighter cone keeps hit chance high, so cover the doorway or gap rather than sweeping half the map.

Let the wave come to you. Every Striker that charges the choke point eats a reaction shot before it can swing, and the survivors arrive damaged and out of cover.

Use your remaining Operators to finish anything Overwatch wounded, then reset Overwatch again at the end of the turn. Sweeping Salvo and Ambush both work well here for clearing several weakened targets in one action.

Slugrat HQ combat screen with the BACKUP AVAILABLE prompt active during the reinforcement wave — The BACKUP AVAILABLE prompt during the reinforcement wave, used to gang up on a single target. Image: Bit Reactor

Finish the last Slugrat Enforcers

After the wave breaks, a handful of Enforcers are usually left holding cover at the far end of the courtyard. There is no timer pressure at this stage, so move one Operator at a time, keep the rest on Overwatch, and take only shots with a good hit chance. Stripping cover with a barrel or a grenade before committing is faster than trading low-percentage shots for several turns.

You will know the fight is over when the objective text changes from “DEFEAT THE SLUGRATS” to “EXPLORE THE WAREHOUSE” and control returns without an enemy turn. That transition is the confirmation that no further reinforcements are queued.

Common reasons the fight goes wrong

Mistake	Result
Advancing before the flank Enforcers are dead	Your squad is shot from two directions at once with no cover
Spending the Impact Bomb on a single target	No answer left when the reinforcement group clusters together
Skipping Overwatch during the reinforcement wave	Strikers reach melee range untouched and start putting Operators Down
Ending a turn outside cover	Injuries stack up, and each one carries a Chance-to-Hit penalty into later missions

Clearing the courtyard opens the warehouse, and the Slugrat headquarters run continues from there rather than ending on this objective. Get your squad through with everyone standing, because injuries taken here are still on the roster when the raid reaches its final encounter.