Aurelio, the Rodian operator you fight alongside in the opening mission of Star Wars Zero Company, dies during the prologue no matter what you do. His death is scripted to teach you how permadeath works, and it plays out the same way on every run.
Quick answer: You cannot save Aurelio. Turning off permadeath does not spare him, and no positioning, difficulty, or tactic keeps him alive. He starts the prologue with one injury, picks up a second, then gets downed in the final fight.
Why turning off permadeath doesn’t save Aurelio
Permadeath in Star Wars Zero Company works on an injury system rather than an instant kill. When an operator goes down in combat, they gain an injury, and three injuries mean permanent death. That system governs your custom recruits and story characters alike, but it does not apply to Aurelio’s fate in the intro.
His death is a fixed story beat, not a consequence of the difficulty toggle. The permadeath setting controls whether the rest of your squad can be lost for good. It has no effect on the prologue’s scripted outcome, so Aurelio is gone from the roster either way.
How the prologue plays out
The intro walks Aurelio through the injury system on rails. His path to death is set in advance and does not respond to how carefully you play him.
| Point in the prologue | Aurelio’s state |
|---|---|
| Start of the mission | Begins with one injury already |
| Second combat encounter | Gains a second injury, stacking to two |
| Final battle | Gets downed and dies, closing out the intro |
You cannot force the opposite outcome either. Even on the hardest difficulty, enemy shots that would push Aurelio to his third injury early always miss him. Pressing him right up against enemies still won’t get him downed ahead of schedule, because the game protects the script until the moment it wants him to fall.
What happens to Aurelio after the intro
Once the prologue ends, Aurelio is permanently removed from your operators. He never appears in the promotional lineup and was never meant to be a lasting squad member. His name shows up on the memorial for fallen operators in The Den, alongside other operators lost in later missions.
Note: If you spent the intro looking for a hidden save option, there isn’t one. Aurelio serves the same role as other characters who die in a tutorial to demonstrate the stakes, and his loss is the game’s way of showing you that permadeath is real from the first mission onward.
Every story character except Hawks can die permanently later in the campaign, so the operators you actually keep are the ones whose survival you control. Aurelio is the exception that sets the tone, and the sooner you accept that he can’t be saved, the sooner you can focus on protecting the squad that stays with you.
