The fighter class in Star Wars: Squadrons will be your hybrid starfighter choice among the options. You can choose to make it an ideal choice to handle fighting the various other enemy starfighters flying near you, or you can choose to make it an ideal option to attack your foe’s capital ship. There are some pilots who might want to pick and choose their components to use a variety of tools, being able to handle starfighters, but capable of heavily damaging capital ships when they have the opportunity.
Loadout 1 – The Anti-Starfighter
- Auxiliary 1: Ion Missile
- Auxiliary 2: Multi-lock Missile
- Countermeasure: Sensor Inverter
- Engine: Microthrust Engine
- Hull: Deflector Hull
- Primary Weapon: Rapid Fire Cannon
- Shield: Fortified Deflector
Taking on the enemy starfighters will be your main priority with this build. You can use the ion missile to start things up, lowering their shield, and then using the burst cannon to steadily destroy them. The rapid fire cannon does decent damage at range, but is great to use when you get in close. The microthrust engine should be able to keep your enemy within sight, and you can always use the multi-lock missile to finish off multiple targets. When you start to receive hits, your fortified deflector shield will be able to absorb most of the attacks, and the deflector hull makes it even stronger. The downside is once your shields are down, you’re in trouble.
For TIE-fighters, you want to switch out the deflector hull and fortified deflector. You cannot use any shields, so try using the dampener hull.
Loadout 2 – Balanced dogfighter
- Auxiliary 1: Proton Bomb
- Auxiliary 2: Beam cannon
- Countermeasure: Seeker Warheads
- Engine: Jet / Ion Jet Engine
- Hull: Reinforced Hull
- Primary Weapon: Plasburst Laser / Cannon
- Shield: Ray Shield
Enemy starfighters are not the only thing you need to worry about because there are plenty of capital of ships and heavy frigates you need to do battle with. Both of them will be how you attain victory, so with the proton bomb and beam cannon, you can do heavy damage to both of them. The proton bomb is more of a close-range bomb for capital ships, but it can work against both, especially if pilots get too close. The seeker warheads should protect you from heavy missiles, but for a short stint. Your plasburst laser cannon should be useful for any engagement, the downside being you have to charge it for a few seconds before firing.
Loadout 3 – Anti-capital Ship
- Auxiliary 1: Ion Torpedo
- Auxiliary 2: Proton Torpedo
- Countermeasure: Sensor Inverter
- Engine: SLAM engine
- Hull: Dampener Hull
- Primary Weapon: Rotary Cannon
- Shield: Resonant Shield
You have a few options for this build. The torpedoes are how you open up against the capital ship, exposing it, and dealing damage to certain parts. After that, your rotary cannon, powered by the resonant shields to replenish quickly and more power from the SLAM engines, giving you plenty of firepower to take down critical parts of the ship. The downside is you’re slightly exposed, but your opponents have a tough time targeting you with any lock-on abilities.
Loadout 4 – Capital Protection
- Auxiliary 1: Cluster Missile
- Auxiliary 2: Ion Bomb
- Countermeasure: Chaff Particles
- Engine: Microthrust engine
- Hull: Reflec Hull
- Primary Weapon: Ion cannon
- Shield: Ray shield
Being an offensive pilot is excellent, but you have to protect your capital ships, too. With this build, you can hang by your larger vessels and wait for the enemies to come to you. You can lay out an ion bomb when they get too close, forcing their shields down, or use your ion cannon to remove their shield. Without your shields, your cluster missiles can make short work of them, but you also want to utilize the capital ship’s turrets, and an enemy without a shield cannot survive those hits. Your microthrust engine ensures you can chase them away, and the chaff particles can be used to protect yourself or the capital ships from missiles or any lock-ons.
