Star Wars Zero Company Permadeath Explained (And How To Avoid It)

Latest Update: August 21, 2026 – Categories: Star Wars Zero Company

Learn exactly how the Injury and Permadeath system works in Star Wars Zero Company, and the specific choices that keep your squad alive.

Related SWZC

Star Wars Zero Company launches August 27 from Bit Reactor, the XCOM veteran studio building EA’s turn-based tactics game set at the tail end of the Clone Wars. Permadeath is the mechanic most likely to catch new players off guard, because it’s turned ON BY DEFAULT!

That’s right, you can lose your Squad members permanently! That includes Story Companions (called Authored Operators) too, like your only Jedi Padawan or Mandalorian Warrior. Permadeath is a complete game-changer.

Zero Company Permadeath: Quick Summary

Any squad member other than Hawks is permanently killed after their third Injury (any time their health hits zero), whether that happens across one mission or several. Each Injury carries a 10% chance-to-hit penalty that stacks per Injury, and Injuries persist between missions until treated at the Den’s Medbay or Bacta Tank. Permadeath is enabled by default but can be toggled off in the difficulty settings, and a separate Beskar Mode disables save reloading entirely for players who want the strictest possible experience.

How the Permadeath and Injury System Works

What Counts as an Injury

An Injury is recorded when a unit’s HP hits zero, not from simply taking a hit or dropping to low health. In Zero Company, a squad member can be shot, burned, and pushed off a ledge in the same mission and walk away with zero Injuries as long as their HP bar never actually bottoms out.

When an operator does hit zero HP, they enter a Downed state. A Downed operator cannot take actions, immediately records an Injury, but can be Rallied back into the fight by an ally spending Action Points to reach them. That Rally costs AP, which means reviving a downed squadmate is a trade-off against attacking or repositioning in the same turn. A Medic who Rallies a Downed ally returns them fully healed through the First Responder passive. Any other class brings them back on a fraction of their health, which leaves them exposed to being Downed again in the same mission and potentially recording a second Injury before the fight ends.

Injuries Have A Combat Penalty

Injuries are not just a countdown to permadeath. Each Injury an operator is carrying reduces their chance to hit by 10%, and the penalty stacks. An operator with two Injuries is fighting at 20% reduced accuracy before cover and range penalties are applied on top of that. This means an injured operator is not just closer to Permadeath, but is also less effective in combat.

The Medic’s Morale ability lets operators ignore the chance-to-hit penalty from injuries, and the Fortitude Talent at its top upgrade rank removes the penalty entirely for whichever operator carries it. Both are worth building toward specifically on operators you expect to take damage regularly. Deploying an operator with two Injuries and no penalty mitigation is one of the fastest ways to compound a bad situation.

Injuries Can Come From Operations, Not Just Combat

Confirmed by PC Gamer’s hands-on preview, Injuries are not exclusively a combat-mission hazard. Dangerous Operations launched from the HoloTable between missions can also inflict Injuries on the operators assigned to them, without any Tactical Mission being involved. This means even players who manage combat carefully can build up Injuries during base management if they are not paying attention to which Operations carry risk and which operators they are sending on them.

Three Strikes = Permanent Death

Every squad member other than Hawks can accumulate Injuries across their time in Zero Company, whether across a single mission or spread across the entire campaign. On the third Injury, that operator is permanently killed and memorialized on a wall back at the Den. There is no revive, no reload prompt outside of a manual save, and no way to bring that specific character back for the rest of the campaign.

The story continues regardless of who you lose. Bit Reactor built the campaign specifically to adapt around deaths rather than breaking, and surviving characters react to permanent losses through Bond-connected Den dialogue. Losing an operator who had developed a Bond with another squadmate changes how that second character speaks and behaves for the rest of the run.

Why Hawks Cannot Die (But Everyone Else Can)

Hawks, your fully customizable player-created protagonist, is immune to permanent death. If Hawks is reduced to zero HP in combat, the result is an automatic mission failure rather than an Injury, and you restart the mission from its last checkpoint. Every other squad member, including named story companions like Trick, Tel-Rea Vokoss, Cly Kullervo, Luco Bronc, Jae Mordant, Kabb Uppercut, and M-3VO, is fully subject to the three Injury rule.

If you think of it that way, Hawks can safely operate as your most aggressive frontline unit on a given mission, since the worst outcome is a mission restart rather than losing the character permanently. Your authored companions, particularly those tied to companion-specific story content through the Bond system, are the operators worth playing more conservatively.

Treating Injuries at the Den’s Medbay

Injuries do not clear on their own between missions. Operators carrying one or two Injuries need to be treated at the Medbay in the Den before their next deployment, and Medbay capacity is limited, so you cannot simply heal your entire roster after every mission. This creates priority decisions every Cycle: do you rush your Heavy back into fighting shape because you need a tank for an upcoming mission, or do you let a lower-priority operator sit out a cycle while a companion closer to a Bond milestone gets treated first? A Bacta-Tank option is also available for a faster restore but at significantly more cost.

Remember too that partial treatment leaves your Operator in a weakened state where they carry Chance-To-Hit penalties in combat.

Pro Tip: Before queuing up your next mission, check the full roster for Injury counts rather than just who is available to deploy. An operator with two Injuries sitting in reserve is one bad Operation or one careless deployment away from permanent death, and catching that before it happens costs nothing.

Turning Off Permadeath: Difficulty Settings and Beskar Mode

Zero Company ships with four difficulty modes: Story, Normal, Hard, and Expert. Permadeath is a separate toggle from difficulty, enabled by default but switchable off at any time. As Greg Foertsch confirmed at Star Wars Celebration Japan, permadeath and save restrictions are both adjustable on appropriate difficulty settings. Bit Reactor’s stated: “Permadeath is a thing in Zero Company. You can toggle it on or off, but we recommend playing with it on for the most intense experience.”

For players who want the strictest possible version, a separate mode called Beskar Mode disables save reloading entirely and stacks on top of whichever difficulty you have chosen rather than replacing it. This functions as Zero Company’s equivalent of XCOM’s classic Iron Man mode: every decision is final, and there is no reloading a save to undo a bad turn. Beskar Mode can be enabled independently of your difficulty setting, so you can run it on Story difficulty if you want the narrative accessibility without any ability to take back mistakes.

Tactics to Avoid Losing a Squad Member

The single most reliable tool against permadeath is your Heavy class build. The Heavy’s Intimidating Posture passive applies a Taunt to any target hit with a primary blaster attack, forcing that enemy to attempt to attack the Heavy instead of a squishier ally. Combined with the Grit Talent, which grants stacking Invulnerable status that absorbs one incoming hit per stack, a taunting Heavy with Grit is the standard counter to high-damage encounters and boss-tier enemies like the Droidica. The Grit Talent at max rank provides two stacks of Invulnerable and 12 bonus Max Health, meaning the Heavy can absorb two guaranteed hits in a single encounter for zero damage, which is exactly the window your damage dealers need to end a dangerous fight before your fragile operators take a hit.

The Medic’s First Responder passive is the second most important anti-permadeath tool. A non-Medic rally returns a Downed operator on a fraction of their health, leaving them exposed to a second Down and a second Injury in the same fight while a Medic rally returns them fully healed. Running a Medic in your four-operator squad specifically because of the full-heal rally is one of the most effective structural decisions you can make for avoiding a permadeath.

Beyond class composition, a few habits reduce Injury risk across the board. Never end your turn with a low-health operator in enemy line of sight if you can avoid it: spending one AP to step behind cover costs less than treating an Injury at the Medbay. Consider using an Astromech on your team to freely supply extra AP to low health allies when needed to move to safety.

Use Tel-Rea Vokoss’s Noble Stance deflection shield proactively rather than reactively, since committing AP to it before an enemy’s turn raises the deflection chance rather than reacting after damage is already landing. Also, kill any Coil Leader early in any engagement where one is present, since its Plague Miasma ability heals nearby allies and reduces its own hit chance, dragging fights out longer and increasing the number of turns your squad spends under fire.

Pro Tip: Setting up Backup between two units means an ally fires alongside whoever you are actively controlling as long as they have line of sight, giving you a free extra attack that can end a fight a turn earlier. One fewer turn of incoming fire is one fewer chance for an Injury to land.

The Final Word

Permadeath in Zero Company is more forgiving moment to moment than XCOM 2’s wound system, since a single bad hit does not cost you anything by itself. What it does not forgive is neglect. Leaving low-health operators exposed at the end of your turn, skipping Medbay treatment because you are rushing to the next mission, or deploying an injured squad member without a Heavy drawing aggro: all of these are bad decisions that can quickly lead to Permadeath.

Build your squad around a taunting Heavy with the Grit Talent and a Medic who can return Downed allies at full health. Check Injury counts before every mission and Operations assignment. Just know the rules before you are looking at a third Injury notification on your favorite companion. For more on the Heavy and Medic builds that make surviving permadeath easiest, see our Heavy build guide and Medic build guide.

Star Wars Zero Company Permadeath FAQ

1. Can Hawks die permanently in Star Wars Zero Company?

No. Hawks is immune to permanent death. If Hawks is reduced to zero HP in combat, the mission automatically fails and restarts from the last checkpoint rather than Hawks taking an Injury or being permanently killed.

2. Does an Injury happen from any hit, or only when a unit’s health hits zero?

An Injury is only recorded when a unit’s HP is fully depleted to zero, not from taking damage in general. A unit can take multiple hits and survive a mission at low health without recording a single Injury as long as their HP bar never bottoms out.

3. Do Injuries carry a combat penalty, or just count toward permadeath?

Both. Each Injury reduces the operator’s chance to hit by 10%, and the penalty stacks per Injury. A twice-injured operator fights at 20% reduced accuracy. The Medic’s Morale ability and the Fortitude Talent at max rank both remove this penalty.

4. Can Injuries come from Operations rather than combat missions?

Yes. Confirmed by PC Gamer’s hands-on preview, dangerous Operations at the HoloTable can inflict Injuries on assigned operators without a Tactical Mission being involved. Check each Operation’s risk level before assigning operators who are already carrying Injuries.

5. Can I turn off permadeath entirely?

Yes. Permadeath is enabled by default but can be toggled off in the settings independently of which of the four difficulty modes you are playing on. EA and Bit Reactor have both explicitly confirmed this option is available.

6. What is Beskar Mode?

Beskar Mode is Zero Company’s Iron Man equivalent: a separate toggle that disables save reloading and stacks on top of your chosen difficulty rather than replacing it. It can be enabled on any difficulty, including Story mode.

7. Does losing a companion permanently change the story?

Yes. Bit Reactor built conditional dialogue and reactive Den content around which companions are still alive, so permanently losing an operator changes later story beats and conversations rather than simply removing them from your deployable roster. Bonded companions who survive may also react to the loss of a squadmate they had developed a relationship with.