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Star Wars: Starfighter Missions Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Cheats & Strategies to Form the Best Squadrons and Dominate Every Mission

Star Wars: Starfighter Missions is a brand new title from South Korean mobile game developer Joymax, that’s available on both iOS and Android platforms. There may already be a plethora of Star Wars-themed gamed across various gaming platforms but Star Wars: Starfighter Missions is the first ever flight shooter that employs the popular Star Wars franchise.

There are numerous pilots and Starfighters to collect and customize, spanning across the original trilogy and sequel trilogy. Star Wars: Starfighter Missions does not just let you play as your favorite protagonists in the movie series as it lets you take a dive into a different adventure in control of characters from the dark side as well.

Star Wars: Starfighter Missions offers a simple and straightforward gameplay where Starfighters automatically shoot at enemies and maneuvering and dodging is your more prominent concern. Star Wars: Starfighter Missions becomes a little easier to pick up and play with its auto mode that enables movement and special skill activation under the control of the A.I. While it cannot be always utilized against challenging missions, the auto mode makes farming on easier levels a lot more convenient.

star wars starfighter missions starfighters

With Star Wars: Starfighter Missions’ simple interface and controls, in tandem with its very easy to follow tutorial session, players are expected to make it far through the early content without experiencing trouble. As more and more game modes and harder levels become available, the real challenge that it offers can be puzzling especially for players new to the genre.

We have come up with a detailed beginner’s guide for Star Wars: Starfighter Missions, so read on to find out how to dominate each mission in the game!

1. Prioritize Finishing The Campaign

The campaign in Star Wars: Starfighter Missions is the houses the easiest levels and essentially serves as a training ground for you to get accustomed to the control sensitivity and your favorite starfighter’s special skill. The squad power recommended in each campaign mission is lower than that of other game modes, which means that you can plow right through it without much upgrades needed.

star wars starfighter missions campaign

One of the more important reasons you need to finish each campaign is to unlock Starfighters from that era to be used in other game modes. Beyond the basic resources you can earn from some campaign stages, the pilot datatape you obtain as well as the lucky box tickets you earn are a lot more challenging to obtain anywhere else.

There are currently 4 separate campaigns in Star Wars: Starfighter Missions and completing each one basically empowers you to push farther in free play as well as prepare you for numerous other challenges. Although you need to beat the first 20 levels of free play on each side to unlock the Resistance and First Order campaign, both these campaigns are as easy as the initial ones and can be finished within a couple of minutes.

star wars starfighter missions battle

Perhaps the only challenge that comes with the campaign mode is the limitation of starfighters to use in each one. Under the light side, starfighters either belong to the republic or the rebellion and within the dark side, starfighters are further classified into empire and first order pilots and ships. Taking on campaign levels will have you create separate squads for each subclass although, again, it hardly necessitates much investment into upgrades and enhancements.

2. Choose And Focus On A Balanced Squad

One of the more engaging and exciting aspects of Star Wars: Starfighter Missions relates to forming squads of starfighters to take on missions. Although you will start off with only a handful of choices early on, you will soon be gifted and rewarded with more starfighters from the campaign as well as tickets and diamonds you can use to summon more from the shop.

Each squad is composed of 3 starfighters with one acting as the leader and two others as support. As you make progress, you will be able to unlock more squads to take into battle and you can readily shift from one squad to another. Beyond each starfighter’s distinct traits and abilities, they are also classified by type and, of course, by faction.

star wars starfighter missions squad

While the 4 subgroups cannot be mixed and matched in campaign levels, you can use both Rebellion and Resistance units in a squad on most other game modes just the same as you can use Empire and First Order Starfighters to form your dark side squads outside of the campaign.

Starfighters can be categorized to their ship types, which may either be a fighter, a bomber, or an interceptor. Fighters are average considering overall stats. Bombers specialize in AoE damage but move the slowest. Interceptors can deal high amounts of damage and are the fastest ships but lag behind in armor and shields. As far as squads are concerned, all attributes should be considered for the leader but you only need to be concerned about the firepower of the support ships.

Before choosing a leader, it is best to look into each candidate’s leader effect, their active skills, as well as passive skills. As starfighters also fall within different rarity grades, owning higher rarity units at the start of your journey like Han Solo and Boba Fett will likely influence you to invest in them both. Higher grade starfighters do exhibit better stats but given that they are more challenging to obtain can make it difficult to keep upgrading them later on.

star wars starfighter missions interceptor

Another decision point you have to consider is how to go about the multiple squads. If you are having difficulty allocating resources for your first trio of starfighters on your first squad, then you will be faced with an even better challenge when you are able to create extra squads. For efficiency, focus on the lead Starfighter first, then his or her support units before you jump onto investing on a second squad. While it is great that light and dark groups each have their own pool of resources, both are finite and can be a challenge to manage if you invest across a broader selection of units.

3. Be Selective When Upgrading Starfighters

The campaigns in Star Wars: Starfighter Missions may not push you to invest in upgrades outside of what is needed in the campaign levels but once you step into the challenges and free play, you will be face with increasingly tougher enemies that require you to invest more and more on your chosen starfighters. Every bit of upgrade requires specific resources and, for the most part, it can be a challenge to fully upgrade one starfighter, making it a seemingly perennial task to upgrade all the ones you obtain.

To start off, the most basic enhancement method is levelling starfighters up. Taking starfighters through missions actually do not earn them XP, and the only way for them to level up is through using craft data cards that you can earn through scouting as well as free play battle. Once you see a red dot indicator on the hangar icon at the lower left side of the main screen, this means that an upgrade is available. Note that once you visit the hangar page, starfighters, and respective upgrades are divided between the light and dark sides.

star wars starfighter missions pilot

You can choose any pilot and tap on the “level” button. On the Starfighter level page, you can choose to consume any amount of resources to give them XP. Each starfighter has a level cap based on their star grade and all of them start off at star grade 1. The maximum level each pilot can reach is level 20 and an extra 20 more levels will be unlocked with each star grade rank up.

With star grades involved, you should know that unlocking starfighters is simply the start of a long journey towards fully utilizing them. You will need to secure more shard of each one, or datatapes, to rank them up and increase their level cap.

Naturally, higher star grades will require more datatapes, which means that it will take a long grind to finally be able to rank up a starfighter all the way to star grade 5. This is where a starfighter’s rarity becomes an extra challenge as in the case of Han Solo and Boba Fett. You may unlock them as part of the tutorial but it can become a challenge to secure additional datatapes for you to rank them up.

how to upgrade starfighter in star wars starfighter missions

Each starfighter in Star Wars: Starfighter Missions has 2 active skills and 4 passive skills that can be upgraded. These are all dependent on the unit’s level and you only need to spend credits, which is the basic currency, to level them up once you meet the minimum level requirement for each skill upgrade. In contrast with visiting each pilot’s skill page when an upgrade is available, you should read through each one prior to deciding which starfighters you plan to invest on.

Each ship’s attack, durability, and shield stats can further be boosted by upgrading parts. Upgrading requires you to meet certain Starfighter levels as well on top of expending different upgrade resources and credits to do so. Different resources can be gathered as you progress through the free play mode and if you need to farm specific upgrade materials, you can always replay previously conquered levels.

4. Progress Through Free Play Battle

The Free Play Battle Mode in Star Wars: Starfighter Missions is where you will be spending most of your space adventuring time on. There are separate free play campaigns for each side that you need to progress through to amass resources and other rewards to further strengthen your squads. First time completions earn you extra rewards and you can farm specific resources from each stage you have already beaten.

Each free play campaign holds 60 stages with the first 30 giving extra incentives for squads of a given faction and the latter half provides added bonuses for the other faction. Completing all 60 stages unlocks the next difficulty level from normal to hard, and finally to extreme difficulty. Each battle consumes Coaxium, which serves as your in-game stamina or action points as well.

distrupting supply lines in star wars starfighter missions

You can get used to utilizing auto mode for campaign levels by tapping on its button at the upper right side of the screen. In free play mode, though, there will certainly come a time when you will have to rely on manual skills to beat the level, or to secure a 3-star victory and claim all possible rewards. At this point, it becomes important to classify priorities in combat. As much as Star Wars: Starfighter Missions provides a straightforward gameplay, having a solid idea of your priorities in each battle should be laid out first.

Missions or levels in Star Wars: Starfighter Missions basically revolve around 2 distinct objectives. There may be different sub missions presented prior to starting the level but it all boils down to 2 distinct goals. The first one focuses on the number of enemy ships you shot down, which should be fairly easy if you have a high enough attack power.

free play campaign in star wars starfighter missions

The second, and more challenging objective, relates to avoiding missiles from enemies. The second one is impossible to achieve on auto mode as doing so does not leave the A.I. to dodge enemy shots. On manual controls, it can still be tricky so it is best to practice it early on to prepare yourself for the more challenging levels.

Beyond shooting down enemy ships and avoiding getting hit, you should also collect points and energy to power up your special abilities. As much as both resources can contribute to a better performance on each level, it should not dissuade you from accomplishing the missions at hand. In essence, you should not struggle to grab any resource at the cost of getting hit or missing to eliminate more enemy targets.

5. Join A Guild And Add Friends

Star Wars: Starfighter Missions provides mostly single player content and gameplay across its many game modes. That does not prevent it from providing social features that provide numerous advantages to players who join guilds and have in-game friends. Beyond the chat feature that players can use to communicate with different players, friends and fellow guild members, associating yourself with a guild as well as friends unlock additional perks.

To start off, the friend feature is readily available for you through its icon on the main screen and as you reach higher account levels, you can add more friends. You can request to be friends who are already playing the game and you can also send invites to friends in real life via the multiple social channels you can share the game link with. Successfully inviting friends will earn you various valuable resources so if you really need a boost in terms of progression, you should take advantage of this feature.

how to add friends in star wars starfighter missions

One of the more valuable advantages you get out of having more friends is that you can use their main starfighter to accompany you in various missions. Before the start of the mission, be sure to tap on the support slot of your squad and select a friend or a guild mate from their respective lists to accompany you in tough challenges. Each support ship can only be used once every 24 hours so having more friends and being a member of an active guild means having more support units to last you through each day.

You can activate support ships once during each level and they will jump in a little ahead of you to provide assistance. Support ships can provide additional firepower and can also serve as a shield for you for the duration of their stay. Be sure to time their deployment right in each scenario.

The guild feature in Star Wars: Starfighter Missions unlocks once you reach account level 15. As there are already a lot of active players and guilds in the game, you can quickly and just as easily find a join a guild. You can access the guild feature through its icon on the lower right side of the main screen. Once you become a member of any guild, you can enjoy various perks that can help further your advancement in your adventure.

Your contribution level in the guild increases based on your overall activities across Star Wars: Starfighter Missions different game modes. Using a guild mate’s Starfighter as a support unit in missions as well as having yours used by allies earns you guild points. You can exchange earned guild points for various resources at the guild shop.

star wars starfighter missions guild

Be sure to donate credits and other extra resources to your guild via its icon at the bottom center area of the guild page. Credits that form part of the guild funds can unlock different buffs for every guild member through the guild skill feature. In terms of resources, the guild request feature lets you provide aid to fellow guild members in need of extra resources.

You can likewise request for resources you need through this feature. Once you enter the guild feature, remember to leave a starfighter for your guild mates to use as a support unit as well. Every minute you leave a Starfighter at the guild section earns you credits and more can be obtained if your starfighter is used by others.

6. Expend Attempts On Battle Operation

Progressing on the campaign as well as the free play mode in Star Wars: Starfighter Missions can earn you resources to strengthen your starfighters and boost the power of your squads and more of these resources can be earned from the various game modes within the battle operation. The battle operation serves as the dungeon mode equivalent in conventional RPGs and while resources are abundant in each battle operations game modes, attempts are limited per day.

star wars starfighter missions daily battle

Although we recommend finishing the first 2 campaigns first, and then pushing to clear stage 20 of each free play mode to unlock the remaining 2 campaigns, we also recommend expending attempts on any battle operations stage available for you in a day. Like all other game modes, the battle operation provides a distinct set of activities for each side and, as much as you can, should be accomplished as soon as each level becomes available.

The Starship Battle can be the most challenging as earning a 3-star completion rating requires you to avoid getting hit. Boost points and craft data cards can be obtained from this game mode. Daily Battle stages offer 3 distinct game modes each available twice a week but all become unlocked on Sundays. Defense Battle requires you to employ evasive maneuvers as well as completion rating is based on your ship’s remaining durability at the end of the run.

star wars starfighter missions starship battle

Craft data cards and upgrade materials can be obtained here. The Elite Battle works more like the usual stages within the free play mode and pits you against an enemy starfighter at the end of the level. You can obtain a variety of datatapes from this game mode as well as craft data cards.

Each of the game modes within battle operation provides you 3 attempts daily. As you reach progress through the free play mode, higher difficulty levels become available in battle operation as well. Note that all other unlocked levels provide you with 3 separate and distinct attempts meaning that the further you make progress and the more levels you unlock, the more overall attempts you have and the more opportunities to earn the resources.

7. Accomplish Quests And Achievements

Despite the numerous needed resources you will constantly have to farm to ensure a continuous growth of your squads and starfighters, Star Wars: Starfighter Missions provides a wide variety of game modes for you to earn what you need. Beyond the actual rewards you instantly earn for completing any level, more can still be claimed from the daily quests and achievements feature.

You can check this out via the quest icon just above the scout feature. Quests are divided into daily quests and achievements, each with its own set of objectives and rewards. Both sets of objectives directly relate to the usual activities you engage in as you progress through the game but to ensure a more efficient approach towards completing them, you should read through each objective and go for the ones that you can achieve sooner.

how to complete more quests in star wars starfighter missions

As far as the daily quests are concerned, normally playing through the different game modes and going about the usual routine should enable you to accomplish most of them. Each objective you clear earns you rewards as well as activity points. At the top of the page, securing 100 points will earn you 150 crystals and there are actually more than enough activities to accomplish to earn you more than 100 points.

Achievements reflect your milestones across various aspects of Star Wars: Starfighter Missions. Some of the objectives here take a lot longer to accomplish but beyond the crystals to earn from completing any task, you also progress in terms of achievement level with each new level reached granting you 50 crystals. In any case, be sure to look into some of the achievement objectives, especially as a beginner since some of the activities you engage in may have slipped your attention given that there are a lot of challenges opened up for you.

star wars starfighter missions achievements

Relative to achievements, another feature in Star Wars: Starfighter Missions that relates to your progression is the data archive, which can be accessed through its icon beside the quest icon. The data archive essentially provides missions relative to your Starfighter and boost card collection. You may often see an indicator on this icon telling you that rewards can be earned. There are missions associated with unlocking each starfighter as well as taking them through missions.

You can also earn extra rewards if you complete a set of Starfighters as depicted in the mission button at the upper right side of the page. As some rare Starfighters are central to the missions aspect of this feature, it may take a while to accomplish them.

8. Always Send Squads On Scouting Missions

Star Wars: Starfighter Missions provides ample opportunities for you to earn the resources you need to power up your favorite Starfighters. As you begin to unlock more squads and face tougher challenges, however, no amount of resources earned seem sufficient for your growing needs. Thankfully enough, there are ways to earn idle resources as well and through the scout feature, you can earn extra resources to help you with your upgrade and enhancement needs.

star wars starfighter missions scouting

On top of XP and credits, different upgrade parts as well as craft data cards can be obtained from scout missions. More rewards can be earned from higher level missions but take more time to complete as well as higher level units. Note that you can launch as many scout missions as your collection of starfighters allow. Remember as well that separate scout missions are available for both light and dark forces.

9. Take Advantage Of Events

Star Wars: Starfighter Missions also holds a wide variety of events if the regular content falls short of filling your need for more space shooting adventures. Events can span from providing additional incentives for players to simply log in to earn additional rewards while others require a more active role in various new challenges. At the time of this writing, a Challenge Event where players are ranked based on performance in the league is active. You earn a lot of resources through participation and more can be claimed based on your performance run.

star wars starfighter missions events

The league challenge tests each player with regard to their best performance, as fuel is added to the usual mix of gameplay aspects to consider on top of exponentially increasing difficulties of levels. It is comparable to a survival run which tests endurance on top of skill and squad power. This is one game mode where having at least a duo of powerful squads is important.

There are also event stages that hand out pilot a variety of useful resources for participation. The Han Solo Smuggler’s Chest, for example, provides players with extra rewards based on the Starfighters they use for the mission. Star Wars: Starfighter Missions promises to continuously provide similar time-limited events and if you are raring to power up your collection of Starfighters, you should take advantage of each event as they come.

10. Always Check Your Mail And Inventory

The management aspect of Star Wars: Starfighter Missions is not limited to your roster of Starfighters as the resources you need to strengthen them is crucial to ensuring a stable, continuous growth of your squads. Although most rewards you earn directly end up in your inventory, which you can readily access via its icon at the bottom of the main screen, some of these rewards require opening to unravel the real rewards.

Additionally, rewards from events are transmitted through the mail, so be sure to check on it whenever you see an indicator on the envelope icon at the right side of the main screen.

star wars starfighter missions inventory

Under the inventory, make it a habit to check the supplies tab. It is easier to keep track of tickets you earn that can be used to exchange for datatapes or materials at the shop. There are datatapes you can also use to convert them into credits.

Some packages may also contain upgrade parts at random and need to be used as well to reveal the random parts you get. Another important resource to keep an eye on is the hypermatter. This can be used to refill your coaxium supply so you can continue on with your adventures.

And that sums up our Star Wars: Starfighter Missions beginner’s guide. If you have played Star Wars: Starfighter Missions extensively enough and have uncovered some additional tips and strategies we have not included in our guide, do not hesitate to share them with us in the comments below!