Good morning gamers,
Over the last few weeks, we've looked at sharpshooter characters in Imperial Assault: Jyn Odan and Mak Eshka'rey. Today, we close out our sharpshooter series by covering Loku Kanoloa. Unlike Mak, Loku has the capability of getting static bonuses to his attacks while firing from long range (and some of those benefits can even be passed on to friendly figures). While healthy, Loku has the Clear-Sighted ability, which adds an additional 2 Accuracy to his attacks. While this makes range weapons an obvious choice, how to attack with Loku is a bit more complicated.
Over the last few weeks, we've looked at sharpshooter characters in Imperial Assault: Jyn Odan and Mak Eshka'rey. Today, we close out our sharpshooter series by covering Loku Kanoloa. Unlike Mak, Loku has the capability of getting static bonuses to his attacks while firing from long range (and some of those benefits can even be passed on to friendly figures). While healthy, Loku has the Clear-Sighted ability, which adds an additional 2 Accuracy to his attacks. While this makes range weapons an obvious choice, how to attack with Loku is a bit more complicated.
Loku Kanoloa: Attack vs. Interrupt
Loku's main ability is Set Your Sights, which allows him to place a Recon Token on a figure in his line of sight. Anyone attacking a figure with a Recon Token gets a static Damage 1 bonus to its attack. Obviously, if you attack someone who has a Recon Token, Loku's attacks (and any friendly attacks) become a lot stronger - but Loku has a very powerful upgrade that also requires the use of Recon Tokens: Overwatch. With Overwatch, you can interrupt before a target in your line of sight moves or attacks to perform an attack of your own, adding a free Surge result to your attack (in addition to the Damage 1 if he's got a Recon Token on him already).
On its face, Overwatch is an excellent upgrade to have (and I highly recommend it). However, since you only have 2 Recon Tokens total to use, you'll need to have one token on Overwatch and the other on your target, which makes you focused on a single figure (and none of the other hostile figures). An alternative approach is just to bank both tokens with Overwatch so that you can interrupt for all of your attacks (potentially twice in a single round). This debate between interrupting vs. attacking normally is the key decision for Loku (I think).
On its face, Overwatch is an excellent upgrade to have (and I highly recommend it). However, since you only have 2 Recon Tokens total to use, you'll need to have one token on Overwatch and the other on your target, which makes you focused on a single figure (and none of the other hostile figures). An alternative approach is just to bank both tokens with Overwatch so that you can interrupt for all of your attacks (potentially twice in a single round). This debate between interrupting vs. attacking normally is the key decision for Loku (I think).
Loku has a static +2 Accuracy while healthy, which means any other static Accuracy bonuses just increase an already ridiculous range. For our first build today, we're looking at the A280, which is a more powerful version of Loku's starting weapon the All-Weather Rifle (you can keep this weapon until you get to Tier 2). Thanks to the static +1 Accuracy from the A280 and the static +2 Accuracy from the Marksman Barrel, your looking at a static +5 Accuracy to your Blue-Green attack pool (giving you a guaranteed 8 Accuracy). Thanks to the Plasma Cell, you can turn up to 3 Surge into Damage 3 + Pierce 2 (without counting the static Pierce 1).
To get the most out of this build, you want the Combat Spotter upgrade, allowing you to ignore figures when placing Recon Tokens and shooting at figures with Recon Tokens (getting a lot more out of your automatic Accuracy). Add to this the Overwatch upgrade and you can trade one of your actions to interrupt and attack on someone else's activation (adding that extra surge we talked about earlier). At your worst, you'll get Surge 1 + Accuracy 1 on the Green and Damage 1 + Accuracy 2 on the Blue with a static Accuracy 5 + Damage 1 + Pierce 1 + Surge 1. This results in Accuracy 8 + Damage 4 + Pierce 3, which should kill most Black die figures. It's important to note that the maximum Damage of this weapon isn't much higher (Damage 6 + Pierce 3), so you can rely on breaking the Black die and dealing 4-6 Damage to your target.
To get even more out of this weapon, pick up the Spectrum Scanner for 2 XP to pass the Recon Token to someone else in the same group as your target. You can also increase your static Accuracy and recover Strain better with Mon Cala Special Forces. With this build, you're planning on moving, then banking a Recon Token on the Overwatch upgrade, and then assigning the other Recon Token to a hostile figure you can see. Sure, you'll only be firing once per turn, but it will be spectacular!
Upgrades to purchase - 9 XP: Combat Spotter (1), Overwatch (2), Spectrum Scanner (2), Mon Cala Special Forces (4)
To get the most out of this build, you want the Combat Spotter upgrade, allowing you to ignore figures when placing Recon Tokens and shooting at figures with Recon Tokens (getting a lot more out of your automatic Accuracy). Add to this the Overwatch upgrade and you can trade one of your actions to interrupt and attack on someone else's activation (adding that extra surge we talked about earlier). At your worst, you'll get Surge 1 + Accuracy 1 on the Green and Damage 1 + Accuracy 2 on the Blue with a static Accuracy 5 + Damage 1 + Pierce 1 + Surge 1. This results in Accuracy 8 + Damage 4 + Pierce 3, which should kill most Black die figures. It's important to note that the maximum Damage of this weapon isn't much higher (Damage 6 + Pierce 3), so you can rely on breaking the Black die and dealing 4-6 Damage to your target.
To get even more out of this weapon, pick up the Spectrum Scanner for 2 XP to pass the Recon Token to someone else in the same group as your target. You can also increase your static Accuracy and recover Strain better with Mon Cala Special Forces. With this build, you're planning on moving, then banking a Recon Token on the Overwatch upgrade, and then assigning the other Recon Token to a hostile figure you can see. Sure, you'll only be firing once per turn, but it will be spectacular!
Upgrades to purchase - 9 XP: Combat Spotter (1), Overwatch (2), Spectrum Scanner (2), Mon Cala Special Forces (4)
End-Game Weapon #2 - Precise Cannon: DXR-6
When looking for a powerful gun, few are as impressive as the DXR-6. This is a Tier 3 weapon with a two-dice attack pool and while it has a Red-Red attack pool, the lack of any mod slots often makes it less powerful than other weapon options. However, the surge abilities on this weapon are the same as the A280, making it one of the best surge-bonus weapons in the game. If only we could get reliable Surge results...
From our last build, you'll already see that Overwatch will give us a static Surge, which translates into Damage 2. For this build, I recommend that you also pick up Coordinated Attack, which will allow you to add an additional die to your attack pool - generally, you want to add a Red die, but as we discussed in our post on Gaarkhan, you actually get more reliability and basically the same Damage from a Green die. Since Coordinated Attack requires a Recon Token to be on the target, you'll be rolling a Red-Red-Green (or Red-Red-Red) with a free surge and Recon Token (static Damage 3). If you get more than one surge from the attack results, you'll want to recover strain (though it's rare you'll get more than one or two).
Upgrades to purchase - 6 XP: Overwatch (2), Coordinated Attack (4)
From our last build, you'll already see that Overwatch will give us a static Surge, which translates into Damage 2. For this build, I recommend that you also pick up Coordinated Attack, which will allow you to add an additional die to your attack pool - generally, you want to add a Red die, but as we discussed in our post on Gaarkhan, you actually get more reliability and basically the same Damage from a Green die. Since Coordinated Attack requires a Recon Token to be on the target, you'll be rolling a Red-Red-Green (or Red-Red-Red) with a free surge and Recon Token (static Damage 3). If you get more than one surge from the attack results, you'll want to recover strain (though it's rare you'll get more than one or two).
Upgrades to purchase - 6 XP: Overwatch (2), Coordinated Attack (4)
End-Game Weapon #3 - Support Role: DDC Defender with Plasma Cell
Let's be honest: Loku gets static Accuracy, so while we could use a melee weapon with him, it's better if we just use a range weapon. Most of the skills we've used so far are the heavy-offense abilities of Loku, but he has many support skills too (which don't really help with his offense):
- If Loku has Scouting Report, he can use a Recon Token to allow a crate to be interacted with as a free action (which synergizes with Mak's Expertise upgrade);
- The Spectrum Scanner upgrade doesn't require Loku to be the one killing a figure to pass along the Recon Token to another figure, so you can use this on a friendly figure's turn to keep the Recon Tokens on enemy units;
- Similar to the Spectrum Scanner, Loku can move a Recon Token with Study of Enemies, which isn't limited to a unit on the same deployment card, but rather any unit that's near the target (and it doesn't require that the target be killed, just that a surge is used);
- Finally, Loku has Scout's Guidance, which allows him to put Recon Tokens on friendly units to give them a static Evade to their defense results.
Using all of these upgrades is probably overkill, but to be honest, having all four gives you great flexibility for your Recon Tokens: need to claim a crate in a hurry? You want Scouting Report (especially since you don't need to be able to see the crate that's receiving the token). Have a lot of Black die friends and facing a Sith lord? You want that extra Evade from Scout's Guidance. Need a little more health? Study of Enemies is great that way (if not just to transfer a Recon Token to someone without suffering strain).
So, if you're playing this flexible support role, what do you need from your weapon? The answer is simple: lots of extra surge to recover strain. There is no weapon that gives you reliable surge to recover damage AND multiple attacks like the DDC Defender. Assuming you're shooting at someone who has a Recon Token on them, with the DDC Defender you're adding a static Accuracy 2 + Damage 1 to your attack with a Yellow-Green attack pool. With the Green, you'll get at least 1 more Accuracy and by tacking on the Plasma Cell (we like this upgrade, can you tell?), we not only have the ability to spend 2 surge to increase our Damage, but we also add a static Pierce 1 (which basically guarantees we'll be damaging a Black die). With three attacks for two actions, we can recover up to 3 strain per turn (which allows you to recover basically everything from Scout's Guidance and Scouting Report). This of course requires that Loku doesn't move on his turn (unless you strain twice to gain 2 movement points), but it allows you to provide tactical benefits to your team without spending actions to do it.
Upgrades to purchase – 9 XP: Scouting Report (1), Spectrum Scanner (2), Scout's Guidance (3), Study of Enemies (3)
So, if you're playing this flexible support role, what do you need from your weapon? The answer is simple: lots of extra surge to recover strain. There is no weapon that gives you reliable surge to recover damage AND multiple attacks like the DDC Defender. Assuming you're shooting at someone who has a Recon Token on them, with the DDC Defender you're adding a static Accuracy 2 + Damage 1 to your attack with a Yellow-Green attack pool. With the Green, you'll get at least 1 more Accuracy and by tacking on the Plasma Cell (we like this upgrade, can you tell?), we not only have the ability to spend 2 surge to increase our Damage, but we also add a static Pierce 1 (which basically guarantees we'll be damaging a Black die). With three attacks for two actions, we can recover up to 3 strain per turn (which allows you to recover basically everything from Scout's Guidance and Scouting Report). This of course requires that Loku doesn't move on his turn (unless you strain twice to gain 2 movement points), but it allows you to provide tactical benefits to your team without spending actions to do it.
Upgrades to purchase – 9 XP: Scouting Report (1), Spectrum Scanner (2), Scout's Guidance (3), Study of Enemies (3)
Loku in the Skirmish Game
Loku Kanoloa isn't bad in the skirmish game, but he's not amazing either. Loku has the ability to spend both his actions to perform an attack with +2 Accuracy and ignoring figures in his way. With a static +2 Accuracy anyway and the ability to turn any surge on his Red-Blue attack combo into Damage (or Pierce), he can good damage against foes who are at least 6 spaces away (expected range is actually 7, but you can guarantee 6). For 4 points, he's not a bad purchase.
This concludes our series on sharpshooters. Next week, we're taking a quick interlude and covering three "other heroes" - ones that didn't fit well in any of the categories I made. These heroes don't have specific drivers for their offensive skills, so we'll be covering all three and showing which weapons work well for any of them. Until then, happy gaming!
This concludes our series on sharpshooters. Next week, we're taking a quick interlude and covering three "other heroes" - ones that didn't fit well in any of the categories I made. These heroes don't have specific drivers for their offensive skills, so we'll be covering all three and showing which weapons work well for any of them. Until then, happy gaming!
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