Top 10 Hints and Tips

Build a Third Droid (Save your Crystals)

The game tries to get you to spend your Crystals at every opportunity. To rush building production, upgrade things for free, and even during the tutorial. However, if you are very frugal with your Crystals, and scrounge some more by linking your social network accounts to the game, clearing debris and completing missions, then you can potentially get a third Droid, which will give you a real time advantage when compared to other players.

How to get free Crystals

You can get extra Crystals in addition to those provided to you at the start of the game without spending a single cent. There are three main ways to do this. First, you can clear some of the debris from around your base using the Droids. This allows you to build in more locations, and has the added benefit of potentially unearthing some Crystals. Secondly, you are given Crystals for completing Chapters in the game's single-player storyline. Finally, link your social network accounts to Star Wars Commander to net yourself an additional clutch of Crystals.

Make use of the Shield

When you start the game and also after your base has been destroyed, you will get a defensive shield which prevents any enemies from attacking your base. The idea behind this is that you need time to build up your resources, as well as to prevent any one player from being picked on. Try to avoid attacking other players while the shield is on. It can be tempting, especially if you have not a lot else to do in the game at that point, to get rid of the shield and attack someone else, but when you do, you will usually be attacked in revenge. So save up your resources, upgrade some defenses, and bide your time. Note that you can also pay Crystals to have a Shield put in place, but this isn't really the best use of the currency.

Check the resources before you attack

When you are trying to pick an enemy to attack, check the number of resources they have before you confirm it. Often it is worth spending some more Credits to check another base rather than losing all of your units for just a few thousand of each. Also, if they have a lot of resources, you don't necessarily have to destroy their HQ to get a big bonus from these bases - you can focus on their resources.

Note: This is something other players will do to you too. If you only have a few thousand resources, you will get attacked a lot less than if you have heaps of them. This is why it can be so hard to level up and save up the stacks of resources necessary to do so.

Target turrets with airstrikes

Rather than wasting your valuable ground troops on regular buildings, use them to take out the most deadly turrets in a base. Sometimes you will get a one-hit kill on them, and the value of that in terms of ground troops could be immense. In all campaign missions you will have access to one airstrike, and once you unlock Starship Command you can use them against other players too.

Upgrade your barracks and factory

Star Wars Commander is one of the most difficult games when picking what to upgrade. You have limited resources and the scarcity of Droids also makes it very hard to know what to prioritize. Early in the game, you should try (after your resource buildings), to upgrade your barracks and factory. These unlock a greater range of units, which, once you can then upgrade those in the research lab, will give you the edge against other players in battle.

Use only the troops necessary

This can be a difficult balancing act. Any troops you deploy to the field cannot be used again, and for some of the vehicles and heroes on offer, this is a bit of a waste of resources. Although there are advantages to deploying all your strongest units at the same time (they will deal more damage and receive less), if you are able to keep some back and only send them in if necessary, in the long run you will save a lot of resources.

Time is limited

Don't forget that when attacking an enemy base (and also when defending your own), there is in reality a very short amount of time allowed for destroying a base in Star Wars Commander. This means that if someone has just one unit left, they cannot carry on to take out an entire base if there are no defenses left - there simply isn't time. This can be used, in a defensive sense, to your advantage. Spread buildings out as much as possible and you will never find yourself on the end of a three-star defeat. Similarly, when attacking, make sure you commit enough units or hold some back so that if there are just a couple left once all the turrets have been taken care of, there are still enough to take out the base in the time limit.

Upgrade your resources

Arguably the biggest factor restricting what you can do in Star Wars Commander (other than the lack of Droids), is your resource capacity. You should continuously focus on upgrading your Credit Market, Credit Vault, Alloy Refinery and Alloy Depot, to ensure that you are getting as many resources as possibly every minute, and have the capacity to hold them. Upgrading your HQ requires a serious amount of resources, and you will need to make sure your resource buildings are maxed out before that becomes a possibility.

Don't ignore the campaign

The Campaign can be overlooked in favor of attacking other human players, but this is a mistake. Some of the missions are incredibly easy and may even technically be things you have already completed. Some tasks involve merely upgrading buildings or ensuring you have reached the maximum number for your current HQ level, yet they give you handsome Credit and Alloy rewards. Not to mention the fact that once you have completed all the missions in a single chapter you earn some Crystals.