Hawks

Overview

Tesh Hawks is the player-controlled protagonist and leader of Zero Company, referred to throughout the game by the surname alone. Once a captain in the Grand Army of the Republic, Hawks commanded the 100th Clone Company under Jedi General Pong Krell, and was dismissed from service after taking the fall for a disastrous defeat against the Separatists at Antine. EA describes Zero Company under Hawks as an independent covert intelligence group based on the Ring of Kafrene.

Press coverage adds that Hawks is disgraced and deeply indebted to Hutt clans following the failed operation. Their close clone trooper comrade Trick was injured saving Hawks during the Separatist attack on Antine and left the military alongside them.

Clever, cool-headed, and decisive, Hawks works with operators from any and all backgrounds, as long as they know how to get the job done.

Hawks is recruited by a Republic Intelligence officer to investigate and counter the threat posed by the Infinite Coil cult.

Hawks is the only permanent, permadeath-exempt member of Zero Company.

Customisation

Players fully customise Hawks at the start of the game:

• Sex and gender
• Species: Human, Togruta, Twi’lek, Zabrak, Mirialan, or Devaronian, with Weequay and Ovissian added once the campaign has been completed (see New Game Plus)
• Appearance, clothing, first name, and voice
• Combat class (chosen from the 8 standard classes)

Species is cosmetic: none carries better weapon proficiencies, so the choice does not change what Hawks can do in combat. See Species & Races.

The male and female versions of Hawks each have their own voice actor. Creative director Greg Foertsch described the two performances as deliberately different in feel: one closer to an outlaw cowboy, the other to a by-the-book agent.

Combat Ability

In addition to their chosen class abilities, Hawks has a unique squad-support action: spending Advantage to refresh 1 AP for any squadmate, once per turn. This makes Hawks a force multiplier in squad resource management.

Hawks also carries a unique talent, Fearless Leader: while Hawks is present, assist damage, defence, and chance-to-hit increase for every operator in the squad, and upgrading the talent improves those bonuses. It is a separate effect from the AP refresh above, and it persists through any specialisation change. See Classes for the full authored talent list, and Talents for the rank values.

Outside Combat

Hawks carries a PICO-5 electroscope, used while scouting in the field. Beyond its story role it has a strategic-layer effect: scouting with it during an Operation can return extra Intel. The Pico-5 ability that grants an ally an extra Action Point in combat shares its name.

Outside of tactical missions, players have full third-person action-adventure control of Hawks in the Den and on the Caisson. Hawks can explore the base, interact directly with squad members, and engage in branching dialogue.

Deployment and Death

Hawks is required on all story missions; skirmish missions can be run with any combination of Operators, with or without Hawks. Because Hawks is the main playable character, dying in combat is an automatic mission failure: the mission restarts rather than the campaign ending. There are no rescue call-ins or early exfiltration; Hawks has to make it out.

Role

Hawks leads Zero Company from the Den on the Ring of Kafrene, planning operations on a holographic galaxy map, deploying into field missions with a squad of four, and managing the team’s bonds and tensions in the between-mission hub.

Narrative lead Aaron Contreras described Hawks’ place in the story:

“This is a game about a team, a team of operators who come from all over, and it’s not a personal fantasy game. Hawks isn’t the lone chosen one who’s going to step out and do all the things with the swing of their mighty, mighty saber or whatnot.”

References

If information is missing, it has not yet been confirmed. Corrections are welcome.