Star Wars Zero Company Best Scoundrel Weapon

The Blaster Pistol is the best weapon for Scoundrel in Star Wars Zero Company, but not because the class is secretly supposed to become a Gunslinger. The real advantage is how easily the Pistol fits around everything Scoundrel already wants to spend Action Points doing.

Scoundrel is at its best setting up targets with Identify Weakness, triggering assists through Easy Mark, and creating openings that another member of the squad can cash in. A weapon that only costs 1 AP per shot lets me keep doing those things without turning every round into a choice between using my class abilities and actually firing my gun.

The Blaster Rifle is my second choice if you want more personal damage and additional range. Longarm can even create an interesting high-damage Scoundrel setup if you want to consume your own guaranteed criticals, but that starts moving away from what makes the class so useful in the first place.

Jump To Section:
Best Scoundrel Weapon
Why The Pistol Is Best
Pistol vs Rifle
Is Longarm Good?
Why I Avoid Repeater
Ion Weapons
How To Change Weapons

Blaster Pistol Is The Best Scoundrel Weapon

My pick for the best Scoundrel weapon is the Blaster Pistol. It deals 6 base damage, has +4 Critical Hit Damage and an 11% base Critical Chance, but the stat that matters most here is really its 1 AP firing cost.

Scoundrel already has one of the clearest AP demands of any specialization. Identify Weakness costs 1 AP and makes an enemy Vulnerable, guaranteeing that the next attack against that target critically hits. If you're starting with the standard 3 AP, using Identify Weakness still leaves enough room for two Pistol attacks if you don't need those points for anything else.

Compare that to the Rifle. Its first shot costs 1 AP, but every additional shot during that turn costs 2. After spending an AP on Identify Weakness, you can fit one cheap Rifle shot into the remaining budget, while the Pistol leaves much more freedom to keep acting.

That's the part that makes the Pistol click for me. Scoundrel doesn't need its primary weapon to dominate the turn. The class already creates value through Vulnerable, assists, and Defense penetration. I want the weapon filling the gaps around those abilities rather than demanding the entire AP bar for itself.

Why The Pistol Works So Well With Scoundrel

The Pistol also benefits from something that's easy to overlook when comparing the raw weapon numbers: Scoundrel's Instinct makes all of the operator's attacks Penetrate, ignoring up to 4 points of Defense.

That's particularly helpful on a low-damage weapon. Flat Defense naturally hurts smaller individual attacks more than a massive single hit, so having the class itself punch through up to 4 points of that Defense makes the Pistol's modest 6 base damage much less of a liability against protected enemies.

There's a second benefit to making multiple cheap attacks as well. Each successful damaging hit generates Advantage for the shared squad pool. Since the Pistol can fire repeatedly for 1 AP, Scoundrel can help rebuild Advantage on turns where it isn't spending those points entirely on setup.

That creates a nice loop with Easy Mark. The Ultimate spends Advantage to mark an enemy and causes Scoundrel to assist when an ally attacks that target. Pistol turns give you an efficient way to contribute hits and rebuild the same shared resource your stronger class ability wants to consume.

I wouldn't call Scoundrel an Advantage-generation class in the same way Scout is, but weapon choice can still make the class less demanding on the squad's resource economy over the course of a fight.

Don't Automatically Use Your Own Vulnerable Crit

This is probably the biggest thing I'd keep in mind when playing Scoundrel: just because you applied Identify Weakness doesn't mean Scoundrel should be the character that uses it.

Identify Weakness guarantees the next attack against that enemy will critically hit. If you immediately follow that with a 6-damage Pistol shot, you've potentially spent one of the most useful setup effects in the squad on one of its smallest attacks.

I'd rather put Vulnerable on the priority target and let whichever character has the biggest attack available cash it in. Sharpshooter is an obvious partner because its entire role revolves around high-value single-target shots, while Gunslinger's multiple attacks give you another aggressive damage option.

The Pistol then becomes even more logical. Its job isn't necessarily to receive Scoundrel's guaranteed crit. It's there so Scoundrel can cheaply keep contributing after doing the setup work.

This is also why I think comparing Scoundrel weapons purely by their theoretical critical damage misses the point of the specialization. Scoundrel's strongest crit may be the one somebody else fires.

Blaster Pistol vs Blaster Rifle For Scoundrel

The Blaster Rifle is still a very good alternative, and I'd probably use it if I wanted my Scoundrel dealing more independent damage rather than leaning as heavily into setup.

Rifle deals 10 base damage with +6 Critical Hit Damage compared to the Pistol's 6 damage and +4 Critical Hit Damage. Both have an 11% base Critical Chance, while Rifle also moves you from short to medium range.

The tradeoff is AP flexibility. The first Rifle attack each turn only costs 1 AP, which is excellent, but additional shots cost 2 AP each. That means Rifle naturally pushes you toward one meaningful weapon attack alongside your class ability rather than several smaller attacks.

I think the decision comes down to what I'm asking Scoundrel to do. If the operator is constantly using Identify Weakness, repositioning, setting up Easy Mark, and generally making the rest of the squad stronger, Pistol wins. If Scoundrel is spending more turns actually shooting and I want each attack to matter more, Rifle starts making considerably more sense.

Rifle also gives you more breathing room at medium range, which can be useful because Scoundrel isn't supposed to be your frontline tank. You lose some AP efficiency but don't have to play as aggressively around the Pistol's short effective range.

Longarm Is The Interesting Selfish Scoundrel Option

Longarm isn't my default recommendation, but there's an interesting interaction here that makes it much better than it first appears.

A Longarm attack costs 2 AP and carries 12 base damage with another +12 Critical Hit Damage. Identify Weakness costs 1 AP. Put those together and a 3 AP Scoundrel can theoretically spend the entire turn applying Vulnerable and then immediately firing a much harder-hitting weapon to consume that guaranteed crit.

That's basically the opposite philosophy from the Pistol build.

Pistol Scoundrel says, "I'll create the opening and let somebody else finish it." Longarm Scoundrel says, "I'll create the opening and finish it myself."

I still prefer Pistol because using all 3 AP on that sequence leaves essentially no room for anything else, and you're taking one of Zero Company's best setup classes and making it more self-contained. But if your squad lacks a reliable character to convert Identify Weakness into a big hit, Longarm gives Scoundrel a way to solve that problem personally.

It becomes even more interesting once secondary specializations enter the picture and you're intentionally building Scoundrel toward a more offensive identity rather than pure support.

Why I Wouldn't Use Repeater On Scoundrel

Repeater is the weapon I'd be least interested in using on a standard Scoundrel build, largely because its AP economy fights against the specialization's normal turn order.

Repeaters consume all of the operator's remaining Action Points when fired, with their damage improving based on how many AP you commit to the attack. That's great on a character that wants to stand still and dump an entire turn into one shot.

Scoundrel wants to spend AP before attacking.

If you use Identify Weakness first, you've already reduced the AP remaining for the Repeater. If you need to reposition or do anything else before firing, you're reducing it again. The weapon effectively punishes you for doing the things Scoundrel was picked to do.

That's a much worse fit than Pistol, which becomes easier to squeeze into the turn as you spend AP elsewhere, or Rifle, which still offers its first shot for only 1 AP.

Repeater isn't necessarily weak. I just think it asks for the wrong kind of turn.

What If You're Playing Scoundrel Hawks?

If you're specifically building Hawks as a Scoundrel, I'd stick even more strongly with the Pistol initially. Hawks is mandatory for plenty of story missions, and I like having a weapon that doesn't lock the character into one exact turn pattern when the rest of the squad around them may keep changing.

If you haven't settled on the specialization yet, I go deeper into where Scoundrel sits against Medic, Gunslinger, Scout, and the other options in my Star Wars Zero Company best class for Hawks guide.

The short version for weapon choice is that Pistol keeps Scoundrel Hawks flexible. You can spend AP supporting the squad when the mission demands it and still have an inexpensive attack available when it doesn't.

Use An Ion Variant Against Droids

Against Separatist droid forces, I would swap toward an Ion version of your preferred weapon when one is available. Ion is specifically intended as the counter to droid enemies, so the matchup can matter more than sticking rigidly to the default Pistol recommendation.

I still wouldn't change the overall weapon philosophy. An Ion Pistol keeps the same kind of low-AP turn structure I want from Scoundrel, while letting the weapon better match the enemy type you're actually fighting.

How To Change Scoundrel Weapons

You aren't permanently stuck with the weapon you originally chose.

Between missions, head to the Armory in the Den, located to the right of the central map table. From there you can change the operator's weapon between the available classes and manage weapon Mods.

That makes this an easy build to experiment with. I'd start with Pistol, play into Scoundrel's setup-heavy identity, and only move toward Rifle or Longarm if I notice the rest of my squad isn't giving Scoundrel enough opportunities to convert those openings into actual kills.

For most builds, though, Blaster Pistol stays my number-one choice. It doesn't have the best raw damage or the biggest crit, but it interferes with Scoundrel's abilities the least—and for a class whose entire strength comes from fitting several small pieces together in one turn, that's more valuable than simply equipping the gun with the largest number.