Star Wars Zero Company Bond System Guide
The Bond System in Star Wars Zero Company tracks the relationship between individual pairs of Operators, but it is much more than a dialogue mechanic. Building Bonds unlocks Cross Training, permanent bonuses for both characters, Focus Points for further progression, and eventually powerful Passive Abilities at maximum Bond.
Jump To Section:
How Bonds Work
How to Increase Bond
Call for Backup and Bonds
Bond Levels Explained
How Cross Training Works
Choosing Cross Training Bonuses
Bonds and Focus Points
Can Bonds Go Down?
Bond vs. Approval
Are Bonds Romance?
Which Bonds Should You Build?
How Bonds Work in Star Wars Zero Company
Bonds are tracked between pairs of Operators rather than as one universal friendship score. Trick can have one Bond level with Hawks, another with Luco, and another with a completely different Operator. Those relationships develop independently throughout the campaign.
This applies far beyond Hawks and the six authored companions. Custom Operators can form Bonds with each other, and even two Astromechs can reach Very High Bond.
That makes the system much larger than it initially appears. You are effectively building a web of relationships across Zero Company, with each pairing offering its own progression opportunities.
The mechanical payoff is Cross Training. When a relationship reaches a new Bond threshold, that pairing can unlock a permanent benefit that applies to both Operators.
How to Increase Bond Between Operators
The most straightforward way to build a Bond is to keep two Operators working together.
Deploying the same pair on Tactical Missions gradually improves their relationship, while specific cooperative combat actions can generate additional Bond progress. Healing another Operator is one confirmed example, so your Medic is not only keeping someone alive when they patch them up.
Operations can build Bonds too. Assigning two Operators to the same strategy-layer Operation increases the relationship between them, giving you another way to develop pairings without necessarily putting both characters in your active combat squad.
I like that option for Operators I want to develop but cannot justify bringing on every Tactical Mission. Instead of completely shelving them at the Den, Operations can still contribute to the relationships I am trying to build.
If you're spending a lot of time on the strategy layer, my Star Wars Zero Company Cautionary Intel guide also explains the campaign modifier that reduces Injury risk during Dangerous Operations.
Call for Backup Is Also a Bond Mechanic
Call for Backup is one of the more active ways Bonds interact with combat.
Each turn, one Operator is selected to have access to Call for Backup. The player does not choose which Operator receives it, but that Operator can choose which ally to call.
Call for Backup is a Free Action, so it does not consume AP. The selected teammate Assists the caller's next attack, provided that teammate has line of sight to the target, and the interaction builds Bond between the two Operators.
That means Call for Backup has a second use beyond squeezing more value out of an attack. If multiple teammates can provide a useful Assist, you can favor the pairing whose Bond you actually want to develop.
I would not sacrifice an important combat result purely for relationship progress, but when two options produce roughly the same outcome, using the Operator whose Bond you care about is basically free progression.
What Are the Bond Levels?
Confirmed Bond tiers include Low, Neutral, High, and Very High. You can see individual pairings and their current relationship level through the Cross Trainings menu.
Very High is particularly important because several achievements are built around reaching that level with different types of pairings.
Hawks can reach Very High Bond with each of the six authored companions, but the system also tracks companion-to-companion relationships independently. Trick and Luco, for example, can develop their own Bond even though neither character is Hawks.
That distinction matters when planning progression. Spending every mission with Hawks plus three rotating characters will develop Hawks heavily, but it does not automatically maximize the relationships among everyone else.
How Cross Training Works
Cross Training is the main mechanical reward for increasing a Bond.
When a pairing reaches the appropriate Bond threshold, you are offered a selection of Cross Training benefits. Choose one and the bonus permanently applies to both Operators in that relationship.
At High Bond, confirmed examples include Timing Exercises for +5% Critical Chance, Reflex Fire Training for +1 Overwatch Damage, and Freeform Training for +2 Focus Points.
Earlier Cross Training options can include smaller permanent improvements such as additional ranged damage, maximum health, melee damage, Critical Chance, grenade-related improvements, and reduced Chance-to-Hit penalties at range.
The crucial detail is that the bonus applies to both Operators even when they are not deployed together afterward.
So if Hawks and Trick complete a Cross Training that improves a combat stat, you do not have to keep Hawks and Trick paired forever to retain the benefit. Each character carries that earned improvement independently.
Choose Cross Training Carefully
Cross Training choices are not identical in every campaign. The options offered at each threshold are drawn randomly for that playthrough, so another player's exact Bond progression may not reproduce your menu.
More importantly, Cross Training choices are permanent once selected.
This makes them fundamentally different from Focus Points, which can be refunded and redistributed. If you choose a permanent Cross Training stat bonus, you cannot simply respec it later because your build changed.
I would therefore evaluate the pairing, not just the isolated bonus.
If both Operators frequently use Overwatch, an Overwatch improvement has value twice. If one is a dedicated ranged attacker and the other spends most of the campaign in melee, a ranged bonus may effectively benefit only half the pairing even though the game technically awards it to both.
The best Cross Training choice is usually the one that has a realistic application on both characters.
Conflict Resolution Works Differently
Cross Training can also offer Conflict Resolution, which is unusual because it does not give the pair a normal passive stat increase.
Instead, Conflict Resolution pushes the relationship toward its next Bond level.
That creates an interesting long-term tradeoff. You can take an immediate permanent combat bonus, or sacrifice that reward to accelerate the pairing toward another Bond threshold and its future Cross Training.
I would be more tempted by Conflict Resolution on a pairing I specifically want to push toward maximum Bond. On a secondary pairing where I mainly want useful permanent stats, taking the actual combat benefit is easier to justify.
Bonds Are One of Your Main Sources of Focus Points
Bond progression also feeds directly into individual character progression because increasing Bonds is a primary way to earn Focus Points.
Those points are then spent through each Operator's Focus Tree on Talents, Abilities, and Passives.
This creates a progression loop that is easy to underestimate early on. Bringing the same Operators together does not only improve their relationship. It can indirectly give you more resources to develop their individual combat kits.
That is one reason I would not completely ignore Bonds while optimizing squad composition. The relationship system eventually translates into tangible combat power.
For more on which roles I actually like pairing together in combat, my Star Wars Zero Company best team and squad composition guide covers how I build a balanced four-Operator squad.
What Happens at Maximum Bond?
Maximum Bond is where Cross Training gets considerably more interesting.
Rather than another small numerical improvement, reaching maximum Bond unlocks a special Cross Training that can grant a Passive Ability.
That makes maximum Bond valuable even if you do not care about the relationship dialogue. You're effectively developing another layer of permanent character progression through the pairing.
It also makes me favor a smaller number of intentionally developed relationships over randomly rotating every possible Operator combination. Spreading Bond progress everywhere may give you breadth, but concentrating enough time into important pairings is how you actually reach the strongest reward tier.
Can Bonds Go Down?
Yes. Bond progression is not guaranteed to move in only one direction.
Relationships can decay and even fracture depending on your actions. That is intentional, with Zero Company's relationship system designed around managing Operators who have different backgrounds, loyalties, and opinions rather than creating a squad where everyone automatically becomes best friends.
That matters because several Operators have legitimate ideological reasons to dislike each other.
Trick and Luco are one of the clearest examples. Trick is a Clone Trooper while Luco is an Umbaran, giving their relationship some obvious historical baggage from the Clone Wars. Their Bond can still be developed, but the game does not treat that relationship as naturally friendly from the beginning.
Bond and Approval Are Not the Same Thing
Zero Company also tracks approval of Hawks' decisions, and I would not treat approval as simply another name for Bond.
Bonds describe the relationship between individual Operators. Approval is tied more directly to how characters react to Hawks' decisions, dialogue choices, and the way missions are handled.
Dilemmas bring the two systems together. During important decisions, Operators can approve or disapprove of Hawks' choice, and those decisions may strengthen or weaken relationships.
This means a character can be mechanically useful, heavily developed, and still disagree with the way you're running Zero Company.
Low approval by itself does not automatically cause an Operator to leave, although authored story events can create larger consequences depending on the relationship and situation.
Does the Bond System Include Romance?
No. Star Wars Zero Company does not have a romance system.
Bonds are professional and platonic relationships between members of Zero Company. Raising someone to Very High or maximum Bond does not unlock a romance route, and squad relationships do not branch into dating options.
Some scenes and interactions can change depending on who is in your squad, but the campaign itself remains broadly linear.
Likewise, not every major event involving an Operator is something that can be prevented by raising their Bond. Trick's story around Order 66, for example, follows a scripted route regardless of how attached you are to him. My Star Wars Zero Company how to save Trick guide covers what happens and whether you can get him back.
What Happens to a Bond If an Operator Dies?
If you're playing with permadeath and one of the Operators permanently dies, their Bonds are gone with them.
The surviving characters can react narratively to the death, but that relationship cannot continue progressing because the Operator is permanently removed from the campaign.
This adds another cost to losing a developed character. You're not only losing their skills, equipment access, and role in the squad. You're also losing the future value of every relationship that Operator had been developing.
That makes keeping heavily connected Operators alive particularly valuable later in a campaign.
Which Bonds Should You Build First?
I would start with pairings that already spend a lot of time together rather than trying to grind every possible relationship immediately.
Your core combat squad naturally gains Bond through shared missions, and you can reinforce those relationships with healing, Call for Backup, and Operations. That gives you Cross Training without completely changing how you play.
After that, look for pairings where both Operators can make use of the same permanent bonuses. A Cross Training improvement that meaningfully helps both characters is better value than one that only fits one member of the pair.
Operations are then useful for developing secondary relationships without constantly breaking up your preferred Tactical Mission squad.
Finally, pay attention to anyone approaching High or maximum Bond. Once you're close to another Cross Training threshold, deliberately deploying that pair together can be more valuable than spreading a little Bond progress across several relationships.
The overall lesson is that Bonds are part of build progression. They influence permanent stats, Focus Points, Passives, and your wider roster strength, so I would manage them with the same intentionality as equipment and Operator development rather than treating them as background dialogue.
And when you're fighting the Infinite Coil while building those relationships, my Star Wars Zero Company Resonance guide covers the Resonance and Surge mechanic that changes how you should sequence kills against Coil enemies.
