Finally! After months of waiting we finally have the iconic droid R2-D2 in Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes. If you’re not going to give us Luke Skywalker as a Jedi, at least we got another “fan favorite” in R2-D2. Released in the new Daring Droid event over May the 4th, Artoo has quite the interesting kit, so let’s take a look.
To start, R2-D2 has a basic called Electroshock Prod which can stun the enemy and does more damage when the enemy is “Burning.” Burning is a new debuff which is inflicted by Artoo’s AoE special attack Improvise. His other special, Smoke Screen, grants foresight to a target ally, makes other allies go stealth, and grants R2-D2 40% turn meter. While his attacks do not look like big-hitters, by adding the Burning debuff from the AoE and then using the basic on the Burning target, this should deal significant damage.
R2-D2 appears to excel in SWGoH by supporting his teammates as we will review now. His two uniques, both of which can have a Zeta material, are Combat Analysis and Number Crunch. Combat Analysis grants all allies 10% Critical Chance and 10% Accuracy. In addition, any Light Side ally with debuffs has them removed when critically hit thanks to their buddy Artoo. For the Number Crunch unique, it is a big if-then statement. R2-D2 gains 10% max protection for each droid ally, 10% offense for each Galactic Republic ally, 10% max health for each Rebel ally and 10% potency for each Resistance ally. Then, at the start of battle or when R2-D2 revives, he grants droid, Galactic Republic, Rebel and Resistance allies 10% of his max protection, offense, max health and potency until he is defeated.
Looking ahead to mods, my early thoughts are to use Potency and CC mods to increase those areas and look at focusing on CD and protection as well. A complete R2-D2 mods guide will be added to the site after I can fully test him out.
At the end of the day, I do not see R2-D2 being a huge game-changer, but certainly a very valuable character in Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes. I can see him helping a Resistance, as also concluded by Smithie D in his R2-D2 SWGoH review video, given the lack of Resistance characters in the game. I think he would be interesting in any battle with Droids or Rebels as well, and while I know he would not be as effective, I expect we will see R2-D2 on a zMaul team in the coming days as well.
