R2-D2’s introduction to Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes had felt long overdue, and for those of us lucky enough to have an Empire team ready when his special event dropped on May 4th, 2017, there was an immediate rush to acquire him. Many of us had seen his moves as an NPC in-game, and to be able to play him doesn’t disappoint. Even before you Zeta him he’s a really useful plug & play toon on just about any team. Leveled & geared his basic will reliably stun the opposition, and his specials alternatively cloak your squad or set the whole opposition ablaze (the animation is a close second to the Emperor’s force lightning in my mind). But it’s when his two Unique abilities are maxed that the Zetas raise the bar to Meta Toon.
R2-D2’s first Unique, Combat Analysis, per the in-game text, reads “While R2-D2 is active, all allies gain 10% Critical Chance and 10% Accuracy. While R2-D2 is active, whenever a Light Side ally scores a Critical Hit, dispel all debuffs on them.” The Zeta on this ability is the “whenever a Light Side ally scores a Critical Hit, dispel all debuffs on them” section of the text, thus making any battle more difficult for your opponent given a Critical Hit will remove all debuffs on the Light Side ally.
Meanwhile, on his Number Crunch Unique it reads “At the start of battle, 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. At the start of battle, and when R2-D2 revives, other Droid, Galactic Republic, Rebel, and Resistance allies gain 10% of R2-D2’s Max Protection, Offense, Max Health, and Potency until R2-D2 is defeated.” The second half of that is what you get with a Zeta on Number Crunch – thus Droid, Galactic Republic, Rebel, and Resistance allies all get a serious boost from R2-D2’s presence on their squad.
R2-D2 Unique Ability Zeta Reviews
Gameplay: His unique, Number Crunch, is essential and should be levelled 1st as it works with so many different toons. Like many Zetas the text is a little convoluted, but let’s break it down. He gives everyone on the team 10% of his max protection (worth remembering when you mod R2-D2 him) at the start of the battle & when revived, but that’s not all. He also gains 10% protection, health, offense & potency depending on a toons tags, so with a bit of smart thinking you can choose toons with multiple tags if you want to really power him up. His other unique also has a Zeta, Combat Analysis, and is more a cherry on the cake than a real game-changer. There are a lot of cleansing toons out there already but his cleanse on crit can be really useful when running him in GW in the later nodes. In GW you can slot him into a classic Droid/Jawa squad, or behind a Jyn lead. Both of those combos have seen me get to node 9 and beyond regularly. You really should regard him as one of the best SUPPORT toons across the game, in the top 10 of all toons – yes, he’s that good. Plus he’s fairly future proofed given the great synergy he has with many light side factions (and Droids!). Get your Empire toons ready so you can snap him up when his event eventually returns.
Squad Arena: Meta or Not Meta; you decide, but I’ll wager he’s lurking in a few of your top 10 Arena squads, in mine it’s 8 of 10 teams! Artoo works in a Zeta Qui-Gon Jinn team, GK lead with Chaze/Dnil (currently #1 in my shard), Rex leads, Wiggs leads, the list goes on. Yet to see how Thrawn will impact this, but no early signs of a huge meta shift atm.. 
Rancor: R2-D2 is not needed for any of the teams that can solo it but always fun in a Droid squad, see HAAT below…
AAT/HAAT: When the Tank Takedown AAT Raid launched I was still riding the Droid/Jawa train, so I have yet to aquire a full clone team. For me, R2-D2 works best in either Phase 2 with HK-47 (lead), IG-86, Jawa Engineer & Chief Nebit, pushing right to enrage, or in Phase 4 as part of a rebel Jyn or Wiggs team for cleansing on crit & hiding your weak toons.
How I Use zR2-D2: Literally everywhere at the moment!
My Rating of zR2-D2: 8/10 with Number Crunch, 9/10 with Combat Analysis – as I said earlier, an essential supporting toon across the game. Plus he’s damn good fun to play.
Images courtesy of SWGOH.gg
By Mothman of Descendants of the Empire
Gaming-fans.com Guest Writer
