Welcome to the best mods for Darth Vader, the latest article in our series about the popular game Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes where we take a look at the best mods for each SWGoH character. While I do not claim to have all of the answers in this game, I do my research and have used every character I write about extensively. These are mod recommendations based on the character’s kit and actual gameplay to help you in your quest to dominate the Galaxy of Heroes holotables.

Today I’ll be looking at mods for one of the hardest to obtain characters in SWGoH in the early going, Darth Vader. Once a powerful Jedi, Vader fell to the Dark Side and was a major player during the days of the Galactic Empire, playing a key role in the genocide of the Jedi Order. In SWGoH, Vader’s Zeta ability, Inspiring Through Fear, once made him a great leader in some situations, and as the game has evolved so too has Darth Vader as EA Capital Games has done a good job of keeping him relevant in SWGoH. Let’s take a look at the mods you want to use to maximize your Darth Vader.

Main Focus: Darth Vader has gone through a couple of updates over the years in Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes with his No Escape unique and Merciless Massacre special having been added since the game began. While Speed is almost always the first focus for all characters, the No Escape unique grants Vader gains 8 Speed for each Empire or Sith ally and for each Jedi or Rebel enemy. So if used in an all-Empire squad against a team of Rebels you’re looking at a huge Speed boost. Given how well this works with the mechanics of the Merciless Massacre special that was added in June 2020, it is recommended that endgame players have Darth Vader in the 250-260+ Speed range to ensure he goes as soon as possible in almost any game mode.

Additional Areas to Focus: Potency, Offense, Critical Chance, Critical Damage & Health. Potency continues to be a major area of focus given Force Crush can inflict three damage over time effects and Speed down on the opposing team, and his basic can apply Ability Block, so increasing his Potency is a must. This can be incredibly helpful when used alongside Lord Vader or when any Feat requires DoTs. Once your Potency is high enough to reliably land the debuffs, increasing Offense, Critical Chance and Critical Damage will help you smash the enemy with Culling Blade. At Relic 7 Critical Chance comes in at 55.67% CC, so even a Relic 7 Darth Vader can benefit from more Critical Chance, and getting his CD up with the triangle mod is wise whether you use an Offense or a Critical Damage set to help him hit harder. Some endgame guilds require his Physical Damage to hit a certain mark while others may emphasize the CC/CD sets more – that is up to your gameplay and preference. Adding Health can also be beneficial depending on how you use Vader. Since he is still effective under an Emperor Palpatine lead, adding to Vader’s Max Health is wise given the mechanics of Palpatine’s leadership. 

In-game Mod Recommendations: Speed & Critical Chance. Honestly this feels a little outdated, but this is par for the course with Capital Games since the end of 2018. Let’s be real, the company tried to simplify mods and added these in-game recommendations, but now when they update characters or add new ones to the factions they do not update their old content. I get it, it can be tough to cover every little detail, so I will do my best to stay on top of things to benefit the community as Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes evolves. For my recommendations see below.

Ideal Mod Setup for SWGoH Darth Vader:

I find using a Potency set with Darth Vader is enough to debuff most of the time, but with the changes to Vader’s kit, a set of four Offense or Critical Damage mods seem to be the best options today. Make sure to get very high Speed secondaries on your mods to find the best mod combination for Darth Vader in SWGoH, which should look something like this:

• Transmitter (Square) – Offense/Critical Damage mod with offense primary and a secondary focus on speed, offense, critical chance and health or potency
• Receiver (Arrow) – Potency mod with speed primary and a secondary focus on potency, offense, critical chance and health
• Processor (Diamond) – Offense/Critical Damage mod with defense primary and a secondary focus on speed, critical chance, offense and potency
• Holo-Array (Triangle) – Potency mod with critical damage primary and a secondary focus on speed, critical chance, potency and offense
• Data-Bus (Circle) – Offense/Critical Damage mod with health primary and a secondary focus on speed, offense, critical chance and health or potency
• Multiplexer (Plus) – Offense/Critical Damage mod with potency or offense primary and a secondary focus on speed, critical chance, health and potency or offense

Originally published March 2017 by PsychoPoet
Revised January 2021 by LJ