The Galactic Empire ruled for years through fear, intimidation, and tyranny. With a mighty military force including stormtroopers, spy technology like probe droids, and the planet-destroying Death Star, Emperor Palpatine’s regime seemed unstoppable and permanent. These are its best troops.

Hopefully this guide helps you with some of the finer details or at least just choosing what units are best for what situation, and what grenades do what. This is a classic game from my childhood, and it's my pleasure to share my love for it with these guides.

Equipment:
Blaster Rifle (ammo)
Blaster Pistol (cooldown)
Thermal Detonator (grenade, particularly effective against enemy troopers)
Concussion Grenade (grenade, made for use against vehicles and turrets)

The Stormtrooper is the best infantry unit in the game. Unlike their now-famous reputation for being terrible shots, in this game, the Stormtroopers seem to be the most accurate of all the troopers. That being said, they are still the "average joes". They are good at everything, but aren't great at any one thing. If you are having trouble deciding what to pick, play as them, as their toolkit comes with a lot of ammunition and both anti-vehicle and anti-personnel explosives.

It's worth selecting them if you like regular FPS gameplay, as they are armed with an automatic blaster rifle and a semi-automatic blaster pistol, which can overheat if used too frequently. They are also incredibly versatile. They can mechanically outperform Rebel Soldiers, so Stormtroopers have an inherent advantage (just because of their accuracy).

You have thermal detonators and concussion grenades - use them at every relevant opportunity, especially in tight corridors. They are fantastic fun as you watch your opponents fly out of a window on Bespin Platforms.

Equipment:
Missile Launcher (fires one missile, needs to be reloaded in between each shot)
Blaster Pistol (cooldown)
Thermal Detonator (grenade effective against personnel)
Mines (mostly anti-vehicle traps, but can be used against troopers as well)

The Shock Trooper plays very, very similarly to the other Heavy Trooper classes in the other factions. The main difference is that their missile launcher can only be fired once, and then must be reloaded (quite slowly too). Thus, they probably have the weakest missile launcher (tied with the Confederacy's Assault Droid). To maximize the missile launcher's effectiveness against infantry, it is easier to fire against the ground, using the splash damage from the explosion to kill or at least knock them off of their feet so you can use your blaster pistol.

The Shock Trooper is most useful against enemy vehicles, but the mines can also be used to great effectiveness in certain chokepoints across a variety of maps. Narrow corridors or staircases can be great places to lay mines and kill multiple enemies at the same time. As with all other classes with Thermal Detonators, use them to their fullest potential by throwing them into the same kinds of narrow chokepoints, or use them to flush enemies out of their hiding spots so you can dispatch them with a blast from your missile launcher.

The Shock Trooper, like other Heavy Troopers, has more health but moves a bit slower than other classes. While these differences aren't huge in the grand scheme of things, it does pay to be aware of your character's limitations, especially in multiplayer skirmishes.
There probably won't be a huge amount of Shock Troopers on the battlefield at any one time, but those that are there are best deployed to deal with turret emplacements, lay traps for vehicles along predictable routes with their mines, and generally pester vehicles (even though in my experience the Rebel vehicles are inferior to the Imperial ones). Their blaster pistol can be surprisingly effective too, if things come down to trooper-to-trooper combat (which you'll generally want to avoid doing as a Shock Trooper). Mines can also be used to deal with ignorant Rebel scum who are walking around, not paying attention to their surroundings.

Equipment:
Mortar Launcher (a long-distance grenade launcher. Projectiles explode on contact. Requires practice to use)
Blaster Pistol (cooldown)
Fusion Cutter (repairs vehicles, health/ammo stations, and turrets)
Dispenser Health & Ammo (does exactly what it says on the tin)

I'm not a fan of the Imperial Pilot's Mortar Launcher. While you imagine it should be a way to lob thermal detonators from further away, in practice they detonate immediately on impact with a smaller blast radius. They are also much harder to aim than grenades. Just like all the other Pilot units (with the exception of the Rebel Pilot), they are functionally useless in one-on-one combat against an enemy unit unless you get lucky. The blaster pistol, while a decent weapon, is outmatched by a blaster rifle in basically all situations. As such, you should only pick this class if you plan to stay in a vehicle for basically the whole time, or stick with a squad to drop health & ammo kits for others.

The Fusion Cutter heals vehicles and turrets, as well as health and ammo stations (the brick-like Gonk droids which dispense ammo, and the FX-series medical droid, which heals those who stand next to it). This makes a good Pilot invaluable, as they can repair vital installations for defense, like the turrets on Hoth. They should also (obviously) be the troops first selected to drive vehicles, as they heal any vehicle they are currently sitting in. You should choose a pilot if you want to play one of the more specialized roles, either support or vehicle driver.

Equipment:
Sniper Rifle (long-distance rifle, instant kill on a headshot, 1x zoom)
Blaster Pistol (cooldown)
Thermal Detonator (grenade for use against enemy troopers)
Recon Droid (lightly armoured droid to scout ahead, armed with an incredibly weak blaster pistol and incredibly powerful orbital strike)

With only 1x zoom, they aren't quite as effective as the Rebel Marksmen who you'll be facing off against. They do, however, have a larger clip than the Rebel Marksman, meaning they can get off more shots than their opponents before having to slowly reload. Scout Troopers are still an invaluable trooper on the battlefield, able to hang back and deal with enemies from a distance. The Rebels find the Scout Trooper slightly harder to counter, as they don't have a jet trooper unit like the Empire does - but a good counter-sniper can still easily pick you off, given that the enemy has a more effective range than you do. As such, Imperial Scout Troopers will need to be on the move against human opponents who remember where you last fired from, and making use of both the crouched and prone positions to avoid detection. Use thermal detonators to cover your tracks in tight corridors and to flush enemies out of hiding spots within range. Extremely effective in the bunkers on Hoth for picking off enemies running across the open snowfields, for instance.

Always try and stay back, as Scout Troopers are still the most fragile on the battlefield. To aid in hanging back, the Scout Trooper can also use a recon droid, which is armed with its own blaster pistol (which isn't very useful at all, so try not to pick fights with it, even if the recon droid is small and hard to hit) to scout an area out for you or your team. It requires you to remain stationary while operating it, so it could be considered a risky proposition to use it if you aren't located somewhere safe. A recon droid can call down an orbital strike too on a specific outdoor location, which can do an extreme amount of damage to an enemy placement. It is the Scout's best way to deal with enemy vehicles, or fortified areas - if the droid can survive long enough to reach the destination the orbital strike needs to be called down onto.

Equipment:
Blast Cannon (shotgun that is inaccurate at longer ranges, high damage output)
Blaster Pistol (pistol on cooldown. Can never run out of ammunition. Low damage output)
Thermal Detonator (grenade for use against enemy personnel)

The chunky Imperial Dark Trooper is the ultimate strike unit. Jumping twice will activate the Dark Trooper's jump-pack, which will send them soaring across the sky to land some distance away. Masters of this technique can drop into an enemy combat zone from behind and use the blast cannon to quickly kill an enemy in one or two shots before they have a chance to react.

Dark Troopers are meant to be used for hit and run or surprise attacks. When they are themselves caught off guard (especially when out of jump-pack fuel), they quickly become fodder for enemy blasters. So use them in the right situations. A Dark Trooper can unplug enemy emplacements from behind while forces pushing at the front keep the enemy distracted, or sweep around entire defensive positions to begin taking a command post from a stealthy position that no-one was expecting. Their mobility however, while a boon most of the time, also means they can get easily cut off from help or supplies. Don't throw away countless team lives trying to jump behind enemy lines and getting mowed down each time. They are not meant for sustained combat.

As always, use thermal detonators to your advantage. They are such a good tool, available to so many classes, that you'd be a fool not to use them to flush enemies out of positions, or toss from behind and watch your enemies panic in the last possible second as it blows their defenses away or pushes them towards the troops that are hopefully attacking from the front. A really unique and fun unit. In the right hands, becomes incredibly lethal as you appreciate the verticality of some of the maps and how the jump pack can be used to consistently stay one step ahead of your enemies, outmaneuvering them at every turn.

I must admit, I can't be quite sure on what basis something like "firepower" is ranked - I assume it is the damage from a single shot from their main weapon - but I was not present while the Prima Game team was defining these things, so it could be some obscure calculation regarding their potential damage output. Also, I believe "stamina" refers to health. Speed I hope is self-explanatory!

I figured despite some vagaries it is worth digitizing anyway, and might be of some interest to people wanting to really get stuck into the game's stats. Just remember - these stats aren't everything! It's good play that transforms a unit's potential.


Finally, thank you for reading, I hope you found this guide (or guides if you've read the other ones too!) to one of my favourite childhood games - it has been a great pleasure revisiting it, as well as seeing the lovely responses to these guides. Keep on fighting on the battlefront!