STAR WARS Zero Company What to Do Next on the Holotable

Open every Holotable tab before launching. If a Critical Mission has 1 cycle remaining, launch it; the game removes the choice. Otherwise, an active 1-cycle Hero Mission is the default. A Crisis is the alternative only when preventing its permanent enemy upgrade matters more than the Hero Mission you would lose. If neither is pressing, take the shortest Hero deadline, then ordinary battlefield Missions.

Every battlefield Mission advances the clock when the squad returns to the Den. Before confirming a launch, subtract one from every other live countdown. The result, not the label color, tells you what the choice costs.

Use the default queue

Work from the top and stop at the first condition that matches:

Priority	Choose	Why	Cost	Failure state	Next check
1	Critical Mission at 1 cycle	Critical Missions are required to advance the campaign. When they reach 1 cycle remaining you must launch this mission.	Any other 1-cycle entry can resolve while you are away	Treating the forced launch as optional	Confirm which Hero Mission or Crisis will be lost on return
2	Active Hero Mission at 1 cycle	It expires after another Mission advances the Cycle	An unanswered Crisis applies the effect you did not stop	Saving the Crisis instead and losing the Hero Mission by accident	Read the required squad and failure condition
3	Active Crisis when no Hero Mission is at 1	One current enemy upgrade can still be prevented	Every other timer loses one cycle; the other Crisis effect still becomes permanent	Creating a Hero/Critical collision for the next Cycle	Subtract one from both Hero and Critical clocks
4	Shortest remaining Hero Mission	Authored opportunities expire; ordinary work can usually wait when its cost is lower	A shorter ordinary opportunity may disappear	Sorting by reward instead of deadline and losing the Hero Mission	Check whether an unlock Operation is still required
5	Ordinary battlefield Mission	No forced Critical, one-cycle Hero, or Crisis tradeoff remains	The launch consumes a Cycle that could have been saved for a later chain	Launching because nothing looks red, without projecting the return state	Reopen every tab and confirm the next two entries still fit

This is a default, not a hidden game rule. The mandatory Critical behavior, Hero expiry, Crisis consequence, and Cycle advance are formal facts. Choosing the Hero Mission over the Crisis when both have one cycle is planning advice, with the permanent upgrade stated as its price.

Project the next Cycle

Four worked snapshots show the look-ahead:

Live snapshot	Default choice	State after the squad returns
Critical 1, Hero 1, Crisis 1	Critical Mission	Hero: Hero Mission expires; Crisis: unanswered Crisis effect becomes permanent
Hero 1, Crisis 1, no forced Critical	one-cycle Hero Mission	Crisis: unanswered Crisis effect becomes permanent
Hero 2, Crisis 1, Critical 3	active Crisis	Hero: 1 cycle; Critical: 2 cycles
Hero 2, ordinary Mission 1	two-cycle Hero Mission	Ordinary Mission: ordinary Mission expires

These are the possible results:

A Hero Mission is gone when its countdown reaches zero.
The Crisis effect you did not answer becomes permanent when that deadline passes.
A Critical Mission that reaches 1 cycle must launch next.
An ordinary timed Mission can also disappear when its countdown ends.

The third case fits only because the projected next state is Hero 1 and Critical 2. If Critical were 2 before the Crisis launch, both would show 1 on return and the Critical Mission would take priority. That is the collision the look-ahead is meant to expose.

Choose between Hero and Crisis

When a Hero Mission and Crisis both show 1 cycle, you are choosing a loss:

Branch	Choose when	Why	Price	Failure state	Next check
Hero Mission	Preserving the authored mission and its completion reward matters more	Another Mission would expire it	The unopposed Crisis effect becomes permanent	You launch without the required healthy Operators and fail the mission you chose to save	Check required Operators, Injuries, objective, and explicit failure condition
Crisis Mission	The named permanent enemy upgrade is worse for this campaign	Responding prevents one of the two current effects	The Hero Mission expires; the other Crisis effect still becomes permanent	You assume the Crisis removes both candidates	Confirm the exact survivor in the Crisis comparison

Some Crises require direct action. Crisis Missions require you to deploy a squad to prevent your foes from becoming stronger. Choose carefully. The effect to which you don't respond will be permanently applied. The current pool presents 2 candidates. The Crisis guide owns the effect comparison; this page owns the timer tradeoff.

If two Hero Missions show 1 cycle and no Critical launch is forced, there is no data rule that makes one universally correct. Compare the required squad, failure condition, and reward you care about. Launching either means the other can expire, so make the loss explicit before confirming.

Check current Hero windows

The current build has 11 Hero Missions across four configured base windows:

Base window	Count	Current Missions
1 cycle	4	, , ,
2 cycles	1
3 cycles	2	,
4 cycles	4	, , ,

The distribution is 4 at 1, 1 at 2, 2 at 3, 4 at 4 cycles. It is useful for recognizing short windows, but it is not a countdown calculator. Always return to the live value.

The Mission reference owns the complete objective, squad, location, difficulty, faction, and failure fields. This guide keeps only the timing facts needed for the queue.

Start linked Hero Missions

Five Hero Missions name an unlock Operation. Finishing the Operation reveals the linked battlefield step; it does not mean the Hero Mission is already complete.

Hero Mission	Required unlock Operation	Configured Mission window
		4 cycles
		4 cycles
		4 cycles
		4 cycles
		3 cycles

Before launching anything else, check whether a Hero story you intend to preserve is still sitting behind one of these Operations. Reserve the exact visible Intel cost and meet its assignment gate. There is no universal Intel reserve: the Operation reference shows the current cost, expiry, risk, and required Operators.

Failure state: you protect room for a future Hero Mission but let its unlock Operation expire first. Next check: after resolving the Operation, reopen the Missions tab and use the newly visible live countdown, not the configured base value from this table.

Decide Main Mission timing

A Main Mission becomes non-optional at 1 cycle. Before that point, launching it early is a choice. Use the spare Cycle for a one-cycle Hero Mission or a Crisis you value when the projection still leaves the Main Mission available.

Waiting also has a price. If you keep taking ordinary work until the Main Mission reaches 1, the next launch is forced and any new one-cycle Hero or Crisis collision may become unsalvageable. After every optional Mission, check the Main Mission first.

Use this branch:

Branch	Choose when	Why	Cost	Failure state	Next check
Launch the Main Mission now	No shorter optional deadline matters, the squad is ready, and advancing the chapter is the goal	It uses an open launch window before another deadline can create a collision	Every other battlefield timer loses one cycle	You launch an underprepared squad or abandon an optional deadline that mattered more	Read the required squad, objective, and failure condition, then project every timer after the return
Wait one Cycle	A Hero Mission, Crisis, or required unlock Operation would otherwise be lost, and the projected Main Mission remains above 1	The spare Cycle preserves a time-limited branch without triggering the Critical rule	The Main Mission moves closer to its forced state and may collide with a new deadline	Your projection returns with the Main Mission at 1 beside another one-cycle entry	Subtract one from the Main Mission and every other live battlefield timer before launching the optional Mission
Do not wait	The Main Mission shows 1 cycle	The formal Critical rule has removed the choice	Another one-cycle entry can expire while the squad is away	You treat the launch as optional and plan a route the game will not allow	Select the Critical Mission, list the losses on return, and verify the required squad and failure condition

Credits and Intel can be managed at the Den without launching a battlefield Mission. Before buying something optional, keep the visible cost of the next required unlock Operation. Spend the remainder only after the queue is safe.

An Operation that resolves at the Den is not the Cycle-advancing launch described by the queue. Handle its assignment, cost, and expiry under the Operation rules, then reread the Holotable before selecting the squad’s destination.

Handle a missed Hero Mission

The expiry message is explicit: MISSION EXPIRED: Mission name. Do not treat an expired Mission as postponed.

One current exception is formally documented. If expires, does not depart permanently. The recovery has 2 automatic steps, each lasting 1 cycle, before he returns to the roster. The expired Mission stays lost.

Completing that Mission awards 10 Bond points. Letting it expire does not award those points, and the automatic return sequence has no replacement Bond reward.

Check before launch

Do this from the Den:

Read the Critical Mission countdown.
Read every Hero Mission countdown, including entries lower in the list.
Read the active Crisis candidates and the permanent effect you would leave unanswered.
Check whether a wanted Hero Mission is still behind an unlock Operation.
Subtract one from every other live countdown and write down what expires or becomes forced.
Confirm the chosen Mission’s required Operators, Injuries, objective, and failure condition.
Keep the visible Intel cost of the next required Operation before optional spending.
Launch only when you can name both the chosen result and the opportunity you may lose.

Success signal: after the squad returns, the next required item is still available or was deliberately sacrificed, and no Critical 1-cycle state comes as a surprise.

If the projection fails: cancel before launch. Choose the forced Critical item, the 1-cycle Hero default, or the Crisis alternative from the queue; then run the subtraction again. If no urgent item remains, the ordinary Mission is safe to take.

REFERENCES

References

Cycle timing, forced Critical deployment, Crisis consequences, and the Hero Mission expiry message.
Current English campaign and Holotable rules
All eleven configured base windows, required Operators, and the five named unlock Operations.
Current Hero Mission records
The two automatic one-Cycle return steps, non-permanent departure, and the separate ten-point completion Bond reward.
Current Luco recovery sequence
Describes Cycles, the Den, Operations, and Tactical Missions; published June 9, 2026.
Official gameplay overview