XWA Update May 2026 - The Barry Review

17th May 2026

Barry

12 mins

This update represents some big changes from XWA – some brand new and some old familiar pilots, and some entirely new upgrades along with new points to go with them. And while all my attention was originally on Thweek all the other goodies went a bit under the radar.

Separate from that there’s new points to discuss and figure out where the meta is going. Unlike the last update though it doesn’t reflect massive swings in point values like the last article where the 50 point game was kicked off.

So it’s time for a quick look at the meta for this update with a quick review of the new content and then a look at how the meta might shake out.

Upgrades

This release is flush with Astromech upgrades, modifications and tech – we’ll start with Flight-Assist Astronmech for 3 loadout points and will really let a pilot move with 2-speed boost and barrel-rolls which realistically will really help any X-Wing arc dodge.

Next there’s the Unhinged Astromech which reduces the difficulty for basic speed 3 manoeuvres that also comes at 3 loadout points. This one is my favourite as it will really help some of those medium and applicable large base ships. This will really help Jumpmaster’s with their restrictive right moves on their dial, as well as ARC-170’s, Kimogila’s and Scurrg’s. With that much application I’m sure their cost will eventually go up.

Modifications there’s a couple of tasty options like Automated Loaders which will really prompt players to get into that reload action for only 3 loadout points. Retrofitted Autothrusters which for 6 points will let your small ship spend a charge after completing any speed-3 manoeuvre which is pretty great if not pushing it for a lot of pilots. The last modification is Targeting Matrix, which at 4 loadout points will allow you to spend a focus result to strain an opponent during an attack; I’ve had a crack at this and found it’s…fine? At a higher initiative it finds more use to assist with follow on shots.

There’s a bunch of single upgrades which we’ll rattle off rapidly:

Winged Reversal:  configuration for U-Wings and Gauntlets enabling turns to become talon rolls which twice a game – and given its free – is entirely down to your play style.

Burst Laser Turret: Finally a new turret – and despite the rumours it’s not the revenge of Twin-Laser Turrets. This one is great for getting a three dice turret that can reach out and touch you at range 2 other than ion turret for 4 points. It comes with charges though so it’s not happening every round which is totally wholesome.

Precision-Tuned Cannons: This is a straight from Gemmar Sojan for 3 loadout points. It’s cheap, and can really help with low output ships like M3-A Interceptors.

Seeker Missiles: Another upgrade pulled off standard loadout cards, and at 10 points it does help contextualise the loadout values of those SL pilots. But they’re also awesome coming with an extra free mod for a charge. Don’t sneer at these bad boys.

Roiling Anger: Dark Side Force ability which risks agility to recover a force. The epitome of choosing violence at just 2 loadout points.

Blindspot Targeter: Passive mods are always great, but at 8 loadout points I think it’s not exactly competing with Fire Control System. Though I suspect – per the artwork – E-Wings are going to love this.

Targeting Relay: This is an interesting support piece of Tech that I can see getting a lot of traction with First Order TIE Fighters given that 3 points is not that significant.

Parting Gift: Another upgrade from the Standard Loadouts, this elite pilot talent is only 2 points but I suspect that’s because it’s not always certain to trigger unless you’re holding off on dropping a device and not liable to kill any friends. But it’s also kind of hilarious.

Captive: As a cross factional crew upgrade that’s been brought back into the game from first Edition, Captive is interesting in terms of reducing an opponents damage output by spending a charge to give them a deplete token. At 8 loadout points though you’re going to really want to know which attack you’re doing that for.

Rebel Alliance

Hera Syndulla comes back in the Ghost at initiative 6 and an ability that displaces the comms-shuttle in favour of the attack shuttle as she has to complete a red manoeuvres to trigger the ability. Coming in at 18 squad points, a re-enforced and double tapping i6 Hera is a force to be reckoned with already - fix her up with something like Bo-Katan and/or Chopper crew, electronic baffle, or supported by Ahsoka Tano in her A-Wing and she’ll be right.

Which brings us to the other new Rebel content includes Ahsoka Tano crew for 10 loadout points  which looks like a great multi-faceted crew option providing force, a means to ignore obstacles and the opportunity for a free lock. Look there is absolutely a burden of execution there is no denying it but don’t most of the strong pieces?

The additional pieces for Rebels include two new astromech upgrades, Modified R4-P Unit and R7-T1. R4-P is an easy one to cover – a one off opportunity to reduce the difficulty of an manoeuvre which isn’t restricted to any ship size though at 5 points you’ll need to be certain.

R7-T1 as the unique is interesting providing linked target lock to red boost for small-based ships, which is going to valuable for Y-Wings like Norra to get into range 1 of a threat without having to take Afterburners.

The Big Winner: As a single pilot - I think it’s Norra Wexley. R7-T1 will help her get in and drop an Advanced Proton Torp on someone, and with Automated Loaders she’ll just keep the heavy hits coming whilst printing that 1 evade all day.

The Big Loser: Auzituck Gunships haven’t been touched and there’s still very little that’s been released that helps them. Provided there’s no stress induction re-introduced to the game they’ve probably done their time in the sin bin.

What To Look At: With the new upgrades like Unhinged Astromech, Automated Loaders and Burst Laser Turret, I think Y-Wings should be afforded a look in with the support in the form of the new Hera Ghost.

Watch Out For:  Per my last article on this, Corran Horn and 3x Knaves remain plausible and with the new upgrades seems even more dangerous.

Galactic Empire

The big one is clearly Carnor Jax returning from his first edition exile and I think I was initially somewhat dismissive of the ability which seemed similar in theme to Dark Curse. Which is clearly a wrong interpretation of the ability. It’s less of a Dark Curse and more of a supporting ability – it can go horribly wrong on attacks where say Heavy Laser Cannon rolls crits – but that is absolutely an edge case.

Carnor comes in at 12 squad points and only has 4 loadout, which is challenging though that seems like the conservative starting point for a TIE Interceptor with a native force token of its own – and with the right support pieces like maybe Moff Gideon and Palp, he’ll be tough to knock out.

For upgrades we have Thrawn crew who seems like a great inclusion for any supporting piece like a TIE Reaper or Lambda at 6 loadout points. Paired with something like Captive it could make the Thrawn carrier a less desirable target despite the fact that it clearly needs to go…

The Big Winner: It’s tough pickings for Empire if I’m completely honest as they haven’t had big shifts, though TIE Strikers have been bolstered by extra loadout. As single pilots go, Morna Kee in the Decimator I think wins with access to Captive upgrade to keep her on the board when that re-enforce token isn’t enough.

The Big Loser: With the amount of strain that’s able to be induced I suspect this is going to be a challenging meta for those Imperial Ace players, and Carnor isn’t fixing that.

What To Look At: Similar to Rebel’s Y-Wings, the Gamma Squadron TIE Bombers strike me as worth similar consideration as the pilots with the loadout that can take the ordnance and other goodies.

Watch Out For: With the new turret released I wouldn’t be surprised it the TIE Aggressor mini-swarms or TIE Brutes start coming back in vogue.

Scum & Villainy

Thweek! Ok this ability absolutely will reward careful and considered play and punish…literally anything else. At initiative 4 this risk/reward is even more obvious. Thweek has a lot of flexibility with where he can end up making him a great blocker or objective chaser. And perhaps occasional danger to the enemy. At 12 squad points he’s competing with Xizor and clearly more expensive than Dalan who’s ability is equally risk/reward.

Fennec Shand enters the game as a unique upgrade that similar to Ahsoka delivers multiple effects when used well. The clear candidate to my mind is the Rogue-class which has both boost and barrel roll are native – and especially Cad Bane where he can transfer the stress from his linked action and then gain a target lock for the next round. Pair that with False Transponders and you’ve just upset someone’s day.

The Big Winner: Aggressors, Firesprays and Lancers have all come down in cost with little real consequences felt for loadouts.

The Big Loser: Well didn’t Fenn cop the heat we expected Boba Fett to take right?

What To Look At: I know I said Dengar last time and I’ll say it again now that Unhinged Astromech is a thing. Dengar will absolutely get his loadout points dropped and be back in the bad books I’m sure of it.

Watch Out For: Honestly I’ve been working out some combos that really disrupt the opponents engagement such as Cad Bane, which leads to other disruptive elements. So if your opponent has weird variety of ships in their Scum list then something is afoot.

Resistance

I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting Kaz in a T-70 though it is a completely obvious one. Priced reasonably with the other initiative 4 T-70 pilots, but his ability would suggest he’s not the first one you throw into the fight. Once the fight has kicked off proper is where he becomes more effective than the generic pilots. Because of this he’s a solid candidate to be supporting that early fight with M9-G8 locking one of his cohort whilst getting objectives.

Resistance also get a couple of unique upgrades besides the aforementioned R4-T7. We have Zorii Bliss crew – who is restricted to a ship that already has the jam action – but does make the action white. This restricts her to the transport and pod if we’re talking about just the standard game, and at the cost of 5 loadout points you really need to get your utility out of her as that cost as not a lot of those ships have the points to spare. So to my mind the candidate ship is either Vi Moradi who is just fun as a filler; and Nodin Chavdri who can probably sneak away with a coordinate, then a jam and take away with the opponents token.

Sure there are others with more loadout but this is more about direct application of the ability.

Wedge also makes his appearance in the faction as a gunner at 10 loadout points, which is a significant amount of points for the YT-1300’s and MG-100’s. But it is absolutely worth it, his ability does really stick it to an opponent. My pick would be Lando in the YT-1300, or Ben Teene and Vennie in the MG-100.

The Big Winner: This is a bit of a tough call between the T-70’s and the RZ-2 A-Wings. Sure the A-Wings have taken a bit of a hit with their loadouts but some of those pilots are now undeniably cheap.

The Big Loser: Fireball’s have taken a bit of a hit – and while you can still field plenty of the generics they lack any meaningful loadout to merit such a decision. But I’m not really sad about this…

What To Look At: Similar to Rebels, it’s time to dust off the Wartime Loadout Y-Wings with the new upgrades in the mix and try pushing that damage through.

Watch Out For: Similar to Scum, Resistance have a deep tool-kit which means a multi-ship mix squadron probably has something for you to unpick when you engage.

First Order

The new pilot Tamara Ryvora is an excellent inclusion to any FO squad. Initially my thought was that this was effectively a 9 squad point M9-G8 support piece – which would still be good – but it’s not that just that. The upgrade options available such as Fire Control System and Targeting Synchroniser I think it obvious that you should probably be choosing violence.

Though this leads to another upgrade we should discuss, T-SJ1A Targeting Computer. A once off Bossk in a box for 4 loadout points, and like Bossk demands a means for achieving a critical result. It’s a non-unique upgrade so if you have points to spare you could pair it with Marksmanship and go for a damage spike somewhere.

The Big Winner: Despite the results at Adepticon, Bombers and Xi shuttles remain untouched which is a win for those ships when considering the new tools they can use.

The Big Loser: The faction has managed to escape this points update largely unscathed of any terrible increases or losses in loadout so hard to really point to one in this upgrade.

What to Look At: TIE/sf’s with Seeker Missiles and FO Ordnance Techs strikes me as comically funny. Chuck in Automated Loaders because why not.

Watch Out For:  As described before, Bombers just got a handful of new toys and haven’t suffered any consequences for their success. Have a plan for dealing with multiple ordnance carriers.

Galactic Republic

GAR are the big winners here with two new ships but on the other side of the coin they don’t get any faction specific crew or upgrades.

A fan-favourite Quinlan Vos makes his X-Wing appearance in an Eta-2 Actis at 11 squad points. He’s an interesting option at initiative 4 and 14 loadout, he comes with an Illicit Upgrade slot and plenty of options to best leverage his ability.

The other is Ursa Wren in the Gauntlet at 15 squad points which I think is probably the most important as the only option GAR has is either the generic or Bo. Her ability pairs well with Mandalorian Optics and I can see a situation where she can achieve two reinforce tokens and a lock to just shirt-front the opposing squad.

The Big Winner: Z-95’s didn’t change in squad points but they absolutely went up in loadout to be able to leverage some of these new upgrades.

The Big Loser: LAAT/I Gunships now have insufficient loadout to really leverage a lot of the new upgrades and is chassis though there’s a reason we probably don’t want to see really kitted out LAAT’s on the table.

What to Look At: I got this one wrong last time though I still totally expect to see a Sinker Swarm at some point.

Watch Out For:  GAR have sufficiently cheap pilots/chassis now to have a broad toolkit at initiative 5; so I’d expect to see generally high initiative lists from GAR in the short term.

Separatist Alliance

Here Separatists get an absolutely critical initiative 6 in the form of droid Tri-Fighter DIS-L9B2, who is to my mind a high risk/reward piece that you have to have going into the fight at all times if you want to stay an initiative 6. That should be…easy enough. Right? Look for 11 squad points it’s not unreasonable, and with 11 loadout points it’s a matter of perspective as to which way you go building it up. I mean Predator seems like an obvious upgrade though I would also seriously consider Seeker Missiles since they provide enough modifications to overcome the lack of focus action.

The other upgrade for the faction unique upgrade is Gravitic Well for the Nantex. I’ll admit – I actually had completely missed the crimes of the Nantex of past. So I’m not entirely sure where to go in terms of critically assessing this over the already existing upgrades. Initially this does look like another upgrade that could be spammed and create a negative play experience, however, this is somewhat tempered by the caveat it replaces any abilities that would trigger the enemy being tractored.

So we’ll see whether this increases Nantex use…if at all. Though I don’t think Separatist players have the luxury of just fobbing it off without trying it.

The Big Winner: Another initiative 6 for the faction is a welcome addition, and similarly Jango and Zam have come down – so CIS now have a chance to match initiative with the other factions.

The Big Loser: Hyena’s have remained untouched from the last points lack the loadout to really leverage some of the new toys.

What to Look At: HMP’s have come down in points, and whilst they probably lack the loadout to spam some of the more popular ordnance they can still pack a punch as part of a combined force.

Watch Out For: With the new config there is the possibility of adding Nentex back into the mix and provide disruption to any CIS list.

We’ll see how this all pans out in the end - new upgrades in the wild will mean the next points update will probably be much more substantial.

Stay salty!

- Barry