Crosshair - Unit Guide

Crosshair is the Deadeye of the Batch. He is known for never missing a shot, especially not with his standard Firepuncher Sniper Rifle. He is also the most hard-headed and militarily-minded member of the Batch, staying with the empire after Order 66.

In the game, this translates to him being able to wound just about anything he wants, whenever he wants to. He can also support the Batch a little bit via condition removal and hunker removal. He is up there for one of the killiest units in the game so far, let's talk about why.

• 4 Points Cost
• 0 Force
• 9 Stamina / 2 Durability
• Secondary | Bad Batch - Clone Trooper - Galactic Republic

Just like Wrecker and Omega, Crosshair sits at four points. The most flexible, and arguably best, spot for a Republic secondary to be. It allows him to fit in almost any squad you want. He is also pretty Tag agnostic, so he is almost just as happy in a Separatist list as he is in a Republic one.

Nine stamina is a fine spot to be in. He has access to a good amount of heals on his tree and he can, rarely, be close enough to Wrecker for Protection. Luckily, he is also generally sitting back-map, so he's usually not close enough to the fight to be getting damaged all that often. That fact makes that nine stamina feel pretty good. He also defends quite well for a clone.

His tags are the same as everyone else, except he is the only one who lacks the Scoundrel tag. This is probably because when the rest of the Batch ran off, Crosshair joined the Empire. In the game, it does have some slightly unfortunate results. He loses the synergy with units like Hondo or Mando and because of that is usually not a better choice in scoundrel lists than Wrecker or, more notably, Jango.

Trick Shot - This is a very cool ability. I like the fact that this ability does not care about range and only cares about LOS. It makes it feel more like a sniper shot, which is neat. The effect is pretty good. One damage is fine and technically means that he can wound up to two units in one activation, but it's not very often. The better part of the ability is that he will remove all Hunkers from whomever he targets with this. This does not really benefit him since he doesn't care about Hunkers or Cover anyway, but it can help line up better attacks for his team. This is a good counter to Obi-Wan if he's common in your local meta.

Find The Shot - This ability is his bread and butter. I won't say it's 100% necessary to use for him to be good. In the games I've played with him, I've used this probably 99% of the time. He can always just focus->shoot, but I generally feel like you're usually better off spending the one force for this ability so you can also move, take cover, or recover. It's not that expensive until he gets wounded. The climb is also quite nice since it helps him get that little extra movement he needs to be extra scary at the beginning of a game.

Relax, I'll Handle This - I've played Crosshair maybe 15-20 times now and only used this ability once. I think it can be very good under the right circumstances, but it's rarely better than using the heals on himself or using another reactive ability during the same triggering event. Getting to remove a pin on Hunter from across the map is neat, but situational in my experience.

The Deadeye of the Batch - This is his defining ability. If you are not taking advantage of this ability every. single. time. he. activates. You are not getting even close to his full value. You NEED to be focusing and shooting every time he activates, it's his one job. You can get that focus from Find the Shot or by taking action, but you need to do it. Going from seven dice to ten is a huge difference and absolutely worth spending the force on. Denying cover is cool, but not the main effect of this ability.

Stance

His stance is good for a secondary unit. He is very offensively oriented and will wound almost any support in one shot.

It starts off with seven attack dice at range five, but that should be read as ten because if you're not rolling ten with him every time, you're seriously missing out. He also has five attack dice in melee, which is not where he prefers to be, but his melee expertise is okay in a pinch. His ranged attack expertise is incredible. He gets at least one crit at each level which is great. With Hunter around, you can almost always guarantee at least two expertise, usually more. If he rolls three expertise, I usually just keep the three and change a failure to a strike. I think, generally speaking, he is one of the few units that actually prefers the additional damage to another result. The reposition is good when you need it, but he is here to kill stuff.

His combat tree is pretty good. It tops out at eight damage or nine with expertise. That is enough damage to wound almost any support and secondary in the game. He also has access to up to three heals and a reposition or three shoves. Sadly, he doesn't see a shove until three and if you do that route, he is not really doing what you brought him to do. Granted, displacing is usually better than damaging, but there are much better displacers out there that you could be using instead. cough Barriss cough

Defensively, he is very good. He gets five defensive dice for both, but if you're taking cover and sitting on a building, that's usually seven. His expertise chart is nuts for a Secondary. Not only does he have at least one block at every level, but he also has Crit Mitigation at every level. Crit mitigation like that is rare on a secondary, especially a Clone. They are only crit to strikes, but that can still be very good if you roll nicely. He's generally difficult to wound, but not as difficult as the rest of the Batch since he usually is not close enough to benefit from Wrecker's protection.

Tactics and Thoughts

Hot Take time!

So, I know some people will disagree with me, and that's okay, but at least hear me out. I don't think Crosshair is nearly as good or OP as people have been saying. I don't even think he's in the top four Republic Secondaries. It's not his fault though.

Crosshair is fine, he does what he does better (maybe) than any other Republic secondary. He kills stuff. Don't get me wrong, there is an inherent value in being able to wound almost anything on a whim, but when that's essentially all you can do I'm just not sure there's a ton of value in that. Especially when the other options, wound only marginally worse while also supporting themselves and the rest of your list in more ways than Cross can.

Crosshair has some redeeming qualities in my mind though. I am a fan of his potential for shoving and I like how easy he can plug and play into a ton of lists. He is also 100% top secondary for Luminara squads, and I don't think it's particularly close. Crosshair is also a bit more reliable than others when it comes to wounding. He has lower spike damage output, but higher average damage output. There is value in being reliable.

Let's compare him to Wrecker and Omega. When they were initially shown, I was securely on team Crosshair, but after getting them on the table I can say for sure, that I was wrong. I believe Wrecker and Omega are better, here’s why.

In a perfect world, Wrecker and Omega can wound/displace up to four units in one turn vs Crosshair's two. In a less perfect world, it's usually Wrecker's two or three vs Crosshair's one.

Even if you look at wounding capability, Wrecker and Omega can do up to Twelve damage while spending one force vs Crosshair's ten while spending one or no force. Wrecker and Omega, if you can afford it, can top out at an incredible twenty-one damage in one activation for an expenditure of three force (once again, this is not very common, but still fairly possible). Three is a lot more than one, but you see my point. The issue is all Crosshair brings to the table is wounding and the very very occasionally helpful condition removal from an ally. Wrecker and Omega bring the same, potentially more, wounding to the table, while also bringing Steadfast and Protection for the rest of the squad. They also bring diceless displacement to the table, it is only one shove, but that is often enough to get a character off a point.

My point is, to expand your horizons past just what is good at killing. Killing is not bad at all, but generally not the best or most valuable way to win a game of Shatterpoint, in my experience.

With all of that said, I don't think Crosshair is necessarily bad. As a matter of fact, he's very good. The "issue" is, so are the rest of the options. Cross is probably in fifth place for me after Rex, Wrecker, Snips, and Wolffe in that order. If you have Vader, then Barriss also beats him out but otherwise, I'd pick Cross over her. This list also excludes Jango and Obi2, who are both very good. Republic just suffers from success I guess.

I think there are some good spots for him in lists, especially if you want to be as thematic as possible and take the whole Batch. Again, Luminara loves him.

If he's your favorite character, then keep playing him! I'm not here to tell you what to do, just offering my two cents on the matter. It's been highly debated over the last few months. My hope is that Primary Crosshair is better and that way I can run something like Crosshair/Wrecker/Techo + Hunter/Rex/(Clone Support). I have wanted an all-clone list since this game came out and I cannot wait for it.

Squad and List Ideas

I have not played Crosshair nearly as much as the rest of the Batch, but this is the squad I have had fun and success with.

Full Batch

Primary: Clone Sergeant Hunter
- Secondary: Wrecker and Omega
- Support: Echo and Tech
Primary: Lord Maul
- Secondary: Crosshair
- Support: 212th Clone Troopers

This is the only "Full Batch" list I have had personal success with. I think Maul could probably also be Luminara and it would be just as good. The nice thing about Maul is the force economy that he brings to the table. It allows you to use Wrecker, Crosshair, and Hunter's force cost abilities more often.

Overall, I think Crosshair is very good. He, unfortunately, has some of the toughest competition in the game. Republic secondaries are all B to S-tier units, and he is no exception to that rule.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you agree or disagree with me on this topic!