Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga: The best upgrades for each character class

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is still a Lego game at heart. You will get a comedic, yet faithful, depiction of all nine mainline films from the legendary sci-fi film franchise, only wrapped in a Lego shell. The game itself is still focused on light combat, platforming, puzzle-solving, and tons and tons of collecting, but Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga improves upon that formula in some substantial ways. For one, the combat itself is far more dynamic and involved than ever before, but adding on to that, the introduction of nine upgradable classes that each character falls into gives some fun RPG elements as well.

With hundreds upon hundreds of characters to find and unlock in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, there was no way each one could individually have their own set of skills and upgrades without being vastly overwhelming. Instead, every character falls into one of nine classes that share upgrades, as well as core upgrades that apply to every single character. Even narrowed down, that are still a ton of upgrades you will need to spend your hard-earned Kyber Bricks on. Rather than waste time training skills you won’t find useful, here are all the best upgrades you should get for each character class in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.

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How upgrades work

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of which upgrades are best, we should explain how the upgrade system even works in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga since it is brand new to the franchise. You can view, see the cost of, and purchase all your upgrades in your menu by flipping over to the Upgrades section. Here, you will have a list showing all the individual class upgrades, plus core upgrades. Every class comes with four skills to unlock. You get a little description of the skill, how to use it, what the current level is, and how much it costs to upgrade that same skill. All skills cost Kyber Bricks and Studs to unlock or upgrade, and each can be upgraded three times (with only two exceptions).

Studs are the basic currency you will be grinding for just about everything Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, while Kyber Bricks are special collectibles that are given for completing some objectives, reaching different level thresholds, solving puzzles, and seeking them out as hidden items on the various planets. There are hundreds of these as well, but you will never have a ton on hand without going through some effort, so make sure to spend them wisely.

Best Jedi Class skills

Let’s start with the Jedi since, odds are, they’re the class you’re most interested in playing as. Their four skills are:

• Force Flinger: Makes any object you throw with the Force deal more damage.
• Jedi Reflexes: Make your combat counters stronger and deal damage to any enemies nearby.
• Trick Time: Makes your Distract and Panic Jedi Mind tricks last longer.
• Mind Master: Makes your Distract and Panic Jedi Mind tricks have a longer range.

In terms of what is best, we found Jedi Reflexes to be the most valuable to get. Parrying attacks is very satisfying and not too difficult to pull of, so getting that bonus damage, plus a small splash damage, is very handy. If you happen to like throwing things around more than slashing your lightsaber around, and we don’t blame you if you do, then Force Flinger isn’t a bad choice either. You just might not have objects to hurl all the time, but you will always have your trusty saber.

Best Hero Class skills

The Hero Class is full of many people’s favorite characters, only those that don’t have access to the Force or lightsabers. That makes them a fairly common class, so upgrading them will apply to a lot of characters. The downside is that their suite of skills isn’t terribly impressive. Their four skills are:

• Improved Shield Generator: Makes any ship you pilot as a Hero have stronger shields.
• Armored Disguise: Makes all armor equipped have higher defense.
• Rebel Heart: Makes enemies drop hearts more frequently.
• Hero Terminal Expert: Lets you skip Hero Terminals or gives you rewards for completing them.

In terms of what’s the best, we recommend Armored Disguise first to just make survival easier since you take a lot less damage with it active. Otherwise, you can get a similar effect with Rebel Heart to recover lost health more easily, though it isn’t as reliable as the flat defense boost you get from Armored Disguise.

Best Dark Side Class skills

The Dark Side, which should probably have been called the Sith Class, in our opinion, is the evil equivalent of the Jedi in story and abilities. They both use the Force primarily, though in very different ways. The four Dark Side Class skills are:

• Fear the Dark Side: The higher level this skill is, the more chance enemies will flee out of fear from your character.
• Power Push: This is just a stronger and wider-reaching Force Push.
• Force Crush: When you grab an enemy using the Force, they will take continual damage.
• Dark Rise: Makes your Force Lift power stronger.

We like two Dark Side abilities almost equally here, so you can go with your preference between Fear the Dark Side and Power Push. Fear the Dark Side is great if you just want to waltz through areas without having to fight, while Power Push is obviously best if you actually want to unleash some fury on enemies rather than just intimidate them. When fully upgraded, Power Push can essentially blow away entire waves of enemies, making you feel like a powerful Dark Side master.

Best Villain Class skills

Now for the Villain Class, the evil counterpart to the Hero Class, which thankfully has far more versatile and useful skills. They can focus on either support or upfront damage, and are all-around great to have in a fight. Their four skills are:

• Demolitions Expert: Increase the area of effect of grenade explosions.
• Extra Ammo: Any weapon you find in crates comes with more ammo.
• Defense Droid: Calls a little robot to back you up in battle.
• Villain Terminal Expert: Exactly like the Hero version — lets you either skip or get more rewards for doing Villain Terminals.

Of all these skills, Defense Droid is the only one you can count on being useful no matter what. Extra Ammo is fine, and Demolitions Expert can have its place, but not all Villain Class characters even use guns or grenades. The droid, meanwhile, is just more damage out on the field for free. It won’t drastically change a fight but can do plenty of work for you over time.

Best Scoundrel Class skills

The Scoundrel Class are all about blasting and ranged combat. They’re your high damage, sharpshooting types that, if you’re skilled enough, can take out an entire squad of enemies before they get close enough to hurt you. They’re also talented in cutting deals. All of their skills focus on these strengths, which are:

• Business Opportunist: All rumors and hints you purchase cost less Studs.
• Charged Shot: By holding the shoot button, your gun will charge up. Once it flashes, you can let off a blast that deals 25% more damage than normal, plus ricochets off of walls and floors.
• Combat Slide: Hitting the Interact button while running will make you slide, which is useful for avoiding damage but can also inflict damage if you ram into an enemy.
• Piercing Rounds: Your shots will go through cover and hit enemies hiding behind it.

This was another somewhat close one for us, but we have to go with Piercing Rounds slightly over Charged Shot. It doesn’t matter how much damage your shot does if you can’t hit that one stubborn enemy hiding behind some cover. Piercing Shots make combat go at your pace, and they don’t make you wait for an enemy to stick their head out to hit. Go for Charged Shot second, but save yourself some boredom by ignoring cover first.

Best Bounty Hunter Class skills

Bounty Hunters are somewhat like detectives. They need to hunt down their target in order to get paid, and this class is full of skills that mix combat with observational abilities that are quite useful in their own right. Here are the four Bounty Hunter Class skills:

• Enemy Detector: Shows you enemy locations through walls.
• Hidden Bounties: Get extra Studs for beating enemies.
• Scattershot: Specific Bounty Hunter weapons will shoot a spread of bolts like a shotgun.
• Shock Grenade: Toss out a grenade that stuns enemies and disables shields by hitting the interact button.

This is another one you can rely on your own preference for. Personally, we liked getting Hidden Bounties first to make everything else go faster since Studs are used to buy just about everything in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. It will give you a ton of extra Studs when you upgrade it, plus stack it with Stud multipliers. If you don’t care as much about that, Scattershot is the way to go. It gives you a much more powerful weapon thanks to the added area of effect.

Best Protocol Droid Class skills

This is the first of the two droid classes, both of which might seem like odd inclusions for Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and yet you will be glad to have the Protocol Droid Class along with you. In fact, this class actually has some surprisingly powerful skills hidden away. Those skills are:

• Destructive Disassembly: Unleashes a damaging shockwave whenever you are disassembling things.
• Paid Translator: Get free Studs whenever you translate any language.
• Polished Plating: Gives you a percentage chance of any blaster bolt bouncing off your character.
• Turret Tune-up: Any shot fired from a Protocol Terminal Turret will reflect off of walls and other surfaces.

Destructive Disassembly is deceptively strong once you start tearing enemies apart. The blast can get strong enough that you can almost cause a chain reaction after one or two disassembles that leave every enemy in the area defeated due to just how much damage the shockwave deals, especially upgraded. Polished Plating or Paid Translator are good passive upgrades, though we found more use out of Paid Translator most of the time since Polished Plating is way more situational.

Best Astromech Droid Class skills

Last, but definitely not to be considered least, are the Astromech Droids. These are your R2-style droids that don’t have a lot of combat options, though, like the Protocol Droid Class, they do have some surprising strength, but instead are more geared for support. By default, they may not seem worth bringing along, but their upgrades can really change how you look at these little bucket-style robots. The Astromech Droid Class has the following skills:

• Distraction: Display a hologram that draws enemy attention for a couple seconds.
• Droid Barge: Hit the Interact button while running to do a small slide-tackle move that deals damage.
• Astromech Socket Expert: Lets you either skip or complete Astromech Socket areas for extra Studs.
• Super-Charged: Gives your stun prod attack an extra area-of-effect shockwave that hits surrounding enemies.

Super-Charged is your first pick for the Astromech Droids. Like Destructive Disassembly, it can get far more powerful than you might think but is even easier to pull off since it’s tied to one of your basic moves. Between the damage of the shockwave and the stun of your attack, there is not much enemies can do once you land that hit. Distraction is good, too, but a bit more cumbersome to use if you need to swap characters to take advantage of the distraction by switching to a damage dealer.

Best core skills

Core skills, again, apply to every class and are generally some of the best in the game. These are all passive-style upgrades, so you won’t be getting any new moves, but they will make the entire game that much easier or faster. Here are a few that you should save up for first:

• Attract Studs: These make it so you can pull in Studs from farther away. Studs are the lifeblood of any Lego game, but that is especially true for Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Studs will always be important to have, and this not only makes it that much easier to collect them, but also will keep you from accidentally losing some if they would otherwise disappear because you didn’t get them fast enough.
• Extra Health: You can upgrade this one a number of times, so how far you want to invest in your health will be up to you, but at least one level is a good idea to grab to make sure a few small mistakes doesn’t cause a game over.
• Counter Cash: What’s the only thing that could make pulling off a parry more satisfying? Getting paid to do it, of course. With this skill, you automatically earn some extra Studs for each parry you pull off, more for each level you get. Having this skill early will pay off in a big way through the course of your playtime in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
• Speedy Spring: Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is huge … like, really huge. Not just in that it covers nine massive films, but each planet is like an open-world game all on its own. You’ll be running around a ton here, especially if you’re hunting collectibles. Speed up everything by turning up your characters’ default run speed by three times.
• Collectible Detector: A final option you can wait until later for (or skip if you’re not into hunting collectibles) is the Collectible Detector. Having this skill, especially upgraded, will essentially remove the need to look up guides on where and how to find the thousands of collectibles in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.