A Rising Threat: New SWGOH Events

If you’ve payed attention at all in the last week, then you know that the powers that be in the Galaxy of Heroes universe have graced us with a new character. Bodhi Rook, from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is now available to play in the game. He was a gift to holotable heroes everywhere to commemorate the Blu-ray/DVD release of the latest film in the series.

But Bodhi wasn’t the only thing that showed up by himself. In the email sent out by game makers, we also received 500 crystal, credits, ship currency, ability materials, and just some overall good vibes. In addition to this early-Easter present, we also received a word of warning. The update on the forum told players to prepare for an imperial threat.

What to Expect?

It’s likely that the rising threat is going to be one of two different activities: a raid or an event. It could be a raid, but as I said in my YouTube video, I think the developers are more likely to fix the problems with the AAT raid before launching a new one. But, at the same time, a new raid would get people’s minds off the problems with the Tank Raid.

We, also, haven’t seen a new character event for some time, the last being the Palpatine Event which launched in 2016. Either way, there have been a lot of theories as to what this threat could be. I want to speculate on what a few of the different possibilities of this impending imperial threat.

One last thing of importance to note is that the message on the forum indicated that this would revolve around the Phoenix Squadron. So my thoughts of what this could be will revolve (loosely) around the crew of the Ghost.

Potential New Raids

This may be the best time to introduce a new degree of difficulty to the raids in the form of ships. People have wanted a ship raid for as long as the ships feature of the game has been in play. Both Rogue One and the final episode of Star Wars Rebels finished with epic space battles.

About a month ago, I read that after the Phoenix Squadron character events we would be getting two new Rebel ships: the Ghost and the Phantom. This would make sense because most players have already had the chance to get the basic crew needed to pilot these two ships.

The Death Star (Ship)

Many people have speculated that the first ship raid that enters the equation would be the famous Rebel assault on the Death Star. And this makes sense. What space battle is more important that the Battle of the Death Star. Time in the Star Wars universe splits by whether something happened Before the Battle of Yavin (BBY) or after the Battle of Yavin (ABY). It’s like the birth of Jesus that way.

While I love the idea of a raid involving ships, I don’t know if we will get one that specific without getting a series of new rebel ships first. Of the 23 ships that players can unlock and level up, only 13 are light side ships, and of those 13, only 5 are “Rebel affiliated.” While I do think we will eventually get a Death Star raid, I don’t think it will be for another 6 months to a year.

The Battle of Scarrif (Ship or Character)

There are two possibilities for a raid with the Battle of Scarrif: a space battle or a character battle. I don’t think the space raid is as far-fetched for Scarrif as it is for the Death Star. Most the ships available are, or could easily be rebranded as Rebel ships. The problem here is that many of them are under the price lock and free-to-play players are not likely to have Cassian’s U-wing or the Millennium Falcon (this would have to be listed as rebel as well)

A Scarrif land battle is more likely to be introduced as an option for a new raid than a ship one. Most of the characters involved in Rogue One are now farmable. These are the characters that would get special attacks and benefits in a raid like this. Other major Rebel characters have long since been farmable or at least available to both Pay-to-play and Free-to-play players.

The Battle at Chopper Base (Character)

Of all possible raids, this is the one I think EA will most likely introduce, though I still think it’s a longshot. In the season three finale of Star Wars Rebels, Grand Admiral Thrawn led the ground assault against Chopper Base on the planet Attollon. The battle took place in a few different phases: space battle, initial imperial advance, AT-STs, Walkers, and at the attack on the base itself.

This could easier be made into either a ground assault battle or some hybrid of both ship and character battle. Either way, Thrawn would be the character reward for this raid.

Potential New Events

As I said earlier, we haven’t had a character event in some time, and rerunning the same two events over and over only benefits new players. While attracting new blood to the game is important for its livelihood, designers aren’t going to do so at the expense of losing those who’ve been here since the beginning.

This leads me to think that the every-other-month of the Yoda/Palpatine cycle will soon change. This may be in the insertion of one or maybe even more character events.

Thrawn Character Event

Whatever happens, Thrawn is going to be one of the next characters to join the game. The next novel to launch in the Star Wars canon is Thrawn. Season 3 of Rebels just ended and Thrawn is the main bad guy.  Star Wars Celebration is later this month and many people think that the panels will talk about Grand Admiral extensively. Thrawn. Thrawn. Thrawn.

Thrawn

Outside of being a fan-favorite, he was the nemesis of the Phoenix Squadron. Now that we have those Rebels in our rosters, it only makes sense to have them go up against the Grand Admiral. I am calling it now: Death Troopers will surround Thrawn in the final battle of this event.

Inquisitor Character Event

For those of you who are not as familiar with the Rebels cartoon show, the inquisitors were dark side acolytes of Darth Vader who hunted down remaining Jedi and captured force-sensitive children. They appeared prominently in seasons 1 and 2 of the cartoon and were imposing characters (if you exclude their self-propelling light sabers; those were stupid).

The Inquisitor

Since we know that whatever this imperial threat is will relate to the Phoenix Squadron and the Ghost Crew, it’s very possible that the inquisitors could make an appearance in the game. Now, I don’t think this is likely. It seems like the role they played in the galactic universe has played out. Unless Star Wars Celebration brings us new information, I think they aren’t as likely to show up.

Final Theory

The last theory that I think is plausible, but altogether unlikely, is that we will see an entirely new feature added to the game. It is possible that we could see light and dark side ship battles like we have light and dark side character battles. This would increase the relevance of the ships as well as give players more to do. While I really want this to happen, I think it’s farther off than whatever this event is going to be.

 

What do you think is coming to Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes? Do you think we are going to get a new raid, a character event, or something entirely different? Leave a comment in the section below and let’s discuss.