Conquest Basics
General Strategy, Farm Priorities, and Powerful Teams to Make your next Conquest a Resounding Success!
Well kids, another conquest is in the books and it’s time to reflect on what we’ve all learned. Or, rather, it’s time for me to tell you what I think you should know so that you can benefit from my frequent and sometimes hilarious mistakes. Like my kid. He’s sometimes hilarious.
Moving on…
People often ask me, “Kahzgul, why are you such a douche-canoe?” To which my only real response is “That’s hurtful, mom.” But people also often ask me which characters they should focus on first in order to succeed in Hard conquest. And this post is going to be my attempt to answer at least one of those questions in a meaningful way.
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First though, why should you even care about conquest? People on this sub complain about it constantly, it feels like a grind, it’s really hard, and it requires a lot of teams or characters you don’t even have! Sound accurate?
Well, The fact is that conquest is the single most cost-effective way to acquire a brand new, often very powerful character (or in the case of Bane, GL-level powerful). If you follow my guides (which I put out for every conquest, always linked in the pinned post at the top of my profile page), you’ll never be spending more than 6,300 crystals over the course of 2 weeks to fully 7-star a brand new character on the first possible day. More likely, you’ll be spending less than 3,000 crystals thanks to efficient play (I unlocked Queen Amidala for roughly 2,700c, for example). You will also get this character a full year before anyone who doesn’t acquire them through conquest can even start farming shards. This is an insane value compared to every other character release method in this game. Heck, even after conquest characters hit the Proving Grounds a year after release, it costs 2,000c to refresh their farming node for a scant 20 shards. Compare: 330 shards for 2700c and some elbow grease vs. 2000c for 20 shards. Which sounds better to you?
And on top of the character unlocks, conquest is also the cheapest way to acquire datacons and their related materials. I hate datacons, but they are part of the game and can be a powerful force to bolster your roster when they apply. And we should all play the game we actually have, not the game we wish it was.
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Second, let’s talk about what tier of conquestador you might be:
The First-timer: How do you know when it’s time to tackle a Hard difficulty conquest? Well, if you think you can get the first box (100 burritos), you should do Hard. That reward crate is better than the very best Normal crate. And since you need to have cleared normal mode just to unlock hard mode (as well as having 4M+ GP), you’re very likely ready for the big leagues!
The Youngling: CG recommends 5M+ GP for conquestadors, and that’s you. At this range, you’re happy to be getting better rewards than Normaloids, and you’re building your roster in order to eventually start unlocking conquest characters without all that messing about in Proving Grounds a year or so later. You’re who this guide is really for.
The Journeyman: Frustratingly close to the gold crate, but never quite able to get it, CG is counting on your money to keep the lights on as you shell out for conquest pass after conquest pass in order to juuuust barely eke out a few shards of a character you’ll still need to acquire from proving grounds later. This guide should help you, and help you save money!
The Veteran: Gold crate is well within your grasp, and you’re working on that final push to Red. Very likely you already know what teams you need to improve upon, but maybe there may be a pearl of wisdom for you in here all the same.
The Expert: You get Red Crate every time. Why are you even reading this???
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Conquest basics:
I strongly suggest doing conquest twice a day, once in the morning, and once in the evening. You can do two combats per team per session, which will keep your stamina high and make your battles predictable and reliable, while allowing 4 combats per team towards feat progress as you go. Remember that your stats scale with stamina, so a character at 80% stamina is only 80% effective.
Personally, I will do every 50c energy refresh each day as I progress my conquest (there are 3 of them). I am 90% sure it is impossible to red crate without doing any refreshes.
For data discs, you want to identify the power combos and draft discs aggressively towards those combos. There are two main slates of available discs which alternate every time the conquest character changes: Slate 1 is the Zealous Ambition (ZA) slate, where you want 1-3 ZA discs, a Stacking Offense (SO), and several discs that grant buffs to boost that SO disc. Slate 2 (the one coming up next) is the Volatile Accelerator + Amplify Agony slate (which I generally consider to be easier to abuse). In slate 2, you want the best quality VA disc you can get and then 2-3 AA discs. I do not recommend thermal exhaust or caustic emissions discs as they tend to kill your enemies which can deny you progress towards feats which require kills.
I play the conquest in two distinct phases. This is not the only way to play conquest, but it is a very efficient way. Phase 1: Assault. During this phase I’m pushing to clear the conquest sectors as quickly as possible. My team comps focus on “wins with X” type feats and if I can squeeze in other feats I will, but the wins are the main focus. If I beat a node, even with only 1 star, I will not repeat it. There are 22 combat nodes in each sector and my goal is to finish the conquest in 110 total combats. That means the assault phase lasts, ideally, through Day 5, at which point I should have enough energy for 5 combats left over after clearing sector 5. My goal is to also have finished every feat of the format “win with X.” Typically 14 wins per sector, one or two sets of 40 wins globally, and two sets of 20 wins globally. If you think this doesn’t add up, you’re correct. So you want to overlap as much as possible. If you have a global feat for Galactic Republic wins, for example, and the sector wants wins without attackers, you can get credit towards both with attentive team building. During this phase you’re also acquiring data discs that will enable any cheese teams you may need to clean up feats later. Which leads nicely to… Phase 2: Cleanup. First I’ll go back and get 3 stars on every node I dropped stars on as I ran through phase 1. Then I’ll get any boss node feats that require winning which I didn’t get the first time around (very often the boss nodes have two feats for winning which are mutually exclusive, so they require cleanup). Then I’ll re-do my data discs to be more geared towards survival and the various cheeses I plan on employing. At this point, I’m no longer trying to win; in fact most cheese involves losing so that your characters stay at maximum stamina and you don’t expend any charges of boosts you may have activated. Cleanup can be extremely quick or take a little time. If there are any “win with X” feats I have not yet finished, I’ll be sure to use them on the bonus datacon nodes at the end of each sector if possible so I still get a reward for doing the combat.
The “why” for all of this is pretty straightforward: The more efficient you are at conquest, the less time you have to spend grinding it and the more datacon rewards you can get (if you’re into that sort of thing). Towards that goal, you want to spend as little energy as possible swapping discs around, so doing all of the required “actual winning” first, before you switch to more tricky feats that often require surviving for a long time without killing the enemy makes a lot of sense (I hope).
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Now let’s discuss the two types of teams you want to build for conquest: Hard Counters and Cheese teams.
Hard Counters are teams that take down specific conquest enemy teams with ease.
Cheese Teams are teams that make earning specific feats a breeze. A… cheese breeze. If you will. Which, you know… you probably shouldn’t.
Some teams overlap into both categories, and those are the teams you want to build up first. One last note: There are two main “types” of conquest, which seem to alternate, and those can greatly affect your team success rates. The Volatile Accelerator + Amplify Agony conquests heavily favor teams that dish out debuffs and run turn meter trains. The Zealous Ambition conquests favor defensive teams, especially ones with lots of support and healer type characters. Again, you want to ideally focus on teams that are strong in both types of conquest.
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Here are the teams I use in pretty much every conquest, in order of general priority:
CLS / Chewbacca / C3PO / 3PAC / Han Solo
Hard counter to Bad Batch and Inquisitorus teams.
Cheese team for blind, evasion down, critical chance up, confuse, and translation feats (fight vs. Phoenix or First Order to drag the fights out forever allowing maximum debuffing / buffing as needed)
Great in VA+AA, does not get added benefits from ZA disc meta but still works.
Relatively easy to acquire. Also qualifies for “no tanks” and “rebel” win feats. Swap in R2D2 to cheese “gain stealth” or “inflict burning” feats.
JKL / Wat / JML (The Jedi + Wat or “JW Cheese” team)
Hard counter to almost any team.
Cheese team for any “win with X and Y surviving” type feat. There have been one or more feats like this in every single conquest.
Viable in both conquest disc metas.
Wat is also needed for many other cheese teams.
GG / B1 / B2 / Droideka / Magnaguard
Hard counter for nothing
Cheese team for nothing
Viable in either disc meta, but somewhat overpowered in the ZA meta if you get the Fortified + Soresu Form combo (some kind of broken interaction with GG makes him hit super hard).
Strong team for ‘win without force users’ feats. Also gets droid kills and separatist wins.
Easy to acquire.
Padme / GK / GMY / R2D2 / Shaak
Hard counter to nothing. Swap in CAT for R2D2 to hard counter GAS teams. Swap in GAS and CAT for R2D2 and GMY to hard counter Sith Empire teams.
Cheese team for nothing.
Overpowered in ZA disc meta, where it can kill pretty much any team.
Has no attackers by default. Can replace GK with QGJ or Aayla to qualify for “no tanks” at the same time.
Also counts for Galactic Republic wins, Droid kills, gain stealth, gain offense up, and inflict evasion down feats.
JMK / CAT / GAS / Ahsoka / GK
Hard counter for everything (especially Starkiller, GAS, and Padme teams)
Cheese team for nothing
Viable in any disc meta.
Can get armor shreds, Galactic Republic wins. Swap GK for GMY for “no tanks” feats.
Grand inquisitor / 5th brother / 7th sister / 8th brother / 9th sister
Hard counter to Jedi and Geonosian teams.
Cheese team for nothing
Very strong in both disc metas. Can be super OP in VA+AA meta.
Pain in the butt to acquire, but needed for Reva shards so… yeah. Good for apply purge and apply torture feats, as well as - obviously - win with inks.
BAM / Dash / CAT / Kuiil / Han Solo
Hard counter to nothing.
Cheese team for nothing.
In the VA+AA meta this team is known as the “dash nuke” team and will destroy any squad with ease. In the ZA meta, swap Han Solo for Boushh. Can also swap CAT for Boushh (VA+AA meta) or IG-11 (ZA meta) if you don’t have her.
Relatively easy to acquire, aside from CAT.
AdRad / Cassian / Jyn / Bistan / K2 or SRP
Hard counter to Imperial Troopers and EP and Thrawn lead teams.
Cheese team for dazes (vs the above teams)
Very effective in ZA disc meta (with 3x ZA AdRad can one-shot most teams).
Easy to acquire and most are needed for Profundity.
Tusken Chief / The other tuskens
Hard Counter for Imp Troopers
Cheese team for “gain momentum” feats.
Viable in the either meta when used vs. Imps.
Easy to acquire and does not require a lot of gear to be effective. This team is very niche but excels within that niche (beating imp troopers, getting Tusken win feats and gaining momentum), both of which are fairly common feats.
EP / Wat / 2nd sister / 7th sister / 9th sister
Hard counter for nothing
Cheese team for “apply purge” feats
Viable in VA+AA meta (don’t bring AA though). Less viable in ZA meta, but still semi functional.
If you don’t have a full squad of inks, or your inks are low gear, this is the cheese team for apply purge feats. Works with low gear units. Easy to acquire, aside from wat. Needs Initial Frenzy Tech for the cheese to work.
Veers / Piett / Range / Starck / Moff Gideon
Hard counter to nothing
Cheese team for nothing
Nasty in both metas.
Easy to acquire and good for Empire wins, Imperial Trooper wins/kills, no attackers, and no tanks feats. Gideon is good for armor shreds. Swap in Dark Trooper in place of Range or Starck for droid kills (but it’s an attacker so it’ll void that feat while in the party).
Individual unit farming priority:
Wat. He’s needed for a bunch of cheese teams and is all-around great. You should be going after him hard if you don’t have him yet.
CLS’s team (CLS / Han Solo / Chewbacca / C3PO / 3PAC). This is the swiss army knife of conquest and can single-teamedly carry you to that first crate. If you’re not in Hard mode yet, the CLS team is an exceptionally strong team that can help you clear your current difficulty.
GAS is extremely useful and his unique ability to reduce enemy max health enables a lot of “kills with X” type feats, especially when X is a brand new, low star and gear character.
Malak was not mentioned above, but he’s the best tank in the game when paired with a Voluntary Vanguard data disc. Helpful, if not strictly required, on lots of cheese teams.
GMY applies several rare debuffs and is useful for any “gain X buff” type feats. Notably, he can steal enemy buffs, so if your roster can't generate a particular buff, but an enemy team can, GMY can steal that buff and spread it around. Very easy to acquire.
Padme’s team (Padme / GMY / GK / Shaak / R2D2) is extremely flexible and surprisingly strong in conquest.
Dash Rendar is incredibly strong in both disc metas, especially with the helper units from the nuke team.
GG’s team (GG / B1 / B2 / Droideka (or STAP) / Magnaguard) can beat a lot of tricky squads, and is especially adept at “win without force users” feats.
Darth Traya is useful for some cheese strategies, usually involving abusing Mon Mothma enemy teams to generate a lot of kills for weaker (or just dark side) units.
GL Farming Priority:
JML is the best conquest GL. The combination of JKL (lead) / JML / Wat is critical to lots of cheese and beats almost every team. Great overlap with the CLS team (and GL Leia).
Rey is very good for “keep X alive” feats when X is a light side unit. She enables some cheese teams like Rey + low gear Jawa scavenger + 3 other low gear jawas for “apply thermal detonators” feats, and her squad is very strong for countering Padme etc.
JMK is the best overall generic combat GL. He’s more expensive than the previous two GLs, but since conquestadors want to be farming Wat and GAS anyway…
SLKR can be useful in some feats such as the recent “kill 600 B1s” due to how quickly his offense ramps up. Also a strong counter to GAS teams.
LV absolutely smokes during the VA + AA conquest cycles (this is the upcoming cycle).
Jabba is great for “win without a jedi” feats as well as applying thermals. He is insanely strong in the upcoming VA+AA cycle.
Leia also can win without a jedi, and is good for “no attackers” or “no supports” feats, depending on comp. If you have JML, you have a lot of Leia’s requirements already completed, too.
SEE isn’t worthless, but there are better options. If you have Bane (unlikely, if you need this guide), SEE becomes extremely powerful.
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Edit: I'm getting a lot of replies about some very specific cheese teams and strategies. Don't worry! I have a separate (and very detailed) post about common conquest cheese teams, how to build them, and how to execute the cheese effectively: Common Conquest Cheese Strategies
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I hope this conquest starter guide has helped answer some common conquest questions you may have, pointed you in the direction of some fruitful farms to benefit your future conquest runs. I’ll be referencing this in my full guides, so being familiar with the terms here will be helpful in the future.
Much love, and feel free to ask questions here, or find me on u/Egnards discord server. Cheers!