Set Information
Piloting, Mission Plots, and a New Win Condition
Covert Missions, the new and sadly, final Star Wars: Destiny expansion, brings 160 new cards to trading card game, introducing many new mechanics and themes one last time to the game. Two of the main themes of this set are Piloting and Missions. Piloting is a character ability that allows you to activate the character and a selected Vehicle support at the same time. After activation, the character is considered to be "piloting" that vehicle. This can provide further benefits on the character, on the actual Vehicle, or on other cards in your deck. Missions on the other hand is a new type of plot card that requires you to accomplish a task for a hefty reward.
Interestingly, two of the most iconic missions in this set are the opposition of two covert Missions: Construct the Death Star, a 2 cost plot for the Villain side and Destroy the Death Star, a 2 cost plot for the Hero side. Both plots will bring a new win condition to the game as the Villain side will have to accumulate 15 resources on their plot to win the game, while the Hero side will have to deal damage from Vehicle and Pilot dice against their own plot to win.
Other Missions in this set don't grant an automatic victory, but can still help further your gameplan by giving a nice reward once completed. One of them, Jedi Trials is the first card in the game that allows you to have a Character with three dice once the mission is completed.
First Appearances and the Return of Old Favorites in Covert Missions
The ancient and powerful Sith Lord Darth Bane makes his first appearance in the game, becoming one of the most costly Characters to play at 22 Elite points. But he brings a powerful force with him. Besides good damage sides, the first Upgrade ability played on him will cost two resources less. This means you can play a 4 cost Ability like the new Shien Mastery as the very first action of the game. Furthermore, his special die side deals indirect damage equal to the cost of the most expensive Upgrade attached to him.
This set also introduces a wide lineup of characters from the Star Wars: Resistance animated series to the card game, including Kazuda Xiono, Elrik Vonreg, and Commander Pyre along with the well-known Vehicles and Upgrades from the same series.
As the set is focused on Piloting, there are various pilot versions of beloved characters, such as Red Five Luke and Darth Vader with their starships straight from the Battle of Yavin. This means Luke Skywalker's X-wing is finally a playable vehicle in the game. You will also get to play pilot versions of Sabine and Hera from the Star Wars: Rebels animated series.
More New Mechanics and Nuances Added to Star Wars: Destiny
Covert Missions brings a variety of interesting concepts and fresh takes on existing mechanics:
Downgrades with dice force your opponent to roll into a worse dice pool when activating the Character or Vehicle that the Downgrade is attached to. Only the player who played the Downgrade can resolve that die. Non-unique Characters that can be played as Elites also make their appearance here. Starting the game Elite with two Character dice was something that only unique Characters were able to do - until this set. There are also supports that benefit from adding or removing resource tokens from them each turn. These are supplemented with Events that can speed up the process or benefit from having these supports in play.
The final installment of the much beloved Star Wars: Destiny card game, Covert Missions, releases on March 2020 with an MSRP of 2,99 € per booster pack.