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Hawks AP Support Build

Build the mandatory Operator into an action-economy engine that hands an extra Action Point to whoever needs it most.

Theorycraft
Confidence
Strongly supported
Verified
4 August 2026
Version
pre-release (no retail build)

Build summary

Players who want the required story-mission slot to do something no other Operator can.

Campaign phase
early
Difficulty
Standard, permadeath enabled
Game version
pre-release (no retail build)
Strong against
grouped enemies

This build has not been tested

The game has not been released. Every mechanic cited below is confirmed, but the combination of them is our reasoning rather than anything played. It will be re-tested and re-labelled after 27 August 2026.

Loadout

The four bays

Weapon choices are role-based. No weapon statistics have been published, so treat them as starting points rather than optimised picks.

  1. Bay 1

    Hawks

    Medicpistol

    Stacking support on the always-present Operator. His unique Talent persists across Specializations, so the AP restoration is available regardless of this choice — the Medic Specialization simply adds Combat Stim to the same slot.

  2. Bay 2

    Custom Operator

    Gunslingerpistol

    The best AP recipient. An extra point on an Operator with cheap, repeatable attacks converts directly into another attack.

  3. Bay 3

    Custom Operator

    Soldierrifle

    Explosives and cover destruction — and a deliberate tension: the rocket spends the same Advantage that the AP restoration does.

  4. Bay 4

    Kabb Uppercut

    Heavyrepeater

    Frontline anchor with a displacement tool, so the squad has an answer to cover that does not require spending Advantage.

Reasoning

Why it works

Mechanic by mechanic. Anything stated as confirmed traces to a source listed at the bottom of this page.

  • Hawks can use Advantage to restore an AP to a squadmate once per turn — confirmed, and the only known way to add AP to a turn.
  • Each Operator has three AP. A fourth point on the right Operator is a 33% increase in that Operator's turn.
  • The extra point is worth the most where AP converts cleanly into output: another cheap attack, or the movement needed to reach high ground and still fire.
  • It also enables sequences that three points cannot fit — move, then attack, then go on Overwatch.
  • Because his Talent persists across Specializations, Hawks can take whatever role the squad is missing without giving this up.

Execution

Example opening turn

An AP and Advantage plan. Costs are unpublished, so the order matters more than the exact budget.

  1. Step 1

    Turn 1 — establish damage first: attack with the Gunslinger and Soldier to generate Advantage, since Advantage comes from damaging enemies.

  2. Step 2

    Turn 1 — assess what one more Action Point would buy: an extra attack, or a reposition that enables one.

  3. Step 3

    Turn 1 — Hawks: spend Advantage to restore an AP to that Operator, once per turn.

  4. Step 4

    Decide deliberately between the AP restoration and the Soldier's rocket — both draw on the same pool and both cannot happen in a lean turn.

Strengths

  • Uses a confirmed unique Talent on the one Operator guaranteed to be in every story mission.
  • Flexible: the extra point goes wherever the turn needs it, rather than being locked to one plan.
  • Compounds with any per-attack effect, since an extra attack means another instance of that effect.
  • Requires no unlocks and works from the first mission.

Weaknesses

  • The Advantage cost of the restoration is unpublished, so how often it can be used is unknown.
  • It competes directly with the Soldier's rocket and the Medic's Morale Boost for one shared pool of at most 10.
  • Once per turn is a hard cap — this is not a scaling engine.
  • Its value depends entirely on AP costs, which are also unpublished.

Alternatives

Safer and more aggressive versions

Including what to do when an authored Operator in this squad is permanently lost.

Safer
Drop the Soldier for a second frontline Operator. The squad loses its rocket but stops competing for Advantage, making the AP restoration reliably available every turn.
More aggressive
Add a Scoundrel in place of the Heavy. The extra AP then feeds a critical-setup chain, at the cost of the squad's damage sink.
If Advantage runs dry
Call for Backup costs zero AP and helps build Bonds. It is the free action to lean on when the Advantage pool is committed elsewhere.

How this will be verified

Re-test in the retail build, recording version, platform and difficulty, then update the status label from theorycraft to tested. Specifically: record the Advantage cost of the AP restoration and compare a turn with and without it on the same mission and difficulty.

Mechanics this build depends on

Other builds

Sources