The spherical droid BB-8 and its First Order variant BB-9E were added to Star Wars: Battlefront II on Monday and they have been utterly deadly in some multiplayer scenarios, whether facing down standard Storm Troopers or even Darth Vader.
Part of that is due to the droids’ speed. They roll around levels fast, which makes it hard to get off accurate blaster shots or make contact with a lightsaber. They also have some brutal abilities, like an area-of-effect cable spin and rolling body slam that are easy to use while dodging incoming enemy attacks. Since BB-8 is new to the game, it’s also likely that a lot of players just aren’t sure how to counter a spinning ball.
One BB-8 player recently uploaded a clip on the game’s subreddit where they defeat Darth Vader in an epic one-on-one duel in which the latter is clearly out of ideas. “Jesus Vader,” responded one commenter. “He’s swinging at wild pitches.” “BB8s tracking is pretty bad in vaders defense,” said another. “Its like fighting an even faster yoda.” At one point in the clip the person playing Vader even tries to run away.
In another clip a player nabs back-to-back kills against Luke and Rey as BB-9E. The Jedi try to take up defensive stances ready to block the droid and then counter-attack. Unfortunately for them, that’s exactly what the BB-9E is banking on as it slowly chips away at their health bars with shock attacks while repeatedly outmaneuvering them.
Since DICE announced the droids were being added to the game back in December, some players have complained, arguing that it doesn’t make sense within the logic of the universe to have a little robot go head-to-head with the fiction’s most powerful heroes and villains. While the droids do have support abilities, they can also mess up your day. As DICE’s Ben Walke pointed out on Reddit, Battlefront II is first and foremost a game where things like having fun often trump the demands of realism.
“I love Chewie as a character, but could he realistically take on Vader or the Emperor?” Walke said. “Probably not, but again, we’re a game and in the game world we operate under a different ruleset. It’s also why you can have General Grievous going up against the likes of Rey.”
The players who write off BB-8 do so at their own peril.