Every Stroomtrooper Variant In Star Wars, Ranked From Best To Worst

The OG. The original. The one that started it all. Sure, technically, Clone Troopers came first in the Star Wars timeline, but these white armored troopers were the first ones we saw back in the 1970s. And decades later, they still have one of the coolest sci-fi armor designs ever.

One of the newer variants, Death Troopers are not the first black-suited variant of Stromtrooper to appear in Star Wars. But they are the coolest, with their green lights and weird voices.

One of the very first variants we ever saw, these cold weather troopers show up in The Empire Strikes Back with a new hooded and fluffy appearance. In a lot of ways these variants are to blame for that fact that there are 29(!) more types of troopers on this list.

Not the coolest black suit variant, but still neat. These elite stealth-focused units first showed up in some old Legends comics but became canon thanks to their appearance in EA’s Star Wars Battlefront. Sadly, they didn’t make the cut of the sequel.

My favorite Stromtrooper variants are the ones that play around with the color of the armor. Shoretroopers from Rogue One are a great example. They feature beige armor that, I guess, blends into a beach? They also have a rad helmet that almost makes me forget they are soldiers for a evil regime.

These guys are like the weird love child between a Shoretrooper and a Snowtrooper. They sport the fluffy, wintery look of the Snowtrooper, but have sleeker armor and a similar helmet to that of the Shoretrooper. They first appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story with magnetic boots.

The first radically different variant of trooper to show up on screen, Scout Troopers sport slimmer armor and a totally different helmet than the original Stormtrooper. These guys tend to be snipers and recon-focused soldiers, which makes some of the later variants on this list feel really redundant.

I love me a different-colored trooper and this is a good one. These first showed up in Solo and technically they’re Swamptroopers, but everyone calls them Mudtroopers. They sport dark green armor and are good in the mud, apparently.

Not technically an official variant, but hey, they showed up in the Ahsoka show and looked really neat with their broken armor and zombie traits. So, sure, lets add them to the list.

Oh look, another trooper in black armor. At least these guys have some cool weapons and fight Jedi. But I’m not sure we need any more Stromtrooper variants in black armor.

Basically just really tough Stormtroopers with some unique bits of armor. But their leader was a big trooper dude who used a lightsaber. That’s cool enough to get them above what comes next.

Stormtroopers with flippers. I guess there’s a lot of ocean planets and seas in Star Wars? So these guys are somewhat useful, but I’m not sure how many missions they are being called out on.

Okay, another trooper in black armor. But at least these eventually turn into robots in black armor, as seen in that episode of The Mandalorian in which Luke shows up to grab Grogu. Still, I think we’re good. No more black armor troopers! Let’s try something else.

... Fuck me. Seriously? These are just Scout Troopers in black armor. I guess points for picking a variant that had yet to be coated in black, but that’s it. No more.

There are definitely planets in Star Wars that feature lava. I mean, Anakin Skywalker knows that very well. But do we need a dedicated trooper variant for these situations? Does the Empire need to send foot soldiers into lava very often? Seems weird, but okay.

Wait, what? How did this happen? The Empire doesn’t need two lava/magma-focused variants in their large army! I chalk this up to Imperial bureaucracy and selfish commanders wanting their own units and not working together with others to use pre-existing units.

How often is the Empire dealing with caves? Also, a simple head-mounted flashlight doesn’t seem like enough in a universe with incredibly advanced tech like lightsabers, blasters, and hyperdrive.

Okay, yeah, now we’re talking. The design of these troopers isn’t exciting at all—just some red paint on the basic Stormtrooper armor—but I get wanting to have some flamethrowers in your military. Makes sense. Seems logical. No notes.

Seriously, someone at the Empire needs to be in charge of getting all the commanders and moffs to start using Slack or Discord or something to communicate better. And this design is even worse than the last one. They just gave Snowtroopers flamethrowers. Boring. Silly. Waste of everyone’s time.

These have only been mentioned once in canon, in a book. No images exist of them. I’m guessing someone just got confused and forgot that Scout Troopers, seen on the forest moon of Endor, aren’t known as Forest Troopers and nobody caught the error. I hope that if, one day, they show up in live action or a game or something, they’re wearing black armor just to annoy me.

The troopers—and yes, they’re called TK Troopers, as if someone decided they’d come up with a proper name for them later and then never did—that were created directly after the clones but before the wider adoption of the Stormtrooper armor we see in A New Hope. An interesting idea, but not much more than that.

We are now reaching the point in the list where its just Stromtroopers given tools and new names. Here’s a Stormtrooper with a jetpack.

Here’s another one with a minigun.

Here’s a Scout Trooper with a sniper rifle. Seems like it’s just a Scout Trooper to me, but what do I know?

Stormtroopers with riot shields. That’s it. Boring.

Never seen visually in canon, but described as Heavy Weapon Troopers with blasters. What? Why? Moving on.

Stormtroopers with some mustard on their armor who love using mortars. Not sure they needed to be a separate variant, but at this point, fuck it.

They are just Stromtroopers in the desert. Dirty troopers. Sure, that’s a variant, too. Why not?

Stormtroopers with oxygen tanks. They showed up in A New Hope briefly. That’s not enough to get them a higher spot on this list.

These guys appear in Solo: A Star Wars Story and act as patrol cops. ACAB. You are at the bottom assholes.