Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment are billing Star Wars Outlaws as the ultimate Star Wars scoundrel fantasy, which means that players, as protagonist Kay Vess, are going to be crossing paths with all manner of scum and villainy as they make their way through their interstellar journey. From familiar criminal syndicates that have shown up in plenty of Star Wars media before to factions that have been made for the game from scratch and more, Star Wars Outlaws’ galaxy will be populated by a number of different factions. Here, we’re going to talk about each one of them, and go over everything that we know about them.
HUTT CARTEL
Let’s start with the criminal syndicate that the overwhelming majority of Star Wars Outlaws’ player base is already going to be familiar with. The Hutt Cartel has been a major player in the Star Wars universe since the original trilogy days, and that has remained the case through the years. With Outlaws set to be focused on the criminal underbelly of the Star Wars universe, there was really no way that the Hutts weren’t going to have a role to play.
Sure enough, the Hutts will operate primarily on the planet of Tattooine, which players will be able to explore in Star Wars Outlaws, and yes, their leader, Jabba the Hutt, is indeed going to be in the game, and will be someone that Kay will interact with herself. Throughout Star Wars stories, the Hutt Cartel has often been portrayed as being utterly brutal in its efforts to serve its self-serving interests, and it very much looks like that will be the case in the game as well. Outlaws is, of course, set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, which means when we visit Jabba’s palace, we’ll be seeing Han Solo frozen in carbonite as well, something that we glimpsed in an earlier trailer, too.
PYKE SYNDICATE
The Pyke Syndicate is another criminal organization that has had a role to play in many a Star Wars story over the years, including the likes of The Clone Wars, Solo, The Book of Boba Fett, and more, and yes, it, too, is going to be one of the major players that Kay will be dealing with as she navigates the galaxy’s criminal underworld. And with the Pykes being the galaxy’s most prominent dealers in spice, it’s probably safe to assume that that’s going to work its way into Star Wars Outlaws’ story in some form as well.
The Pyke syndicate has enjoyed quite a sizeable sphere of influence across the galaxy in Star Wars stories from time to time, but in Outlaws, we’ll find them headquartered primarily on Toshara, a moon characterized by canyons and deserts that developer Massive Entertainment made for the game from scratch, in conjunction with Lucasfilm Games. The syndicate’s leader, Gorak, will also have a role to play in the game, and courtesy of a Game Informer preview, we know there are at least some in the faction who want to overthrow him. We’ll see how that turns out.
CRIMSON DAWN
Again, this is a name that will be familiar to Star Wars fans, even if it is a relatively recent introduction to the Star Wars mythos, having first been seen in Solo: A Star Wars Story. In the events of that movie, Crimson Dawn was a fairly new name in the galaxy’s underworld, but by the time Outlaws rolls around, the faction has firmly established itself as one of the biggest criminal organizations around, which means Kay is going to have her fair share of run-ins with them.
Unlike the Hutts and the Pykes, both of whom are largely localized in specific parts of the galaxy, Crimson Dawn will be much more spread out, which means rather than having specific hotspots of concentrated activity, you’ll find them scattered throughout the game’s interstellar map. And yes, you will also be meeting their leader, which will be none other than Qi’ra, the character that was first introduced in the aforementioned Solo, where she was played by Emilia Clarke. In Outlaws, however, she will be played by a different actress.
ASHIGA CLAN
Alongside the Hutts, the Pykes, and the Crimson Dawn, Kay will also be involved in plenty of dealings with the Ashiga Clan, who, unlike the three aforementioned syndicates, are not an organization that fans of the Star Wars IP are going to recognize. Created from scratch for Star Wars Outlaws, the Ashiga Clan is described as almost a hive of Melitto, an insectoid alien species that we first saw in The Force Awakens. Being a hive, naturally, the Ashiga Clan also follows a Queen, known to all as Queen Ashiga.
Speaking in an interview with Game Informer, Massive Entertainment revealed that Queen Ashiga’s story in Star Wars Outlaws would revolve around the clan facing a fork in the road as it looks to have a larger presence in the galaxy. When players first cross paths with the faction, they’ll have a large presence on the planet of Kijimi, which we first saw in the trainwreck of a film that was The Rise of Skywalker. “They have a long tradition and certain events in the recent history put them at a fork in the road where there are different ways they could go forward, and they’re not necessarily in agreement with what the best path forward is,” associate narrative director John Björling said.
ZEREK BESH
This one is a little different. Star Wars Outlaws is built, first and foremost, around its Reputation system, which will see Kay working both with and against the various criminal factions of the galaxy, constantly spinning the plates as she looks to maintain a solid reputation with as many of the underworld’s biggest players as she can. Choice and consequence mechanics related to that will encompass all of Kay’s interactions with the Hutts, the Pykes, the Ashiga Clan, and the Crimson Dawn, though it seems like the Zerek Besh won’t be part of this particular equation.
First things first though- who exactly are these guys? Though a relatively new syndicate, Zerek Besh has already established itself as a major player nonetheless, thanks in large part to the plentiful financing of the faction’s filthy rich leader, Sliro, who lives in a mansion on Canto Bight. Zerek Besh and Sliro are both also Star Wars Outlaws’ creations, and both will be crucial to the story. Sliro is, in fact, effectively the primary antagonist, and it’s because Kay has fallen in his crosshairs that she’s trying to pull off a heist (against him, in fact) that she hopes will then allow her to escape with her slow.
THE EMPIRE
With Star Wars Outlaws being set between episodes five and six, the Empire itself is obviously going to have a major say in all matters as well. Through all of her less-than-legal adventures, Kay is going to have to ensure that she doesn’t attract the Empire’s attention, though how significant of a role the big bad faction will play in the story itself remains to be seen. Is this largely going to be an outlaw story with the Empire remaining in the background, or will the Empire somehow become involved as well?
On the gameplay front, the Empire will not be involved in the Reputation system, but it will be central to the Wanted system, which will function exactly the way you think. Any time you do something that isn’t legal and gets reported to the authorities, your wanted level with the Empire will go up. The higher it goes, the more dogged they become in their attempts to capture you, so make sure you keep a low profile.