Star Wars: Squadrons guide – Mission 5: The Trail from Desevro tips and walkthrough

In this Star Wars: Squadrons walkthrough, we’ll help you with tips and tricks for completing Mission 5: The Trail from Desevro.

Polygon’s Star Wars: Squadrons guides and walkthroughs help you navigate more than a dozen missions set in a galaxy far, far away. For Mission 5, we’ll help you learn to pilot a TIE Reaper and explain the best way to deal with the Tormentor’s missiles.

We didn’t want our guides to become narrative novels, so we skipped useless advice like “follow the squad leader.” Instead, every Squadrons walkthrough begins with general tips for the mission, followed by specific strategies for difficult sections and objectives. We wrap up with advice about earning mission medals.

Mission 5: The Trail from Desevro walkthrough

Titan Squadron is on its way to tail a group of New Republic engineers.

Mission 5 tips

• The TIE Reaper is your next new ship to learn. It flies a lot more like an X-Wing than a TIE Fighter. And it has shields.
• You’re playing more of a support role in this mission, and your weapon loadout reflects that. You don’t have missiles, and your lasers have been replaced with an Ion Cannon that disrupts electrical systems. That means you can take down shields and disable ships, but you won’t be able to destroy them. Use Squad Commands to make sure your squadmates finish off your target.

Objective: Destroy the Tormentor’s Missiles

There’s not a lot of room between the Tormentor and the New Republic ships, so you’ll have to be quick here. And, on top of the missiles, both ships are firing at each other and you, so you’ll have to keep moving.

• Try to stay out of the crossfire between the two ships whenever you can.
• Missiles only take one hit from your Ion Cannon to be disabled, so you’re free to Maximize Shield Power to ignore the hits you take from both sides or Maximize Engine Power to stay nimble.
• Watch your speed. The missiles are quick, but if you’re traveling around too fast, you’ll end up on one side of the fight or the other, and you’ll get shot a lot.
• Try not to reduce your speed to zero either. You actually have more maneuverability while moving than when you’re at a dead stop.
• Use Cycle Targets to pick out the next missile to hit, but also watch for them without targeting. Cycle Targets picks convenient targets, but it might miss missiles that have snuck past you. Since they only take one hit to disable, you can usually take them out without targeting them —just watch for your targeting reticle to turn red.

If you manage to take out every missile before they hit the New Republic ships, you’ll earn the Marksman Medal. This will take a lot of practice, though. On your first run(s) of this mission, just focus on staying alive and getting some of them.

Objective: Escort Shuttles to Transport

There are two sections of this mission where you’ll be escorting Lambda Shuttle from the Overseer to the New Republic ships and back. They fly painfully slowly. Follow them from a distance. Lock on to each of them in turn, and hit them with your Tactical Shields (these act just like missiles, but for defense).

While you’re waiting for your missiles to recharge (watch for the button on your console to turn blue again), target an unshielded shuttle, and use Squad Commands to ask your squadmates to defend it.

Keep your focus on the shuttles. If you get an easy shot on a New Republic fighter, take it, but don’t wander off in pursuit. The shuttles are too slow and vulnerable to be left alone.

Mission 5 Medals

• Mission Complete. Completed Mission 5.
• Efficiency Medal. Completed Mission 5 in 14 minutes or less.
• Enduring Service Medal. Completed Mission 5 without dying.
• Marksman. Prevented any missile from damaging the GR-75s.
  
  This can be a bit challenging, but one strategy that helps is making sure you use the Ping Targets command to let your squad shoot down missiles as well. If one zooms past you before you have a chance to shoot it down, you can use Ping Targets and hope your team cleans it up for you.
• Ionizer. Disabled all GR-75 transports.
  
  When this objective pops up, you may be a bit far away, so be sure to divert power to your engines and boost over to them before they can get too far. Once you reach them, divert energy back to your weapons systems, and keep shooting each transport until a blue energy symbol appears over the ship. Once that icon appears, that means you’ve disabled it and can move to the next.
  
  For this objective, don’t use the Ping Targets system. That’ll cause your squad to shoot and destroy the ships, which makes you instantly fail the objective.