The Villains of Star Wars Battlefront: Emperor Palpatine

[AiRJacobs]

The following is a message from StarWars.EA.com

OCTOBER 20, 2015

The Villains of Star Wars Battlefront: Emperor Palpatine

Crush the rebellion with Force Lightening and supply drops



The dark side of the Force™ is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be... unnatural.

The playable Villains of Star Wars™ Battlefront™ we've shared with you so far, Darth Vader and Boba Fett, are truly menacing characters that will strike fear into any they encounter. But as we reveal the final Villain, we'll touch upon pure evil itself – and how you will get a taste of it. It's time to talk about Emperor Palpatine.

Lead Hero Designer Jamie Keen is here to tell us about a character who's deceptive, immensely powerful, and shocking in more than one way.

"Based on how he's been characterized and how he plays, Emperor Palpatine might be my personal favorite character in Star Wars Battlefront. But getting to that point has been a challenge.

We wanted many different things with the Emperor. We wanted him to be very mobile, but also about deception and fooling people that he's fragile and weak. As you've seen in the original Star Wars™ trilogy, Palpatine pretends to be a weak old man, when he in fact is extremely powerful. That two-faced side was something we wanted to convey in gameplay and the Emperor's abilities.

Palatine's main attack is the iconic Force Lightning, which does a lot of damage to troops within reach. The lightning also comes in the more powerful Chain Lightning form, which is an area of effect ability dealing damage to enemies around you in all directions.

Another power is called Force Dash and is (pun intended) shocking in another way. When Palpatine activates Force Dash he'll move extremely fast in his current direction, which can be a real nasty surprise for Rebel soldiers. We've seen some players get really startled when they have been aiming down the sights at Palpatine and suddenly see him right up close.

In contrast to these abilities, Palpatine is also the Empire team's support Villain, capable of providing powerups for others and himself. Thanks to his command of the Empire, Palpatine can use the Imperial Resources ability to hand out powerups to team mates and health boosts to other Villains.

So is there a good strategy playing as Palpatine? A hit-and-run tactic is always good: get in close but don't get stuck. Jump into fights, be aggressive with your lightning attacks, and then jump out again using the Force Dash. Just be careful where you jump in, since running into five or more enemies spells trouble.

The Emperor also plays a support role for his team. It's tempting to simply run towards the center and use Force Lightning to fry everything that moves, but try to play a bit more defensively and use your support abilities. Other players can also spawn close to Palpatine as the more powerful Shock Troopers, a tactic you should have in mind and utilize. Master all this, and your team will be quite safe from your pitiful Rebel enemies.

I hope you will have as much fun dealing out Chain Lightning and Imperial Resources as we've had developing Emperor Palpatine. Use the tips in this post wisely and you'll be the unstoppable force of the Galactic Empire when Star Wars Battlefront arrives."

Source: http://starwars.ea.com/starwars/battlefront/news/the-villains-of-star-wars-battlefront-emperor-palpatine