Shatterpoint Unit Guide: Count Dooku, Separatist Leader

Updated: Jun 6

In the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV show Count Dooku had a long face. In Star Wars: Shatterpoint, your opponent will be the one with the long face if you play Dooku.

Count Dooku, Separatist Leader is available in the Twice the Pride squad box.

Main card

Dooku having 4 force and 7SP was kind of surprising to me honestly. AMG said in the leadup to release that 4 force would be rare, so I didn’t really expect Dooku to have it. But hey, here we are.

Abilities

Most primaries have 3 durability and 9 to 11 stamina, so Dooku is right in the middle of that. No qualms here.

Leader of the Separatist Army is a very interesting move effect. On one hand you get to move two units, whereas most tactic abilities only move one. On the other hand, the other unit you chose must be within range 3. Other tactics move abilities are often range agnostic. Dooku doesn’t have any other in-activation free movement and Leader of the Separatist Army must happen at the start of his turn, so sometimes it can be a bit awkward to get where you want to.

Surely You Can Do Better had a big day 1 errata. It now reads:

When a character in this Unit defends, during the Modify Dice Rolls step, this Unit may spend 1-3 (force) to use this ability. Change one a result to a (failure) for each (force) spent.

Spending force to cancel strikes at a 1:1 ratio isn’t bad when you have perfect knowledge of what that strike could be. Dooku does bring 4 force, droids don’t really use force, and he has force refresh, so that also frees him up to spend it lavishly. Note that, if Dooku is wounded/injured, the extra force he spends doesn’t contribute to blocking strikes. Dooku with one injured token spends two force to cancel one strike, for example. Cancelling all hits is not only good defensively, but it can also proc a retaliatory attack from Dooku himself.

Twice the Pride, Double the Fall is that retaliation attack! I honestly haven’t used this trigger very often, but that’s because there’s often better targets than Dooku the Tank. Both of Dooku’s stances get a lot of crits in their melee expertise so that helps the 5 dice attack punch through enemy defenses.

Brave, But Foolish is Dooku’s identity and it’s quite good. Granted, you need a friendly primary or secondary to get wounded, but then you refresh force and a Separatist Alliance support (not within any specific range of Dooku) gets a dash or 5 dice attack. Spoiler alert: Dooku loves having MagnaGuards around, and they crit like crazy, so a 5 dice attack with them can go a long way (or 6 dice if Kalani is around).

Force Mastery

I think of this as Dooku’s ranged stance, even though both technically have a ranged attack. He gets 8 dice on his lightning and 6 defense dice in all situations. The offensive expertise for force lightning is much better than his other stance. He can do OK damage and dish out some conditions, but the combat tree isn’t really anything to write home about. His defensive expertise gives a decent number of blocks but no crit mitigation. It’s an all around solid stance that I like to use often, but it’s not especially flashy.

Form II Makashi

This is Dooku’s melee stance. His force lightning has less die and worse expertise than Force Mastery. He does get a ton of options with that tree layout, including a shove or a reposition at the starting point which is quite good. With the number of options, high damage, and other useful effects, this combat tree is one of the best out there.

Defensively, Dooku will only get 5 dice at range, but a whopping 7 in melee. His defensive expertise helps a lot against attacks with crits, but maxes out at one block. If you’re in this stance then Surely You Can Do Better can help take care of those enemy strikes. This is a great stance to be in if you have a lot of force available and are OK with the lesser ranged attack.

Synergy & Wrap Up

Dooku loves having MagnaGuard around. They are just good units generally, but he can propel them forward with Leader of the Separatist Army and give them extra attacks with Brave, but Foolish. He’s also a Separatist Alliance primary so he will trigger the Magna’s reactive move ability, Protection Protocols. You could combine Dooku with even more Separatist Alliance units for more flexibility, but just having Magnas around is plenty to get value from his abilities.

Dooku brings a lot of force to the strike team, both natively and with refresh abilities. He can burn through this force quickly if you so choose, but he can also spend it sparingly and still be effective. Only 7SP can limit list building but MagnaGuards are so good with him that you don’t feel bad about taking them and a 4PC secondary.