Shatterpoint Unit Guide: Kanan Jarrus, Spectre-1

Updated February 2025

When it comes to the Spectre numbering system, Kanan is #1! When it comes to Spectre units in Shatterpoint, it’s hard to argue he isn’t #1 there, too. Kanan brings a number of powerful abilities that make Spectre-heavy squads a pain to deal with.

Kanan Jarrus, Spectre-1 is available in the Stronger Than Fear squad box.

Main card

Well, 8sp and three force is pretty standard for a primary. The only note here is that Spectres are quite mix-and-matchable with both primaries being 8sp and all other units being 4pc, so that gives some flexibility when list building.

Abilities

A Man With Two Names is a very versatile tactic. Depending on his stance, Kanan can either refresh force and heal or generate up to two dashes. Since tactic abilities happen at the start of the turn, you will not be able to flip his stance before A Man With Two Names is triggered, so this ability does require some forward planning. We’ll look at stances later, but generally Kanan likes to be in his Pack Leader stance. While force refresh can be enticing, movement is king in Shatterpoint. At the very least, Kanan will want to start the game in Pack Leader so that he has enough mobility to reach the midline objectives and make attacks right away. It is important to note that the wording of this specific tactic allows Kanan to choose himself for the dash then get a second dash since he’s a Spectre.

Force Push is an oldie but a goodie. Two force as a base cost makes this a premium ability, but a guaranteed way to knock an enemy out of position is always going to be strong. Unlike some characters, Kanan won’t get Force Push for free very often, so you will want to keep that in mind when budgeting force.

Deflect is another classic Jedi ability. Kanan is a unit that your opponent would love to wound, but he can be annoying to attack in part due to the threat of sending back two damage on ranged attacks.

Now I Know There’s Something Stronger Than Fear is where Kanan makes his money. When any rebel unit is wounded via an attack (including himself) he will, at a minimum, get two heals and a jump. While the range on the jump isn’t huge, the ability to move vertically can be quite handy. Furthermore, since the heals happen first, Kanan doesn’t care much about conditions. Even when pinned and strained, Kanan can just heal those off before hopping onto an objective. If a Spectre is wounded (again, including himself) then Kanan also gets a five dice attack after the heal and jump. Note that this attack can target anyone, not just the character that caused the wound. This flexibility is both unique and powerful, making Kanan a huge threat whenever a Spectre is wounded.

Form III Soresu

As far as second-best stances go, Kanan’s Form III Soresu is pretty dang good. A shove on the first step is always nice, and the tree is littered with damage and conditions on every path. Five spots down the tree Kanan can trigger a free activity ability, potentially saving two or more force on a Force Push. However, even with a strong attack profile, it is tough to reliably get five spots down the tree.

Both the offensive and defensive expertise are quite strong. Two results on one expertise is fantastic when you are rolling eight attack dice, though sometimes it can be frustrating to roll many expertise and still only get two results. Defensively, Kanan has expertise similar to The Mandalorian, and we all know how much of a tank Mando can be.

Form III Soresu is honestly a very strong stance. Most melee-only GAR Jedi, for example, would kill to have it. However, Pack Leader is also strong and works better with the rest of Kanan’s kit. Most of the time I swap into Soresu I regret it with Kanan, but it can have its uses. When you know you are activating Kanan again soon (once with his card, once with the Shatterpoint) then it may be worth swapping over if the one-force refresh is critical. Furthermore, the shove-on-one can be quite handy, especially for the five-dice revenge attacks where you might only need to force one crit through to knock someone off an objective. However, the big issue is that the stance is melee-only, and having a gun is just so handy …

Pack Leader

Obi-Wan might call Kanan uncivilized, but who cares when you are a ranged beast? In addition to bringing mobility via A Man With Two Names, the Pack Leader stance increases Kanan’s threat range dramatically with a very strong ranged attack. One downside is that the shove moves to the second spot on his tree, but Kanan can still get far enough to use it on most attacks (even if they are five dice). While the melee expertise is good, you’ll usually want to be making ranged attacks during Kanan’s combat actions. If you do spike and get five spots down the tree, Kanan won’t get a free Force Push but he’s probably one-shotting whomever he’s attacking, which is a nice alternative.

Defensively, Pack Leader is worse than Form III Soresu when it comes to blocking attacks. However, a dash on one expertise can make Kanan quite slippery. Enemies without easy pins should think twice before attacking a non-exposed Kanan.

Synergy & Wrap-Up

It was difficult to write cons for Kanan. He’s a character that does everything. Even if your opponent can work around his amazing revenge trigger, Kanan will still provide value on his own activation by potentially moving a friend, making a big attack, and using Force Push. The main weakness of Kanan comes in the list-building stage. Generally I want to pair him with at least three other Spectres, but luckily those can be pretty strong (I especially like Ezra, Hera, and Sabine). Since supports are the most common units to get wounded, I want to have both my supports to have the Rebel Alliance tag when playing Kanan, and ideally one is a Spectre.

While Kanan generally goes double-Spectre with secondaries (Ezra in his squad, Sabine or Kallus in the other) there is some flexibility with his Primary counterpart. Outside of Hera, doubling down on revenge triggers is usually the go-to play with Kanan. Princess Leia, Charming to the Last is a strong rebel primary that brings a lot of movement and a revenge attack, which pairs well with Kanan. Conversely, The Mandalorian’s revenge reposition is potent and he brings more displacement via Clan of Two. Despite not being a rebel, the tag synergy is still there since Kanan and Ezra are scoundrels and Sabine likes the Mandalorian tag Mando brings. Finally, Vader can be a good pairing if you want to run Kanan’s tree often. Even with Vader, I’d still keep Kanan in Pack Leader since it has a higher damage ceiling and the healing potential to negate the two self-damage from Vader’s identity.

Kanan is a fixture in competitive rebel lists as he’s a character that excels at everything. His most notable attribute is his extremely strong revenge mechanic. If you want to learn more about playing with and against revenge, you can check out my article on the topic.