It’s May, and that means it’s update time for Shatterpoint once again! As expected, this year is a smaller update than last, but it should still be impactful. Similar to my 2025 recap, I will not be going through all of the changes in detail (you can view the updated PDF here), but rather I’ll be taking a high-level view of the winners and losers from the recent round of changes.
Let’s started with who got changed and how that lines up with the community tier list from December 2025.
Who Changed
Buffed
Nerfed
Discussion
As far as the nerfs go, ISF stand out as a bit of an outlier. However, there was clearly a desire to rein in Infiltration, so ISF got caught up in that despite being generally regarded as OK at best. While I think the nerf to Infiltration is good and warranted, in a perfect world I do think ISF could have used a little something to compensate. They have struggled to see play recently, though part of that is certainly being a kill-y, shove-less unit in a heavy revenge meta. With Cassian scaled back (and people just being tired of playing him generally), I wonder if ISF might start to hit the table again. I’m not counting on it, but maybe.
Padawans, Sabe, and Kit are notable as units that received B-tier ratings in December yet earned buffs. Elite Squad as well, but that was simply due to era updates on their box. Sabe is pretty understandable, as the whole Padme box was overhauled. Kit just snuck into B, and it was probably generous of the community to put Padawans that high. Padawans got some small stat buffs that help bring them more in line with their clone brethren but shouldn’t be too crazy. Kit might be crazy. I think one issue he had before was that most of his old kit (pun intended) was done better by others in the republic: Supporting Fire: Dash was on a 3pc support with better coverage (two bodies which could spread the bubble), Ahsoka also added defensive expertise, but as a bubble, and Jedi are just generally very sticky. Now Kit brings value in a unique and exciting way.
Winner: Republic
Delta Squad dominated republic list building recently, but they still had plenty of good options simmering in the background. Fixer dodged nerfs completely while Boss and Sev & Scorch still seem quite viable. Beyond that, republic got a number of buffs including maybe the best two of the bunch: Kit and Padme. Kit is a displacement machine and all-around pain in the butt now, especially against melee units that need to get within range 3. The republic didn’t have very good revenge before (sorry Ahsoka) but now have a superb revenge-plus unit in Padme, plus extra reactive movement in Sabe. It’s scary to think republic lists can now fit two tiebreakers while still bringing the normal eight bodies.
If you are just looking for pure distance, Ponds’ Forward Scout is now the best deployment ability in the game following the Infiltration nerf. Speaking of that…
Loser: Infiltration
Some people saw Infiltration as a necessity to reach home objectives on missions like Never Tell Me the Odds. It also allowed for more aggression and pressure on opposing objectives or easy dashes to the midline. I highly valued the ability to mitigate strange terrain. All in all, Infiltration was way too good an ability. The change from range 3 to range 2 is a decrease of three inches, and I have always said that three inches is a lot. It’s still a useful ability, but definitely not as strong as before.
Winner: Stormtroopers
OK, I recognize that actual Stormtroopers did not get a buff and that is sad. However, this update is a boon for the Stormtrooper tag. The changes to Veers and the Snowtrooper Lieutenant specifically open up a lot of interesting defensive play. Stormtroopers will be harder to kill and harder to condition up, something that shouldn’t be underestimated for a faction that likes to move its supports around. Night Troopers are looking especially spicy now with all the extra defense dice, and with Snowtrooper Lieutenant being viable the damage-instead-of-conditions trade is especially enticing on a zombie unit. Now that he’s 8sp, I think Veers with Snow Lieutenant and Death Troopers will be a go-to squad for me in empire list building.
Beyond the defensive buffs, the new and improved Snowtroopers deserve a shoutout. The Stormtrooper Sergeant has always been a solid enough 3pc Stormtrooper unit, but a useable 3pc Stormtrooper support also opens up list building a lot. Whether it’s keeping a 4pc like Death Trooper Escort under the 7pc primary, running two 7pc primaries, or having other options to fit 5pc secondaries under an 8pc primary, Snowtroopers being decent lets imperial players get more creative. I am firmly in the “ISBs are good” camp, but ISB aren’t Stormtroopers, and sometimes you want that tag.
Loser: Good Soldiers Follow Orders
Technically speaking, Crosshair’s box did get a buff thanks to the era change. However, that really isn’t enough to help except for Elite Squad Troopers. They were already solid but limited because of the era, so now they can more fully compete with Dark Troopers and Fifth Brother for that “solid 4pc empire support that isn’t a Stormtrooper” slot. For CT and Firebrand, this change mostly means there will be even more lists where they could go but won’t! Perhaps with the smaller scope of this update, it was either era change or nothing, in which case I guess the era change is preferred, but CT and Firebrand need some real changes before they see serious play.
Winner: Separatists
As a faction, Separatists rely heavily on their supports. Most of their units rely on them in some way or another. As such, if the supports are weak then everyone suffers. B1s and B2s both received buffs in two rather different ways.
B1s got the zombie treatment, similar (but definitely distinct from) Night Troopers, meaning you could almost always have some living support models to move around if you want. They’ll still get bullied off objectives with their poor defense, but at least they won’t be dead.
B2s are a bit more of a glass cannon now, rather than just being glass, thanks to some offensive rerolls when attacking range 3 and closer. This ability allows them to reroll fails or extra expertise since the type of die rerolled is not restricted. The B2 combat tree is pretty good, but historically they’ve struggled to get down it. With all the ways B2s can get extra dice, plus the new rerolls, their offense seems scary. Note that Close Range Annihilation works on any type of attack, not just combat actions, so that’s an indirect buff to all the Separatist units that can make the B2s do extra attacks.
Loser: Dathomirians
Dathomirians are in a pretty tough spot. None of the old-timey Dathomirians got buffs and the new Morgan Elspeth box mostly prefers to play with imperials rather than Dathomirians. Separatists got some love, so maaaybe Asajj or Savage will benefit from that, but I honestly don’t see them benefitting much. I think the best chance for Talzin & Co. to find relevance going forward is if they can excel on Strategic Positions, but sadly I think they may have to wait and hope for the 2027 balance pass.
Winner: 5pc supports
The 5pc supports are mainly winners by the logic of “could have been much worse.” Baze & Chirrut won’t be as refreshing as much force, but they’ll still be plenty effective in rebel, scoundrel and tag-agnostic lists. Sev & Scorch are still really good, too, despite their nerfs, and since Cassian and Boss are still looking solid then fitting 5pc supports won’t really be an issue. Even if you’re down on Cassian after the nerfs, Bodhi is still plenty solid for Rebels. Republic players haven’t really needed to try the Ponds + S&S pairing before since Boss was so good, but now that he’s more fair I wouldn’t be surprised to see the 8pc version sliding in to all sorts of lists. It’s a pairing that doesn’t spend a lot of force, opening things up for, say, Padme to spam her abilities? Padme/Ponds/S&S sounds like a pretty decent time to me.
Loser: Single body supports
I was really hoping that Chopper, Zeb, Del, and IG-11 could see some love. Unfortunately, they didn’t, and thus they continue to lag behind their two-body counterparts. I’ll admit I’m a bit salty seeing yet another primary/secondary with a tiebreaker (Padme) when all these supports don’t even get that to help make up for their lack of a second body.
Making these units feel useable is no doubt a difficult design challenge, and I don’t think slapping a tiebreaker on all of them is an interesting or useful solution. However, seeing as they make up a big chunk of the lowly-rated units which weren’t buffed, I do hope to see these guys get some love in the future. I wouldn’t mind ISF being nerfed if Del could earn his place and make Inferno Squad great again!
Wrap-Up
While I am disappointed at certain units not being buffed in the update, that’s bound to happen with the smaller scope. Heck, even if there had been 10 more units touched I don’t think that would have covered everything. Like last year, I am very happy to see lots of buffs and a few, targeted nerfs.
Most of the four main factions should have something to get excited about. Rebels are the exception there, seeing nerfs to both their main supports and no buffs. However, they still specialize in revenge which might be handy if the meta takes a turn towards aggro.
As always, I’m excited to get out there and try new things! Last year the post-update meta was a wonderful time and I have high hopes for this one, too.
