I’ve been thinking about character lineups recently, and was wondering if there was a way to create a good character lineup automatically using maths.

I had a bit of spare time, so I decided to give it a go.

Getting the data was pretty straightforward, as the raw data from swdestinydb is available online.  Making the character combos was also pretty easy. I wrote a program to build every possible character combination under 30 points (there’s 541,355 combinations in standard, in case you were wondering).

But how to score characters?

Their dice: I scored dice based on the values and symbols on the dice:

Resource: 2 points (as 1 resource is worth about 2 damage, e.g. Field Medic, Lightsaber Throw etc).
Special I have given 2 points (as very broadly a special tends to be worth about 1 resource or 2 damage, with notable exceptions like legacies Yoda).
Ranged/melee/focus: 1 point.
Shield: 0.8, Indirect: 0.7, Disrupt/discard: 0.5

If the side is a modifier side, I’ve halved it’s value (as you’ll probably only be able to resolve these sides half the time).  If a die has a cost, I take two off the side for each resource cost. This means that 2 ranged for 1 resource sides I am saying are worth nothing.  I’m OK with this.

Abilities: I decided to ignore most abilities.  There’s just too many abilities out there to score.  I have made exceptions for two-player Kylo, Snoke, Cassian, and legacies Yoda (owing to his above curve special).  I’ve also boosted any decks with 3PO and R2 together to account for their abilities. Finally, I dropped the value of WotF Jabba’s specials to 1.5 (about 2 indirect), as he was dominating the results otherwise owing to his very good other dice sides (2F, 1R, 1R).

I then multiplied my score by health, as if a character has twice as much health, you are likely to get value out of their dice for twice as long.

I now have a score for every character.  According to my model, the strongest character in the game, accounting for points cost, is Vader (AtG), followed by Jabba (WotF) thanks to his good dice sides, Legacies Yoda, Snoke, SoH Yoda, Lando and Finn (post Balance of the Force).

That done, I now can calculate a score for each character lineup (doubling die scores when a character is elite).

And the results?

According to my model, the best deck you can build is…

First Order Stormtrooper-eVader.  In fact, the top 4 decks are eVader decks (FOST, Greedo, Clawdite then Jawa).

OK, so that’s not particularly interesting.  Vader is a powerhouse, with huge melee sides plus that 2 resource side, so I shouldn’t be too surprised (though it’s nice that my model is creating sensible decks).  Also, my model does not take into account strategies – it’s all about raw power, which is Vader in a nutshell.

Here are the top 20 decks:

lineup	points	health	score	affiliation
FOST-eDarth Vader	30	22	450	villain
Greedo-eDarth Vader	30	22	442.3	villain
Clawdite-eDarth Vader	29	21	435.6	villain
Jawa-eDarth Vader	29	21	435	villain
eAayla Secura-eYoda(SoH)	30	22	432	hero
Battle Droid-eDarth Vader	29	21	426.6	villain
eKylo Ren-eSnoke	30	23	423.8	villain
eFinn-eLando Calrissian	29	22	418	hero
ePoe Dameron-eLando Calrissian	30	22	415.8	hero
eKit Fisto-eLando Calrissian	30	22	415.8	hero
eJabba The Hutt-eDarth Vader(CM)	29	24	415.2	villain
eJabba The Hutt-eHan Solo	29	23	415	villain
eYoda(SoH)-eHan Solo	30	22	414	hero
eYoda(L)-eLando Calrissian	28	21	413.8	hero
eSnoke-eIG-88	30	23	411.8	villain
eYoda-eBail Organa	30	22	410	hero
eFifth Brother-eJabba The Hutt	30	24	408	villain
eZeb Orrelios-eLando Calrissian	29	23	405	hero
eLando Calrissian-eHan Solo	30	22	404.8	hero
eAayla Secura-eBo-Katan Kryze	30	22	403.2	hero

Sitting in at number 11, is eJabba/eVader(CM).  That Vader has 2 special sides to boost Jabba’s special.  I’ve enjoyed playing with Jabba since he was balanced, and this deck looks like it could be fun (once Covert Missions finally drops).

There’s a few more combos which interest me and I might give a go at, such as Snoke/IG-88 and Yoda(L)/Lando (with 2 points left over for double down).  This model also suggests combinations like Yoda(SoH)/Bail and Kylo/Snoke which have been popular.

All the top decks are two wide.  Here’s the top 10 if I force my model to only show me 3 wide results:

lineup	points	health	score	affiliation
Anakin Skywalker-eYoda-eSatine Kryze	30	26	380.3	hero
Gungan Warrior-eFinn-eSatine Kryze	30	26	364.6	hero
Vigilant Jedi-eAayla Secura-eSatine Kryze	30	27	363.6	hero
Clawdite Shapeshifter-eFinn-eSatine Kryze	30	26	361	hero
Jar Jar Binks-eYoda-eSatine Kryze	30	26	360.7	hero
Gungan Warrior-eYoda-eSatine Kryze	29	25	360.4	hero
Rebel Engineer-eAayla Secura-eSatine Kryze	30	27	360.4	hero
Rose-eAayla Secura-eSatine Kryze	30	28	358.8	hero
Kashyyk Warrior-eAayla Secura-eSatine Kryze	30	29	356.2	hero
Gungan Warrior-eCassian Andor-eSatine Kryze	30	25	354.4	hero

Some of those don’t look half bad.  They’re all hero, which is interesting.  I guess hero has more good little guys. They also all feature Satine who, I think most people agree, is a bit under-costed.

Now I’ve got a program that makes me lineups, I can tweak the weights and ask it questions.

What if I all I want is focus, resource and damage sides?  I can change the weightings to only value these sides, downgrade indirect a little, and this changes things up a bit.  My new best character is Kit Fisto (balanced to 15 points elite), and my new top lineups are:

lineup	points	health	score	affiliation
First Order Stormtrooper-eDarth Vader	30	22	368.5	villain
eKylo Ren-eSnoke	30	23	360.2	villain
eKallus-eIden Versio	30	24	360	villain
Greedo-eDarth Vader	30	22	355.2	villain
eKit Fisto-eTarfful	29	22	352	hero
eMace Windu-eTarfful	30	22	352	hero
eKes Dameron-eTarfful	30	22	352	hero
eKit Fisto-eLando Calrissian	30	21	343.2	hero
eZeb Orrelios-eKit Fisto	29	21	343	hero

Which mostly look kind of fun.

What if I want to play Snoke, and want the most aggro characters possible to pair with him, and don’t care if they have pay sides.  This gives me the decks:

Battle Droid-eTrandoshan-eSnoke	30	25	350.3	villain
Veteran Stormtrooper-Greedo-eSnoke	30	26	348	villain
Mudtrooper-eTrandoshan-Snoke	30	27	346.5	villain

I do like the look of the last one.

Models like mine are never going to produce combinations and strategies as those created by real players, but hopefully there’s some inspiration there for new ideas.

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