The first Dark Troopers were BEYOND terrifying

hey guys this is Justin hello and welcome to another video today we are discussing one of the Empire's most fearsome and arguably underutilized assets the Dark Trooper what you may be wondering is bringing about this discussion of the Dark Trooper well it's not the Mandalorian because we're actually in fact today going back to Star Wars Legends to look at the Dark Trooper line as it initially existed the reason for this is because of the recent re-release of Star Wars dark Forces I want an excuse to play through the game extract as much lore as possible and well here we are my main takeaway from this most recent playthrough of dark Forces was I mean aside from the fact that Kyle katar is a badass I think we all kind of knew that that dark Troopers are far far more terrifying than even I realized and I mean obviously dark Troopers are scary we'll go into each different model as this video progresses but a giant robot with guns made out of nearly impenetrable armor of course it's going to be scary however where dark for forces really shines is by contrasting the Dark Trooper with every single other thing Kyle katarn fights Kyle can take on Legions of Stormtroopers at ease there's a scene in the game where he kills a dragon with his fists the Dark Trooper however is one of the only enemies I guess aside from the grenade throwing Grands which will have you backing up seeking cover and desperately trying to find the right weapon for the job these machines were nearly indestructible they were incredibly aggressive and just overall very welld designed but let's talk specifics what is the Dark Trooper well the Dark Trooper project actually created several different Droid types from the phase Zero Dark Trooper which was relatively uncommon all the way up to the very rare phase 3 Dark Trooper The Phase 2 model was the most common although I'm going to argue that it was actually phase one which was the most terrifying but a bit of History first as the essential guide to Warfare explains the darkart trooper evolves out of a project to supplement the Clone Army with a more durable more resistant combat Droid the L8 L9 clone troopers were great however there were some situations where they just should not operate the Droid ultimately didn't see widespread use throughout the Clone Wars but the dream was kept alive and after the Clone Wars General RW mock was brought to the Droid project resulting in the creation of the ZX3 this model took the lessons learned from both the L8 L9 and the Confederacy of independent systems in their droids to make what was ultimately a deadly but impractical unit as I've discussed in Prior videos the Empire generally frowned upon the use of battle droids leading to the ZX3 or the ZX3 not seeing wider production however General mock continued to develop his ideas and that led to what was known as phase zero of the Dark Trooper project for this part I'm going to read directly from the essential guide to Warfare phase zero took agent clone soldiers and replaced their limbs and organs with cybernetic Parts these cyborg Storm Troopers proved effective but many rebelled at finding themselves more machine than man and killed themselves rather than become what they had fought on the battlefield of the Clone Wars this wouldn't be the only time the Empire would take living brains and insert them into Droid bodies another example would be the shadow Droid project however seeing the general success of the phase zero the Dark Trooper project not only continued but received its own research and production focused suers ship the kdy dreadn known as the arh hammer General Mock's first order of business was to produce a more advanced prototype which would be more representative of further combat suits and droids than the phase Zero Dark Trooper and that led shocker to the phase one model and I actually believe that the phase one was the best Dark Trooper in existence at least pound perp pound so the phase one is terrifying first of all it's completely built with Frick which is lightsaber resistant material not unlike bescar Frick is extremely extremely durable and makes even the skeletal Phase 1 immune to most handheld weapons even ordinance launchers what's more as we see in the dark force game The Phase 1 Shield actually allows for the redirection of enemy fire the dark troopers were first deployed to the rebel base on tay and as we see they completely annihilate it when you play against these in the game they're completely terrifying they're aggressive they immediately close the distance which is hard to prevent given their durability and their slashing weapon is honestly incredibly effective the new essential guide to droids calls them primitive but Relentless and I agree the phase one reminds me a lot certainly in design of Lando's later yvh droids the Yuan vong Hunters anyway the phase 2 Dark Trooper would be a significant redesign design you can look at this model and just tell much much more expensive rather than being a basic hunter killer Droid these were loaded with every possible feature and they're incredibly deadly on the battlefield they have repulsors so they can fly it of range I honestly don't know how effective this is in most ordinary situations like if you're in a gunfight does flying really make you more difficult to kill it allows you to get the drop on an enemy but that's not really how dark Troopers function certainly though great for zero g environments the phase two Dark Trooper also received heavier armor and utilized a powerful Dark Trooper Cannon which you can use in dark Forces as Kyle katarin as well which fired both plasma bolts and Rockets I just wonder whether the extra size whether the extra armor really makes the phase 2 Dark Trooper that much more effective the Dark Trooper is most commonly used in really two situations full-on assaults and protecting important facilities I think given the Empire's other options you'd want to optimize this for anti-infantry combat and honestly I think taking a phase one Dark Trooper and building some sort of ranged weapon into its arm would just be more successful either way these were completely devastating enemies and Kyle katar genuinely was the only person who faced them and had any sort of success the phase three Dark Trooper would have been an even more significant upgrade I'll read from the new essential guide to droids here even more massive than the phase 2 this Unstoppable Behemoth sported a nasty cluster of firing tubes connected to a seemingly endless supply of missiles these Rockets while slow HED in on a target's heat signature and packed enough Deb Knight to obliterate the strongest personnel's shielding the phase 3 prototype was designed to operate independently but could also be worn by a human operator as an exo suit and this reflected General Mock's preference for personal combat But ultimately Kyle katar did Kyle katar things not only sabotaging the resources powering the Dark Trooper project but actually destroying the arch Hammer alongside General mock basically alone which come on the dude is unreal Palpatine canceled the project both the new essential guide to droids and warfare focus on just how angry he was about wasting all that money and I understand it but to scrap the entire project was a complete waste especially when the phase one proved to be extremely effective in direct combat against Rebels that's probably the best show of force and really that makes sense because the attack or rather the massacre on tall is what Justified continued spending and research into the project the empire did make apparently other Dark Trooper variants there was the elite Dark Trooper the inquisitor's Dark Trooper I do kind of wonder whether most of these were really meant to be Canon doesn't make a whole lot of sense within the timeline but the Empire really should have continued work on the project at the very least the phase one and two was just purely effective and would have killed it at the Battle of Endor but those are my thoughts I really enjoyed playing the dark Forces remaster I'm hoping I can find another excuse to talk about it future videos I've got the entire game recorded as well so that's fun but let me know what you thought about this and more down below

Channel: EckhartsLadder

Views: 80,864

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Id: I-cUoFmlvDI

Length: 8min 5sec (485 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 06 2024