Star Wars Zero Company When Does It Take Place: Timeline Guide

Star Wars Zero Company takes place during the twilight of the Clone Wars — the final stages of the galaxy-spanning conflict between the Republic and the Separatists. Developed by Bit Reactor in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games and published by EA, the game drops you into the closing chapter of the war, before the events of Revenge of the Sith reshape the galaxy. You play as Hawks, a former Republic officer commanding an unconventional company of operatives, and the countdown hanging over the entire campaign is a simple one: everyone who knows Star Wars knows exactly where the Clone Wars end.

That closing-chapter placement is more than flavor text. It shapes the whole experience: the war is winding down, the Republic's fate is already written, and your company fights a smaller, stranger conflict in the shadows of the bigger one. Extensive preview coverage confirms the setting and how it feeds into the campaign structure.

Video Highlights:

• Confirms the setting is the twilight of the Clone Wars, in the war's final stages
• Hawks leads an unconventional company mixing known characters with custom recruits
• The Infinite Coil cult drives an original "war beneath the war"
• Campaign cycles link the Den, operations, and turn-based tactical missions

Here is the core setting information at a glance:

The Clone Wars span the years between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and Zero Company occupies the very end of that window. Preview coverage repeatedly describes the era as the "twilight of the Clone Wars," meaning your company operates while the Republic still stands — but not for long.

Because the endpoint of the war is fixed, the tension comes from somewhere else. Rather than retelling battles you already know, Bit Reactor builds its own corner of the universe. Instead of chasing yet another Separatist general around the galaxy, you confront the Infinite Coil. That approach gives the studio room to create new characters, threats, and mythology without heavily interfering with established events.

The campaign story revolves around the Infinite Coil, a Separatist-aligned paramilitary cult active during the war's final stages. Its members are infected by the mysterious shadow plague, which supposedly grants them unnatural resilience and abilities. It is a cult storyline rather than a conventional military campaign — a pulpy, self-contained corner of the galaxy that feels closer to classic Star Wars adventures than to the front lines of the Clone Wars.

This framing is deliberate. Star Wars is enormous, and sometimes the best way to tell an original story is to find room to create something new. Zero Company does exactly that: a war beneath the war, with fresh characters and threats that do not need to overwrite anything you already know.

The era is not just backdrop — it is built into the campaign structure itself. Your campaign is divided into cycles, and between missions you return to the Den, your headquarters. There you upgrade facilities, develop relationships with your crew, and decide where to go next. From the holo table, you run non-combat operations alongside full tactical missions, building influence across 12 different zones and unlocking rewards. Preview coverage spanned 18 campaign cycles, and the loop held up across all of them.

Crucially, missions advance time, and opportunities can disappear. That means a strategic layer always sits behind the actual battles, and the war's countdown is something you feel in gameplay, not just in cutscenes.

The late-Clone Wars framing also shapes how your company evolves. Seven specializations — assault, heavy, medic, scoundrel, scout, sharpshooter, and soldier — let you completely retool your approach whenever one playstyle grows stale. Deep customization covers species, appearance, outfits, weapons, abilities, and combat roles, so you can build a clone-heavy strike force, a droid-supported squad, or anything in between.

Third-person exploration sections add another layer. Walking through environments, talking to people, and investigating areas helps embed you in the story and can provide additional intel for subsequent encounters — a small but welcome break from the tactical camera.