The Mandalorian season 2, episode 6, "Chapter 14: The Tragedy" notably featured the exciting return of Boba Fett, as well as providing a first look at The Mandalorian's version of the Dark Troopers. As Din Djarin, Boba Fett, and Fennec Shand fight Moff Gideon’s Stormtroopers, he deploys elite Dark Troopers to abduct the vulnerable Jedi child Grogu. Those familiar with Legends lore will recognize Gideon’s imposing droid soldiers right away, but how do the current canon’s Dark Troopers compare to the Legends version?
Dark Troopers are heavily armed and armored Imperial battle droids, possibly meant as a more expensive and effective Imperial answer to the Separatist Alliance’s cheap but adequate B2 Super Battle Droids. Season 2 of The Mandalorian technically isn’t the first appearance of Dark Trooper in the current canon. 2014’s mobile game Star Wars: Commander featured them as an elite Imperial ground unit. The Dark Troopers in this game are designated as “Phase II Dark Troopers,” and the Dark Trooper Program they are part of is referenced four years later in the Dawn of Rebellion sourcebook. Dark Troopers are also referenced in Star Wars Rebels, which featured deadly Imperial DT-Series Sentry Droids. The Sentry Droids may be an early droid model within the Dark Trooper Project, potentially one of its “phases.”
The Legends-era Dark Troopers first appeared in the 1995 video game Dark Forces, as an elite experimental droid military force to back up (or sometimes replace) the recruited human soldiers of the Imperial Army and Stormtrooper Corps. The game featured three phases of Dark Trooper: a fast-moving Phase I, a heavily armored Phase II, and the hulking Phase III which was used as an exoskeleton by the project’s creator, General Rom Mohc. Later video games - such as the Legends-era Battlefront and Star Wars Galaxies series - would add even more Dark Trooper variants, explained to be prototypes to General Mohc’s three mainline phases of the project. A veteran of the Clone Wars, Mohc valued the Clone Troopers under his command but was obsessed with creating a more adequate battle droid than his CIS opponents. Shortly after the Republic became the Empire, he began the Dark Trooper project, also using the Noble Tagge family’s L8-L9 and Z-X3 droid soldiers. The project was halted by Stormtrooper-turned Rebel spy Kyle Katarn, who destroyed most of the Dark Troopers and killed Mohc aboard his factory ship, the Arc Hammer. As some of the most intimidating droids in the universe, then, it is only natural that the Dark Troopers have some of the most impressive abilities.
The Dark Troopers' New Armor Explained
It isn’t clear what phase that the Dark Troopers seen in The Mandalorian are, and the droids’ full combat capabilities were unfortunately not demonstrated in Chapter 14. The best glimpse at the armor of the current canon’s Dark Troopers can be found in the DT-series Sentry Droids from Rebels. With their “DT” designation and strikingly similar faceplate and body structure, it’s safe to assume that the sentry droid is either an earlier phase of Dark Trooper or a close precursor to the more elite Dark Troopers that served Moff Gideon. The armor plating used by the Imperial sentry droids is very effective against blasters, even the powerful, armor-piercing types used by Imperial troops.
In the Rebels episode The Wynkahthu Job, the criminal Azmorigan blasts a DT-Sentry Droid seven times with an Imperial blaster. The droid is briefly disabled, but stands back up and resumes attacking only moments later. In a later episode, Through Imperial Eyes, Grand Admiral Thrawn, also using an Imperial blaster, successfully destroyed two reprogrammed sentry droids, blasting each droid five times. Thrawn’s blaster was most likely set to a higher power setting than Azmorigan’s, given the larger craters left in the droids’ plating. If Moff Gideon’s Dark Troopers are an upgraded, combat-oriented version of the sentries, their armor plating is likely even more efficient against blaster bolts than the droids Grand Admiral Thrawn faced.
The Dark Troopers' Powers & Abilities in The Mandalorian
As far as offensive capabilities, the Dark Troopers seen in The Mandalorian were not shown attacking anyone, but the DT-Sentry Droids and the Phase II Dark Troopers in Star Wars: Commander are shown using built-in weaponry. The sentry droids have blasters (similar in appearance to a Stormtrooper's E-11) built into their right arms, not unlike the Super Battle Droids that may have inspired them. The Phase II Dark Troopers use heavy blasters attached to their left arms and what appears to be a missile launcher on their right shoulders.
The Dark Troopers who serve Moff Gideon are only seen briefly in The Mandalorian, and thus their full capabilities are largely unseen (likely being saved for later episodes). What Chapter 14 does show, however, is that the Dark Troopers are equipped with jetpacks, unlike the DT sentry droid or the Phase II models. Gideon tasks the elite droids with abducting Baby Yoda, and they deploy from his cruiser, quickly and successfully capturing the child and returning to Gideon, thanks to their jetpacks. If the Phase II and sentry models are any indication, Gideon’s Dark Troopers are possibly some of the deadliest and most durable Imperial military units, and considering how dangerous Grogu is, Gideon likely deployed them to capture the youngling out of caution. Chapter 14’s concept art also provides a preview of what may be to come, as far as weaponry. The art depicts Dark Troopers carrying large blaster rifles, possibly an E-11 variant. One picture shows them with heavy repeating blasters, similar to both the Z-6 blasters used by Clone Troopers and the heavy canons used by Legends-era Phase II Dark Troopers in the video game Empire at War: Forces of Corruption.
How The Mandalorian's Dark Troopers Compare To Star Wars Games
Out of all the Dark Troopers in the Expanded Universe, the one that most closely resembles those seen in The Mandalorian is the Phase III variant. The Phase III Dark Trooper is the most advanced and deadly iteration of the Dark Trooper in Legends, functioning as either a suit of armor for a humanoid (most famously Rom Mohc) or an automated battle droid. As shown in Dark Forces and Empire at War: Forces of Corruption, Phase III has armor and weaponry that is comparable to a tank. Phase III had lightsaber-resistant phrik armor plating, built-in blasters and anti-vehicle missiles, a jetpack, and an arsenal consisting of explosives and a gargantuan blaster canon. The Dark Troopers in The Mandalorian may share these offensive and defensive features, possibly using beskar plating on the droids instead of phrik. If this is the case, Din Djarin and his new allies will be in for a challenging fight to rescue Grogu from Moff Gideon’s.