The New Republic’s rise reduced the once-mighty Empire to a rump state hemmed in by strict disarmament treaties and punishing reparations. But in the galaxy’s Unknown Regions, former Imperial officers, nobles and technologists plotted a return to power, building fleets and armies in secret. This movement became the First Order, ruled by Supreme Leader Snoke, and is now ready to reclaim the Imperial legacy.

Clad in distinctive armor of salvaged chromium, Captain Phasma commands the First Order’s legions of stormtroopers. A tough veteran commander, she has no use for fancy titles or complex war rooms, preferring to lead her troops in battle against the First Order’s enemies. A determined survivor, Phasma betrayed the First Order on Starkiller Base. She managed to conceal her treachery, but fell in battle against Finn, one of her former soldiers.

The First Order’s infantry units wear stark white armor derived from that worn by the Republic’s clone troopers and the Empire’s stormtroopers. Members of this new generation of stormtroopers are trained from birth, growing up with unit designations instead of names and fed a steady diet of First Order propaganda to ensure absolute loyalty. Where the Empire opted for numbing routine, the First Order’s training simulations and live-fire drills encourage improvisation on the battlefield, making these stormtroopers more dangerous than their Imperial predecessors.

The First Order’s stormtrooper transports – formally known as Atmospheric Assault Landers – are designed for the speedy delivery of up to 20 stormtroopers to the battlefield for ground operations. A pilot guides the transport to its drop zone from an elevated cockpit, while a gunner protects the no-frills craft during its final approach.

The son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, Ben Solo was seduced by the dark side of the Force and renamed himself Kylo Ren, becoming the First Order’s champion and Supreme Leader Snoke’s student. Kylo killed his father and seeks to destroy his mother’s Resistance and the remnants of the Jedi Order. Though a servant of the dark side, he still struggles against the pull of the light side of the Force.

Incendiary weapons have a long history in the galaxy, and are used to flush enemies from cover and destroy objects and structures that could be used as shelter. The D-93 incinerator combines three fuel tanks worn as a backpack with a flame-projector gun, connected to the backpack rig by a reinforced hose. Two of the tanks contain a volatile, flammable gel known as conflagrine-14, while the third is filled with propellant gas that launches the gel through the hoses. This combination is mixed and ignited at the barrelhead of the weapon, which has an effective range of 75 meters.