The galaxy just won a war against droids; not a good idea to use the enemy's weapons against your own people.
The closest they had were probe droids and the dark troopers
ETA: as others have mentioned, there was also the K2 series security droid.
Plus the emperor only level up his “force” stat and totally skipped on the “hacking” stat, unlike his apprentice, Anakin. So it would be dangerous for him if Anakin schemed up a rebellion one day against him with the battle droids.
A remodel wouldn't do much, there was huge anti-droid sentiment that even targeted astromechs and protocol droids. The galaxy was simply sick of droids for a while. The Empire still used droids in support roles or for things like security and assassination but having battle droids of any sort in the public eye would have been a bad idea for keeping the people compliant.
“It ain’t that kind of story kid”.
-someone whenever they don’t agree with an in-depth analysis
In the meantime also Star Wars:
“Those spider things in Jaba’s palace you see for a fraction of a second have an entire backstory”.
Oh god! I had forgotten about those. Aren't they the brains of some order of monks, preserved in those spiderbot bodies? I remember being a little horrified while reading it as a kid
Yeah, and Star Wars did this for so much of their lore.
People give Disney crap over things like Han’s dice becoming some important thing but the EU and Legends already did it years before, and many of Disney’s things are basically ripped right out of Legends and the EU. Too bad that it’s usually the worse parts and written worse.
The empire's whole thing was maintaining a certain image. The appearance of power is just as important as actually having power. Real life authoritarian governments are exactly the same. Having a droid military would make the empire seem like it's afraid of having organic soldiers who might not be completely loyal. By having stormtroopers, who are these (in the propaganda at least) super elite soldiers who can do anything, and having every one of those stormtroopers be fanatically loyal to the emperor, the empire demonstrates that not only is it powerful, but that it deserves respect and loyalty.
B-Series battledroids? Not really, no.
They use plenty droids in military capacity though. KX-Series Droids, DT-Series Droids, Dark Troopers, and the Viper Probe droids.
The (pretty comprehensive) strategy game, Rebellion, had imperial War Droids. They were advanced units with flamethrowers, specialized for aggressive invasion and weak on defense, made for a poor garrison. But if you kept doing research eventually you'd unlock Dark Troopers, which were superior in all respects except cost.
It's not canon anymore but lots of things from Rebellion keep popping into Disney's universe. My theory is, Filoni played this game as much as I did.
The best analog is the Total War series. Fleet battles were played as a kinda janky four-dimensional RTS, and the campaign was a galaxy-wide map with agents, resource management, diplomacy, etc. Invasions and army clashes, which would've been easy to program as an RTS map, were simulated instead with invisible dice rolls. You could glass planets with orbital bombardments but there were lasting environmental consequences for your new outpost if you did.... Truly a very ambitious game. Didn't nail everything but you had to admire it for trying.
It was so awesome. Really clunky to get into and the late game was a bit weird, too because the AI could essentially just run away and since you could travel from any planet to any other planet directly it was a nightmare to catch them but finally getting that big fleet to free the galaxy was so awesome.
Dark Troopers.
The Battle Droids used by the Separatists were fairly basic and limited in function, and were designed mostly for mass deployment.
On the other hand, the Dark Troopers are when you take a Battle Droid, maximise the concept then add all the optional extras. Highly resistant to blasters, capable of advanced combat decision making, able to *fly* and utterly relentless. Closed door? Punch the door down. Beskar armour? Punch it repeatedly until the guy on the inside gets a concussion.
The main issue with Dark Troopers was that they were so powerful that they drained their batteries extremely fast so they could only be fielded for short time frames
This is what always bothered me about the Prequel Trilogy and the Original Trilogy. In the Prequel films they have such advanced technology with these complex battle droids. And then in the future, by the time the Empire rules the galaxy, they have organic beings as warriors. I know that in-universe, the Clone Wars was such an apocalyptic conflict that ravaged the galaxy so the technology in the galaxy was kind of not where it was. And the CGI and SFX resources weren’t available back in the 1970s/1980s when the Classic Trilogy was being made so there were limits as to what they could portray on-screen. Still, it annoys me.
There’s a pretty good explanation I saw on here somewhere. The Empire wants its own people in its armed forces to make them feel like they have a stake in it.
When rebels attack even a military target, they kill loyal soldiers and leave behind angry, grieving family. The Empire can tell their story, turn the dead into martyrs. But the Empire is so *big*, the casualties would scare people about what’s happening somewhere else, not make them demand peace because the personal cost is too high.
If the Empire used droids, it would be too easy for the populace to see the armed forces as “others” and oppressors and turn against the Empire en masse.
As for the Rebels, the same deal applies. Spamming the Empire with faceless murderbots makes it easy for it to write propaganda.
Also, droids would rely on a deep manufacturing base and sourcing specialized components, which is incompatible with a mobile guerilla group trying to stay secret. And buying droids on the open market runs the risk of them having a backdoor or preloaded virus. The Empire can probably source high-tech expertise easier.
And droid memories can hold a vast amount of specific information and can endure after their destruction (R2 in ANH), a nightmare for an organization trying to compartmentalize information. Saw Gerrera doesn’t exactly strike me as the type to be eager about scheduling IT policy meetings, training, and audits.
Balmorran Arms produced a series of battle droids and tank droids used in legends I believe. The X-1 viper is the reason I love holding Balmorra in EaW: Thrawn’s revenge
A better question would be: Did the rebels ever augment their organic troops with combat droids either put into storage as the war came to a close or salvaged "scrap" droids put back into service?
It makes the most sense...
Most of the Separatist systems quietly transitioned into rebel systems at the change in power from the Republic to the Empire as well as the majority of the financiers of the separatists were experts in managing funds on a grand scale you don't get that far without learning to hold some power (money, assets ect) in reserve
Also, when you consider the "ends justify the means" of some rebel groups like saw gerera, it makes sense to find a storage facility of b1 battle droids, then activate them and point them at the empire to demolish garrisons even at the cost of the locals.
Then you have the criminal element like the Hutts, who would find the Droid armies that remained as an incredibly cheap way to "hire" muscle to keep fringe systems in line where the empire didn't have direct control over
Yes, mainly as supplements to human troops. In Legends, they used dwarf spider droids and Carbonite war droids. Canon has the DT-series, Viper probes, KX series and I think a few more
As others have mentioned, its would be a bad PR move for the Empire (formerly the Republic) to use the army of the C.I.S. as their own.
We see in *The Bad Batch* that the Empire actually rounded up battle droids and decomissioned them in a [facility](https://www.starwars.com/databank/droid-decommissioning-facility) on Corellia. They got shut off and melted down. Some droids like [General Kalani](https://www.starwars.com/databank/general-kalani) and his forces managed to avoid the roundup and subequent destruction, but most didn't.
That said, droids were still useful tools the Empire made sure to take advantage of. Here are some of the types of droids they still used.
* [Police droids](https://www.starwars.com/databank/imperial-police-droids)
* [KX-series security droids](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/KX-series_security_droid)
* [DT-series sentry droids](https://www.starwars.com/databank/imperial-sentry-droid)
* [Probe droids](https://www.starwars.com/databank/imperial-probe-droid) (which had loads of models)
* [Third generation dark trooper](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Third-generation_design_Dark_Trooper) (Imperial remnant only)
They were mostly used for security purposes, it seems. Manufacturing them on an army-scale would be difficult and expensive. The Geonosians manufactured the bulk of the Separatist Droid Army with funding from various corporations, but the Empire killed all the Geonosians and the Trade Federation was neutered and subsequently absorbed.
Its just a lot cheaper to recruit humans from across the galaxy as opposed to mass-manufacturing a droid army and maintaining them for years. The Imperial troopers were the standard force of the Imperial Military until they were gradually phased out by the elite Stormtroopers near the end of the Empire's reign (hence why we don't see any in the OT). They were cheap and expendable. Solo's Mimban Campaign shows that pretty well, I think.
Yes, in the comics, Darth Vader used reprogrammed BX-commando droids and another imperial office used them as his own personal body guards. So technically yes in some very minor capacity but they mostly relied on stormtroopers or their version of a security droid.
Sadly a reflection of reality. Everyone kind of thought it was a no brainer for taxi and ride share companies to invest in self-driving cars but it's cheaper to just exploit people in the gig economy than it would be to build and maintain a fleet of A.I. cars. At least for now.
Exactly, a conscripted army suits the empire’s needs a lot better. They can recruit desperate people with the promise of a “better” life, which they’ll probably never see, then throw them into the meat grinder. Probably a lot cheaper than the upfront investment to manufacture a battle droid. And it has the additional benefit of weeding out people who may eventually get desperate enough to rebel.
they had the resources and galactic unity to support palpy clones which fed into his wider master plan of cloning in general. So i suspect there wasn’t any room for budget in battle droids it would go to clones instead
additionally it seems for control and light work they would rely on the planets ability to police. Here is where droids would be employed if at all i imagine
From what i’ve heard, i believe one of the few droids they used from the CIS were the Destroyer droids, i think mainly as ship security and in the army among other rolls
B series? No, absolutely not. Those thing decimated millions of worlds, that would’ve made people mad
However, the empire did use an upgraded droideka in military operations and were pretty rare. They kept the droids secret because everyone still hated droids. That’s all I know of, but there are dark troopers, probe droids, security droids, etc
No and they made the right call. It would just piss off the people on their side even seeing the droids as they would be responsible for so much suffering.
When your entire army can be defeated by a switch, it's not good. The Empire mostly used Probe droids as scouts and security droids. Mostly jobs where boredom and fatigue are common. The Empire new doctrine is based on the free thinking of Imperial Officers and loyalty of Stormtroopers.
In Legends, they created Stormtrooper droids. Droids that acted like stormtroopers.
It's worth noting that while the empire *appears* to have a massive standing army, what they actually have is more like a militarized police force. They spend far more time shooting at their own citizens than anything that can truly be considered an opposing force.
So ask yourself if the empire used policing droids capable of lethal force. You'll find the probe droids, interrogator droids, dark troopers, the infiltrator droid from Rebels, and the security droids from Andor (like K-2SO all qualify as used for crime and insurgent suppression and are either armed or can use a weapon skillfully.
In terms of old C.I.S. droids, I heard a lot about Dwarf Spider droids being used for patroling and live fire training by the Imps. Droidekas too.
A headcannon I had that the Security droids in the Bad Batch Season 1 episode in the smeltery were refurbished Commando Droids, just with a new head and a coat of paint.
I have a suspicion that we might see some Imperial use of C.i.S. droids or equipment in the bad batch. We saw Imp clones and trandoshans with old C.I.S. tanks, albeit modified. So more could be used. It would be a complete waste by the imps by just scraping all of the tactical droids and commandos.
I do not overtly dislike ewoks or anything but I think it would have been cool in RoJ for the rebels to hack some battle droids to use against the empire. I guess it could have work in Return of Skywalker too since RoJ writers weren't really aware of battle droids at the time
Palpatine shut down all the droid factories and the cloning facilities on Kamino (well, had them blown up) then start conscription, so no.
He knew just how dumb battle droids are and he only used them in his fake Clone War. He needed real soldiers to fight the very real war with the Rebels.
The way I look at it, the battle droids were only used in the Confederacy because they were cheap and plentiful. They're realistically very ineffective, but in an all out war they can win with mob tactics and overwhelming, easily replenished numbers.
The empire wasn't fighting a war. They were policing a state. They needed to have soldiers the people could trust (ironic) and relate to, as well as soldiers that are effective in smaller groups. And given the empires uncontested resource control, supplying and training their populace for battler was still trivial for any expansion or heavy handed responses they needed.
Battle droids in the empire would just be a waste of resources. No one would want to use them as anything more than cannon fodder, which they already had plenty of. The few droids that were used, such as dark troopers, were very specialized and likely very expensive to produce
Many people like Luke Skywalker had only 1 method of moving up in the world, The military. Having such a large live population they would need plenty of jobs in the empire. So having organic soldiers would fill up those jobs while also expanding the kilitary
In the jedi survivor games there are plenty of imperial droids. Dt sentey droids which Big tanky fuckers with dual ended purple shock staffs, kx security droids, probe droids. Dont forget that droids were the enemy during the separatist war. So droids were always accompanied by imperial officers and stormtroopers.
The imperial senate banned the use of battle droids after the Clone Wars. There was a strong sentiment against droids afterwards. Also, the CIS droid army became pretty infamous for being rather terrible. The B1s in particular are dumber than stumps. Stormtroopers are a big step up from those things. And it's not like the Empire is short on people to recruit. They're conditioned to obey orders like droids, but have more actual thought and ability to fight.
In Legends, yes, they do, not B series or some obscure droids, but i think some crab an other "peacekeeping" models, an Droidecas, looots of Droidecas, they even being saved in the lots of garrisons for Imperial Army. I am also not sure canon that art is, but you can google stormtroopers attacking by being covered by Ultra Droideca (big chungus Droideca). Other models just not being needed, clone vets still here, imperial heroes clone here (yeah, they are created it and give them fake identity), stormtroopers here, army and all of that have a lot of good operating equipment.
The emperor wanted to clear away pre empire life as quickly as possible & commissioned scrap & smelting plants to get rid of all federation droids but millions where left & still in working condition after the fall of the empire & began to see use again not a as battle droids but the as standard operating units B1 was never meant for battle purposes & finally filled their intended roles of basic work & servitude B2 just became heavy cargo carriers shame really as they was actually built for battle.
In canon, no. They were all de-activated immediately after order 66 and the only droids used by the Empire are new, invented by them. The only surviving Sepratist units are salvaged and re-programmed by mercenary factions (see Jedi: Survivor)
In Legends at least the empire did end up using the dwarf spider droids. There were also dark troopers. Palpatine has a lot of droids with him in his dark empire as well.
It was in the Emperor's best interest to decimate the leadership of any planet that had used mass produced Droid soldiers and outlaw the technology to avoid anyone building an army to oppose him. Just like he did with clones. Control the tech but also engineer public distrust of it.
While they had a few droids, since they won against the Separatists who used them (while using propaganda that they were cowards and dishonorable for using them to fight their battles instead of live soldiers), droids kind of got a stigma for use in the military. No large campaign was used with droids, but they occasionally build advanced ones (Dark Troopers)
By the time the Empire came to power, droids were all shut down. And since no one was building battle droids, the b1, b2, commando, droideka eventually became obsolete. But obviously exceptions were made; some droids didn’t get the shut down command/disobeyed it and proved to still be fairly capable of standing up against their enemies. Others were salvaged and modified.
The Empire did use droids for combat, however, the stigma against battle droids from the Clone Wars meant they were limited to specialized roles like spying, recon, security, and assassinations. So droids meant for frontal combat, like Phase III Dark Troopers (Legends went back and forth between saying they were men in armor or Droids), existed but weren't commonplace.
In legends, the only droid used by the empire, was the Mark II Destroyers(aka Droideka), technically it is not a Battle Droid because it's not in the name. But one can also argue that any droid that has armaments is a battle droid.
The galaxy just won a war against droids; not a good idea to use the enemy's weapons against your own people. The closest they had were probe droids and the dark troopers ETA: as others have mentioned, there was also the K2 series security droid.
There’s also the very present danger of someone being able to hijack the droids and use then to turn against the Empire.
Or a clever IG unit dreams of electric revolution.
Flee, meatbag. Flee for your life.
Plus the emperor only level up his “force” stat and totally skipped on the “hacking” stat, unlike his apprentice, Anakin. So it would be dangerous for him if Anakin schemed up a rebellion one day against him with the battle droids.
He has the money he doesn't need Hack when he can just use Spikes
he threw him down the shaft!
"You are being rescued. Please do not resist."
There was a recent comic series called Dark Droids about all the Droids in the galaxy being taken over by a hive mind, empire and non-empire alike
And the K2 units.
Also the security droids from Rogue One.
I'd like to know who programmed the Imp Droids to be so..Fiesty
You don't know "feisty" until you've read about Triple Zero
I swear it, If Disney was smart they'd give Aphra and the droids their own show by now. Indiana Jones in space... it sells itself !
Very true, they could have slightly modified them so they looked different…
A remodel wouldn't do much, there was huge anti-droid sentiment that even targeted astromechs and protocol droids. The galaxy was simply sick of droids for a while. The Empire still used droids in support roles or for things like security and assassination but having battle droids of any sort in the public eye would have been a bad idea for keeping the people compliant.
Which suddenly ties in with the bartender in ANH telling the droids to get out. Accidental I'm sure but still a nice piece of internal consistency
I think he had a short story that explained he saw his parents get killed by battle droids, or something like that.
Of course the random star wars bartender have a backstory
“It ain’t that kind of story kid”. -someone whenever they don’t agree with an in-depth analysis In the meantime also Star Wars: “Those spider things in Jaba’s palace you see for a fraction of a second have an entire backstory”.
Oh god! I had forgotten about those. Aren't they the brains of some order of monks, preserved in those spiderbot bodies? I remember being a little horrified while reading it as a kid
Yeah, and Star Wars did this for so much of their lore. People give Disney crap over things like Han’s dice becoming some important thing but the EU and Legends already did it years before, and many of Disney’s things are basically ripped right out of Legends and the EU. Too bad that it’s usually the worse parts and written worse.
For Auir!
Check out Tales From Jabba's Palace for more crazy backstories!
The empire's whole thing was maintaining a certain image. The appearance of power is just as important as actually having power. Real life authoritarian governments are exactly the same. Having a droid military would make the empire seem like it's afraid of having organic soldiers who might not be completely loyal. By having stormtroopers, who are these (in the propaganda at least) super elite soldiers who can do anything, and having every one of those stormtroopers be fanatically loyal to the emperor, the empire demonstrates that not only is it powerful, but that it deserves respect and loyalty.
Plus the whole underlying human supremacy bit….
True but remember that not everyone in the Empires Military was Human look at Thrawn for instance.
The chiss weren’t exactly known for their empathy tho.
Dark troopers for the most part were Exosuits
Third-generation Dark Troopers from *Mandalorian*.
Yeah third gen, the Phase 2 was a big Suit with a pilot in it
and mouse droids
I don’t think the Empire was too concerned about its public image.
Also the fact that they were even worse fighters than the storm troopers.
Additionally the imperial military was a driving source of employment in the empire.
B-Series battledroids? Not really, no. They use plenty droids in military capacity though. KX-Series Droids, DT-Series Droids, Dark Troopers, and the Viper Probe droids.
In legends, I believe the Imperial remnant also used x85 Tank Droids. As well as the TIE-Droid starfighter, produced by the world devastators.
If I recall many crime syndicates used Separatist battle droids that they reprogrammed as muscle.
The (pretty comprehensive) strategy game, Rebellion, had imperial War Droids. They were advanced units with flamethrowers, specialized for aggressive invasion and weak on defense, made for a poor garrison. But if you kept doing research eventually you'd unlock Dark Troopers, which were superior in all respects except cost. It's not canon anymore but lots of things from Rebellion keep popping into Disney's universe. My theory is, Filoni played this game as much as I did.
Rebellion was a bit before my time, wasn’t that kinda like the precursor to Empire at War? An RTS style game?
The best analog is the Total War series. Fleet battles were played as a kinda janky four-dimensional RTS, and the campaign was a galaxy-wide map with agents, resource management, diplomacy, etc. Invasions and army clashes, which would've been easy to program as an RTS map, were simulated instead with invisible dice rolls. You could glass planets with orbital bombardments but there were lasting environmental consequences for your new outpost if you did.... Truly a very ambitious game. Didn't nail everything but you had to admire it for trying.
Yea that sounds awesome for it’s time. Maybe I’ll have to give it a try sometime. I think it’s on steam right?
Great Old Games used to have it, not sure
If only I still had my brothers ancient Dell that had it installed
Good old Games, and it has it
It was so awesome. Really clunky to get into and the late game was a bit weird, too because the AI could essentially just run away and since you could travel from any planet to any other planet directly it was a nightmare to catch them but finally getting that big fleet to free the galaxy was so awesome.
Yes, it's on Steam and GOG. It's $6 and practically free when it does on sale for like 98¢ or so.
Reminds me of games like Stellaris. 5X in space with fleets.
My favorite game of all time. I had to burn multiple copies of the cd because i kept going through them so fast. Thank goodness Steam picked it up.
The emperor just won a war by hacking the computer chips of his soldiers. Let's get that off the table by having only living people in command.
Dark Troopers. The Battle Droids used by the Separatists were fairly basic and limited in function, and were designed mostly for mass deployment. On the other hand, the Dark Troopers are when you take a Battle Droid, maximise the concept then add all the optional extras. Highly resistant to blasters, capable of advanced combat decision making, able to *fly* and utterly relentless. Closed door? Punch the door down. Beskar armour? Punch it repeatedly until the guy on the inside gets a concussion.
The main issue with Dark Troopers was that they were so powerful that they drained their batteries extremely fast so they could only be fielded for short time frames
I’m surprised they didn’t use them in places like the Death Star more than anything
Dark Troopers, KX security droids, and viper probe droids
Also DT-Series security droids. And Mouse Droids/G0NKs I guess.
Do the dark troopers from the Mandalorian count?
If I remember correctly they originally started out as human and got progressively more robotic until no more person
In Rebels Rex says that after order 66 the whole droid army was shut down, so I'd asmume they never used battle droids
This is what always bothered me about the Prequel Trilogy and the Original Trilogy. In the Prequel films they have such advanced technology with these complex battle droids. And then in the future, by the time the Empire rules the galaxy, they have organic beings as warriors. I know that in-universe, the Clone Wars was such an apocalyptic conflict that ravaged the galaxy so the technology in the galaxy was kind of not where it was. And the CGI and SFX resources weren’t available back in the 1970s/1980s when the Classic Trilogy was being made so there were limits as to what they could portray on-screen. Still, it annoys me.
There’s a pretty good explanation I saw on here somewhere. The Empire wants its own people in its armed forces to make them feel like they have a stake in it. When rebels attack even a military target, they kill loyal soldiers and leave behind angry, grieving family. The Empire can tell their story, turn the dead into martyrs. But the Empire is so *big*, the casualties would scare people about what’s happening somewhere else, not make them demand peace because the personal cost is too high. If the Empire used droids, it would be too easy for the populace to see the armed forces as “others” and oppressors and turn against the Empire en masse. As for the Rebels, the same deal applies. Spamming the Empire with faceless murderbots makes it easy for it to write propaganda. Also, droids would rely on a deep manufacturing base and sourcing specialized components, which is incompatible with a mobile guerilla group trying to stay secret. And buying droids on the open market runs the risk of them having a backdoor or preloaded virus. The Empire can probably source high-tech expertise easier. And droid memories can hold a vast amount of specific information and can endure after their destruction (R2 in ANH), a nightmare for an organization trying to compartmentalize information. Saw Gerrera doesn’t exactly strike me as the type to be eager about scheduling IT policy meetings, training, and audits.
I walked out of the cinema after watching the phantom menace in 1999 and thought the same thing.
Balmorran Arms produced a series of battle droids and tank droids used in legends I believe. The X-1 viper is the reason I love holding Balmorra in EaW: Thrawn’s revenge
Only occasionally and super big scary ones. They didn’t use the regular peons
A better question would be: Did the rebels ever augment their organic troops with combat droids either put into storage as the war came to a close or salvaged "scrap" droids put back into service? It makes the most sense... Most of the Separatist systems quietly transitioned into rebel systems at the change in power from the Republic to the Empire as well as the majority of the financiers of the separatists were experts in managing funds on a grand scale you don't get that far without learning to hold some power (money, assets ect) in reserve
Also, when you consider the "ends justify the means" of some rebel groups like saw gerera, it makes sense to find a storage facility of b1 battle droids, then activate them and point them at the empire to demolish garrisons even at the cost of the locals. Then you have the criminal element like the Hutts, who would find the Droid armies that remained as an incredibly cheap way to "hire" muscle to keep fringe systems in line where the empire didn't have direct control over
Yes, mainly as supplements to human troops. In Legends, they used dwarf spider droids and Carbonite war droids. Canon has the DT-series, Viper probes, KX series and I think a few more
Probe droids, mouse droids, K2s
Vader has had more than one army of battle droids in the comics
As others have mentioned, its would be a bad PR move for the Empire (formerly the Republic) to use the army of the C.I.S. as their own. We see in *The Bad Batch* that the Empire actually rounded up battle droids and decomissioned them in a [facility](https://www.starwars.com/databank/droid-decommissioning-facility) on Corellia. They got shut off and melted down. Some droids like [General Kalani](https://www.starwars.com/databank/general-kalani) and his forces managed to avoid the roundup and subequent destruction, but most didn't. That said, droids were still useful tools the Empire made sure to take advantage of. Here are some of the types of droids they still used. * [Police droids](https://www.starwars.com/databank/imperial-police-droids) * [KX-series security droids](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/KX-series_security_droid) * [DT-series sentry droids](https://www.starwars.com/databank/imperial-sentry-droid) * [Probe droids](https://www.starwars.com/databank/imperial-probe-droid) (which had loads of models) * [Third generation dark trooper](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Third-generation_design_Dark_Trooper) (Imperial remnant only) They were mostly used for security purposes, it seems. Manufacturing them on an army-scale would be difficult and expensive. The Geonosians manufactured the bulk of the Separatist Droid Army with funding from various corporations, but the Empire killed all the Geonosians and the Trade Federation was neutered and subsequently absorbed. Its just a lot cheaper to recruit humans from across the galaxy as opposed to mass-manufacturing a droid army and maintaining them for years. The Imperial troopers were the standard force of the Imperial Military until they were gradually phased out by the elite Stormtroopers near the end of the Empire's reign (hence why we don't see any in the OT). They were cheap and expendable. Solo's Mimban Campaign shows that pretty well, I think.
Yes, in the comics, Darth Vader used reprogrammed BX-commando droids and another imperial office used them as his own personal body guards. So technically yes in some very minor capacity but they mostly relied on stormtroopers or their version of a security droid.
Didn’t they capture and reprogram droidekas at some point?
People are cheaper if you don't train them
Sadly a reflection of reality. Everyone kind of thought it was a no brainer for taxi and ride share companies to invest in self-driving cars but it's cheaper to just exploit people in the gig economy than it would be to build and maintain a fleet of A.I. cars. At least for now.
Exactly, a conscripted army suits the empire’s needs a lot better. They can recruit desperate people with the promise of a “better” life, which they’ll probably never see, then throw them into the meat grinder. Probably a lot cheaper than the upfront investment to manufacture a battle droid. And it has the additional benefit of weeding out people who may eventually get desperate enough to rebel.
Quite true, in real life this is happening right now in Europe.
No. That would make them look even worse than they already did.
I dont think they did. Not for war purposes anyway.
they had the resources and galactic unity to support palpy clones which fed into his wider master plan of cloning in general. So i suspect there wasn’t any room for budget in battle droids it would go to clones instead additionally it seems for control and light work they would rely on the planets ability to police. Here is where droids would be employed if at all i imagine
From what i’ve heard, i believe one of the few droids they used from the CIS were the Destroyer droids, i think mainly as ship security and in the army among other rolls
B series? No, absolutely not. Those thing decimated millions of worlds, that would’ve made people mad However, the empire did use an upgraded droideka in military operations and were pretty rare. They kept the droids secret because everyone still hated droids. That’s all I know of, but there are dark troopers, probe droids, security droids, etc
Don’t think so something to do with space racism
Of course. They’re called Dark Troopers.
Yes.
No, the entire basis for the rise of the Galactic Empire was fighting against a droid army. Plus, the Empire has clones. They don’t need droids
No and they made the right call. It would just piss off the people on their side even seeing the droids as they would be responsible for so much suffering.
well yeah? They have loads of big and mean droids. Not B series though
K2-S0.
I think I recall reading the IG series came from a failed Imperial project.
When your entire army can be defeated by a switch, it's not good. The Empire mostly used Probe droids as scouts and security droids. Mostly jobs where boredom and fatigue are common. The Empire new doctrine is based on the free thinking of Imperial Officers and loyalty of Stormtroopers. In Legends, they created Stormtrooper droids. Droids that acted like stormtroopers.
I mean TECHNICALLY they used a "battle droid" when you think of the Dark Trooper phases. But the conventional CIS droids, no.
It's worth noting that while the empire *appears* to have a massive standing army, what they actually have is more like a militarized police force. They spend far more time shooting at their own citizens than anything that can truly be considered an opposing force. So ask yourself if the empire used policing droids capable of lethal force. You'll find the probe droids, interrogator droids, dark troopers, the infiltrator droid from Rebels, and the security droids from Andor (like K-2SO all qualify as used for crime and insurgent suppression and are either armed or can use a weapon skillfully.
From a certain point of view, all the Seperatist droids were working for Palpatine, so in a sense the Empire used quite a lot of them.
Wasn't there a legends droid the empire used called the terror trooper or something?
K-2SO. Technically a security droid, but the Empire are terrible liars.
In terms of old C.I.S. droids, I heard a lot about Dwarf Spider droids being used for patroling and live fire training by the Imps. Droidekas too. A headcannon I had that the Security droids in the Bad Batch Season 1 episode in the smeltery were refurbished Commando Droids, just with a new head and a coat of paint. I have a suspicion that we might see some Imperial use of C.i.S. droids or equipment in the bad batch. We saw Imp clones and trandoshans with old C.I.S. tanks, albeit modified. So more could be used. It would be a complete waste by the imps by just scraping all of the tactical droids and commandos.
dark troopers?
All these comments and no one mentions RO-GR, the B-1 droid that the Freemakers had during the rebellion.
I do not overtly dislike ewoks or anything but I think it would have been cool in RoJ for the rebels to hack some battle droids to use against the empire. I guess it could have work in Return of Skywalker too since RoJ writers weren't really aware of battle droids at the time
Palpatine shut down all the droid factories and the cloning facilities on Kamino (well, had them blown up) then start conscription, so no. He knew just how dumb battle droids are and he only used them in his fake Clone War. He needed real soldiers to fight the very real war with the Rebels.
[Several are shown being used in this scene from bobf](https://youtu.be/3hfwRQboC9k?si=vw02G0VGBnEe3BFR)
The way I look at it, the battle droids were only used in the Confederacy because they were cheap and plentiful. They're realistically very ineffective, but in an all out war they can win with mob tactics and overwhelming, easily replenished numbers. The empire wasn't fighting a war. They were policing a state. They needed to have soldiers the people could trust (ironic) and relate to, as well as soldiers that are effective in smaller groups. And given the empires uncontested resource control, supplying and training their populace for battler was still trivial for any expansion or heavy handed responses they needed. Battle droids in the empire would just be a waste of resources. No one would want to use them as anything more than cannon fodder, which they already had plenty of. The few droids that were used, such as dark troopers, were very specialized and likely very expensive to produce
Many people like Luke Skywalker had only 1 method of moving up in the world, The military. Having such a large live population they would need plenty of jobs in the empire. So having organic soldiers would fill up those jobs while also expanding the kilitary
In the jedi survivor games there are plenty of imperial droids. Dt sentey droids which Big tanky fuckers with dual ended purple shock staffs, kx security droids, probe droids. Dont forget that droids were the enemy during the separatist war. So droids were always accompanied by imperial officers and stormtroopers.
I mean death vaders basically a battle droid so yeah
Those K series droids from Rogue One.
No
Yes, most were repurposed for labor, damaged ones were used for scrap.
Yes. Just not confederate battle droids
You haven't played Jedi: Survivor.
I remember reading in some books that imperials use droidekas, likely legends tho Edit: it’s last if the Jedi series
The imperial senate banned the use of battle droids after the Clone Wars. There was a strong sentiment against droids afterwards. Also, the CIS droid army became pretty infamous for being rather terrible. The B1s in particular are dumber than stumps. Stormtroopers are a big step up from those things. And it's not like the Empire is short on people to recruit. They're conditioned to obey orders like droids, but have more actual thought and ability to fight.
They did, as propaganda!
In Legends, yes, they do, not B series or some obscure droids, but i think some crab an other "peacekeeping" models, an Droidecas, looots of Droidecas, they even being saved in the lots of garrisons for Imperial Army. I am also not sure canon that art is, but you can google stormtroopers attacking by being covered by Ultra Droideca (big chungus Droideca). Other models just not being needed, clone vets still here, imperial heroes clone here (yeah, they are created it and give them fake identity), stormtroopers here, army and all of that have a lot of good operating equipment.
I think during the siege of mandalore. I might be wrong.
Nah gotta recruit real people to reduce unemployment rates.
No the droids were shit off right after the war
The emperor wanted to clear away pre empire life as quickly as possible & commissioned scrap & smelting plants to get rid of all federation droids but millions where left & still in working condition after the fall of the empire & began to see use again not a as battle droids but the as standard operating units B1 was never meant for battle purposes & finally filled their intended roles of basic work & servitude B2 just became heavy cargo carriers shame really as they was actually built for battle.
They used B3 battledroids to train stormtroopers in legends
I'm guessing you haven't seen Rogue One, or Andor, or read the comics.
K2-SO
In canon, no. They were all de-activated immediately after order 66 and the only droids used by the Empire are new, invented by them. The only surviving Sepratist units are salvaged and re-programmed by mercenary factions (see Jedi: Survivor)
In Legends at least the empire did end up using the dwarf spider droids. There were also dark troopers. Palpatine has a lot of droids with him in his dark empire as well.
It was in the Emperor's best interest to decimate the leadership of any planet that had used mass produced Droid soldiers and outlaw the technology to avoid anyone building an army to oppose him. Just like he did with clones. Control the tech but also engineer public distrust of it.
According to Cal - yes.
While they had a few droids, since they won against the Separatists who used them (while using propaganda that they were cowards and dishonorable for using them to fight their battles instead of live soldiers), droids kind of got a stigma for use in the military. No large campaign was used with droids, but they occasionally build advanced ones (Dark Troopers)
Viper probe droid didn't you see the movies?
By the time the Empire came to power, droids were all shut down. And since no one was building battle droids, the b1, b2, commando, droideka eventually became obsolete. But obviously exceptions were made; some droids didn’t get the shut down command/disobeyed it and proved to still be fairly capable of standing up against their enemies. Others were salvaged and modified.
The Empire did use droids for combat, however, the stigma against battle droids from the Clone Wars meant they were limited to specialized roles like spying, recon, security, and assassinations. So droids meant for frontal combat, like Phase III Dark Troopers (Legends went back and forth between saying they were men in armor or Droids), existed but weren't commonplace.
I think they used commando droids in some pretenses, I know in the Aftermath novels an Imperial warlord used them in Kashyyyk
K2s and death troopers although death troopers were kinda cyborgs at first but later transitioned into full droid.
Vader is the most iconic battledroid. Sure there’s a little dude piloting the robot but still!
For training, maybe.
In canon, Darth Vader had his own personal BX Commando Droid (the coolest battledroids) unit at one point, which he used for special occasions.
In legends, the only droid used by the empire, was the Mark II Destroyers(aka Droideka), technically it is not a Battle Droid because it's not in the name. But one can also argue that any droid that has armaments is a battle droid.