The Imperial stormtroopers are a very intriguing bunch if you give them a chance. Not that they are as interesting as the Force users of Lucas’ Star Wars franchise, but they had a lot of different units and stories behind them that give them much more depth than what people initially think. One of the most interesting units of Imperial stormtroopers are death troopers.
Death Troopers were an elite unit of the Galactic Empire specializing in extermination operations and guerrilla tactics. Among other things, they were used as protection units and as bodyguards for high-ranking Imperial officers. Soldiers were trained to become Death troopers using performance-enhancing drugs. This made the Death Troopers powerful and resilient soldiers, prepared for any conceivable scenario.
The death troopers are, as you could’ve read above, one of the most dangerous elements of the Imperial Army. This is why they deserve a standalone article, in which we are going to tell you everything you need to know about them, their story, their abilities, their reputation, and more. This is your ultimate guide to the death troopers of Star Wars.
Who are the death troopers?
Death troopers were an elite variant of the Galactic Empire’s stormtroopers designed for stealth, espionage, and assassinations. Operating under Imperial Intelligence, they served as custodial protectors and bodyguards for important Imperial officials and members of the Tarkin Initiative, as well as special assignment commandos.
They wore black suits of full armor and specialized helmets with voice encoders, micromotion sensors, and head-up displays with data on enemy and friendly positions on the battlefield. The death troopers were trained in close combat, heavy weapons, demolitions, improvised weaponry, guerrilla tactics, and marksmanship. They were experts at covering their tracks, leaving little to no evidence of their missions.
What happened to the death troopers?
Nearly six years after the rise of the Galactic Empire, a squad of Death Troopers accompanied Director Orson Callan Krennic to the planet Lah’mu. There, they apprehended scientist Galen Walton Erso to complete the design of the Death Star’s super-laser. During Galen’s capture, one of the soldiers killed Lyra when she tried to kill Krennic.
The squad then tried to find Jyn, the couple’s daughter, without success. During the early stages of the rebellion against the Galactic Empire, a squad of Death Troopers served with the Seventh Fleet under Grand Admiral Thrawn. They assisted the latter in the capture of Kallus, an agent of the Imperial Security Bureau spying on the Empire on behalf of the Rebel Alliance.
The capture of Kallus led to the discovery of the location of the rebel base in the Lothal sector. The Death Trooper squad then accompanied Thrawn on the ground assault to capture the Rebel leaders present such as General Jan Dodonna and Captain Hera Syndulla. However, the rebels managed to flee when a mystical creature called Bendu attacked Imperials and rebels.
On Thrawn’s orders, all Imperial forces present, including Death Troopers, fired on the Bendu, wounding it and causing it to crash to the surface of the ground. A year before the Battle of Yavin, a squad under the command of DT-F16 escorted a massive Kyber crystal and several technicians aboard freighter 2716.
After leaving Faos station, DT-F16 and his men were attacked by the leader of the Supporters, Saw Gerrera as well as the two Specters Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren. DT-F16, his men, and other soldiers were unable to evacuate the freighter in time and were killed by the explosion of the Kyber crystal so powerful that it also destroyed Captain Slavin’s Star Destroyer.
A Death Trooper, DT-L21, was stationed in Jhothal. He was tasked with commanding the Stromtroopers sent in pursuit of the Specters when it was discovered that the latter had returned to Lothal. With his probe droids and men, DT-L21 pursued the rebels through the city sewers but failed to capture them.
Death Troopers accompanied Grand Admiral Thrawn and Governor Arihnda Pryce to an Imperial airfield to witness a test flight of the new elite TIE Defender. When Ezra Bridger revealed his presence, Thrawn ordered to secure the starfighter. However, Sabine Wren stole it before they could reach him.
Several Death Troopers assisted Governor Pryce and Rukh, Thrawn’s bodyguard and sworn assassin, in pursuing General Hera Syndulla when Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus rescued her from the Imperial Compound in Capital City. The Death Troopers were unable to capture Jarrus and Syndulla. Several Death Troopers were in the service of Minister Veris Hydan when the Empire and the Mining Guild embarked on the excavation of the Jedi Temple on Lothal.
They helped Hydan when the latter interrogated the Mandalorian Sabine Wren by punching her in the face. The young woman, however, managed to knock them out when Garazeb Orrelios and Hera Syndulla came to her aid. Sometime later, the Specters and the Lothal Resistance attempted to free Lothal from the Galactic Empire by infiltrating the Imperial Complex.
In order to prevent the exfiltration of all Imperial personnel from Lothal, Rukh and several Death Troopers went to the generator room and deactivated Lothal’s planetary shield. The Rebels stormed them and managed to regain control of the generator.
Shortly before the outbreak of the Galactic Civil War, Director Krennic was still escorted by Death Troopers when the Empire conducted the initial Death Star tests on Jedha. They were deployed during the Battle of Scarif and confronted the rebel forces who wreaked havoc on the jungle surrounding the Imperial security compound. The squad was wiped out entirely shortly before Krennic’s death, thus bringing an end to them.
Still, about nine years after the Battle of Yavin, a squad of Death Troopers served in an Imperial remnant led by Moff Gideon. The soldiers opened fire on a cantina on Nevarro, killing “the client” and several stormtroopers while also trapping “the Mandalorian,” Greef Karga, and Carasynthia Dune inside.
The standoff was broken shortly thereafter when IG-11 arrived to help the Mandalorian and his comrades. As the group fought its way out of the cantina, a fierce battle ensued, with two death squads moving into hand-to-hand combat after being disarmed. While the fight raged outside, several death squads circled the cantina, attempting to drive Cara Dune out of the cantina with heavy blaster fire. The remaining death squads escorted Moff Gideon, who gave the order to “burn them out.”
During the Cold War between the Resistance and the First Order, Agent Terex of the First Order Security Bureau was in possession of a Death Trooper helmet aboard the Carrion Spike, displayed alongside the helmets of an Imperial Royal Guard, a AT-AT pilot, a Coast Guard stormtrooper, and others, along with a custom set of armor. The helmet of Trudgen, one of the Knights of Ren, included part of a Death Trooper helmet, indicating that he had defeated one at some point.
How skilled are the death troopers?
The Death Troopers were elite Stormtroopers within the military forces of the Galactic Empire. Candidates were selected from among the best Stormtroopers before being sent to a training camp on Scarif where they were trained to evolve in exotic environments. Each soldier had to meet very high-standard physical criteria, including weight and height, and ideological criteria.
During their training, they were enhanced with a battery of classified medical operations, making their abilities almost superhuman. They operated most of the time in small groups where each soldier was specialized in a specific area. Among their different skills, the Death Troopers were thus trained in unarmed combat and the handling of heavy weapons. They were also skilled snipers.
Death Troopers were known to wear black armor covered in reflec and a helmet incorporating numerous sensors allowing him to be constantly informed about his surroundings. Additionally, they were equipped with the SE-14r light repeating blaster, the E-11D blaster carbine, long-range blaster rifles like the DLT-19D heavy blaster rifle, and C-25 fragmentation grenades.
How tall are death troopers?
As we have said, death troopers were selected among the best stormtroopers. These stormtroopers had to satisfy a lot of criteria to be selected as potential death troopers, and height was one of them. For comparison, stormtroopers have a common height of 5′11″, while a Death trooper usually stands at an impressive 6′5″, which is a significant difference.
What are death trooper armors made of?
The death trooper armor was covered with a special material known as reflec, which made them more resistant to attacks. Reflec was an aerosol polymer that deformed the most common electromagnetic signals used in passive sensor arrays. The armor worn by Imperial Intelligence death troopers was coated in reflec, giving it a black finish and making the troopers harder to spot. In that sense, it was similar to the stygian-trypsismatic polymer that covered the armor of shadow soldiers.
Are there female death troopers?
And while we do know that there are female stormtroopers, have there been female members of the Imperial Army skilled enough to meet the rigorous demands to become a death trooper? There have! Well, there has… we know of only one such case, but she is probably not the only one. We shall now introduce her to you.
DT-F16 was a Death Trooper commander who was tasked with her squad to guard a massive Kyber crystal while transiting on freighter 2716. About a year before the Battle of Yavin, DT-F16 and her squad transited aboard freighter 2716, an unmarked Imperial ship, where they had to keep a large Kyber crystal that was to be delivered to the Tonnis sector.
During a stopover at Faos Station, the freighter was infiltrated by rebels Saw Gerrera, Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, and Chopper. DT-F16 and her squad discovered their presence when they had just found the Kyber crystal stored in the ship’s hold. The rebels used smoke grenades to confront the Death Troopers. During the fight, a blaster shot from Gerrera hit the crystal prompting DT-F16 to command a retreat.
However, she was the only one to escape. DT-F16 went to inform Captain Wells of the rebels’ presence and asked for reinforcements. The captain entrusted her with four Stormtroopers and ordered her to take back the crystal. DT-F16 returned to the hold where she discovered that the Rebels and the Crystal had disappeared.
Wells informed her that they had lost contact with the engine room and she decided to go there. Upon arriving, Gerrera, who had turned the Kyber Crystal into a bomb, fled after freeing Ezra and Sabine. DT-F16 and her men prepared to fire but the crystal electrocuted two Stormtroopers. Understanding that it was necessary to evacuate the freighter as quickly as possible, the Death Trooper sounded the retreat.
DT-F16 joined cargo hold 12 where a T-4a Lambda-class shuttle was waiting for her. On the spot, she discovered that the prisoners of the freighter had been freed by the rebels and were boarding the shuttle.
Before she and her men could open fire, Ezra and Sabine reached the cargo bay and managed to subdue them. They boarded the shuttle and fled. Realizing they were doomed, DT-F16 fired her blaster at the ship. The Kyber Crystal then triggered an explosion that killed DT-F16.
Can death troopers talk? Do death troopers have their own language?
This is a question that might sound weird, but if you’ve ever heard death troopers communicate with each other, you’re probably going to want to know the answer to this one. Death troopers can talk, as they are simply regular stormtroopers with some enhanced abilities, but their communication sounds very strange.
Death troopers do not have their own language, but there is a reason why they sound weird to other people. Namely, they talk in code! The death troopers are an elite unit that has been trained for strategic warfare. In that aspect, tactics and covert communication are certainly something that gives them an advantage over their enemies.
This is why death troopers use a scrambled code to communicate between themselves, as it leaves their enemies baffled as to their next moves. We don’t know how to decode that communication, as an official guide has never been published, but that is the reason behind their odd way of communicating.
Are death troopers zombies?
We don’t know where this actually came from, but we’re not going to beat around the bush – death troopers are not zombies. And no, there are no zombies in Star Wars. End of story.
