Emperor Palpatine

Hero

"I will show them the true nature of the Force"

— Intro Dialogue

Emperor Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious, is a playable Hero character in Star Wars Battlefront and Star Wars Battlefront II.

Star Wars Battlefront

Overview

Despite looking frail and weak, Emperor Palpatine is equipped with a variety of combat and support abilities to help turn the tide of battle. Darth Sidious can also use the Force to block a variety of attacks and weapons.

Abilities

Emperor Palpatine is equipped with the following abilities:

• Force Lightning: This ability fires a large, continuous burst of lightning towards enemies in front of Palpatine, inflicting constant damage at a rapid pace. Although extremely deadly at close range, the ability has a very restricted range.
• Chain Lightning: This fires a single large burst of electricity with a greater range than the default force lightning. When fired, the Chain lightning will attach itself to a target within range and then spread to all nearby valid targets as well, killing them instantly in most cases. This ability briefly immobilises the Emperor upon use.
• Force Dash: This move allows Palpatine to quickly dash forward in the direction he is moving. This manoeuvre appeared in Star Wars: Episode 3: Revenge of The Sith.
• Imperial Resources: This support ability spawns a basic power-up for all infantry, barring Palpatine's Royal Guards. On Heroes vs. Villains and Hero Hunt, in lieu of spawning this, a Hero Health Pickup is spawned, obtainable by any hero (even those of the enemy team). This gives the Emperor up to 50% health, although this varies for other heroes, such as Darth Vader, whose health is naturally higher than that of his fellow heroes, causing him to only regain around 20-30% health. The health pickup is also spawned on the offline modes of Skirmish and Battles.
• Royal Guard: Imperial players can choose to spawn next to Palpatine (whenever he is in play) as a Royal Guard. They are equipped with buffed T-21 and T-21B Blasters as well as Smart Rockets, and Homing Shots as reusable Star Cards. A maximum of two Imperial Guards can be on the map at a time.
  • Note that, prior to the Bespin update, these Royal Guards were instead Shocktroopers, although their abilities and statistics were identical.
• Force flight: Unlike in the original games Palpatine does not hover constantly. Instead of a regular jumping ability, Palpatine will instead use the force to "fly" several feet off the ground and slowly descend back to the ground afterwards. While doing this he can still use his Force dash ability upward to gain altitude quickly (therefore making his flight ability superior to that of Darth Vader's or any other heros' jump ability) before descending. This force ability provides much more altitude compared to other jump abilities, albeit more slowly and gradually.
• "Block": Palpatine can use the force to block attacks in a similar fashion to other force wielders and even block lightsaber strikes. Palpatine's blocking ability absorbs all blaster shots directed towards him, however, it does not reflect the shots towards the player's crosshair as is the case with Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, instead the shots are simply absorbed while any damage dealt by them will be negated. Normal blaster shots will be blocked with no damage dealt, explosive projectiles such as Bowcasters, Homing Shots and Explosive Shots, will be blocked but Palpatine will still suffer splash damage while solid projectile weapons such as the Cycler Rifle or Scatter Gun, cannot be blocked at all.

Trait

Emperor Palpatine was given a hero trait, along with the other vanilla heroes in Battlefront, as a part of the Scarif DLC patch. Emperor Palpatine's trait gives him an increased amount of lightning sustainability with each kill or damage dealt to opposing heroes. This means that as Emperor Palpatine increases his trait level, he will be able to use his main lightning attack for a greater period of time. As Emperor Palpatine's trait level increases, his lightning usage rate will decrease. In addition, his lightning recharge rate will increase. With this trait, Emperor Palpatine will be able to use his lightning attack to a much greater extent against his enemies, thus, making him a greater attack threat on the Battlefront to pair with his characteristics as a support hero as well.

• Level 1: 9%
• Level 2: 18%
• Level 3: 25%

Patch notes

Palpatine's Force Lightning was buffed to drain significantly more slowly than it did at launch, in addition to the Hero Health Pickup being made nearly twice as effective.

Star Wars Battlefront II

Overview

The sinister ruler of the Galactic Empire is a daunting opponent. The Emperor's mastery of the dark side allows him to wield terrifying powers against the forces of good.

Palpatine returns in Battlefront II, and is creditsable for a price of 10.000 credits. Compared to the previous game, his main force lightning attack has been drastically weakened. It now deals far less damage, runs out of energy faster and does not prevent enemies from retaliating while they are being damaged by it. Palpatine is also now completely unable to block attacks directed towards him, making him weaker in a straight-up fight.

Palpatine's force lightning attack behaves a little differently in that it is now a two-part attack. Palpatine can now cast force lightning with both of his hands individually, both the left and right hand have separate overheat mechanisms, meaning that alternating back and forth between the left and right hands allows the player to sustain a constant barrage of lightning, albeit with a far weaker damage profile. As a third alternative, the player can also cast force lightning using both hands simultaneously, providing double damage in exchange for a noticeably faster overheat.

Palpatine's ability setup has also been changed. He retains the Chain lighting ability but is no longer able to spawn health pickups or use Force Dash. Those abilities have been replaced with Dark Aura and Electrocute, and the latter has been replaced with a much more usable substitute for the combat roll.

Weapons & Abilities

• Chain Lightning: Force lightning strikes a target and then spreads to hit other nearby enemies.
• Dark Aura: The area around The Emperor is charged with Force energy, damaging and slowing foes.
• Electrocute: Palpatine immobilizes enemies in front of him with electrical energy.

Quotes

"You will all die as one!"

— Upon using Chain Lightning

"You will all perish!"

— Upon using Chain Lightning

"I will leave you a burning husk."

— Upon using Chain Lightning

"I am all-powerful!"

— Upon attacking an enemy with standard Lightning

"You dare approach me?!"

— Upon being damaged

"Use this to smash their lines."

— Upon dropping Imperial Resources/Hero Health Drop

"A gift from your Emperor."

— Upon dropping Imperial Resources/Hero Health Drop

"Such fragile creatures you are. *laughs*"

— Upon killing multiple enemies in quick succession

"I wonder if your feelings on this matter are clear."

— Emote

"I am quite safe from your pitiful band."

— Emote

"Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen."

— Emote

"It'll take more than that to stop me."

— Upon being attacked

"Now you die!"

— upon using lightning

"I will burn you all to the ground."

— when attacking opponents

"You are nothing but insects."

— Upon killing a soldier

"You are only delaying the inevitable."

— while in combat

"Skywalker is not far"

— When Luke Skywalker is nearby

Gallery

Emperor Palpatine in Battlefront II

Palpatine in the original {{Star Wars Battlefront}}.

Behind the scenes

Palpatine is, contrary to popular belief, voiced by Sam Witwer, as opposed to Ian McDiarmid from the films.

Trivia

• Emperor Palpatine's theme music comes from the song, Battle of Endor II Medley from the Return of the Jedi OST.
• Acting much like Return of the Jedi, Palpatine doesn't have his lightsaber but in the Pandemic Studios' Star Wars: Battlefront II, he does.
• In addition to his main lightsaber, Emperor Palpatine also used several backup lightsabers throughout his life. He however, greatly disliked using lightsabers of any kind, preferring to use force-based attacks instead, which is the reason why Palpatine's lightsaber it is not included with him in the games.