It’s time to move to some Assault Battles in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, and today we’re talking about Secrets and Shadows – a difficult challenge that can still be beaten, as you will see below, if you have the right characters and team setup.
It won’t be easy, but it will be fun, especially since you will use team comps with characters that are usually ignored or not given enough credit. With these in mind, let’s jump right in and learn everything about this challenge and what you can do to master it!
A little about Secrets and Shadows
Secrets and Shadows is one of SWGOH’s Dark Side Assault Battles, a 24-hour event that unlocks at level 75 and locks you into using just two factions: Phoenix and Nightsisters.
The real prizes sit in the higher tiers of the challenge, which give you rewards like Sith shards, ship blueprints, carbantis, cuffs, kyrotechs, relic materials, and zetas – all the goodies you can wish for!
The harsh reality: Since this is such a difficult game mode and your main goal is to get to the final tiers and defeat notoriously difficult bosses like Darth Sidious and Darth Nihilus, you won’t be able to rely solely on your Phoenix squad, but the Nightsisters instead, since these are the ones leaning directly into the chaos with revives, plague and so on.
Based on my experience, CT1 is very doable with R3-ish Nightsisters and solid mods, while CT2 is a lot more difficult, with major investments required for Old Daka and Merrin. These are the two tiers I can make recommendations for, but I am working on more.
If this seems a bit too difficult, focus on other areas instead, like the SWGOH Coliseum, or find out the Best Darkside Geonosis Territory Battle Squads.
Nightsisters vs Phoenix: Who Should You Invest In?
As I said, I think that the best approach for the long run is investing in making your Nightsisters the best.
However, you can run Phoenix through Secrets and Shadows in SWGOH, and if you already have them built for Thrawn or early game progress, you should definitely use them to farm the lower tiers. Phoenix can clear Hard, Very Hard, Bonus and Mythic without too much drama once geared and modded. They can even occasionally snag a Challenge clear with extreme relics, god-tier mods and a lot of resets.
But Nightsisters work best in Secrets and Shadows because the event essentially rewards you for dying… over and over again. We’ll talk about core lineups in a second, so prepare to build the perfect squads!
Best Secrets and Shadows Team for Challenge Tier 1 and Tier 2
Three characters are non-negotiable and represent the core of the squad in the Nightsisters approach (which is the one I recommend) – these are a must:
- Mother Talzin – Leader and Plague factory
- Old Daka – Revive engine and stun bot
- Asajj Ventress – Damage carry who scales off every death, friend or foe
To these, you usually add Nightsister Zombie (the character that will die, revive and die again), and either Spirit for damage/foresight or Merrin for absurd survival and extra revives (each is good and depends on which you have built better, but usually the latter is preferred).
So, for the Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes Secrets and Shadows Challenge Tier I, the best team is:
Mother Talzin (Lead) – Old Daka – Asajj Ventress – Nightsister Zombie – Spirit or Merrin
This is the squad that ticks all the boxes:
- Talzin spreads Plague and leverages deaths into revives
- Daka revives and stuns key threats
- Asajj ramps into a monster as bodies pile up
- Zombie soaks big hits and feeds both Asajj and Daka, reviving just to die over and over again
- Spirit or Merrin give you a final piece of either damage (Spirit) or ridiculous survivability (Merrin)
- Note: As I mentioned, if you can be picky, choose Merrin instead of Spirit!
Speaking of line-ups, if you want to build specific squads for specific in-game challenges, I’ve got you covered:
- All SWGOH Buff Immunity Characters
- List of SWGOH Characters that Inflict Daze
- All SWGOH Characters that Inflict Vulnerable (and more, just use the search bar in the upper right corner to find what you need)
How a Successful CT1 Run Goes
Early waves are relatively easy, where you have to focus on control and setup. You mostly use basics, let Zombie die a few times, and make sure everyone is alive with cooldowns ready when you roll into the Sidious wave.
Sidious is the first real challenge here. Expect his opening AoE to blow up your team at least once. The trick is to keep Daka safe enough that she can stand back up and press the big revive button, at which point you spam Plague and let him melt himself down.
Later waves (also including Nihilus), test your endurance and the way you built your characters weighs heavily here. Still, expect Nightsister Zombie to be the main hit taker, hopefully eating up some Annihilates, while Daka and Merrin keep everyone cycling, while Asajj becomes your secret weapon and bread winner.
You’ll still have runs where a random crit removes Daka on turn one (or whenever you need her the most), and you instantly hit reset. It’s frustrating, but it’s the way it is.
Budget CT1 idea: If you don’t have either Spirit or Merrin, you can use Talia instead. Talia’s cleanse and heal give you a bit more control over Sidious’ DoTs, but it will be a bit more difficult overall (and probably even more so at CT2).
Also read: Best SWGOH Characters to Inflict Damage Over Time (DoT)
Wrapping up
Secrets and Shadows isn’t the kind of in-game event where you auto while you make coffee. It’s closer to a mini-raid: unforgiving, RNG-spiked, but deeply satisfying when your Nightsisters finally stitch themselves through Sidious’ bombs and Nihilus’ ultimates.
Bring the right team from the recommendations above, build Daka like your account depends on her, give Merrin a seat, and this “impossible” Assault Battle turns into a winnable one, as well as a resource for… top resources.
Do you have other ideas/recommendations or questions about the Secrets and Shadows in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes? Comment down below!