Battle droid

A battle droid (also referred to as war droid, combat droid, battle bot, killer droid) was any droid designed for combat. They could typically be found in the service of some galactic governments, criminal organizations, and some law enforcement agencies.

Droids intended solely for combat were relatively rare, and illegal in the post-Ruusan Reformation Galactic Republic.

There were numerous types of battle droids. They predated the Galactic Republic by thousands of years, with the earliest known being Rakatan guardian droids and the war-robots used by Xim the Despot.

The Eternal Empire used battle droids known as Skytroopers as their primary infantry units.

Many of the best-known battle droids were those used by the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars.

At the end of the Clone Wars, Sith Lord Darth Vader turned off the Master control signal, deactivating most of the Separatist Droid Army. After this, battle droids were extremely rare.

Most droids, especially those manufactured in overwhelming numbers, possessed little critical thinking ability and low levels of intelligence, often due to the expensive nature of advanced programming. Several classes of battle droids, however, had higher levels of intelligence; these droids were much more expensive to make, due to their advanced brains, so therefore were made in smaller quantities. Examples are the BX-series droid commando, the IG-100 MagnaGuard and, save for the first versions, the Droideka.

Text and facts from the “Battle droid/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.