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- "The destruction of hundreds of combat droids per month during training session will be no great loss; the ASP models are poor conversationalists and they bore me."
- ―2-1B, on the training droids of Darth Vader
A Padawan cutting down a training droid in the Jedi Praxeum training grounds.
ASP-19 battle droids were combat-capable labor droids employed in melee training.
Characteristics
Although ASP-series labor droids were simple-minded automata of general-purpose, the ASP-19 variant was capable of wielding melee weapons and was intended to function as a training droid against organic beings.
History
Darth Vader used several droids of this type, equipped with lightsabers to hone his lightsaber dueling skills. Vader's ability to handle this weapon was, in fact, much better than ASP's, so they were less than a match for the Sith as he ordered them to be sent to his training grounds in larger numbers. A few ASP-19 were also kept in Bast Castle's training chambers on Vjun.
Darth Vader practicing with an ASP droid.
Later, the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 also used such droids for lightsaber combat practices. They wielded training lightsabers, and could be set at different levels of difficulty. Jaden Korr, when he was apprenticed under Kyle Katarn, was forced to fight one when Katarn's other apprentice, Rosh Penin, set it out in hopes of slowing Jaden down in a training course. Luckily, it was not operating at a high level, so Korr managed to defeat it. He later encountered Vader's leftover ASP-19 droids on a mission at Vader's castle on Vjun, and were more difficult to defeat (as Vader had them probably set at Master level for his own practices).[2]
Appearances
- Star Wars Missions 9: Revolt of the Battle Droids
- Star Wars Missions 10: Showdown in Mos Eisley (Modified)
- Star Wars Missions 11: Bounty Hunters vs. Battle Droids (Modified)
- Shadows of the Empire 1
- Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire Galoob minicomic
- Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire novel (First appearance, in book)
- Shadows of the Empire 2
"The Backup Plan" — Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook (as "combat training droid")- Shadows of the Empire 3
- Shadows of the Empire 4
- Shadows of the Empire 5
- Shadows of the Empire 6
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Sources
- The Secrets of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
- Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook
- 1996 Topps Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire Card: Vader Stays Sharp (backup link) (as Asp assassin droid)
- Micro Machines (Pack: Shadows of the Empire Collection I) (backup link) (Indirect mention only)
- Star Wars: The Art of the Brothers Hildebrandt
- The Essential Guide to Droids
- The Official Star Wars Fact File 20 LAB 1-2: Labour Droids
- The New Essential Guide to Droids
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- asp droid in the Databank (original site is defunct)
- Star Wars: Darth Vader: A 3-D Reconstruction Log
