Squad Analysis: Terror from Below Squad

It's time to get SEA-rious! Today, we’re diving into the “Terror from Below Squad Pack.” Disney has brought us some violent and terrifying sea monsters. You know, besides Ariel and that talking crab. 

Riff Tamson, Nossor Ri, and the Aqua Droids make up the new squad. Riff is a Karkaradon who terrorized Mon Cala in the name of the Separatists. Nossor Ri is an opportunistic chieftain of the Quarren. Both are super obscure Separatist characters from a couple of Clone Wars episodes. And I'm all here for it! So let's jump into the shark tank!

Riff Tamson

Role: Riff is a classic brawler with a vampiric twist.

Strengths

Good Vampire: When Riff makes a melee attack with his Identity, he gains one extra die for each enemy wounded and/or injured unit within Range 4. That can be a lot of dice “RIFF-diculous,” even! Pretty cool, and it already shows what Riff wants to do. And here's the vampiric twist to it: He also refreshes one Force for each wounded enemy within Range 4. Plus in the “Savagery” stance, he heals himself on 3+ melee expertise. Granted it's not a typical vampiric game mechanic like what Mother Talzin or Dracula from MCP have. Still it's similar enough to compare Riff to the former.

Solid Damage Dealer: In the “Savagery” melee stance, his combat tree dishes out 9 damage. Thanks to his active ability “Terror from Below,” he can jump (basically leapfrog onto the enemy) and add 2 damage to his melee damage pool (or as Riff calls it, his “swimming pool”) With 11 damage and enough dice under the right circumstances, he can one-shot most Primaries in the game. That’s solid!

His reactive ability “Blood in the Water” is one of his most important skills, alongside his Identity. Whenever a friendly Separatist or Scoundrel Support unit performs an attack action, Riff may jump and perform a 5-dice melee attack. Out of Activation movement ist always awesome and the additional attack is oFISHially the cherry on top!

Respectable Ranged Attack: Brawlers are usually pure melee fighters, but Riff has “Exploding Knives” for some flexibility. Limited to Range 3, though.

Right now Riff is the best Separatist Primary on Longshanks. Still, his win rate is only 44% (as of 09.11.2025).

Weaknesses

Low on Force: He only has 2 Force. While he can regain Force through his Identity, he becomes very Force-hungry once wounded (Death from Below, Hit and Run, Blood in the Water all cost Force). This makes him a prime target for opponents. He's basically involuntarily fishing for concentrating fire. 

Predictable Playstyle: Riff wants to be in melee and wants to wound enemies. Playing him differently isn’t really worth it, so opponents can easily anticipate his moves.

Nossor Ri  (The Quarren were still missing from the Seafood platter until now)

Role: Back-point sitter with support abilities.

Strengths

Excellent Aggro Buff: (Riptide) When an allied Separatist unit performs an attack action and there’s another Aquatic unit within Range 5 of the target, that Separatist gains +1 attack die per Aquatic unit. I'm not squidding! That’s huge! He can also synergize with Kalani’s Identity since Battle Droids get another bonus die!

Strong Back-Point Defender: His aggro buff works from anywhere, so Nossor Ri doesn’t need to be in the thick of it. Thanks to his Identity “Opportunistic Usurper,” Nossor Ri can’t be targeted by ranged attacks while his card is in the deck or in reserve.  Very handy. Even in melee, he’s hard to push off an objective because he can reposition with 3+ defense expertise.

Cheap: At only 3 points, he opens up better list-building for Separatists. Dooku for example can finally bring a 4-point support unit along!

Weaknesses

Poor Stats: 7 HP, 4 defense dice at range, 5 in melee and his defense expertise only blocks 2 hits on 4+. He can be one-shotted easily.

His 6 attack dice (both melee and ranged) are fine, but his offensive expertise and combat tree are unimpressive.

Aqua Droids (still not getting rusty)

Role: Melee tanks

Strengths

Good Synergies: With both Battle Droid and Aquatic tags, they can stack extra dice. That’s really their main selling point.

Decent in Melee: With Focus and Impact, they reach 8 attack dice and have decent melee expertise. Still, their expertise and combat tree are worse than the MagnaGuards’ (who only cost 3 points).

Moderately Tanky for Droids: Their defense expertise converts crits to hits and they have Protection at 8 HP.

Large Base: Their big base makes them horizontally fast which is good for contesting objectives quickly.

Weaknesses

Large Base: Easy to block on elevated or narrow terrain.

Tanky, but not tanky enough: Only 4 defense dice at range and 3 in melee. A couple of shots and they will sleep with the fishes.

Too Expensive: At 5 points, they’re overpriced. The only real reason to take them over other droids is for the tags.

Good Squad Combinations

Riff, Nossor Ri, Aqua-Droids / Dooku, Jango, MagnaGuards

Dooku brings extra Force, which the rest of the squad desperately needs until Riff can refresh it.

Dooku also has a Separatist-support Revenge Trigger that activates when a Primary or Secondary is wounded. And that will happen with Riff and Nossor Ri.

Riff, ,Kraken, Aqua-Droids / Grievous, Kalani, B1s

Not super competitive, but super fun and synergistic! Every single unit besides Riff can activate another character. For example: Grievous can trigger a 5-dice-attack from a Battle Droid Support with "Appetite for Destruction". Kalani and Kraken can do the same with "Tactical Network". Wenn a Support attacks, it can trigger Riff’s 5-dice-attack. 

B1s work well with Riff’s 5-dice attack since they can inflict Exposed on Field 3 before his strike. That’s going to KO a lot of enemy units.

Unfortunately, the best squad Combinations aren’t Separatist, but Scoundrel Strike Teams.

The best combo right now seems to be Mando, Bo Katan and the Covert Mandalorians or some Bounty Hunters. If you go the competitive route you probably only end up with Riff in a Scoundrel or Bounty Hunter List and ditch Nossor Ri and the Aqua Droids. 

But I would go with another fun one instead:

Riff, Nossor Ri, Aqua-Droids / Cad Bane, Aurra Sing, Bounty Hunters.

In that setup, everyone except Cad Bane can gain the Aquatic tag and roll a ton of dice. That’s super aggressive!

Difficult Opponents

Revenge-trigger teams like the Spectres. E.g. Kanan, Ezra, Zeb / Charming Leia, Sabine, Chopper.

Tough matchup because the back-and-forth brawling plays to their strengths, and Riff’s squad can’t keep up with the Rebels’ flexibility.

Tanky teams like Obi-Wan and the Bad Batch.

Riff’s squad has high damage output, but it’s spread over several attacks (typical for Separatists). If the opponent heals between attacks, it gets tricky.

Good Mission

Sabotage Showdown: The narrow Layout plays to their melee strengths.

Hard Mission

Never Tell Me the Odds: they lack Force for sustained play.

Conclusion

Terror from Below is a welcome addition for the Separatists. I love the obscurity of the Characters.  I don't remember if it was AMG's Michael Plummer or Will Shick who said that even the most obscure Character is someone's favourite. That’s precisely what I love about Shatterpoint. In what other game do you have the opportunity to play with such a weird character and still go toe to toe with Anakin Skywalker?! It's just so much fun! And that’s pretty much how Riff and his aquatic friends play. They bring fun, aggressive mechanics but aren’t particularly competitive at the moment. Ironically they find their best home with other Scoundrels instead of Separatists. Maybe they’ll shine more in the future if they get buffed or new synergies emerge.

That’s it for now. So long, and thanks for all the fish!