Can someone PLEASE give me an official ruling on what it means to "transfer a lock" in Hera Syndulla's ability

[theharrypotter]

I know it doesn't get used that often... but Hera's ability in an A/B-wing says that she can "transfer... a lock to a friendly ship."

 

This buggers me to no end because 'transferring a lock' is not defined anywhere in the rules... I have also heard conflicting opinions on this (even if this aspect of her ability is not as widely used as the ability to pass a focus/evade token).

The way I see it the card can be read one of two ways. 'transfering a lock' could mean....

1) (the more common interpretation I hear) You break a lock that you have on an object and another friendly ship may acquire a lock on that object. This would make Hera's ability similar to Synchronized Console which allows a ship with this upgrade to "spend a lock you have on the defender. If you do, the friendly ship you chose may acquire a lock on the defender." But notice the very clear wording on Synchronized Console. It doesn't simply say to "transfer your lock to a friendly ship" because the language of 'transferring locks' is not an officially-defined procedure. This interpretation of Hera's ability might be supported by the fact that its overall effect is similar to her ability to pass focus/evade tokens, i.e., she loses the ability to mod her dice in exchange for giving a friendly ship a potential dice-mod. But the mechanics of 'transferring' focus/evade tokens and 'transferring lock(-tokens?)' to a friendly ship. Transfering evade/focus tokens is a simple procedure of moving a token from your ship to another friendly ship. But if 'transferring a lock' means the same a Synchronized Console, this involves removing a lock on an object and allowing a friendly ship to acquire a lock on that object.

2) (the less common interpretation I hear) You simply take an enemy's lock token that is on Hera and placed this (enemy) lock token on a different friendly ship. This may sound counter-intuitive considering the overall effect that this procedure does as compared with transfering evade/focus tokens. Instead, Hera is beefing up her own defenses (by losing an enemy lock) while putting other friendly ship at risk of modded enemy attacks. But the mechanics of this procedure are the exact same. This interpretation may also be helpfully compared to Holo's , who may transfer enemy lock tokens that are on Holo to friendly ship (his ability reads, "At the start of the Engagement Phase, you must transfer 1 of your tokens to another friendly ship at range 0-2."). 'Your' tokens for Holo include enemy lock tokens that are on him. One could argue that 'transferring locks' and 'transferring lock tokens' are different things entirely... but this is the exact problem. The rules give explicit guidance on what it means to transfer tokens (there is a section in the rules reference where 'transfer' is defined), but it gives no definition for what it means to 'transfer a lock.'

 

Until 'transfer a lock' is defined in the rules, it seems to me that the only guidance we have on this aspect of Hera's ability are the rulings on Holo, which would heavily favor interpretation 2. I cannot say that I think the designers actually intended interpretation 2; my guess is that the language of 'transferring a lock' had become a shorthand for the procedure outlined in Synchronized Console, and so the designers just stuck with that. But a strict reading of the card's text I think means that we must go with interpretation 2 until 'transfer a lock' is defined in the rules.

Edited June 15, 2021 by theharrypotter

[Kris M]

Hi,

We've recently added some clarification to some of these terms here:

I hope that helps.

[Dee Y]

Please note that locks and lock tokens are two completely distinct things.