The SD-6 HULK battle droid was an infantry droid that was used by military forces
around the galaxy, from all the way back centuries before the Fall of the republic,
the Clone Wars, The Imperial Era and through to the New Republic. This droid was so deadly
and dangerous, that it was immediately placed one of the most restricted tiers of the Black Market,
being available to only the dodgiest and most slimy criminals in the galaxy.
So, I’m going to breakdown exactly what these ferocious battle droids could do,
and how they were connected with the Imperial Dark Trooper program. The SD-Series battle
droids were recently canonized by The Disciples of Harmony reference book
and the Dark Troopers were of course recognized by the mandalorian Season 2,
so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the HULK droid make an appearance next season.
So before we dive into it, make sure to fire your blaster at the subscribe button for more.
The SD-6 Hulk droid battle droid was fourth degree battle droid
manufactured by Balmorran Arms. And just to quickly recap for those of you who don’t know
what the different “droid degree levels are”, i’ll quickly list them out.
Class 1 or first degree droids are droids that worked in the fields of mathematics,
physicals, science and medicine and tended to be very obedient to their masters. These included:
medical droids, biological science droids, physical science droids and mathematics droids.
Class 2 or second degree droids were ones programmed for engineering and
other technical purposes. These of course included astromech droids, exploration droids,
environmental droids, engineering droids and maintenance droids.
Class 3 or third degree droids were droids designed to interact with humans.
These included protocol droids, servant droids, tutor droids and child care droids.
After that is Class 4, or fourth degree droids which is what the HULK battle is classified as.
These are the ferocious droids programmed to fight and to kill. Almost every class 4 droid carried
weapons. They include, Security droids, gladiator droids, battle droids and assassin droids.
Finally, there's a class 5, but these were just simple labor droids that no human wanted to do.
Basically they included general labor droids, and hazardous service droids.
So moving straight back to the SD-6 HULK droid, they were manufactured
a whopping size of 3.5 metres in height and the same in width.
As for weaponry, the HULK units were each equipped with two E-web repeating blasters,
one on each arm, as well as two Ion gun rifles, mounted on rotating shoulder joints.
Yeah, you can definitely see why these beasts were restricted and only obtainable through the
black market. If you want to check out the other things on the black market, make sure you check
the pinned comment after the video… You’ll be shocked at some of the stuff on there.
Following this, the SD-6 Unit was also equipped with two grappling arms,
rating to be able to pull other battle droids towards them, and especially
organic beings, so that they could be crushed or blasted with high accuracy.
As for armor, the HULK droids were equipped with starship-grade duranium armor, which
made it virtually immune to any blaster, or any weapon that a human could hold. as well as this,
the Hulk unit also had telescopic-vision sensors, allowing them to see in a 360 degree pattern
around them. This made it nearly impossible to sneak up and ambush one of these Hulk droids.
Now the really interesting part about these droids, is just like it’s predecessors,
the SD-4 and SD-5 units, the HULK Battle droid was programmed
using data that was illegally stolen from the Empire’s Dark Trooper Project.
Dark troopers, like the ones used by Moff Gideon
were able to evaluate their surroundings, and decide when was the right time to strike,
and when was the right time to pull back and defend. Unfortunately for the SD-6 HULK Units,
they lacked a proper decision processor, which led to to act-very single mindedly,
and in some cases could not stop their violent rampages, once they started.
The SD-6 battle droid was primarily used in armies as a highly effective,
mobile turret, which could protect positions and laydown ridiculous amounts of cover fire.
The HULK unit was most effective against small vehicles and large groups of organic and droid
soldiers, but it also had no trouble pinpointing and executing a single enemy soldier on sight,
if commanded to do so. Unfortunately, their massive size and large weapons array did have
one downside. The droid was slowed down quite significantly on most planetary surfaces,
making it vulnerable to small, tactical teams of highly skilled soldiers, like Clone Commandos.
It’s very primitive decision making processor meant that it
wasn’t suitable for commanding large droid forces, like a tactical droid,
but it did work very well on the front lines, with regular infantry droids.
The droid was developed the final centuries of the Galactic Republic,
but because of the Republic’s demilitarized status, the HULK droid was only deployed as a
defensive unit for vulnerable hangar facilities and landing platforms around the galaxy,
just in case of rising tensions. The droids would provide cover fire for
incoming Republic starships, should they encounter any hostile ships,
and prevent hostile ships from ever being able to escape the grip of the Republic law enforcement.
Many years later, after the Clone Wars had kicked off,
the Republic initially withdrew all of their SD-6 Hulk battle droids from their defensive
positions in a panic, because they did not want to scare the citizens of the galaxy,
who might confuse them for separatist battle droids. At this point, all production of
republic class 4 droids was put to a stop, to avoid confusion and panic among the people.
Later in the war however, Palpatine ordered the restarting of production on the HULK battle droids
from Balmorra Arma. I definitely don’t need to explain why Palpatine randomly and suddenly
decided to restart production on dead battle droids for the republic, shortly before the war
came to a close. Balmorra arms were also playing both sides of the war, producing the Hulk droids
for the Republic, and B-1 Battle droids for the separatists on the very next production line over…
As you can imagine, as the Galactic Empire was formed, the Empire put them to good use in
savagely destroying former Separatist planets, in order to keep their citizens in line, under the
rule of the empire. Eventually however, the SD-6 units were slowly phased out by the smaller and
more agile SD-9 and SD-10 units. The SD-6 unites were still used by imperial armed forces however,
but they were starting to be considered ancient relics that couldn’t get the job done.
AT this point, owning one of these droids was highly illegal and they
could only be purchased on the deepest, most restricted tiers of the black market.
Obviously however, this didn’t stop the crime lords of the galaxy from buying them, and using
them as personal security forces for their starships, or for their criminal headquarters.
Some of the dodgier mercenaries of the galaxy also acquired several SD-6
war droids from the black market, and one of them was even used by
Trandoshans to hijack a reupulsor train on Alderaan, and kidnap Senator Bail Organa.
Following this, the New Republic made use of the SD-6 battle droids,
but by this time, they were really, really getting old and were viewed as nothing but overgrown,
mindless droids who were far too violent and savage. At this point, SD-9 and SD-10 unites
were commonplace in the New Republic, so let me know if you’d like me to cover some more
details about them. They are equally as crazy as the SD-6 hulk droid, but in different ways.
And finally, to put an awesome end to the story, the few remaining Hulk droids that had not bee
melted down and turned into scrap, were abandoned by the New Republic, and left to their own lives,
however their seeked to do so. These droids weren’t the smartest or the most creative,
but they now had the opportunity to live their own lives, the way they wanted to,
just like many of the malfunctioned B-1 battle droids from the Clone Wars did. Honestly,
it would be awesome if a small colony of B-1, B-2 and Hulk battle droids was formed on some
remote planet, living out their final days, until their circuitry could no longer keep them alive…
So that is the story of the monstrous and ferocious SD-6 battle droid. Thanks
so much for watching, really hope you enjoyed the video. Remember to check
out the pinned comment down below for more information on the horrific black market.
Cheers guys, hope to see you in the next one!