Summary

• The Bounty Hunters' Guild has a mysterious code that focuses on professionalism and the guild's reputation as quality hired guns.
• To the guild, aspiring hunters must complete a dangerous bounty to prove their worth and begin building their personal reputation.
• Bounty hunters rank in classes, with "class one" being the highest, based on skill level and reputation.

The Bounty Hunters' Guild played a big role in various most important groups in Star Wars, the Bounty Hunters' Guild has remained mysterious.

Though most of the best bounty hunters in Star Wars - like Boba Fett, Din Djarin, Cad Bane, and more - were part of the Bounty Hunters' Guild, only bits and pieces of the group have been revealed so far. The information that's available about the guild only covers a few areas, but it goes very deeply into those aspects. The approach Star Wars has taken to the Bounty Hunters' Guild may not have given a wealth of knowledge into the organization, but it has created quite a bit of intrigue.

Bounty Hunters In The Guild Have A Code To Follow

One of the most important - and loosely defined - parts of the Bounty Hunters' Guild was its code. In The Mandalorian season 1, Greef Karga, who was then acting as the Guild Master of the Nevarro branch of the guild, mentioned a core tenet of the code. After Din Djarin had given Grogu to the Client, Karga said that asking unnecessary details about a bounty or being involved in a target after completion was against the guild's code. Guild bounty hunters were supposed to completely disregard a bounty as soon as they had turned their target in, and treat it as if it had never happened.

Most of the known parts of the Bounty Hunters' Guild's code seem to center around two central ideas: professionalism and the guild's reputation.

The guild's code was also referenced in a few off-screen Star Wars stories. The comic "Target Vader #1" established that part of the bounty hunters' code prohibited its from stealing other hunters' bounties. Additionally, the junior novel "Ezra's Gamble" established that the code outlawed bounty hunters from killing other guild , even if they had a price on their head. That particular facet of the code could be overturned, however, if the order came from a Guild Master. Greef Karga ordered the Nevarro branch to hunt down Din Djarin and Grogu, since Din had himself broken the code and damaged the guild's reputation.

Most of the known parts of the Bounty Hunters' Guild's code seem to center around two central ideas: professionalism and the guild's reputation. Those focuses seem especially likely given that not all bounty hunters could be part of the guild. Greef Karga mentioned that the guild's clients would sometimes be alright with hiring non-guild hunters because they charged lower rates. Karga referred to those hunters as "sloppy," and since guild hunters charged more, part of the guild's business model was likely based around the promise of completing jobs well. Thus, the guild's code made sure its upheld the organization's reputation.

Aside from non-guild bounty hunters, there was one notable exception to the Bounty Hunters' Guild. The guild had no qualms about killing its targets - bounties could be turned in "warm or cold" in Din's words - but it didn't accept actual assassination missions. Any client who wanted a target dead rather than captured would instead go to the assassins' guild. Fennec Shand was a member of the assassins' guild by the time of The Mandalorian, which explains why the guild accepted a bounty on her, as it wouldn't have gone against the code's rule that protected from one another.

Hunters Need To Complete A Job For Initiation

Part of the reason there were non-guild bounty hunters at all was because it was rather difficult to the guild. Toro Calican, a young bounty hunter who was trying to the guild, and he explained to Din Djarin that he needed to complete a bounty on Fennec Shand to gain entrance. This initiation into the guild fits with the guild's code, as it would help maintain their reputation for professionalism. An aspiring guild member would have to prove that they could handle the danger inherent to bounty hunting and that their work met the guild's expectations.

Toro Calican introduced the idea of initiation into the guild, but he's also the only character Star Wars has shown trying to the guild. Therefore, it's not clear if his first job was typical for newcomers. That being said, the fact that Calican went after legendary assassin Fennec Shand could indicate that new guild had to take dangerous jobs to prove their worth. Forcing newcomers to complete particularly dangerous bounties would also make sense given the guild's focus on its reputation. It would also play directly into the Bounty Hunters' Guild's ranking system.

There Are Various Classes Bounty Hunters Rank In

Though Fennec Shand eventually became an assassin, she was a member of the Bounty Hunters' Guild at one point. She established in Star Wars: The Bad Batch that there was also a ranking system for the guild's individual that seemed to separate jobs based on skill level. Shand said that the Empire was looking for "class one" bounty hunters to track down and kidnap Force-sensitive children for Project Necromancer. Later, The Bad Batch season 3 confirmed Cad Bane was a class one bounty hunter, which also seemingly confirmed that class one was the highest rank in the guild.

Unfortunately, The Bad Batch didn't give much information beyond the top of the ranking system. Presumably, class one bounty hunters would have access to any job they chose, including the highest priority and highest paying assignments. Bounty hunters with a lower ranking and reputation would be locked out of the best jobs, with each subsequent rank only having access to less desirable work. Interestingly, The Mandalorian seemed to confirm that for some extremely high profile jobs - like the Client's bounty on Grogu - any bounty hunter could participate regardless of ranking. That seems to be an exception rather than a rule, however, but it happened on at least one occasion.

Star Wars hasn't confirmed how bounty hunters move up the ranking system and become class one hunters, but it could tie into the guild's initiation. Since new bounty hunters had to complete a job to the guild in the first place, it seems reasonable to assume that moving further up the ranks would require a hunter to complete more guild jobs. That would help raise their reputation among clients and other hired guns, and it would also be proof to the guild's leadership that they could reliably get their targets.

In that way, the ranking system could be a sort of trust-based hierarchy where hunters have to prove that they're capable of being given more dangerous and important marks. Part of the reason that's a likely way for the ranking system to work is because it would benefit both individual hunters and the guild itself mutually. The system would make sure its never take jobs that they're not qualified for, which would keep them alive longer. It would also limit the number of jobs that the guild failed, which would help protect its reputation and justify having higher rates than non-guild hunters.

Even with all the confirmed and likely information about the Bounty Hunters' Guild, there's still quite a bit that has been left unsaid. It's not clear how individual branches of the guild are connected to each other, whether the guild has a central leadership beyond those branches, or how the guild operated during different parts of the Star Wars timeline beyond the Imperial and New Republic eras. Suffice to say, there's plenty of room for future bounty hunters and future Star Wars stories to give even more information on the Bounty Hunters' Guild.