Duelist Elites had long limbs with swiveling joints that allowed them to have a wide range of motion. The internal gyroscope provided the droid with superior balance. The droids were masters of the three classical fencing styles of foil, épée, and saber. They could be equipped with a variety of melee weapons; including vibroblades, force pikes, and lightsabers.
They were built with blaster-resistant durasteel chassis and programmed with the knowledge of a dozen martial arts masters. The droids had reflexes just a hair faster than Human optimum.
A new one cost 275,000 credits.
Factory-equipped Duelist Elites were equipped with inhibitors that would prevent them from dealing a death blow to a beaten opponent, which the Sith disabled for their sparring and training.
Darth Maul was known to have sparred against Rapier, Hachete, Cudgel, and Chain. Darth Vader owned several of these droids, but since they were no match for him, he tended to use modified ASP droids instead.
State-of-the-art Duelist Elite combat droids with flexisteel sabers and vocabulators were employed to guard the Sun Runner counterfeit ship fabricated in 23 BBY by Groodo the Hutt for his Jedi-foiled attempt to destroy the orbital Fondor Shipyards. The droids were reduced to smoldering scrap, however, by 18-year-old lightsaber-wielding Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker before he destroyed the false Sun Runner itself with a hypermatter reactor-planted proton grenade.
The pirate Raskar utilized a Duelist Elite as a sparring droid. He also modified it to act as a security guard in the event of a breakin, as Han Solo discovered when breaking into his villa to retrieve Raskar's power gem. However, Solo tricked the droid into charging into destruct beams surrounding the power gem and destroyed it, consequently also causing Raskar to believe Solo died until he returned to the Villa.
- The Essential Guide to Droids
- The Official Star Wars Fact File47
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- Scavenger's Guide to Droids