The tripion was a crustaceous species with three venomous tail stingers and over 600 different subspecies. They were best suited to live in the deserts of hot worlds, including the moons Gall and Yavin 13, with the species' diet consisting of small lizards and insects.
There were more than six hundred different subspecies of the crustaceous tripion discovered, which ranged in size from less than one meter up to eighteen meters tall. Tripions had pincers, spider-like legs, and generally three venomous stinger-tipped tails. Based on the subspecies, the sting could be simply annoying, or even deadly. One subspecies of tripion, found on the planet Thrantin, had six spider-like legs, but no pincers. Another subspecies, found on the moon Gall, had four legs, two antennae, two pincers, stood upright, and had only one tail.
Although tripions could withstand high amounts of heat on moons like Gall and Yavin 13, they would spend the day under stones, and would come out at night. They hunted insects and small lizards, and could sting with their tails three times in rapid succession, but would only do so if the prey was struggling, or if the prey was large.
Members of Twilight Class attacked by a tripion
When the young bounty hunter Boba Fett was on the desert planet Tatooine to find work from the Hutt crime lord Jabba the Hutt in 22 BBY, Fett saw a tripion from Gall in a cage on Jabba's sail barge. The tripion slammed its poisonous tail against the cage and clicked its pincers, and a guard poked it with his sword for his and his comrades' entertainment.
When a group of trainees from the Galactic Outdoor Survival School was partaking in their final test on the planet Thrantin, one member of Twilight Class, Xenon Nnaksta, was attacked by a tripion. He was saved by another member of Twilight Class, Derembus Sitnalta, who in turn sustained a bad, but non-lethal, sting in doing so.
Tripions were first mentioned in the 1989 sourcebook Galaxy Guide 2: Yavin and Bespin, which was published for use with West End Games' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. Their first depiction was in the 1995 West End Games roleplaying sourcebook Alliance Intelligence Reports. The 1998 reference book The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons, authored by Daniel Wallace, referred to tripions as "Gallian tripions." The tripions first appeared in the 2004 young-reader novel Boba Fett: Hunted, written by Elizabeth Hand as the fourth installment of the Boba Fett series. In the book they were referred to as "Gallion tripions" and possessed one stinger tipped tail.
- Galaxy Guide 2: Yavin and Bespin
- Alliance Intelligence Reports
- Galaxy Guide 2: Yavin and Bespin, Second Edition
- "ISB Intercepts" — Star Wars Adventure Journal 9
- The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. III