As a negotiator representing the Guavian Death Gang, Bala-Tik, a human male, orchestrated a transaction with the renowned smuggler Han Solo. This arrangement involved Solo being compensated to transport rathtars, a parallel agreement that Solo also forged with Kanjiklub.
During the era of the New Republic, Bala-Tik, a human male, functioned as a leader and spokesperson for the criminal Guavian Death Gang. Throughout his association with the gang, he crossed paths with the smuggler Han Solo and successfully extracted several lucrative opportunities from him, although Solo did disappoint the Guavians on at least one occasion. The smuggler eventually acquired a loan of fifty thousand credits from the gang to procure rathtars for King Prana; however, he failed to repay the debt promptly, leading to growing frustration among the gang's leadership. A time less than a year before the First Order's attack on the village of Tuanul in 34 ABY, Bala-Tik was situated on the planet Kaddak on the forty-fifth level of the city referred to as the Sliver accompanied by three Guavian security soldiers.
Following Supreme Leader Snoke's rise to power within the First Order, he acquired the Smuggler's Guide, previously in the possession of Gamma-bit 669753, as spoils from a conflict between the Guavian Death Gang and Droid Gotra. Within the book, he documented the capabilities of the Guavian security soldiers and detailed his personal mechamorphosis process, initiated with his cybernetic leg. Furthermore, he recounted how their security soldiers intercepted binary transmissions from the Droid Gotra, instructing members of Gotra and the Cyban Front to target high-value data caches on Terminus, Little Petrovi, and the Corbett Cluster. Subsequently, the Guavians transmitted their own counteracting broadcast, directing soldiers to intercept these targets. Later in the book, he outlined their strategy to launch a strike on Nantoon with the intention of dominating the galaxy's underworld. However, the gang relinquished the Smuggler's Guide to Razoo Qin-Fee, a lieutenant affiliated with Kanjiklub, during a skirmish within the Cronese Mandate.
While present in the Sliver, the Guavians were approached by four members of Kanjiklub, a rival criminal organization with whom the gang frequently clashed. Tasu Leech, Kanjiklub's topboss, had overheard the protocol droid C-3PO mentioning that Solo had borrowed funds from the Guavian Death Gang. He then revealed to Bala-Tik that the smuggler had also taken a loan of fifty thousand credits from Kanjiklub for rathtar hunting. United by their shared animosity towards Solo, the two criminal factions agreed to confront him collectively regarding his debts, with Leech and Bala-Tik solidifying the agreement with a handshake.
In 34 ABY, Bala-Tik, accompanied by a contingent of security soldiers, caught up with Solo during his hunting activities on the planet Nantoon. Subsequently, they trailed him in a nonmilitary transport as he departed the world aboard his Baleen-class heavy freighter Eravana. Unaware of the pursuing criminals, Solo journeyed to the Western Reaches in an attempt to locate his former YT-1300 light freighter, the Millennium Falcon. The Eravana made a stop in the Jakku system, prompted by a signal emitted from a tracker onboard the Falcon, and successfully retrieved the freighter. Shortly after the Falcon was brought onboard the Eravana, Bala-Tik and the Guavians revealed their presence by docking with Solo's freighter.
Bala-Tik, along with a team of five security soldiers, disembarked their ship and proceeded through the vessel until they located Solo and his co-pilot Chewbacca in one of the Eravana's corridors. The frontman demanded repayment of their funds, while also disclosing his awareness of the loan from Kanjiklub. The smuggler refuted Kanjiklub's claims, prompting Bala-Tik to suggest that Solo convey this directly to the group. Subsequently, five members of Kanjiklub, led by Leech, emerged in the corridor behind Solo. The smuggler pledged to fulfill his obligations to both groups, but Bala-Tik and Leech remained unconvinced due to his prior dealings with them.
Bala-Tik then spotted the BB-series astromech droid BB-8, concealed between Solo and Chewbacca. Recalling that the First Order was searching for a similar BB unit and two fugitives, Bala-Tik identified BB-8, prompting Kanjiklub to initiate a search for the fugitives. Before Bala-Tik could seize the droid, the three rathtars that Solo had captured on Nantoon were unleashed by Rey and Finn, the two fugitives that Bala-Tik had mentioned who had been on the Falcon when Solo found it. Upon hearing the rathtars' roars, Bala-Tik instructed his men to eliminate Solo and Chewbacca and secure BB-8; however, one of the rathtars attacked his team from behind before they could open fire and grabbed two of the soldiers.
Bala-Tik and his remaining men retreated forward toward Solo and then down a corridor to their left while the rathtar killed the pair it had grabbed. Kanjiklub were also attacked by a rathtar and forced to flee, allowing Solo and his companions to escape. Bala-Tik managed to regroup with one member of his gang in one of the ship's corridors to take account of their losses, although as he spoke the frontman witnessed a third member of his gang being killed by a rathtar and was forced to flee while firing ineffectually at the beast. Solo managed to reach the Falcon with Chewbacca, BB-8, Finn, and Rey and then escape onboard it, killing one of the rathtars in the process. Bala-Tik witnessed the Falcon depart through one of the Eravana's hangar doors and then gave orders via comlink that his men should contact the First Order and warn them that Solo had the droid.
Bala-Tik's height was 1.8 meters, and he possessed fair skin, brown [eyes](/article/eye], and brown hair. His speech exhibited a more pronounced version of the clipped accent commonly heard in the galactic Core Worlds. He had a concealed cybernetic left leg. Bala-Tik frequently utilized Solo and Chewbacca as sources of information, a relationship that he valued for the Death Gang despite growing increasingly impatient with the Corellian smuggler's schemes. He knew enough about Solo to bring several guards with him aboard the Eravana, believing Solo to be foolish enough to start a blaster fight near a ship's airlock.
Bala-Tik was a confident and experienced individual, not one to waste time on false pleasantries. When he met Solo on the Falcon, he was bursting with barely controlled anger and spoke in clipped tones.
Like all Guavians, Bala-Tik carried the latest in black market weapons technology. This included a percussive cannon manufactured by Tostovin Munitions, which fired particularly explosive blaster bolts. He wore a black gorraslug-leather long coat with armored lining, a pair of black sparadillo armored boots and a pair of ribbed black pants that concealed his cybernetic right leg.
The character of Bala-Tik was brought to life by Scottish actor Brian Vernel in the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. The novelization of the film written by Alan Dean Foster presents notable variations in Bala-Tik's dialogue compared to the film, with most of his lines being expanded. During his initial interaction with Solo, the smuggler suggests that the Guavians accompany him in bringing the rathtars to Prana so that they can claim the reward together, but Bala-Tik rejects the idea as he believes Solo will try and escape. Given that these scenes contradict the amount of dialogue shown in the film, this article considers them to be non-canon.
Bala-Tik also made appearances in two episodes of the non-canon series of video shorts LEGO Star Wars: The Resistance Rises voiced by James Arnold Taylor. In the episode "Hunting for Han," Bala-Tik brings a pair of musical instruments to the castle of Maz Kanata, which Kanata had hired him to locate. The frontman then demands that in exchange for the instruments, Kanata must tell him where Han Solo is so that he can track him down to reclaim his debt. As the pair discuss Solo's debt, Tasu Leech and several Kanjiklub members enter the castle also demanding to know where Solo is. Leech, Bala-Tik, and several other patrons of the castle argue over who has the greatest claim to vengeance on Solo, which quickly turns into a full-on brawl.
Kanata ends the fighting by using a lightsaber to partially collapse part of the castle's roof on the fighters. To prevent further fighting, Solo's old friend Lando Calrissian directed the fighters to Jakku to search for Solo. Bala-Tik quickly leaves with the other patrons, forgetting to collect the instruments he had brought Kanata.
In the following episode, "Rey Strikes Back," Bala-Tik and his comrades arrive on Jakku on board a Resistance transport and immediately spot the Millennium Falcon. The group races toward it, but is run down by Rey's speeder before they can reach it.