The Phase IV dark trooper, also known as the dark starfighter or the dark trooper fighter, was an experimental facet of the dark trooper project conducted after the Battle of Yavin. The Phase IV was not a trooper per se, but rather a starfighter following the same philosophy of automated powerhouses that was embodied in the dark trooper project. Like the other three phases of dark troopers, the Phase IV was forged aboard the Arc Hammer, but unlike the other phases, the Phase IV never ventured far from the factory ship, instead maintaining escort duty for the vessel. Though most of these units were deactivated following the destruction of the Arc Hammer, they have appeared occasionally throughout the rest of the Galactic Civil War.