Elite personnel, known as Death Star Troopers, were stationed on the original Death Star. They were also called Imperial trooper guards and Death Star sentries. These troopers were eventually replaced by the more common Imperial Navy troopers, but similar units were once again present on the second Death Star and at the Endor shield generator bunker connected to it.
The Death Star troopers were recognized by their striking black uniforms, which included helmets with a unique design and long gauntlets. They often served as security, protecting areas such as conference rooms and detention blocks, escorting prisoners, or working alongside stormtroopers. These troopers wore a different uniform than the standard Imperial type for these duties, featuring a less structured tunic and trousers, shorter boots, and typically an E-11 blaster rifle or DH-17 blaster pistol in a holster.
Other troopers in similar uniforms could be found in control rooms linked to the hangar complex and operating the superlaser. In these roles, they usually wore their distinctive helmet with a jumpsuit similar to that of TIE Pilots, displaying the Imperial insignia on the shoulder. Additionally, some personnel manning consoles on the overbridge combined the black helmet with a grey-green uniform.
Officers associated with these troopers typically wore the more formal black uniform seen with commissioned personnel in the Stormtrooper Corps and TIE pilots, which sometimes made it difficult to determine their specific division. However, there's at least one instance of a command role being held by someone wearing the looser-fitting trooper uniform with a peaked cap instead of the distinctive helmet.
Troopers assigned as security to the Super Star Destroyer Executor generally switched to the officer's style of uniform, but without rank insignia, while those associated with the second Death Star were seen in both this uniform and the jumpsuit, working in both desk and security roles.
The Death Star troopers are commonly portrayed as a highly trained fighting force established by Grand Moff Tarkin during the battle station's construction. They were known for their strict discipline, advanced combat skills, and an unusual level of initiative for Imperial personnel, forming a dedicated corps within the Imperial Navy specifically for crewing the battle station.
However, this account seems to be contradicted by the assignments of Nova Stihl, an Imperial Army sergeant assigned to the Death Star project. She served in various roles, including detention-block guard, security trooper at the Grand Moff's conference room door, and even as a white-armored stormtrooper.
In 0 BBY, two Death Star troopers guarded the doors of the battle station's main conference room. Others accompanied Darth Vader in Detention Block AA-23, standing guard while Darth Vader interrogated Princess Leia Organa about the location of the Rebel Alliance's base. They then escorted her and Vader to the overbridge for her confrontation with Grand Moff Tarkin. Troopers in grey-green uniforms operated consoles on the overbridge, while others in black jumpsuits were part of the superlaser gunnery crew. Additionally, officers in black uniforms crewed control rooms in the hangar complex.
Later, several Death Star troopers were stationed alongside Security officer Shann Childsen in the detention block when Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, disguised as stormtroopers, arrived with Chewbacca. Skywalker claimed they were transferring a prisoner from Cell Block 1138, but Childsen, suspicious, ordered two Death Star troopers to investigate. Chewbacca broke free, and Skywalker opened fire, killing Childsen and several troopers. All Death Star troopers aboard the battle station during the Battle of Yavin were killed when the station was destroyed shortly after.
Following Yavin, Imperial Navy troopers in similar uniforms became more prevalent in the Imperial fleet, notably guarding the command deck of the Executor. However, in 4 ABY, Death Star troopers were once again stationed on the second Death Star, especially inside the control room, where they managed the battle station's deflector shield, sent transmissions, and operated the superlaser alongside Imperial gunners. They were present when Vader reprimanded Moff Tiaan Jerjerrod for the slow construction progress. During the Battle of Endor, they fired the superlaser at the Alliance Fleet, but the Rebels deactivated the deflector shield and destroyed the station, killing everyone on board.
Some Death Star troopers were stationed on the Endor moon itself, inside the Death Star's shield generator bunker. They surrendered when the Rebels seized control of the bunker during the battle.
Despite not being immediately apparent on screen, the black-uniformed troopers in the original Star Wars film have a unique uniform. It combines their wide helmet with a tunic that is cut more loosely than the standard Imperial type, along with unstructured trousers and short boots that only reach mid-thigh, instead of the usual jodhpur breeches and knee-high jackboots. Troopers at deflector and superlaser positions wear a black jumpsuit like TIE Pilots.
Controllers on the overbridge, also sometimes identified as Death Star troopers, wear the same black helmet with a communications earpiece and a simplified version of the standard Imperial grey-green uniform, featuring a narrow lapel that fastens to the left and straight ankle-length trousers. This likely explains the grey uniform of the Kenner action figure, originally called a "Death Squad Commander" but later renamed a "Star Destroyer Commander."
In contrast, their counterparts in The Empire Strikes Back all seem to combine the distinctive helmet with the black version of the standard Imperial officer's uniform, but without rank insignia. In Return of the Jedi, they wear either this or the black jumpsuit with the shoulder insignia.
The precise status of the Death Star troopers is somewhat ambiguous. The idea that they were a distinct and unified corps dates back to at least 1989's Imperial Sourcebook, which states that Imperial Navy troopers adopted "the distinctive uniform and helmet once only the province of the Death star troopers." 1991's Death Star Technical Companion more explicitly identifies them as a separate arm of the Imperial Navy and clearly distinguishes them from Imperial Army personnel on the battle station, but is less clear about their relationship to similarly uniformed security personnel. Because these sourcebooks are written from an in-universe perspective, the information they present may not be entirely accurate.
Conversely, the 2007 Death Star novel describes Death Star troopers in guard roles simply as "stormtroopers in black uniforms." Sergeant Stihl, identified in the dramatis personae as an "Imperial Marines guard sergeant" and introduced as "a trooper in the Imperial Army," performs duties in the distinctive uniform as a detention-block guard, a door guard at Tarkin's conference room, and as a white-armored stormtrooper. No clear explanation is given for this apparent blurring of organizational lines or the contradiction with earlier material.
Adding to the confusion, while the Imperial Sourcebook suggests that Imperial Navy troopers were created after the destruction of the first Death Star, the StarWars.com Databank entry states that Death Star troopers were actually a subgroup drawn "from" the ranks of the already existing Navy troopers.