Standard Deployment Limit: Four
Bit Reactor answers the standard case directly: the squad limit can go up to four Operators. This is the number to use when explaining ordinary tactical deployment, rather than counting every friendly figure that appears in a cinematic or special encounter.
The same response immediately adds an exception. Players will have opportunities to control additional characters in certain missions. Because the wording gives neither a fixed extra count nor a list of those missions, four is the standard cap—not a claim that the screen can never contain a fifth controllable ally.
Four blue-side operatives are visible across the industrial platform, and the top-left objective says "Get to the Extraction Zone! 0/4." The counter records progress for this pictured objective; the written Q&A establishes the broader standard squad rule.
Roster Capacity Is a Different Number
A separate Q&A answer concerns the Operator limit at headquarters. Players begin with a maximum of seven Operators, while the current roster limit is 20 and can rise through Den upgrades, story progress, and authored recruits joining the squad.
Those figures describe how many people Zero Company can hold between missions, not how many deploy simultaneously. A 20-person roster gives the player choices, replacements, and different team compositions; it does not turn a tactical mission into a 20-unit battle.
Mission requirements can narrow selection further. Hawks is required on story missions, while skirmish missions allow any combination of Operators. These composition rules operate inside the applicable deployment allowance and should be recorded separately from roster capacity.
The Exception Has No Published Maximum
They may be mission-specific participants rather than freely selected roster slots; the Q&A does not settle that distinction.
A screenshot or trailer should therefore be annotated by scene. Count visible blue-side units, note whether the interface marks each as controllable, and identify any objective text. Do not convert one five-character sequence into a universal five-unit cap or assume every friendly NPC consumes a squad slot.
No video is embedded because neither the June 5 gameplay trailer nor another approved original-channel clip publishes a complete maximum for exception missions.