Every thing in the post is set into section and can be easily found by hitting ctrl + F and entering the appropriate section number i.e for the Introduction it is x1.0 and each section is colour coded.

Hello all and welcome to SWTOR I hope you are all having a great time playing and are not finding it too hard to find your feet in this huge world that is star wars.

So little introduction about this guide and my self. I am Althire have been around the MMO circuit for about the last 7 years playing many games but I wont go into that here, in my time I have picked up quite a lot of knowledge and I have gotten this from little post just like the one am writing now.

So I thought to my self I'll give something back to the comunity and write a comprehensive guide on the basics of star wars and MMO's to give all our new comers a little help.

So lets get this under way .

So for a lot of new players this is not just the first time playing star wars it's also the first time playing an MMO so what better place to start than a little bit about what an MMO is.

A massively multiplayer online game (also called MMO and MMOG) is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on personal computers. Most of the newer game consoles, including the PSP, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and Wii can access the Internet and may therefore run MMO games. Additionally, mobile devices and smartphones based on such operating systems as Android, iOS and Windows Phone are seeing an increase in the number of MMO games available.

MMOGs can enable players to cooperate and compete with each other on a large scale, and sometimes to interact meaningfully with people around the world. They include a variety of gameplay types, representing many video game genres.

Now within the MMO genre you have other arch types of games like you can have MMOFPS which would be a massively multiplayer online first person shooter or like star wars is MMORPG which is massively multiplayer online role play game and explained better by wiki.

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world.

As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a character (often in a fantasy world) and take control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player RPGs by the number of players, and by the game's persistent world (usually hosted by the game's publisher), which continues to exist and evolve while the player is offline and away from the game.

So you have installed the game and set up you account at http://www.swtor.com/ and you ready to play so you hit the play button and start your Saga .

After hitting play you see the intro to the game in some really nice cinematics after this you will be greeted with a server selection screen now there are a lot of different servers and they are not all the same they are first split into regions mainly first into American and European servers then after that the each American server is either east coast or west coast and the European servers are split into English, French and German.

Although you can play on any server you choose so even if you live in a European country you can play on an American server but you may find issues with latency this is due to the distance you are from the server. Latency is the time it takes for you to perform an action on your computer that information to be sent to the server and back to your computer so the further away you are from the server the higher your latency may be for that reason it is usually better to play on a server closer to home.

After deciding what region you would like to play on you have now got another choice to make as each server also has a different play style there are 4 different types of server currently in SWTOR there is PVE (player verses environment), PVP (player verses player), RP-PVE (role play player verses environment), RP-PVP (role play player verses player).

Each one of these servers has a different play style and rules so will explain a little below.

PVE This type of server is player verse environment this is where you the player character takes on the game world and can meet members of the opposing faction with out having to worry about getting into a fight.

On PVE servers if you would like to attack another player you and the other player would need to toggle on your PVP this can be done by right clicking your portrait and enabling it from there. There is also areas on certain planets that are PVP zones so going into these areas will automatically turn your PVP on these are normally known as open world PVP areas you can find them in such places like "the out laws den" on Tatooine and Ilum has a PVP area on it.

You can also enter warzones on a PVE server these are set areas with certain objectives that a group of people try to achieve whilst battling the enemy.

PVP This type of server is player verses player and has many similarity's to a PVE server you can still take on the game world but out side of sanctuary areas such as home towns and rest areas your PVP is automatically turned on so on planets where both factions are playing you can attack each other.

RP-PVE and RP-PVP These type of servers are the same as the ones above respectively but have the added element of RP (role play) this is where you take on the role of the character your self and act accordingly to the role you have decided your character to be.

So you have picked your server and are now on your way to getting into the game world the next few choice you make will define your character and get you into the game.

First choice you have to make is what faction you would like to be in star wars you can either be part of the republic or part of the empire each faction has 4 different classes you can play but are mirrored on both sides and each class has multiple roles which I will explain below.

Star wars works on a holy trinity system like many other MMO's and this is where each player character can fulfil one of three roles at anyone time these roles are usually know as Tank (damage taker keeps the enemy on him to stop other players getting hurt), Healer (replenishes heath of other players that are taking damage during fights) and DPS (damage dealer does the damage to the attacking enemy).

Before going into each class you can pick a little info on advanced classes each of the four classes have the ability to specialise in an advanced class upon reaching level 10 and completing the advanced class quest. Each class has 2 different advance classes and they both come with two talent trees and 1 that is shared between the two. Each advance class has it's own part in the holy trinity and I will explain each in each class explanation.

Also worth noting that currently once you have picked you advanced class at level 10 this choice is final this may change in the future and there are arguments for and against this being allowed.

The Jedi knight (republic) and the Sith warrior (empire) both are close combat classes focusing on either Tanking or DPS depending on what advanced class is taken and also on what talents are taken within that advanced class.

As a knight/warrior you can specialise in the tanking role by picking the advanced class Guardian/Juggernaut and spending talent points in the defence/immortal talent tree you can also DPS as a Guardian/Juggernaut you would just have to spend you talent points into Vigilance/Vengeance or Focus/Rage this advance class users close combat with one light saber and heavy armour.

With the other advanced class as a knight/warrior you can specialise in the DPS role by picking the advanced class Sentinel/Marauder this advanced class specialises in DPS only but using two light sabers and wearing medium armour.

The Jedi consular (republic) and the Sith inquisitor (empire) can be both played as either a range or close combat class and even a healer depending on what advanced class is taken and also on what talents are taken within that advanced class.

As a consular/inquisitor you can specialise in the tanking role by picking the advanced class shadow/assassin and spending talent points in the kinetic combat/darkness talent tree you can also DPS as a shadow/assassin you would just have to spend you talent points into infiltration/deception or balance/madness this advance class uses a double bladed light saber and light armour but uses defensive abilities to compensate for the light armour.

With the other advanced class as a consular/inquisitor the sage/sorcerer you can specilise in healing or ranged DPS depending on where you spend you talent points spending your points into seer/corruption would make you a healer and spending you points in telekinetics/lightning or balance/madness would make you a range DPS this advance class uses a a single light saber and light armour.

The Trooper (republic) and the Bounty hunter (empire) can be both played as either a range or close combat class and even a healer depending on what advanced class is taken and also on what talents are taken within that advanced class.

As a trooper/bounty hunter you can specialise in the tanking role by picking the advanced class vanguard/powertech and spending talent points in the shield specialist/shield tech talent tree you can also DPS as a vanguard/powertech you would just have to spend your talent points into tactics/advanced prototype or assault specialist/pyrotech this advance class uses a blaster rifle as a trooper and a blaster pistol as a bounty hunter wearing heavy armour and can fight at close range and long.

With the other advanced class as a trooper/bounty hunter the commando/mercenary you can specilise in healing or ranged DPS depending on where you spend you talent points spending your points into combat medic/bodyguard would make you a healer and spending you points in gunnery/arsenal or assault specialist/pyrotech would make you a range DPS this advance class uses a blaster cannon as a trooper and two blaster pistols as a bounty hunter wears heavy armour and fights at range.

The Smuggler (republic) and the Imperial agent (empire) can be both played as either a range or close combat class and even a healer depending on what advanced class is taken and also on what talents are taken within that advanced class.

As a smuggler/imperial agent you can specialise in the healing role by picking the advanced class scoundrel/operative and spending talent points in the sawbones/medicine talent tree you can also DPS as a scoundrel/operative you would just have to spend you talent points into scrapper/concealment or dirty fighting/lethality this advance class uses a blaster pistol as a smuggler and blaster rifle as a imperial agent wears medium armour and fight at range and close.

With the other advanced class as a smuggler/imperial agent the you can specialise in the DPS role spending talent points into the gunslinger/sniper trees this advanced class specialises in DPS and uses two blaster pistols as a smuggler and sniper rifle as a imperial agent wears medium armour and fights at range.

After deciding on you class you will the be asked to pick your race (species) now for each class there is different races (species) available currently the race class combinations are

There is no +/- to any race except for looks so pick what you thinks suits you . After picking race you the have to pick your gender and then you move onto customising your looks there is a few things you can change here like eye colour body size facial features i.e beards, tattoos, scars, horns and implants some of these are dependant to the race you pick.

Then you get the all important part naming your character after that you'r ready to play.

Upon starting the game you get a cinematic introducing you to the character and giving you your first quest.

Quests are like missions your character must do to progress through the story of the game each class has it's own story and each planet also so you'll want to pick these up when you can these usually show up as a golden triangle above a NPC's head (NPC = non player character computer controlled) and will send you on some sort of mission and for completing it you will get a reward you interact with NPC by moving close enough to them and right clicking them.

I would always suggest upon starting any new game to first (once the intro has finished) going to the preference menu by hitting escape and clicking preferences and have a good look through all of these and set things up to your given play style.

The same goes for key bindings (key bindings are the controls of the game that you move your character with and interact with objects in the world)

Moving your character in game now that everything set up just the way you want it you can move your character in various ways (if you have not changed the key bindings) you can use wasd, up, down, left and right arrow or by clicking both buttons on your mouse together and holding them down whilst turning your mouse to navigate you can also use a function called auto run which by default is bound to mouse button 4 (in key bindings) and then once auto running you can click and hold right mouse button to steer.

Your abilities each class has different abilities and are used in different ways some are meant for range attacks and some are meant for close quarters by default when you start your abilities are on your bar at the bottom of your screen and look like icons you can either click these or use the keys on the keyboard by default the main bar with them on is set to 1234567890-=.

You can also open up your ability list by hitting the hot key P by default.

Each ability you have will some times have something known as a cool down (CD for short) this is the time from when you push it to the time you can hit it again there is also some thing know as a GCD which is global cool down which is 1.5 seconds this normally activates after any ability is used with few exceptions.

Quests as slightly explained above is how you experience the story of the game each quest you pick up will tell you a little bit more of the story weather it be the class quests (quests specific to your class) or planet quests (quests specific to the planet you are on) you will be living the story of the game through these.

These also offer rewards for completing them which could be credits (the in game currency used for buying things from different sources and has this symbol ) items (which could be gear (clothes) or something you can use) but all quest usually give xp (experience is used to level up your character).

As your character get more and more experience from doing quests and killing the monsters around you it is automatically added to your experience bar that is situated at the bottom of your screen. Each time this bar fills up your level will increase by one granting you more abilities to use you will need to visit what is known as your class trainer there you will be able to learn your new abilities and these will automatically be added to you bar when you do.

You can add more of these bars to your screen to add a second bar to put abilities on you can click the little + icon on the bottom bar you can also unlock the bar to move you abilities around and in the preferences menu you can add a bar to the left and right of your screen for more room.

Also each time you level up you stats will increase so that brings me to the next section.

Primary Stats

There are five primary/basic character attributes in SWTOR: Endurance, Aim, Cunning, Strength and Willpower. Endurance gives you 10 HP per single point, and the other four stats increase your class’ base damage and critical chance:

Your primary stat will always give either [Ranged + Tech] or [Melee + Force] damage.

Secondary Stats

Each class uses different main stats and they are as followed.

These are the main stats that you will be looking for on gear (clothing) for each class respectively.

So getting around in this big world there are many different ways you can do this and a few of them are dependant on your level so will explain each one in order.

When you first start out you will only have ability to run from place to place as you discover more areas these place might have taxi routes and quick travel points upon getting to any new area look out for these.

Taxi point look like a double arrow like this ⇔ above an NPC's head and can be learnt by right clicking on such NPC doing so will open up your map with all the other taxi points you have previously unlocked you can click on another location to quickly travel to it.

Quick travel points these are points in the world that once discovered and unlocked (unlock by right clicking on them) you can travel to almost instantaneously but only within the confines of the planet you are on. These look little computer terminals with a semi circle with an upward arrow above them better shown in this picture.

At level 14 all classes get the sprint ability which "Increase movement speed by 35% while not in combat." This is a real help from getting from place to place as it really speeds up your movement.

Between levels 16-20 depending on your class and how many side quests (non class quests) you have done you will get your very own ship yes that's right your own ship . Once you have your own ship you are able to travel from planet to planet this is done by going to the cockpit in your ship and right clicking on the galaxy map from here you can see the different areas the galaxy is split up into like core worlds, outer rim etc.

After clicking on an area you will then see many planets in each area by clicking the planet you will be given a brief description of it and a button at the bottom to travel to it once you click travel now your ship will fly you to your desired planet, when you leave your ship you will enter that planets docking bay. This is the same for most planets although some have orbital stations where you must take shuttle down from there to the planet. To get back to your ship you must go back to the docking bay or orbital station.

At level 25 you will be able to learn your first rank in speeder piloting these are again a big speed boost to your current running round the planet this can be learnt from your class trainer once you reach level 25 once you have got your training you also need a speeder to rid around on. There is other ranks of speeder skill and these all provide different speed boosts will list below the costs and ranks.

As you get ready to depart from the initial planet on your adventure across the galaxy, you encounter your first ally. This companion wants to join your vessel as a member of your crew. Through the course of your adventures, more characters join your crew. Eventually you can choose which companion joins you on your journey from a full roster of crewmates.

 

You start your game without a companion, but you acquire one as the story develops and your level increases. Near the end of your first planet is where you have contact with your first companion. As your crew grows, you eventually have several companions at your service.

So companions are AI (artificial intelligence) controlled characters that accompany you on your travels through the game world each companion has different abilities and are used in different situations and can even be used in group situations (but a group is no bigger than four members and a companion counts as one of these members).

You can control your companion that is currently with you from its little hot bar that is situated in the bottom left corner of your screen by default here you have things like "attack" which sends your companion to attack the target you have selected, and passive which will stop your companion from doing what ever s/he is doing and bring them back to your side.

You can also expand this hot bar by clicking the + symbol the bar will then move to the bottom of your screen where you bars are (by default it moves here you can change this in preferences) once expanded you can enable and disable what abilities you want your companion to use by shift right clicking them.

Companions have affection for you the higher there affection will help unlock there specific quests it also makes them perform your crew skills with better efficiency. You can raise a companions affection by making choices in conversations that they like or by giving them gifts rather than write a description of each companions likes and dislikes with gifts as there is far two many here is a link to a table for each factions companions Republic companions, Empire companion.

Each class gets a total of 5 companions and a ships droid currently and these also follow the holy trinity so you will have at least one companion of each role weather it be tank, healer or damage. Below is a list of each class and there companions and roles.

A crafting overview for new plays to help get head round it all

.

Crew Skills” is the collective term for the various crafting skills in SWTOR, and the other tradeskills that support them. Crew Skills are divided into three types: Gathering Skills (collecting raw materials), Crafting Skills (turning raw materials into useful items), and Mission Skills (performing ‘activities’ that give you gear and other rewards).

You can have a total of three Crew Skills, only one of which can be a Crafting skill (although it doesn’t have to be). Your companions will perform many of the tasks of the crew skills system for you; they use your skills to do this, rather than each having their own skills.

Crafting Skills.

Whether your team gathers resources or you acquire them through other means, they’ll be the cornerstone of crafting. Depending on how you choose to specialize, your crew will be able to construct armor, weapons, implants, or other types of useful items and gear. You can use these items yourself or put them up on the open market for profit. You’ll receive Crew Skill reports even while you’re away from the ship, and if one of your companions returns with the schematics for a valuable item, you can assign someone else to start crafting the item right away on the ship’s workstation without having to return to the ship! Crafting skills are very specialized disciplines; for your three Crew Skills slots, you’ll be able to select one Crafting skill for your crew to master.

Crafting Skills include:

As you explore planets in the galaxy, you’ll discover a variety of exotic resources and valuable pieces of information. With the

right training, you and your crew will be able to scavenge for raw materials, slice computer systems, and track down valuable artifacts. The resources and information you gather can be sold on the open market for a profit, or your crew can use them to craft useful and valuable items. If you like, you can select Gathering skills for all three of the Crew Skill slots available to your team.

Gathering Skills include:

Mission skills are a unique addition to the Crew Skills system. With these skills, you send companions from your crew across the galaxy on various missions to recover information, hunt down loot, or complete other goals to bring you rewards. When you use a mission skill, you’ll select a companion, choose a mission from an ever-changing pool, and send that companion out after the prize. You can choose from a variety of mission skills – is your crew into conducting research? Participating in diplomatic missions? Trading in illicit goods? There are many options, each with their own set of benefits and rewards. Some can even earn you light or dark side points. As with the other skills, your companions complete these missions on their own time and bring the rewards back when they’re done. Any number of your Crew Skills can be a Mission skill, so get ready to put your team to work!

Mission Skills include:

With that said, let’s look at some of the skill combinations:

Force Users

Non-Force Users

Anybody

Gathering to support other characters: Archaeology, Bioanalysis, Scavenging.

Moneymaking: Bioanalysis, Scavenging, Slicing. (I suggest Slicing rather than Archaeology here because there are no enemies whose corpses you can Archaeologise the way you can Bioanalyse dead animals and Scavenge dead droids, and it’s worth taking Slicing for the credit rewards.)

Some have suggested just taking three gathering skills while you level, and then switching to a crafting skill when you’re near the skill cap. If you’re actually interested in crafting I’d advise against this, because unlike some other MMOs, crafted gear is extremely competitive with quest and flashpoint rewards as you level, and there are enough schematics that you can upgrade your gear every few levels. If you’re going to put in the effort to level your crafting skill, it’d be a waste not to make use of what you create.

Your ship is your home and base of operations for you and your Crew Skills activity. Companions will come and go from the ship and complete the tasks you’ve assigned them. Companions can’t be killed when you send them out to do things but they can fail or have varying degrees of success. You can assign tasks to companions from anywhere, you don’t have to be at your ship. You assign crew skills tasks by pressing “N” which brings up the crew skills control panel and selecting one of your trained skills to see a list of possible assignments.

Crew Skills assignments can take as little as one minute or as long as 24 hours depending on the level and complexity. Missions cost credits when you assign them and you pay the cost of the mission whether it’s successful or not. Missions with better rewards will involve more risk and cost more credits. They will also take longer for your companions to complete. A player can order up missions for all five companions at the same time. You can queue up multiple crafting assignments for each companion meaning they will stay busy taking care of crafting business while you can be out adventuring, engaging in PvP, or socializing. They will even complete their tasks while you are logged out of the game. If you decide that you need to recall a companion to help you with a quest, you can cancel their current assignment and they will come to your location after a few minutes.

It’s a good idea to examine your companion’s skill bonuses as each companion has his or her own strengths and weaknesses and you can leverage their skill bonuses to help increase your success rate at the various Crew Skills. In addition, your companions affection score influences how they complete their assigned tasks. A companion with a high affection score will complete tasks more quickly than one with a low affection score for example.

There are two other components to the crafting game in SWTOR. They are Reverse Engineering and Mods (item customization). I’ll just touch on them briefly here.

Reverse Engineering (RE) is the practice of breaking down items you’ve previously created. When you break down an item it is destroyed but you get back some of the materials you used to craft the item. More importantly you have a chance to receive a higher quality schematic for that item. You can determine which items you’re able to reverse engineer by opening your inventory and clicking the “Reverse Engineer” button. Items you can RE will show as highlighted in your inventory. At this time you can only RE items you’ve created and not found items.

Modifications or Mods are special items that you can insert into slots on differing items. Not all items have Mod slots and the number and types of slots vary by item. Mods change an item’s stats and are removable. This means that an item you find at level 10 that has modification slots can potentially stay relevant all the way to level 50 if you continue to upgrade it with better Mods. Mods drop as loot and can be crafted by Armstech, Artifice, and Cybertech crafters. At this time Mods cannot be reverse engineered.

Hello Althire and everyone else!

We appreciate when anyone takes time to put together a nice resource for the community. Since New Player Help has a good deal of guides, we've started the New Players Fleet Pass: A Directory of Resources as a way to manage all of these terrific resources. This thread has been added to the directory!

Thanks for the guide!

Updated with colour also this is only part one still got to explaing companions grouping data crons the list is endless lol I will have part two done later on today.

Hope the colour makes it easier to read

Didn't check everything in detail, but this is something I would think is incorrect.

Strength and Willpower give both of them nothing but crit.

Actually the crit gained from these stats is limited to the same damage types these stats increase bonus damage for.

If a class does not gain actual bonus damage benefit from a stat because it does not do that type of damage, then that class does not gain any crit that would benefit them either.

As in having higher force power crit chance is just as useless as having force power bonus damage for a class who does not have force powers.

I would rather say "Strength and Willpower give both of them nothing at all"

Updated again with more info still writing change the colour a little hope it makes it easier each section is now colour coded instead of just random colours.

Added bit on travelling and companions and tidied up the stats bit and crew skills

So... much... sentence fragments....

Not to mention run-ons that are mashed together to look like one gigantic sentence.

Was too much of a pain to read.

I don't know what you mean?

Not an English major here.

Gosh I wish I read this a few months as I only play on the weekends. Very helpful indeed. Some of the areas I would like to see more coverage are:

- How to que yourself up to warzones, operations or Flashpoints. When I used the game menu to que myself up, I didn't see a list of missions I was able to choose in joining for PVP. So I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, or if I need to add the mission to my character que, or do I need to be on the planet that offers the PVP missions. It's not clear so it's still confusing when I'm looking for PVP matches. Sometimes I can't even find 3 guys to play a simple flashpoint.

- Also, would like to know more about PVP roles. Such as TANK, DPS, and HEAL. Some of us never played MMO's before so we don't know what the rules or relationship should be . For example, I created a BH with a Defense tree...so that makes me a tank if i'm not mistaken. I'm cool with that but my intentions was to survive and not to get the foe's to attack me all the time while everybody else runs around it. So therefore I guess I'm suppose to jump in the middle of the, fight and get the foe to keep attacking me in hopes that the healers are healing me. I'm starting to get it but a noob explanation would be nice to help me understand roles and relationships among other PVP players.