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Schematics and Reverse Engineering


Naz_Palehorse

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I'm a returning player trying to catch up with changes and remember half the things I forgot about this game, and it's hard to find up-to-date info on a lot of SWTOR's systems. It's easy to find guides about any given one of them, but they're almost always years old.

 

I remember crafting and reverse engineering a hilt until I got a better schematic (up to purple I think?), and near as I can tell, this is still how it works, though I haven't tested it at all. I've got a few questions about this - and schematics in general - if anyone with a current understanding of crafting/gearing would be willing to help me out.

 

First, can I get improved schematics through reverse engineering for every item I craft, or only certain items/categories? I imagine I can't get "improved" dyes, for instance, but what about color crystals, lightsabers, relics, wieldables, and whatever these stronghold/conquest items are?

 

Second, can I reverse engineer improvements on the purple items on my crafting list, or are those as good as it gets for their particular schematics? Most of the schematics I can learn from the trainer are blue, but around the level 50-60 items they start to turn purple. Does this basically make them non-upgradable?

 

Third, can I get schematics by reverse engineering items I find on enemies or in quest rewards, like the armor pieces I get from crates after completing a heroic mission? Is there a chance I'll learn to craft this "Fractured Bulwark's Lightsaber Mk-3" for instance, or will it only give me crafting resources if I break it down?

 

Finally, outside of crafting/REing altogether, where do I get new schematics (mainly for Artifice and Synthweaving, if that matters) now? In 500 levels worth of treasure hunting, I think my companions came back with two schematics for the same orange dualsaber, but is that it? I'm not trying to get a ton of them, I'm just wondering where I should keep an eye out as I level up and try new systems/game modes, because I don't want to miss something entirely thanks to unlucky RNG.

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First, can I get improved schematics through reverse engineering for every item I craft, or only certain items/categories? I imagine I can't get "improved" dyes, for instance, but what about color crystals, lightsabers, relics, wieldables, and whatever these stronghold/conquest items are?

You can RE-for-schematics anything you made that has a "green" research chance of 60% or more on its inventory icon tooltip. For practical purposes, that means:

* Hilts

* Armorings

* Barrels

* Mods

* Enhancements

* Fixed-stats armour pieces

* Fixed-stats weapons of all types

* "Left side" gear pieces ==> implants, relics, and earpieces

* "Non-weapon offhands" ==> Shields, Generators and Focusses.

Second, can I reverse engineer improvements on the purple items on my crafting list, or are those as good as it gets for their particular schematics? Most of the schematics I can learn from the trainer are blue, but around the level 50-60 items they start to turn purple. Does this basically make them non-upgradable?

In general, only blue items can be RE'ed for improvements, but look for the percentage chance of research being 60% or 100%. Items that show a 20% chance of research are bugged, and won't actually give you a new schematic (because the schematic they would yield no longer exists).

Third, can I get schematics by reverse engineering items I find on enemies or in quest rewards, like the armor pieces I get from crates after completing a heroic mission? Is there a chance I'll learn to craft this "Fractured Bulwark's Lightsaber Mk-3" for instance, or will it only give me crafting resources if I break it down?

In general, you have to craft it yourself to be able to RE for a better schematic. That "craft it yourself" aspect means that if I give you an RE-able item that I crafted, you can't get a schematic by crafting it, but if you crafted the same item yourself, you can.

Finally, outside of crafting/REing altogether, where do I get new schematics (mainly for Artifice and Synthweaving, if that matters) now? In 500 levels worth of treasure hunting, I think my companions came back with two schematics for the same orange dualsaber, but is that it? I'm not trying to get a ton of them, I'm just wondering where I should keep an eye out as I level up and try new systems/game modes, because I don't want to miss something entirely thanks to unlucky RNG.

I know of the following sources of schematics:

* Skill trainers, obviously.

* Crew skill missions, mostly TH. I don't have an up to date list of what they can yield, but I do know they can drop some old-style empty-shell orange armour styles.

* Various reputation vendors - if you want to make Black/Deep Red dye modules, for example, you have to get enough Oricon reputation and buy the schematic from the vendor on Oricon. Reputation vendors usually have a variation of <Reputation Vendor> below their name.

* Command crates drop schematics for MK-4 / MK-14 versions of the Command Crate gear, but beware: it's Endurance-heavy and fixed-stats, and therefore mostly not for Artifice.

* The GTN for schematics that aren't Bind-on-Pickup or Binds-to-Legacy.

* I want to say that you can get them dropping from slaughtered foes, but I am plagued with doubt about it, and it's very rare in any event.

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Crew skill missions that have a lock box as their reward sometimes have schematics in the box. There are a couple of skills that have these. I think Slicing missions also sometimes drop them. The other main way I get them is drops from enemies.

You can't RE purple level items, only blue. That gives you a purple equivalent of that item.

You can RE pretty much all consumables from Biochem to get much better ones. Some good ones are med packs and med units (obviously) that are much stronger, but also stims that last 4 hours, and adrenals like absorb which gives 15 seconds of 30% additional damage reduction.

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Thank you both, very much. Every "complete guide" I found just went over the basics of what the in-game tutorial tells you (send your companions on missions, talk to the trainer to buy schematics), and either left these details out completely or had details from four or five years ago.
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  • 3 weeks later...
* I want to say that you can get them dropping from slaughtered foes, but I am plagued with doubt about it, and it's very rare in any event.

Confirmificated. You *can* get them from slaughtered foes. I was tooling around Pub Balmorra and took down a "silver" ("Strong") Imp Droid of some sort, and it dropped a schematic for an orange-shell Midlithe Lightsaber.

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Just to build on what Steve wrote, if you get individual item modifications from a command crate, like a hilt, or an enhancement, those CANNOT be reverse engineered. But, if you get a whole purple gear piece, and pull out those mods, you CAN reverse engineer those. For example if you get a purple artifact quality War Leader’s lightsaber from a command crate on a warrior or guardian, then you can pull out the Advanced Resistive hilt X, place the hilt in a legacy lightsaber, send that to your Artifce crafter, and reverse engineer THAT. What you cannot RE, is an Advanced Resistive Hilt X that drops by itself from a command crate separate from a complete piece of gear.

 

Hence, there are a subset of desirable item modifications, almost exclusively for tanks, that you have to directly get the schematics for and CANNOT be reverse engineered. These would include, for example, a Lethal B or Warding B mod, or the high health versions of the tanking enhancements. These schematics only come from operations or the crafting box from the ground pvp dailies/weeklies. That’s why they are so expensive to purchase from the GTN. There is a chance to get the item modification itself directly from a command crate, but those of course cannot be RE’d.

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  • 2 weeks later...

craft trainer: Sells blues, can be RE'd (60%) for purples

Mission Skills: Random chance of grade leveled schematic on crit (Rich or greater yield?)

GTN: Schematics only, CANNOT RE gear grafted by other people

Reputation Vendors: Mostly dye schematics

Boss drops: you get a schematic. Mostly World bosses and some Master FP, or Master+ Ops

CXP crates: (subs only) drops schematics, and gear (only purple mods/enhancements/armorings/barrels/hilts 100% RE chance)

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craft trainer: Sells blues, can be RE'd (60%) for purples

Mission Skills: Random chance of grade leveled schematic on crit (Rich or greater yield?)

GTN: Schematics only, CANNOT RE gear grafted by other people

Reputation Vendors: Mostly dye schematics

Boss drops: you get a schematic. Mostly World bosses and some Master FP, or Master+ Ops

CXP crates: (subs only) drops schematics, and gear (only purple mods/enhancements/armorings/barrels/hilts 100% RE chance)

World drops from non-boss foes *can* contain empty-shell orange schematics, but on a very rare basis.

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  • 11 months later...
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