HYPERSPACE BEACON: SIX THINGS TO DO BEFORE SWTOR’S KNIGHTS OF THE FALLEN EMPIRE LAUNCH

When Knights of the Fallen Empire launches for Star Wars: The Old Republic, certain activities will not be available in game anymore — specifically, quests like the Makeb staged weeklies and the Nightmare achievements for Eternity Vault. You should also remember that many of the regular story missions will also not be available once you start on the KotFE missions, and the developers have said that many of those quests will affect the story in KotFE.

We have only a month until the expansion launches, so we have to prioritize which missions and achievements we want to get before the expansion. And if you’re looking for recommendations from me, how handy — I happen to have six suggestions.

Companion missions

I would recommend doing as many companion missions as you can. Most of them require only that you speak to your companion over and over on board your ship, but on occasion, as with Vette, you are asked to travel to a planet to do something with or for your companion. That usually turns out interesting.

Now, there has been some confusion regarding class stories due to some posts on the official forum. Some players believed that the companion stories were going away completely. This is false. However, it is true that once you start the Knights of the Fallen Empire storyline, you will not be able to go back to do the companion missions. I assume you cannot do this because the choices made during those missions are integral to the KotFE storyline.

Getting through the companion missions can be done rather quickly. The simplest way is to buy them gifts. Conveniently, there is a vendor on the fleet that will sell rank 1 and 2 companion gifts for rather cheap. If you’ve not done any companion mission with your companions, then I would recommend maxing out the affection with the rank 1 and 2 gifts first. It will cost about 100,000 credits at most, but if you do that beforehand, you can earn more affection while doing the missions themselves. Then when you finish the missions, you will ultimately spend less time and money on gifts to max out affection, if you want to do that.

If you are just looking to do the missions, then you’ll be fine just getting the rank 1 and 2 gifts. Which gifts work the best with which companions? Dulfy has a great guide on just that.

Shadow of Revan

If you’ve not played through the Shadow of Revan storyline and the prelude flashpoints, then I recommend doing that as soon as possible. There are some weak spots on Rishi, but once the story reaches Yavin, it is not only a lot of fun to play through but the nostalgia factor is turned up to 11. (Minor spoilers follow!)

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Sith Warrior and Jedi Knight class story missions

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Nightmare Eternity Vault and Karagga’s Palace

Although BioWare initially said that it would not get rid of any of the nightmare versions of operations, changes to that plan were made a couple of weeks ago when Community ManagerEric Musco announced that nightmare Eternity Vault and Karagga’s Palace will indeed go away when the expansion launches.

Musco explained that the only difference between nightmare and hard mode of those operations was the damage and health of the mobs. With Knights of the Fallen Empire raising the cap of all operations, there will be zero difference between the two versions of the operations. So the nightmare versions are disappearing completely.

Although Musco said that the associated drops, like Karagga’s hat, will be moved down to the hard mode versions of those operations, the titles and related achievements will not be acquirable after the launch. That is the primary reason I’m suggesting that you run these instances now. And if you’re looking for a group to do that with, my guild on The Ebon Hawk is doing just that. We have multiple raid groups running different bits of older content for achievements and other rewards. Join the MassivelyOP channel in-game on the Imperial side for more information on how you can join in the fun.

Nightmare Explosive Conflict

Unlike the nightmare version of the other two operations I mentioned, this one is not going away. Its nightmare version varies mechanically from the hard mode version. But it is still a level 50 operation. That means that even in its hardest difficulty, most attacks from the bosses will not land at all, making the fights fairly easy on the healer.

If you are an achievement hunter, as it seems I’m turning into, then you’ll want to get a group together to run this operation before the expansion launches. Once the changes hit with KotFE, then operation will be level 65 and consequently be just about as difficult as it was when it first released.

I cautiously send you an invitation to this operation from our guild, but I will warn you that we must be a bit more selective about whom we bring on this operation. Many people in the guild haven’t received the rewards or achievements for this op, and it does require paying careful attention and following instructions in order to get through some of the bosses, regardless of level.

Makeb staged weeklies

In another post on the official forum, Musco explained that the Makeb Staged weeklies are also disappearing forever, although this time the reasoning is a little bit less straightforward. I believe that part of the reason that the staged weeklies are disappearing is that no one did them and it was kind of a complicated process to get them done. However, I don’t understand why that is a good enough reason in the first place.

At any rate, it does literally take three weeks to do these staged weeklies, so if you’re starting from scratch right now, you will barely have time to finish them. If you’re looking for a guide on where to pick up and complete the missions, then look no further than Dulfy again. There is a decoration reward that might make this one worth doing!

Those are my recommended must-dos before the expansion launches, but also remember things like planetary quests and most solo content will not be available to you once you start doing theKotFE content. Do you have an recommendations? Let me know in the comments.