How to Earn Dark Side Points in SWTOR

Earning Dark Side points can be a bit difficult in Star Wars: The Old Republic – after a recent update to the game, the only way to get alignment points is to run missions that have a dark or light side decisions in them, or by running Diplomacy missions. In this video we’ll be going over the most efficient ways to work towards Dark Side V.

Updated for 2022!

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Dark Side Points

There’s a couple reasons you might want to earn dark side points.

• The first is a visual change – as you go up through the dark side ranks, your character will be affected by dark side corruption, which often shows up as dark veins, pale skin, and glowing orange eyes, and can be turned on and off with the toggle in the outfitter tab of your character sheet.
• The second is to unlock more options for your account – if you reach Dark V on any of your characters on your server, you will unlock the ability to create Jedi Knights and Jedi Consulars who can use the dark-side combat fighting styles like the Marauder or the Sorcerer, or add one of the dark side styles to an existing Jedi character.
• Getting Dark V on any character will also get you an achievement, a title, and a neat ability you can use on any of your characters called Sacrifice.
• Lastly, you might just be doing it for story reasons – for example the Sith Inquisitor story has a small unique ending depending on their alignment, and Sith Warriors only have a chance at romancing their companion Jaesa if they are dark-sided.

Dark Side Corruption in SWTOR

Dark Side Points / Tiers

You can see how many Dark Side points you have on your character sheet by pressing C for character, then hovering over the dark and light alignment meter. Your character is considered dark side if they have reached at least Dark Side Tier I, which is 1,000 or more dark side points. The maximum you can reach is Dark Side Tier V, which is 10,000 dark side points.

Diplomacy

The most efficient way to earn dark side points is by running Diplomacy crew skill missions. You can pick up the Diplomacy crew skill as early as around level 10 – you just need to complete your first planet, and go to the Strongholds & Crew Skills section of the Republic or Imperial Fleet, and find the Diplomacy crew skills trainer. Once you’ve picked up Diplomacy, you can press B on your keyboard to open the crafting menu, choose Diplomacy from there and you can start sending your companions out to gather Diplomacy crafting materials.

Diplomacy is a bit different than other crew skill missions as it can grant dark or light points – so make sure not to choose missions that will award you light side points if you’re trying to get dark side points. Some missions are also considered neutral and don’t give dark or light points. The higher level the mission is, the more dark side points you will get, but the longer it will take to run.

If you have level 700 Diplomacy with access to Grade 11 gathering missions, every time you send out a full round of companions out on the highest-rated dark side missions, you will earn roughly 700 Dark Side Points per round. The exact amount you will get will vary by mission, but it averages out to about 90 points per mission, and you get double dark side points if your companion crits, or you get a very small handful of points if your mission fails. If you have a level 50 influence companion, the longest mission will take about 13 minutes and the shortest about 6 minutes if you’re chasing after those high-end missions that also give you valuable crafting materials. If you were starting at 0 Dark Side Points, you’d only have to run about 15 rounds of high-level missions, which would only take about 3 hours total. If you want to flow this plan, run the Grade 10 and 11 missions called A Wanderer’s Gifts, Friends in Low Places, Strained Negotiations, and Uncivil War, and ignore the rest. If you’re still working on levelling up Diplomacy, just run the dark side missions for whatever tiers you have available.

If you wanted to be crazily efficient, there is technically diplomacy missions that offer better points-per-second than the Grade 10 and 11 ones, but you’d have to dig through each grade to find them, and some of them need to be refreshed every 2 minutes or so, so although they offer much better points per second I don’t really recommend it as it seems more of a pain to keep refreshing.

Rishi – A Crew Of Your Own

Apart from Diplomacy, a really easy way to get a small bundle of Dark Side points is to run the “A Crew of Your Own” quest on Rishi. You can run this quest once a day once you have completed the Shadow of Revan expansion – fly to Rishi, walk or quick travel to the Blaster’s Path Cantina in the middle of the map, run downstairs to the basement and pick up the quest there. After choosing either the dark or light option from the questgiver, all you need to do is wait 5 minutes on the timer in your quest log and then speak to the questgiver again to get your 50 dark side points. If you travel to a different map, change characters, or log off, the timer will reset. So if there’s other things you want to go do on your character while the timer is running instead of standing there doing nothing, you can, just travel right away and let the timer finish while you’re in your new area without changing areas until the timer completes itself. Then you can go back to the cantina when you are ready!

Ziost – From Ashes

If you have completed the planet of Ziost, there’s another super short daily quest you can run that’s great to combine with the Rishi Quest. This one’s called “From Ashes” and can be picked up from the terminal. All you need to do is run around Ziost and find the glowing blue bodies and right-click them.

Not all of them will count, but they’re pretty quick to find, just travel along the path to the north keeping your eyes open for blue bodies.

Heroics

There are also a few heroics you can run very quickly to get Dark Side points. Republic side, there’s only the Chamber of Speech heroic for an easy 50 points available to Jedi once per day, but Imperial side there’s a total of six heroics you can run for a total of 400 points per day from heroics, with some of them being quite short especially if you have stealth.

Faction	Planet	Heroic	Dark Points	Light Points
Empire	Hutta (Agent & Bounty Hunter Only)	The Man with the Steel Voice	50	50
Empire	Balmorra	Comrades in Arms	50	50
Empire	Balmorra	Settling Debts	50	50
Empire	Nar Shaddaa	Botched Interrogation	50	50
Empire	Tatooine	Call Down the Thunder	100	100
Empire	Hoth	Static	100	100
Republic	Tython (Jedi Consular & Jedi Knight Only)	The Chamber of Speech	50	50

Flashpoints

Any Flashpoint that has a dark side choice in it will grant you dark side points at the end of the Flashpoint once you’ve fully completed it.

The most commonly run Flashpoint for Dark side points is The Esseles on Republic side or Black Talon on Imperial side, as they can be run very early on solo and grant 250 Dark Side points per run as long as you hit both dark side cutscene decisions.

If you don’t want to run Esseles or Black Talon over and over, most of the other Flashpoints also offer dark or light points, though almost every other Flashpoint only has one dark or light choice, making it less efficient to run compared to Esseles or Black Talon.

If you’re fast, skilled, and stealthy, you could also run Red Reaper or Hammer Station for 100 dark side points at a high level on Veteran mode. This might be a great option to run if you’re also working on gearing up for level 80 as they can be quite quick for experienced players.

Flashpoint	Faction	Mode	Choices
The Esseles	Republic	Story Mode Lvl 10+	Conversation with Chief Engineer Salen: We're not killing people. +150 Light / Engineers die, the rest live. +150 Dark Later on, talking to Ambassador Asara in front of the shuttle, must choose the We need to talk, Asara. option first to unlock the second dark option: No of course not. +100 Light or Yes--you're staying here. +100 Dark. If the player instead chose Let's Go! earlier, +100 Light.
The Black Talon	Imperial	Story Mode Lvl 10+	While speaking to the Captain: You're relieved. [Kill him] +100 Dark or This won't be suicide. +100 Light While speaking to the General at the end of the flashpoint: You're my prisoner. +100 Light or I'll kill you. +100 Dark
Hammer Station	Both	Veteran Mode Level 15+	While slicing a computer you have the option to Sabotage the power conduits +100 Dark or Disable the power conduits +100 Light
Athiss	Both	Veteran Mode Level 15+	At a console: [Destroy the beacon] +100 Dark or [Activate the beacon] +100 Light
Mandalorian Raiders	Both	Veteran Mode Level 15+	At a console: [Take out the engineers] +100 Dark or [Capture the engineers] +100 Light
Cademimu	Both	Veteran Mode Level 15+	At a console: [Target the Imperial/Republic fleet] +100 Dark or [Target an uninhabited moon] +100 Light
Boarding Party	Imperial	Story Mode Lvl 29+	While talking to Captain Yelto and the Imperial Marines: Yes. all our enemies must die. +100 Dark or No. We don't kill for fun. +100 Light
Taral V	Republic	Story Mode Lvl 29+	In a conversation with Doctor Narem at the end of the Flashpoint: Call back your civilians now. +150 Light or Imperials die. I'm happy. +150 Dark. If you choose the dark side option to kill the civilians, you unlock an additional option involving the Doctor who wants to stop you: Don't be a fool. Just leave. +100 Light or Idiot. (Kill Doctor Narem) +100 Dark (Not sure if these are actually granted.)
The Foundry	Imperial	Story Mode Lvl 29+	(I don't think the Foundry has any light or dark options.)
Maelstrom Prison	Republic	Story Mode Lvl 29+	In a conversation with Oteg as a hologram at a terminal: You need to retreat. +100 Light or Fight and die well, Oteg. +100 Dark
Colicoid War Game	Both	Veteran Mode Level 37+	While using a console before the final challenge: [Leave the console] +100 Light or +100 Dark
The Red Reaper	Both	Veteran Mode Level 15+	At a cryogenics console in front of some blue tanks with Sith Purebloods in them: [Terminate life support] +100 Dark and they die, or [Release the Sith] +100 Light and you have to fight them, or [Leave the Console] +100 Light and you don't have to fight them.
Directive 7	Both	Story Mode Lvl 45+	(No choices that give dark or light points. How you treat the cyborg does not give light or dark points.)
The Battle of Ilum	Both	Story Mode Lvl 48+	In a converation with Talsa-ko after the final fight: Put them down. [Kill Talsa-ko] / Destroy them all. [Kill Talsa-ko] +100 Dark or Take prisoners, Cantarus. / Take them captive. +100 Light or I'll kill you. There's also an option before the final fight where instead of asking Darth Srevin questions, you choose You'll pay for this! [Attack] +50 Light, but there's no Dark Side equivalent and it cuts the conversation short and goes straight to battle.
The False Emperor	Both	Story Mode Lvl 50+	In a conversation with Arkis Wode, asking to put in a good word for the Schism Collective: Only if you help us first. / Prove your loyalty and live. +100 Light or You deserve this. [Kill him] / I think not. [Kill Arkis Wode] +100 Dark
Kaon Under Siege	Both	Veteran Mode Level 50+	In a conversation with Major Byzal who is turning into a rakghoul: On IMPERIAL side: [Let him suffer] +100 Dark or [End his suffering] +100 Light -- On REPUBLIC side it is flipped: [Let him live] +100 Light or Kill him] +100 Dark
Lost Island	Both	Veteran Mode Level 50+	(No light or dark options that I know of)
Kuat Drive Yards	Both	Veteran Mode Level 15+	(No light or dark options that I know of)
Czerka Corporate Labs	Both	Veteran Mode Level 15+	(No light or dark options that I know of)
Czerka Core Meltdown	Both	Veteran Mode Level 15+	(No light or dark options that I know of)
Assault on Tython	Both	Story Mode Lvl 53+	In a conversation with Lieutenant Bickell about prisoners: Have them questioned. +150 Light or Execute them. +150 Dark
Korriban Incursion	Both	Story Mode Lvl 53+	In a conversation involving some slaves or apprentices: We're rescuing them. / Get them to safety. +100 Light or They should fight with us. / I'll make them fight. +100 Dark
Depths of Manaan	Both	Story Mode Lvl 53+	While talking to Gorima and the wookiee, Jakarro: Go ahead. / Shoot him. / Go ahead and kill him. +100 Dark or Don't, We may need him. / Show mercy. +100 Light
Legacy of the Rakata	Both	Story Mode Lvl 53+	Speaking to Theron and Lana about the Cyborgs: I want them all dead. / Good thinking. +150 Dark or Smart play. I'm impressed. / That's not how I operate. +150 Light
Blood Hunt	Both	Story Mode Lvl 55+	(No light or dark options that I know of)
Battle of Rishi	Both	Story Mode Lvl 55+	At a console: [Set to fire on opposite faction's ships.] +100 Dark or [Set to fire on Revanite ships. +100 Light
Crisis on Umbara	Both	Story Mode Lvl 70+	(No light or dark options that I know of in the repeatable version.)
Traitor Among the Chiss	Both	Story Mode Lvl 70+	(No light or dark options that I know of in the repeatable version.)
The Nathema Conspiracy	Both	Story Mode Lvl 70+	(No light or dark options that I know of in the repeatable version.)
Objective Meridian	Both	Story Mode Lvl 75+	(No light or dark options that I know of in the repeatable version.)
Spirit of Vengeance	Both	Story Mode Lvl 75+	(No light or dark options that I know of in the repeatable version.)
Secrets of the Enclave	Both	Story Mode Lvl 75+	(There is potentially some options but I need to figure out if they are in the repeatable solo version.)
Ruins of Nul	Both	Story Mode Lvl 57+ (???)	(No light or dark options that I know of in the repeatable version.)

Story Cutscenes

On top of Flashpoints and Heroics, any other story quest you can find that has a dark side decision in it will grant you dark side points at the end of the mission. This means that you’ve got some great opportunities to earn dark side points while working on your main class story, the planetary stories, or even the expansions. If you want to be extra efficient, just make sure to be running Diplomacy missions while running whatever other type of story you’re working on!

Alignment Toggle?

The alignment toggle no longer exists in the game. In previous expansions, you could choose to directly support the light or the dark side with a toggle that was a part of your UI. Once chosen, almost any activity you participated in, from crafting to defeating random enemies, contributed towards your light or dark points, even if it didn’t make a lot of sense thematically. The toggle was removed in 7.0, and in return the amount of points you needed to earn to reach Dark 5 was reduced from 100,000 points down to only 10,00 points. Now the only ways to get dark side points are by earning them through Diplomacy or from cutscenes that grant them.

Titles

• The Vicious: Dark I (character title)
• The Sinister: Dark II (character title)
• The Destructive: Dark III alignment (character title)
• The Loathsome: Dark IV alignment (character title)
• The Malevolent: Dark V (character title)

Light Side Points

I have a guide about light side points as well!

How to Earn Light Side Points in SWTOR