SWTOR Collections Guide

The Collections system is a way of unlocking Cartel Market items across your entire account, for all your characters on every server. Any Cartel Market armor set, mount, emote, color crystal, weapon, pet, toy, title, cartel companion or flair can be unlocked through collections. Items from the Cartel Market are easy to identify by the small Cartel Coin symbol on the bottom left of their item icon. The only items that can not be unlocked through collections that have this symbol on them are dyes – the only way to get multiple copies of a dye is by buying them individually.

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How to Open Collections

To open your collections window, the default button is CTRL+C or you can open it from the main menu under the Cartel Coin symbol.

Before buying an item on the GTN or Cartel Market expecting it to be unlockable in collections – make sure to check if it is unlockable in collections first! There are a few weird exceptions of items that are not unlockable, and the price to unlock can vary a lot.

1. Search for the name of the item or armor set in the search bar on the top right
2. If the item does not come up OR the item does not have any icons on its bottom left in collections, it is not available to be unlocked in collections

How to Add an Item to Collections

To add an item to your collection, all you have to do is use it on any of your characters. To actually unlock this item across your entire account though, you will need to pay additional Cartel Coins though.

If you would like to unlock an armor set, be aware that you need to equip the entire set – equipping just one or two pieces will not add it to your collection, so make sure not to throw pieces away until you confirm it has been added to collections. Just have the items in your inventory is not enough – often, when you purchase an item from the GTN or Cartel Market, it is unbound (or Binds on Equip) which means you can still sell or give it to another player. Until you actually equip or use it, it won’t be added to collections.

Make sure to actually equip the items from your inventory and then confirm that it actually unlocked in collections. Once you have confirmed it is safe to delete the item if it’s in your inventory, as long as you don’t have any dyes, crystals or tunings in it!

Infinite Free Copies for One Character

The nice part about collections is that once you have used an item, like a color crystal, armor set, or toy, you can then get infinite copies of that item for free on the character you used it on.

To open your collections window and get free copies, you can open it from a small button in your inventory or from the main menu under the Cartel Coin symbol. You can easily find your item in collections by typing its name into the search bar. You can also browse through your collection with the filters on the left. To get the free copy, press the small symbol of “arrows pointing to a box” on the bottom left corner of your item in collections.

So for example, if I unlocked my Tactical Infantry armor set by buying the entire set and equipping it, I can then make free copies for all my companions. Players who fight with two lightsabers or two blaster pistols can also use this trick to get a free second color crystal for their second weapon from collections. You can also use this trick so you don’t need to store items you have unlocked in your bank or inventory – once I have unlocked a set, you can delete the items from your inventory and retrieve a new set any time you want. This trick is especially nice for novelty items like toys – for example, if I want to be silly with friends I can retrieve a copy of my Celebration Mishap toy, play the emote, and then delete it out of my inventory a few seconds later – I don’t have to carry around a copy of every toy I own anymore.

Heads up, you can’t get free character copies for things like mounts, titles, emotes, etc that are added to your abilities or menus, because you only really need one copy per character since it is already unlocked for you.

Unlock Copies for Your Entire Account and All Characters

You can also use collections to unlock Cartel Market items for your entire account and all your characters by paying the unlock cost with Cartel Coins. You’ll first need to add the item you want to your collection by using the item on one of your characters. Once you’ve used your armor set, mount, emote, color crystal, weapon, pet, toy, title, cartel companion or flair on one character, you will need to open the item in collections and press the symbol of a “cartel coin with an arrow pointing up” on the bottom left of the item. This will show a pop up that will show you the unlock cost to unlock it across your entire account. Once you’ve purchased the unlock, you can now log in to your other characters and retrieve free copies of your item!

One thing most players suggest doing is to unlock at least one color crystal for your entire account, that way every time you get a new weapon on any of your characters you’ll have a crystal you can easily put inside it.

Many players use collections to unlock mounts or armor sets that they love and would like to use across multiple characters, as it can often be a good deal to pay the Cartel Coin unlock cost compared to buying the item multiple times on the GTN and it is always cheaper to pay the unlock cost in Collections compared to buying a second or third copy from the Cartel Market with Cartel Coins. The unlock cost is different for each item, but the general rule of thumb is that unlocks cost 60 Cartel Coins for bronze rarity items, 240 Cartel coins for silver rarity items, 400 cartel coins for platinum rarity items, and tunings cost 600 cartel coins to unlock.

50% Off Collections Sale

There are sometimes sales that put all collections costs at 50% off. These sales are never guaranteed, but sometimes happen during:

• The game’s anniversary (December 20th)
• Star Wars Day (May the 4th)
• Black Friday / Cyber Monday (end of November)

Cartel Coins

Cartel coins can come from a couple different sources. The main source to get them is by paying real money to buy them, and they start at $5 for 250 coins, and sometimes there bundles you can buy with extra Cartel Coins in them.

The second way is that all subscribers get 500 cartel coins for free each month they are subscribed, so if you are subscribed you should be able to unlock almost any item in collections with one month’s worth of coins.

There are some ways to get Cartel Coins for free though!

1. You can get an easy 100 free Cartel Coins per month with a security key
2. Even to free to play players can earn Cartel Coins by completing achievements, and many of the achievements reward 20 cartel coins so you’ll only need to complete a few of them to afford some of the cheaper unlocks.
3. Many players earn Cartel Coins from Galactic Seasons, a 5-month long limited-time event.