How will gearing work in SWTOR 7.0? PTS Info

We finally have a first look at how gearing and end-game currency and materials might look like on the Star Wars: The Old Republic Test Server. There has been a lot of information and items thrown up on there during this update, but it’s important to keep in mind that this is all on the PTS – which means it’s all a work in progress, and much of it is not finished.

UPDATED January 3, 2022.

General Idea of 7.0 Gearing

On the test server, you need to start by picking up some free item-rating 318 gear from the Supplies section of the fleet. I assume this is the item-rating of gear you would get naturally as you play through the new story in the 7.0 expansion, which will be set on Manaan.

To gear up, you have multiple different paths you can pick to earn gear. In the current 6.0 expansion, you can kinda gain gear through any activity, and you can use gear you earned through say Flashpoints to up your item-rating, and if you jump into PvP, you can leverage that Flashpoint gear to get higher item-rating items through PvP. The source of your gear in the current expansions really doesn’t matter – just your overall item-rating. This seems to change drastically in the 7.0 expansion.

In 7.0 the paths include: Conquest, which is kinda the solo version, Flashpoints, Operations, and PvP. Once you earn a piece of gear through one of those methods, you can then upgrade it at a matching vendor using currency, items or materials earned through that same method. That means, if you get a Helmet from a Flashpoint, you can bring it to the Flashpoint vendor and upgrade it with currency and materials you got from Flashpoints. You would not be able to take it to the PvP vendor to upgrade it, as it’s not an item you earned through PvP. Each vendor requires a piece earned through that track, and the appropriate type of currency or items to turn it in – for example, if you go up the PvP track, you can upgrade an item by turning in a Helmet you earned through PvP plus a new type of currency which is only earned through PvP.

One important thing to understand though, is that there is no PvP-only or Flashpoint-only or Operation-only gear. Gear that you gain from one source can be worn and used in any part of the game. What separates them is simply which vendor you can upgrade it from and what types of currency or materials it will cost. You can wear a Flashpoint belt, a PvP helmet, and an Operations pair of boots, all in the same outfit, it’s fine.

Now let’s talk about the different gearing paths you have available.

Conquest

If you are a solo player, and you do not want to play with others at all, you will only have the Conquest gearing path available to you. If you do like playing with others, the conquest gear path is a very easy way to start getting gear. You will start by earning a type of currency called Medals of Commendation. This currency can be earned through a variety of ways, but the main way is by completing Conquest each week. When you complete conquest by completing activities of your choice listed in the Objectives area of the conquest panel, then you’ll get 200 of the Medals of Commendation currency as a reward for earning 100,000 conquest points on your character.

Medals of Commendation are legacy-bound and are found in your Currency tab in your inventory. There is a weekly cap of 999 Medals of Commendation so you can not earn them too quickly – if you earn more than 999 across all your characters on your server within a week, the extra will be deleted and you will not be able to earn any more until the next week starts. This means you can earn about five characters worth of Conquest each week.

You can then take these Medals of Commendation to the Conquest Gear Vendor in the Supplies section of the Republic or Imperial and buy some gear. On the test server, each piece of gear on the vendor costs about 10 to 20 Medals of Commendation and each piece is bound to legacy, so you can share it between your characters. This type of starting conquest gear is called Noble Decurion gear. Your first set of Noble Decurion gear costs a total of 200 Medals of Commendations, which is exactly how much you get from completing conquest, plus about 250,000 credits.

Once you have purchased a piece of gear from the Conquest Gear Vendor, you can then upgrade that gear piece at the Conquest Gear Upgrades vendor. This vendor will not seem to have anything for sale until you have obtained at least one piece of conquest vendor gear – which is known as Noble Decurion gear. You don’t need to have it equipped, you just need it in your inventory or have it equipped. The first piece of  gear you bought from the vendor was item-rating 318.

The piece you can upgrade to through the upgrade vendor is item-rating 322, so a very minimal upgrade, but a guaranteed upgrade. The upgrade costs are:

• The older Noble Decurion piece you’re turning in
• 15-25 Medals of Commendation, currency you earned through Conquest
• 60 Aquatic Resource Matrix which are a type of purple crafting material you can earn from the Daily Area Weekly Quests – for example you can get 40 just from completing the CZ-198 Weekly, and from Heroic weeklies, for example completing the Heroics for one planet from the Activity panel gives you 10 Aquatic Resource Matrixes or from doing Uprisings, which give 2 in story mode, 3 in veteran mode, 4 in master mode, and then, an extra 5 for the story weekly, 10 for the veteran weekly and 15 for the master weekly ((On a previous iteration of the test server it was only about 5 Aquartic Resource Matrices per piece – I don’t know why it is now 60 which is a lot per piece. I do not know if this is a bug or just something they are testing on the test server or if it is the final goal by the developers.))
• Plus about 20,000 credits pier piece
• These costs are what it is on the test server, and they may change.

You can then pay the same amount to upgrade it to 324, 326, 328, 330, 332, with the same cost each upgrade. I was on the test server so I couldn’t test beyond that.

So to earn gear through the Conquest track, you need to complete Conquest to earn Medals of Commendation, which I saw can also technically be earned through the groupfinder and breaking down high-level gear, and also earn a lot of Aquatic Resource Matrices by doing Daily areas like CZ-198 or by completing Uprisings, PvP weeklies, or World Bosses.

One other thing to note is that on the test server, Conquest requires 100,000 points instead of 50,000 like on the current 6.0 server.

Flashpoints

The Flashpoint gear track works a bit different. Instead of earning a type of currency and then purchasing your first piece of gear, then upgrading, you need to instead get your first piece of gear through Veteran or Master Mode Flashpoints. This could be a direct lucky drop from a boss, or from the Veteran Mode or Master Mode Weekly quests that require you to complete 2 random Veteran mode flashpoints or 3 random Master mode flashpoints via the groupfinder. These flashpoint weeklies are repeatable up to three times.

If you try to visit the Flashpoint Gear Upgrades vendor before you have earned a piece of Flashpoint gear, you will get an error message that says no items are available.

The first piece of gear you get from a Flashpoint will be called Elite Decurion if it is from a Veteran Mode Flashpoint, or Supreme Decurion if it is from a Master Mode Flashpoint.

Once you have gotten this first piece of Flashpoint gear, you can then bring it to the Flashpoint Gear Upgrades vendor. You will not see anything on this vendor until you have a piece of Flashpoint gear in your inventory or equipped.

The first piece of Veteran Flashpoint gear you get will likely be item-rating 320, so the version you can immediately upgrade to will be 322, but its quite expensive to upgrade.

To upgrade your first piece of gear, it will cost:

• 35 Medals of Commendation, which can be gotten mainly through Conquest
• 85 Decurion Isotope Stabilizers, which are a blue currency which drop from Flashpoint bosses, are in the crates from Weekly Flashpoints quests ((On the current test it only says it comes from Master boxes but it may come from both Veteran and Master boxes I didn’t run enough Flashpoint to tell.))
• 25 Aquatic Resource Matrix which are a type of purple crafting material you can earn from the Daily Area Weekly Quests – for example you can get 40 just from completing the CZ-198 Weekly, or you get a few through Conquest
• and credits

If you are running Master Mode Flashpoints instead of Veteran, instead of dropping Elite Decurion gear, bosses and the Master Mode weekly crates will drop Supreme Decurion gear which can also be brought to the vendor to upgrade. *** I did not run any Master Mode flashpoints on the PTS, so I could not test the gear-rating or the cost to upgrade for these.

Solo Flashpoints do not seem to directly reward gear for the Flashpoints gear track, though they will naturally contribute towards your Conquest score, and you can use them to gear up via the Conquest route as a solo player.

Operations

The Operations gearing track seems to be very similar to the Flashpoint Gearing Track. You need to get your first piece directly from an Operation, and then you can upgrade it at the vendor.

There are three tiers of Operations gear that you can earn, depending on whether you are playing story, veteran or master mode operations.

Tionese Gear

• Obtained from Story Operations
• First upgrade:
  • 20 Medals of Commendation
  • 20 Decurion Isotope Stabilizers
  • 40 Hazardous Matter Catalyst

Columi Set

• Obtained from Veteran Operations
• Can be upgraded (I didn’t run Veteran ops on the test server)

Rakata Set

• Obtained from Master Operations
• Can be upgraded (I didn’t run Master ops on the test server)

Hazardous Matter Catalysts can be earned by completing weekly Operations missions and by defeating Operations bosses. More catalysts are given for clearing on higher difficulties.

PvP

The PvP gearing track is most similar to the Conquest track, in that you can use a currency you earn to buy your first piece from a vendor.

Completing Daily and Weekly PvP missions will earn you a new type of currency called Thyrsian Production Accelerants (TPAs). These can be turned in for your base set of PvP gear. Once again, although this may be called “PvP Gear”, it is not gear that is only for PvP, it does not have a PvP stat, it does not have Expertise like old PvP gear used to have. It just means, if you get a piece of “PvP gear” then you can only upgrade it through the PvP track and currency.

One small different is that your main pieces of PvP gear will not have the Accuracy stat on it because PvP for the most part doesn’t require additional Accuracy – so if you gear up using the PvP track you will be slightly more effective in PvP if you are wearing the PvP track gear. This is not a hug difference however and you should be just fine to jump into PvP even if you don’t have a PvP set. PvP matches are also scaled down – this means even if you get super awesome gear from another source, like Operations, you will not be able to out-gear player who only play PvP while in a PvP match.

Each piece of starter PvP gear costs between 40 to 55 TPAs, earned through PvPing. This type of PvP gear is called Thyrsian gear.

Unfortunately, yes, the warzones dailies and weeklies do seem to still requires wins to complete, and they must be completed within the week or the quest resets back to zero.

So once you have at least one piece of PvP gear it looks like you can keep upgrading it through the vendors using the TPAs that you earned. Nothing will show up on the Upgrades vendor until you have at least one piece of PvP gear from the normal vendor.

((I had a rough time gearing up on PTS due to the weekly requiring wins so I got bored and stopped. As far as I can tell you get nothing from a loss, almost nothing from a single daily win (2 Medals of Commendation) and all the rewards come from the weekly. ))

Currencies

Medals of Commendation

Here’s how to earn Medals of Commendation.

Quest	#
[WEEKLY] Conquest	200
[GROUPFINDER] Random Veteran Flashpoint	2
[GROUPFINDER] Random Master Flashpoint	4
[GROUPFINDER] Random Master Flashpoint (Role in need)	5
[GROUPFINDER] Random Veteran Uprising	3
[GROUPFINDER] Random Veteran Uprising (Role in need)	5
[GROUPFINDER] Random Story Operation	5
[GROUPFINDER] Random Story Operation (Role in need)	5
[DAILY] Normal PvP	2
[DAILY] Solo Rank PvP	2
[DAILY] Group Rank PvP	3
[DAILY] Galactic Starfighter	2
Deconstruct Green Decurion Gear from the Story	3-6
Deconstruct Green Noble Decurion from Conquest	3-6

Aquatic Resource Matrix

Here’s how to earn Aquatic Resource Matrices.

Quest	#
[WEEKLY] Daily Area in Activities (one planet)	50
[DAILY] Single Daily Quest (any planet)	3
[WEEKLY] Heroics Missions in Activities (multiple planets)	40
[DAILY] Single Heroic Quest (any planet)	3
[WEEKLY] Priority Targets (World Bosses)	40
World Boss Drop	4
[WEEKLY] Story Uprisings	5
[STORY] Story Uprising (any one)	2
[WEEKLY] Veteran Uprigins	10
[VETERAN] Veteran Uprising (any)	3
[WEEKLY] Master Uprisings	15
[MASTER] Master Uprising (any)	5
[WEEKLY] Normal PvP	2
[WEEKLY] Solo Ranked	3
[WEEKLY] Group Ranked	4
[WEEKLY[ Galactic Starfighter	10
[WEEKLY] Searching for Allies (3 random FP)	5
Random Drop, ex Heroic Enemies	1

Decurion Isotope Stabilizers

Here’s how to earn Decurion Isotope Stabilizers. I had the least amount of info about these.

Quest	#
Trade in 400 Conquest Commendations	100 *** New in 7.4 (previously 400 conq. comms for 200 fp-1)
[STORY] Flashpoint Boss Drops	??
[STORY] Flashpoint from Activity Finder	3
[VETERAN] Flashpoint Boss Drops	3-4
[MASTER] Flashpoint Boss Drops	??
[WEEKLY] Master Flashpoint Quest (box)	??
Deconstructing green Elite Decurion	6
Deconstructing blue Supreme Decurion gear	15

Hazardous Matter Catalyst

Here’s how to earn Hazardous Matter Catalyst.

Each Operation weekly from the operations terminal rewards a certain number of Hazardous Matter Catalysts.

• Single-boss operations like Toborro give 0
• Story Mode Operations = 20 Hazardous Matter Catalyst (plus a box with a Tionese gear piece)
• Veteran Mode Operations = 65 Hazardous Matter Catalyst (plus a box with a Columi gear piece)
• Master Mode Operations = 175 Hazardous Matter Catalyst (plus a box with a Rakata gear piece)

I didn’t keep good track but I think I got one from each story mode operation boss I fought as well including Toborro.

Thyrsian Production Accelerants

Here’s how to earn Thyrsian Production Accelerants (TPAs).

• Daily: 0 TPA (1 win)
• Weekly: 55 TPA (4 wins)
• Ranked Solo Daily: 0 TPA (1 win)
• Ranked Solo Weekly: 60 TPA (1 win)
• Ranked Group Daily: 0 TPA (2 wins)
• Ranked Group Weekly: 65 TPA (1 win)
• GSF Daily: 0 TPA
• GSF Weekly: 60 TPA

Legendary Implants

Legendary Implants are a new type of item in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

In previous expansions, your set bonus was attached to your armor pieces and you had to collect six different pieces to get a full set bonus, which would change and improve the way your abilities worked.

In the 7.0 expansion, set bonuses are being retired and your new equivalent of a Set Bonus is called a Legendary Implant.

To get a legendary implant, you will first need to talk to a character in the Supplies section of the Republic or Imperial fleet named Lonndar Eadwinn, a blue Twi’lek <Implant Researcher> character. He will give you a quest that asks you to complete 100 points worth of activities and then return to him. These activities include things like completing conquest, flashpoints, defeat operation bosses, complete pvp matches, and daily areas and heroics. Each activity is worth a certain number of points, with completing conquest being the biggest way to get points.

The easiest way to work on your 100 points of activities will be to complete your conquest on the character the quest, and then do as many of the activities as you want to – some of the activities are for group content, while others are for solo content, so there’s something for everyone and they seem pretty decently balanced, so you don’t get a million points from doing group content and a few for solo content.

Once you have done your 100 points worth of activities you will unlock a vendor that will sell you a Legendary Implant, which has a small set bonus attached to it. You can have two different implants. These implants are item-rating 326 on the test server. These cost:

• 100 Medals of Commenation
• 6,500 Tech Fragments
• 20 Aquatic Resource Matrix
• 25,000 Credits

You will see by default only the implants for your discipline but can change that with the drop down at the top.

Notes from Rurokar..

1. An important note on upgrading gear – if you turn in items to upgrade them, the game does not care about what might be attached to them. That means crystals, tunings and augments disappear with the old item. Could avoid some grief if that was in your guide, I think. ;-) 2. The item cost you saw are only for the upgrade 320->322. For example, upgrading 322->324 conquest gear cost 70 aquatic matrix on the current PTS iteration. Same goes for the cost of FP upgrades (iirc) – I could check the exact amount if you want. 3. The decurion isotope stabilizers indeed also come from Veteran FPs. I haven’t run any Master FPs and was still able to get enough of them to upgrade items. I also got some from deconstructing items I found in Vet FPs. I believe I deconstructed 5 or 6 items and got 58 stabilizers out of them.