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Is SWTOR worth returning to in 2026?

| April 10, 2026

If you used to play Star Wars: The Old Republic, and have been wondering about whether it’s a good time to return to the game, this guide will go through all the pros and cons about the game for returning players, whether you last played a year ago or haven’t played since the launch of the game.  If you’re a new player, you’ll want to check out my other guide, “s SWTOR worth trying?” instead. While whether a game is worth trying is a fairly easy question to answer, whether its worth it for you to return to SWTOR after playing it in the past is a lot more of a nuanced question to answer. UPDATED for 2026.

Video is from 2026!

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Cost of the Game & Expansions

Let’s first go over the cost of the game. If you haven’t played since launch, you may notice that the game is now available as free-to-play and has six expansions, and the developers announced they are working on a seventh. If you’re a returning player, the free-to-play option makes it very easy to jump back in to the game – you don’t need to commit to subscribing to start playing again or to visit your characters. If you’re a returning player, there’s a good chance you might actually be a preferred player rather than a free-to-play-player – preferred players are players who have paid for a subscription in the past, and preferred players have less restrictions than free-to-play players, and can continue playing all the expansions they unlocked in the past on all their current and new characters. Compared to World of Warcraft which requires you to subscribe to play your high-level characters, and FFXIV which requires a subscription to play if you you’ve ever subscribed at all, SWTOR’s free-to-play model is really generous to returning players. If you’re looking to instead play without subscribing, or are returning to a free-to-play account, there’s also been some nice upgrades to the free-to-play and preferred model, including the first two expansions being free, low-level artifact gear has become available to all players for free, and there are no longer restrictions on smaller things like unifying the colors of your gear or customizing your companion.

If you don’t already have the expansions unlocked from subscribing in the past few years, you can unlock all four newer expansions simply by subscribing for one month at about $15 USD – you do NOT need to buy each expansion individually. Great. That means if you haven’t subscribed in years, you’ll get the Knights of the Fallen Empire, Knights of the Eternal Throne, Onslaught, and Legacy of the Sith expansions for only fifteen dollars – less than the cost of a single expansion in the past. You can even unsubscribe the next month and you’ll keep your access to the expansions you unlocked.

Combat Styles

One of the biggest and most interesting additions to the game is Combat Styles.

When creating a new character, the first thing you’ll immediately see is the new character creator – while it may not win any awards for best design in show, it does come with an incredible new feature called Combat Styles.

Combat Styles is actually a bunch of new changes all rolled into one, but they all involve what used to be called your Class and Advanced Class, so your story and the way your character fights in combat.

Class/Origin Story: In the character creator, after you pick your Faction, you’ll be asked to separately choose two things: You’ll first be asked to choose your Origin Story, and then you’ll be asked to choose your Combat Style. Your Origin Story is a lot like your Class from before, it’s the story that you play, like the Jedi Knight or the Bounty Hunter. This is where things get interesting though – the restrictions that have existed since launch about what Combat Style you play, previously known as your Advanced Class, have been removed. As a Jedi or Sith, you still need to play a Jedi or Sith Combat style… but you can make some crazy combinations, like playing a Sorcerer Sith Warrior and shooting lightning while fighting – or even make a character that is a Jedi Knight in the story but is a Marauder while in combat. You’ll need to unlock the opposite-alignment options first, but as a returning playing, you likely already have them unlocked as they only require achieving the Dark V or Light V achievement on your server. Tech classes automatically have all tech class Combat Styles available from day one – so you can totally make a Trooper Sniper. The whole thing is a really neat change that makes for some really fun gameplay and roleplay.

Second Combat Style: In addition to that restriction opening up, another new feature was added that allows you to add a second Combat Style to your character. So for example, if you make a Sith Warrior in the story, and choose Sorcerer as their Combat Style in the character creator, afterwards, you can add a second combat style like the Shadow or the Guardian, and then you can flip flop between the two, so in one fight you could be a Guardian, then the next day a Sorcerer, all on the same character. This is amazing if you’ve ever wanted to change which Advanced Class you had picked, or allow you to more easily switch between some of your favorite Advanced Classes. This isn’t just for new characters – you can tack a second Combat Style onto any of your existing characters too. I added the Operative onto my Vanguard Trooper – while I normally Vanguard tank, I’ve been having fun switching over to the Operative DPS which is really neat, because it used to be restricted to the Imperial side but no longer is.

Loadouts: In addition to all of that, the Loadouts system is what helps you keep track of switching between Disciplines and Combat Styles. While they’re not the most intuitive to understand, once you do get how they work, you can easily switch between DPS and Tank at the click of the button. The system saves your ability choices, gear, and even your cosmetic outfit. I’ve been using this feature on an almost daily basis at a high level, whether I’m playing solo or with a group!

Combat Tree: The final big change was the Ability Tree and a massive overhaul to all classes and their abilities. The most obvious thing you’ll see when returning is that you won’t have all your abilities at once – they aren’t necessarily missing, but they are likely now located on your Ability Tree as part of a three-option choice. This reduction in abilities had a goal of making combat easier to take on for newer players, though I’m not sure if it succeeded or not. The average player will likely notice little to no difference in how they were playing compared to before, but high-skill players who were using every single one of their abilities often express frustration about missing having all their useful abilities available at once, including me, though 6-months later I care a lot less. The change does bring some interesting tactical decisions to high end fights though – should I bring a movement focused ability, or a defensive one?

With an expansion on the horizon, players have been speculating on potential additions to the new versatile Combat Styles system… who knows what we’ll see in 8.0!

Gear: Gear also has changed a lot over the years, with each expansion bringing an entirely new system. The current system is a bit convoluted, but has a lot of different paths available to gear up. The current gearing system is very versatile and allows even solo players to eventually earn the very best gear in the game. It’s a complicated system, but it’s one of my favorite gearing systems in the game so far.

Levelling Experience

Returning players have a couple huge reasons why they might want to return to the game and level a new character – or continue levelling an existing one. Being able to play different combat styles is a big one, but there’s also been a lot of small nice changes over the years.

Main Story vs Side Quests

The main class storylines are exactly the same as they were when the game launched – which is a good thing, because they’re fantastic. What has changed a lot is the way you level, gain xp, and many convenience perks that have been added along the way.

First of all, when it comes to levelling, a huge shift was made in the way players are encouraged to experience the game. When the game originally came out, players were encouraged.. uhh… well, required, to do almost every quest to gain enough XP so that they would be the correct level for the next area. This sometimes included doing more boring bonus series fetch quests, or doing more of the side quests in between the amazing class story questlines. Now, to make leveling easier, most of these types of quests are actually hidden from players by default. Instead, players are directed mostly towards their main class storyline and the main planetary storylines, which should give most players enough XP to progress without having to do any side quests. If you’re looking to just check out the class quests, veteran subscribed players who have unlocked the various XP boosts can often do just their Class quest and still gain enough XP to progress! Quick Travel and Ship Travel is also more accessible than ever, making it easer to travel around the map and between planets and skipping lots of loading screens, and free-to-play players get their speeder ability earlier than ever.

Dynamic Encounters

If you feel you’ve already seen everything there is to see on the starter planets, you may want to check out Dynamic Encounters, a new type of temporary world quest system that has been added to all of the starter planets, the capital planets, and a handful of the later planets like Tatooine and Hoth. These fun and short quests rotate as time passes, and really fill in the landscape for players who like to quest and explore. If you’re a collector, each of the planets also has multiple rewards and special achievement mount tied to the Dynamic Encounters on the planet you can earn.

Game Difficulty

Next up let’s talk about the difficulty of the game.

Returning players who had difficulty with combat may be pleased to know that the game is now much easier to play. One of the main focuses of the game is the story, and the developers have made changes to make the game more accessible even to the most casual players. This includes making the fights in the original class stories easier, making Heroics solo-able, adding the option of soloing some of the important story Flashpoints with an all-powerful droid who will heal and tank for you, and allowing players to make their companions incredibly strong – at times your companion may even be more powerful than you are. Did I mention they’ve changed it so now any companion can tank, DPS or heal?

Challenging content? If you’re finding the levelling content too easy, the good news is there are more challenging modes available for players at later levels. Players who have access to the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion and its sequel have the option to play through its chapters on Story mode, veteran mode or master mode… and as of 7.0, the Master Modes are so difficult they’re almost impossible to solo. There’s also Veteran Mode and Master Mode operations for players who enjoy challenging group content, and skilled players can always take themselves into PvP and dominate matches there. Solo players have also been tackling Veteran and Master Mode group Flashpoints solo as a challenge lately, especially since it’s a great source of gear. The latest operation, R4, has a Veteran Mode which is so difficult I’ve ever only stepped in there once so far. 

Operation difficulty: The Story Mode operations are now easier than ever though, and even some of the harder ones like Gods of the Machine and Nature of Progress have been specifically tweaked to make them more accessible to newer raiders.

Population

Instead of having many smaller servers, SWTOR now has 5 mega servers. While some servers were very quiet before the merge, all five servers currently have a good population. The merge allowed more players to use the group finder together, and it seems to have worked very successfully, and all the current servers seem to be active except for the French one. SWTOR’s exact population is a bit mysterious and hard to count, but at least from the Steam charts, it’s been pretty steady the last three years or so. While it’s clear from the numbers that SWTOR is not nearly as popular as it was, after the server merge happened, I haven’t had any problems getting into randomized groups for Flashpoints and PvP, and see people running Operations frequently in chat, though those mostly happen within guilds.

Dead Game? Nope!

2026 previous year: The update cadence of the game isn’t as frequent as most long-time players would want it, but the game is by no means dead either – the most recent expansion brought a huge overhaul to many of the game’s systems that really points towards the development team investing in the game’s infrastructure and future. In the past few years, the development team has made a ton of technical changes to the game – the servers have been moved to Cloud Servers, a new Asia-Pacific server has opened, the game is now 64-bit, there is new cinematic lighting across the entire game, many plants got visual graphical re-hauls, the GTN an economy was revamped, and a MAC launcher was added to the game. In addition to the story updates, there’s also a newer type of content called  Galactic Seasons and PvP Seasons, so there’s always something new to do in-game.

As for whether the game will stop receiving updates or be sunsetted in the future, SWTOR is looking like it’s in an ok place. The move from the Bioware studio to Broadsword seems to have been a good choice, with Broadsword being specialists at keeping games running for years, and we’ve seen steady updates since the game moved studios. I also don’t think the development team would waste so much time, effort and resources on all the new technical updates if they were just looking to shut the game down next year. We also know they have more technical updates on the horizon – the team has said they are working on upgrading the game to Direct X 12, and they have been posting about their progress every few months.

2026 Roadmap: For 2026, we actually have a roadmap and timeline of when all the updates this year are coming out which is crazy! This is actually the first time in many years we’ve seen a roadmap, which bodes very well for the future as the team feels confident enough in their update schedule to release it publicly.

  • March 10, 2026 – Game Update 7.8.1 – Master’s Enigma
    • Master’s Enigma Storyline (new story)
    • Date Nights (Kira and Torian)
    • Galactic Season 10 (Altuur and PH4 return)
  • March 2026 – Producer’s letter, news update, DX12 info
  • May 4th events and rewards
  • Late April / Early May 2026 2026 – Update 7.9 Developer Livestream
  • May/June 2026 (Spring) – Game Update 7.9 – Legacy Reborn
    • Legacy Reborn Storyline, finale of LoTS
    • PvP Season 10
    • Introducing the next story Era
    • “you can expect quite the shake-up across the galaxy”
  • June/July 2026 – Nar Shaddaa Nightlife Event with new reward(s)
  • August/September 2026 – Game Update 7.9.1
    • Galactic Season 11 (Fen Zeil and Amity return)
  • October/November 2026 – Feast of Prosperity with new reward(s)
  • PTS testing for 8.0 later in the year
  • December 2026 – 15th Anniversary
  • December 2026? Game Update 8.0

With that said, even with an expansion on the way which is exciting news, I don’t think we’ll be seeing updates on the scale and pace of other major developers in this online space any time soon, but the game still seems to have enough support from the development team and enough of a player base to keep being updated regularly for a while.

Updates Since Launch

Now let’s go over some of the stuff that has been added to the game after its launch, because I know there’s a ton of you who are checking out the game after a ten year hiatus. 

Expansions

The biggest additions to the game are of course the six expansions. Each one has a whole new wave of story content for you to check out. Here’s the bad news though – although the expansions are pretty good, they no longer offer a unique class storyline, and your playthrough on a Sith Inquisitor will be similar to your playthrough on an Imperial Agent. The first expansion, Rise of the Hutt Cartel, and the latest two expansions Onslaught and Legacy of the Sith, offer two storylines, one for Imperial Players and one for Republic players. Shadow of Revan offers only a single streamlined storyline, but has a mini class-quest for each class. Knights of the Fallen Empire and Knights of the Eternal Throne only offer a single storyline, with some key cutscene changes depending on whether your character leans towards the dark side or the light side. 

2026: When it comes to the stories of the expansions, players have very mixed feelings about whether or not they can be considered good – some players love them, and some players hate them. Either way, they are quite a departure from the original class storylines. The latest expansion, Legacy of the Sith, has a focus on the classic Republic vs Empire storyline, and then rolls into a Mandalorian theme. The most recent story update, Master’s Engima, had players continuing to follow up on the Mandalorians and Darth Malgus storyline and the mystery of Darth Nul, with that story coming to a close sometime in Spring 2026 with Update 7.9, before the next expansion and story starts later in the year. I’ve also really enjoyed returning to old planets that have new revamped areas, so if you catch up with the story you can see and explore the new areas on Voss and Ord Mantell. The latest  story updates are “free” if you already have Legacy of the Sith unlocked, so you don’t need to re-subscribe to play them if you have the latest expansion unlocked!

Even with their flaws, I would still say SWTOR’s expansions are definitely worth at least a one-time playthrough, especially since you can unlock them permanently all for the cost of one month’s subscription, not to mention the first two are now free. All of the newer expansions also have really great updated cinematic cutscenes.

Conquest

Conquests are a way of completing rotating weekly objectives that allow you to earn some great rewards by playing different parts of the game. You gain points by completing certain tasks like flashpoints or warzones, which change each week. Conquest is also a way for guilds to compete against each other and work together as a group – there are additional rewards you can earn if your guild also meets their guild goals. Conquest was first introduced in 2014, and has had numerous iterations  over the years.

Guild Upgrades? Speaking of guilds, the guild panel and guild features have been given a major upgrade since launch. There have been changes to how you can sort and organize guild members, guild mail, guild heraldry symbols, guild flagships, guild levels, guild perks and guild teleportation.

Login Reward System

A few years ago, a new system was introduced to the game called the Login Rewards system that rewards players with items simply for logging in once a day. This new system lets you play at your own pace, and does not punish you for not logging in every day. The rewards range from being junk items to pretty nice unique items like Purple Sparkle Powder and different types of tokens. While this isn’t a ground-breaking addition, it is something new to come check out in the game, not to mention being able to get some free stuff every day.

Galactic Seasons

A really cool new system was added called Galactic Seasons, a feature that a lot players have been enjoying and logging in for. Galactic Seasons is kind of similar to conquest in that it has different weekly and daily objectives, but rather than completely resetting each week, it has a 5-month cycle, and 100 different levels of rewards to unlock. These rewards range from cool cosmetic items you can only get through the seasons track, to previously-retired promotional rewards, and four new strongholds. Because the Galactic Seasons rewards are only available to be earned while a Season is live, you’ll see a lot of players working together online during an active seasons. At the beginning of 2026, Galactic Season 10 is currently running with Season 11 coming later in the year, and it’s been something I’ve personally really enjoyed playing over the years.

PvP Seasons

For PvPers, a new system was added called PvP Seasons, which allows all players to earn limited-time rewards by playing PvP matches. At the beginning of 2026, PvP Season 9 is ending in late March, and PvP Season 10 will be shortly afterwards. I’ve found PvP Seasons have given me a really good incentive to have fun in casual PvP that I didn’t have before they started. The ability to choose if you are queuing for just Arenas, just Warzones, or both was also introduced in a past update, which I like a lot.

Sadly, along with PvP Seasons being added to the game, Ranked PvP was removed, and no new competitive mode has been added to the game since then.

Group Content Updates

Players who enjoy group content will be pleased to find out that a lot has been added to the game since launch.

For the 4-man group flashpoints, there are now around 44 Flashpoints available to play with friends or random players in the groupfinder. Many 8-man and 16-man operations have also been added to the game, and there are now twelve operations plus 6 single-boss operations available. If you haven’t played in a long time, you’re really going to enjoy the new content, especially because the developers have made the fights a lot less tank-and-spank than the operations that were available near the beginning of the game… if you’re hopping into operations, expect a lot of surprises along the way! There’s also a new queue that’s kind of a like a Flashpoint-of-the-week queue, helping players get quicker pops.

Flashpoints

Let’s go over the actual list of PvE content that’s available in the game at the time this video was released.

For Flashpoints, on top of the original fifteen flashpoints, we’ve got:

  • Two Rakghoul Flashpoints that were released near the launch of the game called Kaon Under Siege and Lost Island
  • Two Flashpoints on the planet of CZ-198 called Czerka Corporate Labs and Czerka Core Meltdown
  • Four Flashpooints released as part of the prelude story to the Shadow of Revan expansion called Incursion on Korriban, Assault on Tython, Depths of Manaan and Legacy of the Rakata
  • Two Flashpoints on the planet of Rishi as part of the main Shadow of Revan expansion called Blood Hunt and Battle of Rishi
  • Six Star Fortress flashpoints that are tied in to the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion, though I usually only count them as one since they are very similar to eachother
  • Ten Uprisings, which are pretty fun and very short Flashpoints without story cutscenes, each one set on a seperate planet and having different fun new mechanics
  • Three story-heavy Flashpoints that wrap up the storyline of the Knights of the Eternal Throne called Crisis on Umbara, A Traitor Among the Chiss and The Nathema Conspiracy
  • A flashpoint that is the finale to the Onslaught expansion called Objective Meridian, set on Corellia
  • A Flashpoint called Spirit of Vengeance, set on multiple spaceships and revolving around the Mandalorians of the Old Republic
  • A Flashpoint set on in the ruins of the Jedi Temple on Dantooine called Secrets of the Enclave with lots of hidden achievements
  • A Flashpoint set on the abandoned planet of Elom, where an artifact has been uncovered from the Ruins of Nul, left there by a mysterious ancient Sith
  • A Flashpoint in one of the mysterious voss temples called Shrine of Silence, with some fun puzzles and mechanics

On top of all those new Flashpoints, most of which also have a solo mode available, many of the Flashpoints from the original launch of the game now also have a solo mode available. So if you missed out on doing them when you played because you couldn’t find a group, here’s the Flashpoints you can now play solo, in addition to most of the newer ones:

  • The Esseles republic side
  • Black Talon imperial side
  • Taral V & Maelstrom Prison Republic side
  • Boarding Party & The Foundry imperial side
  • Directive 7
  • and The Battle of Ilum and The False Emperor

In short, the Flashpoints that are key points in the story of the Old Republic can now be played solo or in a group.

There’s also a solo dueling tournament called the Eternal Championship with rounds of enemies to defeat which is a really fun solo challenge.

Operations

Players who haven’t played in a long time who enjoy Operations won’t be disappointed either. Here’s what’s currently available in the game:

  • Eternity Vault in Story Mode and Veteran Mode
  • Karagga’s Palace in Story Mode and Veteran Mode
  • Explosive Conflict in Story Mode, Veteran Mode and Master Mode
  • Terror From Beyond in Story Mode, Veteran Mode and Master Mode
  • Scum & Villainy in Story Mode, Veteran Mode and Master Mode
  • Dread Fortress in Story Mode, Veteran Mode and Master Mode
  • Dread Palace in Story Mode, Veteran Mode and Master Mode
  • The Ravagers in Story Mode and Veteran Mode
  • Temple of Sacrifice in Story Mode and Veteran Mode
  • Gods from the Machine in Story Mode, Veteran Mode and Master Mode
  • Nature of Progress in Story Mode, Veteran Mode and Master Mode
  • R-4 Anomaly in Story Mode, and Veteran Mode
  • Single-Boss Operation Lair Bosses: Toborro’s Courtyard, Colossal Monolith, Hive of the Mountain Queen, Xenoanalyst (event), Eyeless (event)

The three newest operations are Gods from the Machine which is part of the Iokath storyline, an intense and mechanics-heavy operation that players who enjoy difficult content will love, the second most recent is called Nature of Progress, an easier operation with lots of fun and unique mechanics, which is set on Dxun and is tied loosely to the Onderon storyline. The most recent operation, R-4 Anomaly, is incredibly hard and both numbers and mechanics heavy, so it’s perfect for players looking for a challenge. Even the story mode is still quite challenging – it’s got a great atmosphere, and each boss is unique.

PvP Warzones

Players who enjoy player vs player content also have some new maps to discover depending on when they last played, in addition to the original three PvP maps there is Ancient Hypergates and Odessen Proving Grounds which have an entirely different ruleset compared to the original maps, a reskin of Alderaan Civil war set on Yavin, and six new arenas which are objective-less death match maps, including the Mandalorian Battle Ring. The scoreboard and medals also got a rework at the end of last year.

With the addition of player housing, you can now also duel with your friends and create your own arena layouts. The Rishi Hideaway stronghold even has an area that you can turn in to a huttball map or deathmatch map with your own layout, and a section dedicated to dueling.

Galactic Starfight (Space PvP)

If you’d like to try your hand at PvP in the sky, Galactic Starfighter was also added to the game, which allows you to pilot your own spaceship against other players. Unfortunately this mode of play is one of the least popular in the game, and it can sometimes be difficult to get into matches but the players who do enjoy it, really enjoy it, so it is possible to find starfighter communities to group up with. There’s a total of 4 space pvp maps available, two of which have both Domination and Team Death Match modes available.

  • Denon – Domination Only
  • Kuat Mesas – Domination and Team Death Match
  • Lost Shipyards – Domination and Team Death Match
  • Battle Over Iokath

While the population participating in GSF has always been on the lower side compared to the other parts of the game, Galactic Seasons tends to bump up players in matches looking to complete their season objectives.

Events

Since the launch of the game, a series of rotating events has also been released. They last about a week long, and which ones are available at any given time switches around, and they offer unique rewards that can’t be found anywhere else. The events include the:

  • Rakghoul Event
  • Gree Event
  • Bounty Contract Week Event
  • Dantooine Pirate Event
  • The Swoop Event is a non-combat focused solo racing tournament that lasts a week and runs once every one or two months, where you can race for three different teams on Dantooine, Tatooine and Ondern, and complete short story quests for the teams as you rank up in Reputation
  • The Feast of Prosperity Event was also added, which is a three-week cooking-based fall event which will return for its second time in the fall this year, where you can follow recipes to cook gourmet dishes, deliver dishes to tables as a serving droid, and hunt down world bosses in large groups
  • The Dantooine Farm event is the newest event in the game,
  • and of course we’ll see the Lifeday event return in the winter with even more Wookiees to hug than ever before, which got an update for the 2023-2024 event in the form of a new outfit
  • and the Nightlife casino event in the summer.

Planets

Outside of the main expansion storylines, there’s also many planets to go explore each with their own storyline and daily quests to explore including:

  • The Black Hole on Corellia
  • Section X on Belsavis
  • CZ-198
  • Oricon
  • Ziost
  • Iokath
  • Ossus
  • Dantooine during peacetime
  • Onderon and Mek-Sha
  • Manaan, which was added in update 7.1
  • Ruhnuk, which was added in update 7.2
  • Interpreter’s Retreat on Voss which was added in update 7.3
  • Kessan’s Landing on Ord Mantell which was added in update 7.4
  • Dantooine Biomes were added in 7.8

Personally I really enjoy the storylines attached to these planets and they really help flesh out the world outside of the expansion stories, and the daily areas give me new rewards like outfits and decorations to go hunt down.

Lately I’ve been having a lot of fun exploring the new Wreckage on Dantooine, a hazardous area with three different biomes, 40 new Dynamic Encounters, and a really, really hard 4-person boss fight available to highly skilled players.

Crafting

While we didn’t get a crafting update with the most recent expansion, and crafting seems to be less tied in to endgame than ever, there have been some great additions to crafting over the years.

One of the biggest changes is the Legacy Material Bay – all your crafting materials automatically go in to a bay shared by all your characters on your server, and you no longer have to keep them in your inventory or banks.

Crafting also has a lot more fun and cosmetic options available compared to the launch of the game including more crystals, dyes, and armor sets.

Many players are hoping for a crafting update in the future, and maybe we’ll see one with the 8.0 update!

Inflation & Economy

2026: A few years ago, the developers made a plan to combat in-game inflation, as prices for items had risen far beyond what was expected on the Galactic Trade Network, and expensive items were getting to the point where they couldn’t even be bought and sold on the GTN anymore due to their 5 billion + credit value. This plan was a multi-pronged attack that removed excess credits from entering the economy, created more credit sinks, and reduced the amount of against-the-terms-of-service credits entering the economy. About a year after this plans were in motion, and they had a huge positive effect – prices on rare items had dropped 1/2 to a 1/3 of the prices from earlier in the year, with items originally selling for 1 billion now dropping to 500 or even 300 million across the board. These days, while prices can still be high for the rarest or most sought out items in the game, the economy’s inflation is nowhere near as bad as it was during its peak, and rare items are not out of reach for max-level characters who are will to work on earning some credits.

Speaking of the GTN, the player-run market in the game, got a huge revamp. The biggest difference you will see as a buyer is that items are now condensed to one list per item type – so you won’t have to hunt down items listed by different sellers and compared prices, and you can also buy crafting materials by quantity. You’ll also notice that you can’t see who the seller is – this was another great tactic to combat scams and spam listings, as well as combat other terms of service breaking activities which were contributing to inflation.

Strongholds

A few years after the game’s launch, player housing was introduced to the game. Players can create and share a house between all their characters, and decorate it with decorations from around the galaxy. New decorations are released on a regular basis, and there are lots of convenient decorations like cargo holds and GTNs. Players can get strongholds on these planets: Coruscant, Dromund Kaas, Nar Shaddaa, Tatooine, Yavin 4, Manaan, a moving train on the planet of Umbara, a stronghold with a private beach on Rishi, the Alderaan palace, and the most recent strongholds are a matching set of small apartment-style Imperial and Republic Fleet strongholds. Recently, a new Dantooine Farm Stronghold was added to the game as a reward for plyers working on the new Dantooine Biomes area!

Cosmetic Armor

There have also been some great updates to cosmetic armor available in the game since launch.

  • One of the big ones is the Outfit Designer – you can now have the appearance of your favorite armor while not sacrificing the stats of the armor you need for combat. Nice.
  • Armors can now be dyed and take on different colors and there are hundreds of dyes available
  • There are now animated armors and armors that have a special effect when you draw your weapon
  • Weapons can now have a weapon tuning attached to them, which gives them a special animated effect
  • Weapons are now in the outfit designer
  • and shiny Metallic Dyes

Accessibility

The game has been really great for accessibility additions to the game over the last few year, including color-blind mode, a better minimap, bigger and adjustable ability tooltips, and subtitle and chat adjustment options.

Accessibility in SWTOR

I created my own accessibility portal with tons of advice and settings for players to take advantage of!

What to Look Forward to

In short, returning players have these things to look forward to:

  • Reaching level 80
  • Six expansions and their follow-up stories, with a new expansion on the horizon
  • A ton of Flashpoints, many of which also have a solo story mode available, and the short and cutscene-light Uprising Flashpoints
  • A total of 12 operations available in various modes
  • More PvP maps and PvP Seasons while they are active
  • Galactic Starfighter
  • Conquest
  • Galactic Seasons while it’s running
  • Player housing and decorations
  • and lots of nice quality of life upgrades along the way.

If you didn’t hear a single thing in that list that caught your interest, then returning to the game might not be worth it to you. If you have taken a long break, or haven’t played since launch though, there has been a ton of content added over the years to dig in to, and you don’t have to break the bank by buying each expansion now that you can unlock them all through your subscription or even play the first two expansions for free.

Is SWTOR worth returning to?

So is Star Wars: The Old Republic worth returning to? This question is going to be based mainly on the reason you left in the first place, and how long ago you played.

  • If you left near the launch of the game because you felt there wasn’t enough content available, you’re going to be blown away by how much is available now. Lots more story, lots more Operations, lots more Flashpoints, lots more daily planets, and lots more to do in general!
  • On the flip side, if you left like five years because you finished all the story, I would say it’s worth returning if only to check out the newest stories, including the Onslaught expansion and the groundbreaking Echoes of Oblivion story
  • If you were looking to rejoin during the Legacy of the Sith expansion but were turned off by the negative reviews or bugs, now is a much better time to check things out
  • If you left during Legacy of the Sith due to not liking the new gearing system, it has changed quite a bit since then and there are new gearing paths available – even solo and casual players can currently earn the best gear in the game
  • If you left after Legacy of the Sith because you ran out of the things to do, definitely check out the newer stories and planets like Ruhnuk and Kessan’s Landing
  • If you left before you ever reached max level, I think it would be worth it to return now that leveling has been streamlined – you’ll get to endgame a lot faster and can focus on the best storyline and skip the side quests
  • If you left because you didn’t like the graphics or animations, although the graphics are better than at launch, at their core they are still the same style ten years later so it’s probably not worth it for you to return.
  • Same thing with combat, if you didn’t enjoy SWTOR’s combat, it hasn’t changed much since launch, though if you really want to give it another go, I would suggest trying a different class as different classes can have VERY different playstyles, which is easier than ever to do.
  • If you left due to technical reasons, well the game still has lots of technical issues, but likely not the same ones as when you left. Might as well give it a shot. Especially if you can try downloading it through Steam instead.
  • If you left due to real life reasons, one very nice thing is that because SWTOR is so story-focused, expansions never make past storylines irrelevant. You can easily pick up where you left off, or start a new character at level 1, no matter how many expansions have come out since you last played.

I hope this video has given you the information you’ve been looking for to help you decide if you want to return to the game or not. If you decided it’s not for you, good luck, and I hope you find another good game you’d like to play.

If you’ve decided to return, welcome back! My entire channel is focused on SWTOR guides, both for new and veteran players!

Good luck, and may the Force be with you.

Questions or comments? Feel free to send me a message on Twitter @swtorista, Reddit /u/swtorista, Youtube Swtorista channel or by e-mail at the same name with gmail.com at the end. Have fun out there and may the Force be with you. ~ Swtorista

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