SWTOR Ancient Hypergate Warzone PvP Guide

Ancient Hypergate (often called “Ancient Hypergates” by players) is a player-vs-player Warzone in Star Wars The Old Republic. In this guide we’ll be going over how to gain points in this type of PvP map, how the pylons work, and what the orbs in the center of the map are for!

Objectives

In this player versus player match type, there are multiple things you should be doing to gain points for your team:

• Capture at least on Pylon with your team
• Defend at least on Pylon with your team, and hold it until the wave of energy passes by
• Kill other players
• Do not die, so the other team doesn’t get points
• and gather sparkling Orbs from the center and bring them to your captured Pylon

Map

The Ancient Hypergate map has three main parts: the east pylon, the west pylon, and the center.

You start up top, in either the west or the east.

[[SCREENSHOT – image of zoomed out up top – i didnt have enough zoom before]]

If you are at a pylon, facing the center of the map, you can either head to the middle for orbs or to rejoin the brawl there, or you can use the middle tunnel on the left/right tunnels to get to the other side of the map where the other pylon is.

Pylons

The idea of this match is that your team should capture at least one of the two Pylons.

[[SCREENSHOT – would it be possible to take a screenshot that shows both pylons from high above…?]]

Capturing a Pylon

To capture a pylon, you need to stand close to or on it, and right-click the glowing blue circle on the ground.

You need to stay still there for about 6 seconds without moving, using any abilities, or being attacked by an enemy, to successfully capture a pylon and turn it green for your team.

As you or your team mates try and capture the pylon, the other team may try and stop you by attacking the person channeling and capturing the pylon – so you will need to either distract them, stun them, or kill them so that the channel can complete its full 6 seconds.

[[SCREENSHOT – show a friend trying to capture a blue pylon, while I tie up a red name further away with a stun]]

You can also try capturing an enemy Pylon – but it’s usually a lot harder, because there is usually someone defending it… even if you can’t see them, there’s probably someone in stealth or hiding who will stop you and then call for reinforcements.

[[SCREENSHOT – show someone enemy defending a red pylon]]

East/West Pylons

You can see the status of the pylons on the scoreboard on the top right – the big circle on the left is the West pylon’s status, and the big circle on the right is the East pylon.

If the big circles are blue, it means they are uncaptured, if they are yellow or purple, it means a team has captured them. To find out if your team is yellow or purple, look for the tiny yellow or purple symbol on the left of the scoreboard – that’s your team’s color. In Ancient Hypergate, unlike other warzones, your team will always be yellow.

While the pylons themselves are neutral to start and don’t belong specifically to either team until captured, players often refer to them as “theirs” and “ours”. “Ours” generally means the pylon on the left if you are facing the center of the map from the starting area – both teams tend to try to take the pylon left of their starter area first, and then there’s a brawl in the center. Teams acting tactically can of course try different strategies, but in general, if you aren’t sure what your team’s strategy is, it makes sense to secure your own pylon first over on the left. If your team is starting in the South, that’s the West pylon, and if you are starting the North, that’s the East pylon.

[[SCREENSHOT – image from up top, ours, theirs, max zoom -df. need]]

Defending a Pylon

Once a Pylon has been captured, it is very important that your team defends it. It is harder to capture a Pylon than it is to protect one you already have. Losing a pylon also makes it very hard to keep pace with the other team.

To defend a Pylon, you just need to interrupt anyone who is trying to right-click and channel the pylon. If someone is trying to steal your pylon, they will glow blue, have a bright light shooting up into the sky from their characters body, and they will have a cast bar over their head.  To stop them, you can attack them, stun them, push them, or interrupt them in any other way. Even if you stop someone, they will probably keep trying, so make sure to keep your eye on the pylon even after an unsuccessful attempt.

[[SCREENSHOT – show enemy channgelling trying to steal green pylon]]

The other part of defending a pylon is simply killing enemy team members who are trying to capture it – they can’t capture it if they’re dead.

To find out if your Pylon needs help, try and keep your eyes on it, so you can see any red names that are over there.

[[SCREENSHOT – show red names in distance at green pylon, from mid]]

You will also want to watch chat – the player defending the pylon will often call out that they need help, and if you see anything that looks like just the word pylon, an acronym, number or request, head over quick and help stop the enemies there from getting your pylon!

[[SCREENSHOT – show chat asking for help at pylon]]

Guarding a Pylon

During a match, at least one player should always stay behind to guard a pylon. This player is often someone who is familiar with how to guard the Pylon, and keep it safe long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

There are lots of different tips and tricks to guarding the pylon, but they all depend on what class you are playing. For example, stealth characters can use their crowd control to put enemies to sleep without ever revealing themselves, and non-stealth characters sometimes have abilities they can use to interrupt the enemy even if they are stunned.

[[SCREENSHOT – show stealther guarding green pylon]]

The hardest part of defending a pylon is dealing with enemies in stealth – an unprepared player can get double stunned with no way to stop the enemy from capping if they aren’t familiar with their class and their abilities.

One of the simplest tips is to not guard the pylon directly beside it – instead, stand farther away, so any stealther who stuns you then has to take time to run to the pylon.

[[SCREENSHOT – show guarding not next to the pylon, me, green pylon, 30m or whatever for rockets]]

If you do wind up defending the Pylon, and aren’t ready yet, you can ask in chat if anyone else can guard the pylon because you are new, and another player will likely come take your place, allowing you to run off.

[[SCREENSHOT – ask in chat, someone reply ‘omw’]]

One of the most important parts of guarding the pylon is to call out in chat if you see any enemies running it, get stunned by a stealther, or get any hint that there is an enemy nearby. That way, your team knows to come back you up. All you can do is try and hold the Pylon long enough for your team mates to hopefully show up!

[[SCREENSHOT – show red names running to green pylon from the sides, while standing at green pylon]]

The pylon takes 8 seconds for the enemy to capture it. If there are less than 8 seconds left on the timer, it’s safe to start running to the center and to abandon the pylon!

The Other Team’s Pylon

Apart from capturing a pylon from your team and holding it, another strategy is for your team to capture your pylon, and then prevent the other team from capturing theirs.

[[SCREENSHOT – show uncaptured pylon harassment]]

Each round lasts two and a half minutes, and if you can harass their Pylon just enough that they never manage to capture it, your team will often wind up with a big points advantage.

The tricky part is that if you fail to prevent them from capturing, and they kill you, you’ll just be giving them free points for defeating you. Even worse, if too many people harass the enemy’s pylon, and you lose your own pylon because of it, there’s a good chance the match will go poorly for your team.

Stealing a Pylon

If the other team has already captured a pylon, and it is glowing red, to capture if from them you will need to either kill, distract, or stun all the enemy players who are defending it, just long enough for someone on your team to channel the pylon uninterrupted. This is much harder than preventing the enemy from capturing an uncaptured pylon.

If you try and steal a pylon, and are killed, you just gave the enemy free points – so if you aren’t confident you can take it, or that your harassment will draw their whole team away from the other pylons, don’t try and steal a pylon. You’ll want to be very confident in your Combat Style, abilities and gear setup before you really want to take on an enemy guarding a pylon in a one-one-one duel – because if you can’t kill them quickly, they’ll call for help and you’ll become outnumbered.

[[SCREENSHOT – show red pylon, enemy guarding, my team 1 member trying to steal via duel]]

Detonation

Ancient Hypergate has multiple rounds, and each round is tracked with a timer on the top right of the screen.

When the timer rounds out, a wave of deadly yellow energy will explode, killing anyone in its path. It will travel from the edges of the map towards the center, and the only safe places are the center building and the area up top where you spawn in.

When the timer runs out, you will see the smaller circles filling up on the scoreboard you will want to rush to the center of the map so you can survive the wave.

If you have just revived, make sure to stay up top until the yellow energy field passes by, and then jump down after it passes.

Orbs

Another way to get points for your team is to pick up orbs from the center of the map, by right-clicking one of the four glowing blue boxes in the very center of the map, inside the big building.

Much like the pylons, you need to channel your character for 5 seconds and not be moved or attacked to pick up an orb. You can also stop other player from picking up orbs from the center by attacking them.

[[SCREENSHOT – show enemy trying to get an orb with red nametag]]

Once you have an orb, your character will have blue sparkles around their body, and you’ll want to quickly run to your own captured pylon. When you get close enough, the pylon will flash, and your orb will automatically be deposited to your pylon for points. You only have 1 minute to deliver your orb, or it will disappear.

The orbs appear in the center of the map abut 15 seconds after the match starts or a new round starts, then respawn about a minute after they are picked up. Since the rounds are so short, an orb box can only respawn about twice per round. When an orb box is empty, it will appear black instead of blue.

Points

The points in Ancient Hypergate are more complicated than most of the other warzones.

Your main source of points are tied to having at least one pylon captured, without one, your team will get zero points that round. Once you have a pylon captured, you gain points from keeping the pylon, defeating enemy team members, and bringing energy orbs to your captured pylon. You will need to keep your pylon at the end of the round for your kill points to count for that round – so don’t lose your pylon once you’ve captured it!

To prevent the other team from getting points, you can stop them from capturing their pylon during the round, prevent them from capturing your pylon, and die as little as possible.

Scoreboard

On the scoreboard, you will see you team’s current points, and the other team’s current points, on the far right. In Ancient Hypergate, your team will always be yellow, though in other warzone types you could be either color. If you forget which score is yours, look for the Republic/Imperial symbol on the bottom right of the scoreboard, it will match the color of your team.

Potential Points

You’ll also notice that there is some of the points bar is faded, with some points values attached to it – this is your and the other team’s potential points at the end of this round, but ONLY if you each keep at least one pulon. If you never manage to gain a pylon or lose your pylon, you won’t gain the potential points at the end of the round!

How to Earn Points

Orbs

Picking up an orb in the center of the map and bringing it to your pylon will gain you 15 permanent points for your team, no matter what round you are in.

Capturing a Pylon

Capturing a Pylon gives you potential points. A pylon capture is worth: 75 potential points + the number of kills times the multiplier at the time you killed them. So if it’s late in the game with a round multiplier x6, and kill four enemies, your pylon capture would be worth the base of 75 plus 4×6 for the kills, for 88 points.

Winning

The first team to 600 permanent points wins!

Multiplier

On the right of the scoreboard is the multiplier – the multiplier goes up each round.

It will start off at x3, which means each player your team kills is worth 3 potential point. When it goes up to x4 the next round, each enemy killed is worth 4 potential points. This is why especially later in the match, you want to be careful not to die by wandering off by yourself or attacking a big group of enemies alone, or you’ll be giving the enemy a lot of points. Because kills are worth so little in the beginning, it means the orbs in the center of the map are more worth getting early in the match!

Medals

You can learn more about earning medals in Ancient Hypergate in my Medals guide!

PvP Medals List

Buffs

There are three types of buffs hidden around the Ancient Hypergate warzone.

Speed Boost (green, above) – Run at 200% speed for 15 seconds.

Damage Boost (red, above) – 15% bonus to damage and healing, while fighting other players for 25 seconds.

Health (aqua colored, above) – Walk over it to heal 75% of your health.

More Info

• If you steal an enemy’s pylon, do you steal their potential points, or do you just prevent them from getting those potential points? No, if you steal their pylon, you remove any potential points they had gained for capturing it, and you gain the potential points you would have gotten for capping yours – you do not “steal” their amount.
• If you prevent an enemy from ever getting their pylon, and you get yours, will they get any points at all that round? No. But. The next time they DO capture a pylon, those kills from those last round will count towards their pylon capture total.
• Does the multiplier only affect kills? Only kills and their pylon effects. Orb points are not affected by the multiplier.
• Do you get double points for having both pylons, or simply prevent the enemy from getting points? Yes, your team gets double points!
• When is it a good time to get orbs? Orbs are worth 15 points. The absolute best time to get them is when you need to get 600 points and are close to that, and need guaranteed, not potential points, as reaching 600 will end the game. During the first round, kills are worth x3, but then you get 3x potential points every round after for a kill too. So if you kill someone the first round, and capture a pylon every round, and there were five rounds, you’d get 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 +3 = 15. So the same as capturing an orb, but they are not guaranteed points. So in the first round, killing a single player, or capturing an orb, are worth the same amount, but killing a player does not guarantee you all 15 points if you happen not to keep a pylon later on. After the first round, killing a player will be worth more than grabbing an orb, but once again is not guaranteed points. [[I think this is right but not 100% sure.]]
• What color is my team? For some reason, Ancient Hypergate always makes “your” team yellow – if you have a friend on the other team, they’ll say they are on the yellow team too. As far as I know, this is the only warzone that works this way.
• Does the yellow blast count as a “kill” for your or the enemy team? The yellow blast does count as a kill for the current round. So try not to get stuck in it or you’ll give the enemy team free points.
• Want to learn more about tactics for Ancient Hypergate? Here’s some guides by other players:
  • PvP Ancient Hypergate Map Guide by Vulkk on vulkk.com

Unanswered Questions

Ancient Hypergate is one of the most complicated scoring matches in the entire game – and I have struggled immensely trying to test it and reverse engineer the scoring. I decided to release the guide as-is even though it isn’t perfect so players can learn the mechanics. Here are some questions I still don’t feel 100% confident about:

• Do those potential points from a stolen pylon get carried over to the next round? I don’t think so. [[QUESTION – help]]
• When you kill enemy team members, but you don’t have a pylon, do you still gain points or potential points? Sort of. If you kill players before you capture a pylon, you will get “credit” for them if you capture a pylon later. But if you never captured a pylon, you wouldn’t get points for killing them. [[QUESTION – help]]
• What happens if you recapture a pylon, do you re-gain your potential points or are they lost forever? Sort of. You still get pylon point for kills last round, but you don’t get “potential points”…? [[QUESTION – help]]
• Orbs –  Picking up an orb in the center of the map and bringing it to your pylon will gain you 15 permanent points for your team, no matter what round you are in. [[QUESTION – I found this to be during 15 when testing. but oh, Vulkk’s guide actually says it changes over the rounds and start at 18???]]
• On the right of the scoreboard is the multiplier – the multiplier goes up each round. It will start off at x3, which means each player your team kills is worth 1 potential point. When it goes up to x4 the next round, each enemy killed is worth 4 potential points. This is why especially later in the match, you want to be careful not to die by wandering off by yourself or attacking a big group of enemies alone, or you’ll be giving the enemy a lot of points. Because kills are worth so little in the beginning, it means the orbs in the center of the map are more worth getting early in the match! [[QUESTION – This is not quite right… because So if you kill someone the first round, and capture a pylon every round, and there were five rounds, you’d get 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 +3 = 15??]]
• How many points does capturing a pylon give? Capturing a Pylon gives you potential points. A pylon capture is worth: 75 potential points + the number of kills times the multiplier at the time you killed them. So early in the game, during the first round at x3, and you killed four enemies, you would get 75 points for capturing the pylon + 4×3 for kills, for  87 points. If it’s late in the game with a round multiplier x6, and kill four enemies, your pylon capture would be worth the base of 75 plus 4×6 for the kills, for 99 points. [[QUESTION – – can i please have help confirming this…. i have notes from when we last tested this but it’s so confusing]]

Warzone Guides

Want to learn about the other warzone maps? Take a look at these guides!

• SWTOR Yavin Ruins Warzone PvP Guide
• SWTOR Voidstar Warzone PvP Guide
• SWTOR Ancient Hypergate Warzone PvP Guide
• SWTOR Huttball Warzone PvP Guide
• SWTOR Novare Coast Warzone PvP Guide
• SWTOR Odessen Proving Grounds Warzone PvP Guide
• SWTOR Alderaan Civil War Warzone PvP Guide