SWTOR Trial and Error Uprising Guide

Trial and Error (aka ‘The Rakghoul Uprising’) is an Uprising in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and is like a short, story-light Flashpoint with three bosses and a few surprises including the ability to bring a desert pet along for the fight. Trial and Error comes in three different difficulties: Story. Veteran, and Master, and is meant to be done with a group of four at level 70+. Trial and Error seems to be the most interesting, if the most difficult, of all the Uprisings, with two bonus bosses, a Rakghoul mechanic, and a special weapon only available in Trial and Error.

If you are new to Uprisings, you may want to first visit the basic Uprisings Guide for tips about the quests to pick up before you go in. For the most part, you don’t really need a guide for Uprisings unless your group is struggling with a specific boss, especially in Master Mode, or if you want to know about the special rakghoul achievements. Uprisings are meant to be very accessible and short, fun, run-and-gun missions.

How to Start

All Uprisings start at the glowing blue table in the Combat Training section of the Republic or Imperial Fleet. You can also enter the Groupfinder for Veteran Mode, just keep in mind if you filter for just Trial and Error, you won’t be eligible for the bonus groupfinder rewards for running a random Uprising.

Once you have picked up an Uprising, left-click the icon of a shuttle in your quest log to travel to the Uprising.

Difficulty Modes

• Story Mode: Easiest mode, designed for four players but likely doable with 2 or more decent players in any roles and their companions.
  • Solo: As a damage character, I found the first fight to be the easiest of all the Uprisings to solo – but the second was almost impossible, even as a level 80 well-geared character with a rank 50 Influence companion. After switching to a tank, the second fight was doable but very annoying solo, and the final fight was easy but long.
• Veteran Mode: Middle difficulty but not that much harder, designed for four players but likely doable with 2 or more decent players in any roles and their companions
• Master Mode: Quite difficult mode, most groups will need a full four players, including 1 healer, 1 tank and 2 damage players. Very competent groups might be able to do it with 3 players and one companion. Your team should be decently geared, understand their class and role, and be ready to do some mechanics and stay out of bad stuff on the ground. For Trial and Error specifically, we had an incredibly hard time in Master Mode – the second boss took a bunch of tries, and is really frustrating as it has two different parts that can’t be done separately. The final boss is extremely hard and we wound up not bothering to finish it after a few tries.

Trial and Error Power-Ups

While running Trial and Error, keep you eyes open for glowing blue crates with powerups inside. To open a crate, you can right-click it, then walk over the item it reveals.

Once you’re carrying a power-up, you’ll get a temporary ability to use it, and you can get up to one of each kind. These crates will be hidden throughout the Uprising.

If you see a crate up high…. use the grapple hook to get to it! Right-click the glowing blue square on the wall to grapple hook.

Entrance

Right-click the glowing blue door with the green circle to enter. It will start a little timer as you breach the door. There will be a fight soon afterwards!

There are many medpacs throughout the Uprising if you need them in Story and Veteran Mode.

Boss 1: Marlon Fenn

Marlon Fenn is the first boss of Trial and Error.

There are two medpacs in Marlon’s room if you need them in Story and Veteran Mode, one near where you come in and one in the back of the room.

Start by defeating all the smaller enemies.

You can interrupt Marlon’s Rocket Punch ability.

There is a broken “open” door to the north, just ignore it and head south west to the elevator.

Bonus Boss: Rasher Poth

The first bonus boss will unlock a special ability to become a Rakghoul! It is located in a small room in the far west of the map after the first boss but before the elevator.

Become a Rakghoul

To become a Rakghoul, fight the Rahser Poth bonus boss, then right-click the RAK-5 Depository glowing blue box on the wall behind him.

If you die while a Rakghoul, you will lose your Rakghoul form, but you can always go back and right-click the glowing blue Depository again to turn yourself back in to one.

Once you are a Rakghoul, your normal abilities will be replaced by rakghoul abilities.

1 through 4 are your attacks., and 6, 7 and 8 turn you into different types of Rakghouls.

6, the red one, is the default, the Savage Rakghoul, a damage rakghoul.

7, the blue one, is the Brutish Rakghoul, a tank rakghoul.

8, the green one, is the Noxious Rakghoul, a healing rakghoul.

Switching Rakghoul types may move your abilities to the temporary ability bar instead.

Each type of Rakghoul has four ability moves they can use depending on their type.

Boss 2: Icarr and Nyris Ko

This fight, in general, is a bit long an annoying.

There are a bunch of light blue trip wires all over the room – try and avoid them, though it can be difficult.

There’s an achievement for never triggering a trip wire and defeating the bosses, but it’s quite tricky to get especially with the knockbacks.

Bonus Boss #2: EX-26

The second Bonus Boss looks like a broken robot on the ground and is after the second sniper bosses, in a small room to the north. His Repeater Cannon can be interrupted.

Once you’ve defeated him, right-click the glowing blue Experimental Weapons Crate to get a double flamethrower! This is the Neutralizing Energy Wave Thrower (NEWT!)

You can use this against enemies on your temporary ability bar.

PS there’s an achievement for defeating 100 enemies with the flamethrower NEWT.

If you happen to be a Rakghoul, you’ll also get a Serum you can inject yourself with which will give you some new abilities as a Rakghoul. There is an achievement to kill 100 enemies with one of those abilities, Volatile Explosion.

Purge

Avoid the zappy red circles on the floor by walking between them – or along the ledge on the right. You can fight the rakghould in the room outside of hte zappy area.

Destroying both the glowing blue control panels near the door to the next room will turn off the zappy.

Boss 3: Alirra Semhess

The final boss, Alirra, has some mechanics your group must do.

There are four glowing blue buttons around the inside pillars of the room. One member of your team will need to right-click a button. They all eventually need to be clicked, but only one person needs to click them at a time and there is a short timer/electricity lightning shield when you press a button, so you can not click all four at once. Once all four are clicked, you can fight Alirra.

And she turns into a Rakghoul!

These little mines explode when they got close to someone.

Stay out of the nasty zappy circle that show up later in the fight, Alirra’s big purple circle, and the nasty green rakghoul circles.

To leave Trial and Error, use the Exit Area button after the final boss is complete.

Republic Seeker

The Republic Seeker is a rare drop from Trial and Error

Trial and Error Achievements

In addition to the Trial and Error achievements for doing this Uprising all the way through in Story, Veteran and Master Mode, this Uprising has a TON of unique achievements.

These are the unique Trial and Error achievements you can do throughout the Uprising:

• Invasive Species – Defeated 1000 opponents in the Trial and Error uprising.
• Trial and Error: Adrenal Assault – Defeated 100 opponents while infused with the combat adrenal in the Trial and Error uprising.
• Trial and Error: Thermally Charged – Defeated 100 opponents with a thermal detonator in the Trial and Error uprising.
• Trial and Error: Rocketed – Defeated 100 opponents with the rocket launcher in the Trial and Error uprising.
• Trial and Error: Deep-fry Delight – Defeated 100 opponents with the Neutralizing Energy Wave Thrower. TIPS: You can pick this up in the blue box beside the bonus boss EX-26.
• Trial and Error: Mutagenic Mayhem – Defeated 100 opponents with a Volatile Explosion. TIPS: You will need to fight the bonus boss Rasher Poth, become a Rakghoul, then fight the bonus boss EX-26, and right-click the blue box as a Rakghoul to get the serum which will give you the secret ability to use Volatile Explosion – it’s not useable right away, but every time you take damage as a serum’d Rakghoul, you will gain Volatile stacks, and you can use Volatile Explosion after you get 5 stacks.

In addition, the individual bosses have some fun achievements.

I got the Fuming Mad from Merlon achievement doing it solo in story, then again in a group in Master though I’m not sure why lol! It may something to do with “If hitpoints of CASTER < 10%”.  I also never saw Shoulder Slam or Jet Charge actually “happen”.

• Cool Under the Collar (Story) – Defeated Marlon Fenn in the Trial and Error uprising on Story Difficulty without allowing him to become fuming mad.
• Cool Under the Collar (Veteran) – Defeated Marlon Fenn in the Trial and Error uprising on Veteran Difficulty without allowing him to become fuming mad.
• Cool Under the Collar (Master) – Defeated Marlon Fenn in the Trial and Error uprising on Master Difficulty without allowing him to become fuming mad.

Icarr and Nyris Ko in the Trial and Error uprising on Story Difficulty without activating any traps.

This is so hard. I didn’t wind up getting it in any mode yet so far. Not only are the traps hard to see and all over, they also have a knockback!

• Mind Your Step (Story) – Defeated Icarr and Nyris Ko in the Trial and Error uprising on Story Difficulty without activating any traps.
• Mind Your Step (Veteran) – Defeated Icarr and Nyris Ko in the Trial and Error uprising on Veteran Difficulty without activating any traps.
• Mind Your Step (Master) – Defeated Icarr and Nyris Ko in the Trial and Error uprising on Master Difficulty without activating any traps.

Alirra Semhess in the Trial and Error uprising on Story Difficulty without allowing her to be hit by any purging plasma beams.

I’m actually not entirely sure what this means. I guess the tank needs to move her around and out of the moving zappy circles.

• The Rak Whisperer (Story) – Defeated Alirra Semhess in the Trial and Error uprising on Story Difficulty without allowing her to be hit by any purging plasma beams.
• The Rak Whisperer (Veteran) – Defeated Alirra Semhess in the Trial and Error uprising on Veteran Difficulty without allowing her to be hit by any purging plasma beams.
• The Rak Whisperer (Master) – Defeated Alirra Semhess in the Trial and Error uprising on Master Difficulty without allowing her to be hit by any purging plasma beams.

There’s also a really fun set of achievements to defeat Alirra in all three modes, but with your entire team of four as rakghouls!

• The Rak Pack (Story) – Defeated Alirra Semhess in the Trial and Error uprising on Story Difficulty with a team of four rakghoul.
• The Rak Pack (Veteran) – Defeated Alirra Semhess in the Trial and Error uprising on Veteran Difficulty with a team of four rakghoul.
• The Legendary Rak Pack [Master] – Defeated Alirra Semhess in the Trial and Error uprising on Master Difficulty with a team of four rakghoul.

Story & Lore

Theron Shan: “Commander-just picked up some critical intel on a small group of rogue Republic scientists led by Doctor Alirra Semhess. They’re working on a new adrenal called RS-33. It’s still in the experimental stages, but rumors suggest it enhances strength and speed at the cost of mental faculties. Makes the users hyper-violent. We tracked Doctor Semhess to a secret lab inside a Republic space station. We need to stop them before they create an army of unstoppable, mindless super soldiers.”

X7 Cratus Station: “Unauthorized visitors detected. Engaging laboratory security protocols.”
Alirra Semhess: “Welcome to the X7-Cratus. Your timing is perfect. Our troops are just about to start real-world testing.”

Alirra Semhess: “Our work is too important to let you interfere! Icarr, Nyris, eradicate this contaminant!”

X7 Cratus Station: “Critical overload of Vital Personnel Quarantine Safeguards detected. Airborne RAK-5 levels rising. Initiating purge protocols.”
Alirra Semhess: “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? The RAK-5 serum isn’t stable! We’ve all been exposed!”

X7 Cratus Station: “Purge protocols complete. Airborne RAK-5 levels now stable.”
Theron Shan: “Nice work, Commander. Wasn’t looking forward to fighting a galactic war against Doctor Semhess and her army of scientific abominations. And don’t worry about anyone else using RS-33, or continuing her experiments. Your assault on the lab destroyed all her research.”