What to expect in Update 7.6 in SWTOR! – Coming on DECEMBER 10th!

The Star Wars: The Old Republic developers have revealed what is coming with Update 7.6, including a lot of really fun and exciting surprises!

UPDATE: 7.6 is now confirmed for December 10, 2024! A bunch of sales have also been announced!

Watch Video

Update 7.6

What will be in Update 7.6?

• New Twitch Drops
• Galactic Threads Storyline
• Cartel Market
• Remote Trading Post
• Dynamic Encounters
• Comlink
• Propagator Core XR-53 Lair Boss
• New Augments
• PTS Testing & Rewards
• PvP Season 7
• Life Day 2024
• Best View in SWTOR finalists
• Mac Launcher Update
• Companion and Minipet Mounts
• Meirm Cicada Subscriber Reward
• Name Purge
• Character and Planet Modernization

When will Update 7.5 be released?

No date. Likely on December 10, 2024 but not guaranteed.

—

Recap of the 7.6 livestream

Twitch Drops

Two new twitch drops were shown off on the developer livestream!

To get the Ilum Art (purple frame), watch 1 Hour of any SWTOR streamer before November 28th (up to 14 days after the developer livestream). This is currently active.

To get the Amethyst Vulptilla, watch 4 Hours of any SWTOR streamer starting when Update 7.6 launches, any time up to 28 days later.

Galactic Threads Storyline

Ashley Ruhl, the Narrative Director and Caitlyn Sullivan Kelly, the principal writer on Star Wars: the Old Republic, spoke about the upcoming story that was supposed to be a part of Update 7.6.

Story Delay

The Galactic Thread storyline is under production and very well underway, but the developers currently do not have all the elements they need to complete the story and to deliver it to us. They are delaying the Galactic Threads storyline (just the storyline) until they can “complete the story to the art quality standards and what you’re expecting when you play the story”. They said, “the moment we have everything we need to finish this story, we will get it in your hands, but we’re very excited for you to check it out. There’s so much here and we are very, very happy to, to give you this chapter.” The other elements of 7.6 will be coming out on time.

SAG-AFTRA Video Game Voice Actors Strike

This announcement most likely has to do with the SAG-AFTRA Interactive Media (Video Game) Strike – the actors labor union. From their website, “SAG-AFTRA members went on strike against video game employers on July 26. The strike was called after more than 18 months of negotiations with some of the largest video game companies ended without a deal. The employers rebuffed our proposals for consent, compensation and transparency around the use of A.I., and instead have countered with loophole-filled language that negates any protections they claim to offer.”

In October, they announced negotiations are ongoing, including with Electronic Arts, SWTOR’s publisher. The same day the devstream happened, November 14, SAG-AFTRA was still picketing. Until this strike is resolved, companies must either sign interim agreements or forgo voice-acting all together, so we may see more and more gaming projects that require voice acting delayed, and SWTOR / Broadsword is not an exception, especially as a studio under Electronic Art’s umbrella.

Story Recap

SPOILERS! These are the events leading up to the 7.6 Story.

The biggest thing that happened at the beginning of 7.5 is former Jedi Padawan Sa’har Kateen approaches the player and asks for help getting the elusive Holo of Darth Nul away from Hidden Chain leader, Field Marshal Heta Kohl. The mission was successful at the end of Desperate Defiance. The player actually helped Sa’har get the Holocron; it’s in the player’s possession. However, the prison ship where the Holocron and the machine were being stored is destroyed in the process, and unfortunately, we have no idea what happened to Sa’har and Rakan—Rakan being Sa’har’s brother.

Also, during this mission, the player not only got the Holocron but also managed to free a group of Force-sensitive refugees from this prison ship. Because of the Holocron, the refugees, and what happened at the end of the update, the player had several opportunities to either strengthen their relations with either the Republic or the Empire or make choices that put them on uneven footing. 

Shae Vizla then led a secret team of mercenaries to break into the fleet and free Darth Malgus from his prison cell there, and they kind of flew off into the galaxy. We don’t know what they’re doing—no one knows why she did it—which makes things even more strenuous.

7.6 Story

For Galactic Threads, we’re actually going to be picking up very shortly after where Desperate Defiance left off. As you can imagine, everyone is kind of flabbergasted; they don’t know why Shae would choose to do this. It’s going to have far-reaching consequences for many people across the galaxy—not just the Alliance and the Mandalorians, but the Republic and the Empire as well.

Basically, where we’re going to kick the story off is with the Mandalorians who are still loyal to Shae Vizla and are fighting against the Hidden Chain. They believe they can bring Shae Vizla back, so they actually approach the player and offer their assistance to help track down Shae Vizla and Darth Nul.

7.6 Teaser Cutscene

 Here’s a little teaser clip from the beginning of Galactic Threads—a sneak peek. Take a look.

Watch Video

• Main Character: You’re sure it was them ?
• Lana Beniko: Entirely. This particular Hidden Chain strike team had been harassing a nearby settlement for some time. The residents were very eager to tell Theron everything they saw
• Main Character: Then we need to move before they can – [shuttle shows up]  Shae’s Flagship?
• Lana Beniko: It must be the Arbiter, he took command of it after Shae disappeared.
• Main Character: Stay alert. This could go either way.
• Jekiah Ordo: Apologies for showing up like this.
• Main Character: This isn’t the way to do things. Jekiah, not after everything you let happen.
• Jekiah Ordo: I know that. Under less dire circumstances, I would have taken that into consideration as a show of our support and our commitment to this partnership. We’re here to help put an end to all of this. However we can….

Tense times with the loyal Mandalorians. We’ll see where that goes.

Threads Mission Style

It sounds like the developers named the update Galactic Threads as a nod towards creating a new mission style for this update where there will be multiple story threads to explore.

• First off, the player has a Holocron. What secrets can we unlock? What can we learn about Darth Nul and the purpose of it?
• What is the Hidden Chain doing now that their prison ship and the machine are destroyed, but they’re still out there, vying for power?
• And what are Malgus’s ultimate goals with Shae Vizla?

Characters

This storyline has multiple threads you can explore in different orders, and different leads to follow, according to the developers.

Jekiah and Ras Ordo

We’re going to see a lot of familiar faces but some new ones as well. As you saw in the teaser clip, we have Jekiah and Ras Ordo joining us again. I think this is the first time Jekiah has actually been someone who’s kind of joined us—not permanently, but someone we can go back to for information. He steps up into a role Shae used to fill, as the Arbiter of the loyal Mandalorians. After what happened, he obviously had to step up and take leadership responsibility, even if he might not be that interested in it. He’s going to do the job that needs to be done.

His younger brother, Ras, is joining us again. We’ve fought alongside him several times, most recently on Port Nowhere and Chains in the Dark. He’s obviously not very happy about recent events. It’s harder for him to hide how he feels about this whole situation. He’s not leading people, so he can be more open about his emotions. He’s obviously struggling, and we’re going to explore that when he joins the player on a mission.

Arn Peralun

Arn Peralun is also coming back. The Jedi Knight player has followed his journey as he’s gone from a Jedi Padawan to a Jedi Knight. Most recently, we saw him in Desperate Defiance at the end, when he was checking in with the player after their mission on the Hidden Chain prison ship. Arn’s interest in history makes him a perfect fit to help us look for clues about Darth Nul’s history.

Major Anri

On the flip side, Major Anri is also returning. Since we last saw her, she’s been promoted and now works as a liaison between the player’s alliance and the Sith Empire. She joins us on a mission, not to keep an eye on us, but to offer a helping hand, sharing insights into what’s happening within the Empire. She always brings her own snark.

Akaavi Spar

We’re still hunting down the Hidden Chain Mandalorians, and Akaavi Spar, who cannot stand them, will be helping us. She’s risen in the ranks of the loyal Mandalorians since helping the player hunt down Heta Kohl’s Hidden Chain. She’s very loyal to Shae Vizla, and Jekiah tasks her with helping the player on another mission.

Talos Drellik

We’re also doing a bit more archaeology in this update. Last we saw Talos Drellik, he was at the ruins of Darth Nul’s temple on Elom. He and his team managed to breach part of the ruins, and we’re going to go look into that with his help.

Lana Beniko

Yes, and last but not least, we have Lana Beniko. For most of the update, Lana will be holding down the base of operations, giving us intel on the leads we’re following. But something happens that pulls her into the field, and when Lana takes up her lightsaber, it’s usually serious. She’ll be joining us for that mission.

Locations

We’re taking a look at Hoth, Tatooine, Elom, and maybe even the ruins of the Emperor’s fortress on Ilum. This was the stealth spaceship belonging to the Emperor that Darth Malgus took when he rebelled. It crashed on the surface, and the player and their allies might locate the wreckage and discover its secrets.

Remote Trading Post

In addition to the more expected Cartel Market items being added to the game, the developers have created a new type of bundle. This bundle includes a large number of cantina-themed decorations, two special pets, and even includes a way to unlock and upgrade the decoration you get from it by repairing the large cantina decoration through some lightweight gameplay. The developers wanted to let you bring some of the magic of Galaxy’s Edge back to your stronghold, that you may have seen at the Disney parks. You’ll receive the “neglected” set of decorations right off the bat, and can participate in some light-weight gameplay to “repair” the cantina and unlock the second set of repaired decorations – and you get to keep both, and use any of them in any of your strongholds. This also seems to be how you unlock the Baby Dianoga and D5-C0 DJ Droid mini pets!

Remote Trading Post Full Screenshots + Future Guide

SWTOR Remote Trading Post Guide

Cartel Market

Skeleton Crew inspired items will also make their way to the Cartel Market. Get ready for the Mysterious Rogue armor, Fearless Buccaneer weapons, and new hairstyles to become available at 7.6 launch.

Mysterious Rogue Armor

Fearless Buccaneer weapons

Fearless Buccaneer lightsaber and dualsaber

Metallic Gray/Chrome White and Chrome White/Metallic Gray dyes

Left is default colors. Metallic Gray/Chrome White and Chrome White/Metallic Gray dyes have been applied in the second and third panels

New Cartel Market Hair

Two new hairs inspired by Skeleton Crew called Half Long/Short hair and Braidhawk will be added to the Cartel Market.

New Free Hair

This hair was seen on an NPC character in the game – it is one of the existing hair styles but with missing parts. Players requested we could get it on our characters and the developers obliged and added it as a free hair starting in 7.6!

Dye Sale and Changes

The developers released an intriguing statement about dyes during the 7.6 Developer Livestream, and launched a 50% of dyes sale on the Cartel Market.

Speaking of dyes, we’ve got something we’d like to talk about – dye pack updates. In the game, we’ve had a lot of feedback about how dye packs are purchased and stored and applied to the character and we want to re-evaluate that system. And so while we are doing that, and before that picture solidifies, we do want to go ahead and make the cartel market sale of 50% off all dye packs starting November 14th. We are trying to improve how the player experience is around dye packs, so that’s what our intention is until we settle that out. They’ll be on 50% off sale.

See list of dyes on sale

Cartel Market Dye Sale and Future Changes to Dyes

Master the Fight Bundle

The Master the Fight: Starbolt Edition Bundle will be dropping November 15th and will be available until January 14th, 2025.

SWTOR Master the Fight: Starbolt Edition Bundle – November 15 – January 14, 2025 – $99 for 180 days sub time, 5,500, unique mount and metallic dyes

The bundle includes:

• 180 Days Subscription Time + 600 Cartel Coins per month
• 5500 Cartel Coins
• Vectron 240R Starbolt Mount
  • Rideable at level 1
  • Comes with Speeder Rank 5
  • Gives players a speed boost while mounted
• Primary Metallic Yellow Dye (x5 per character)
• Secondary Metallic Yellow  Dye (x5 per character)
• Bundle is priced at $99.99 USD
• Full Info

Dynamic Encounters

Dynamic Encounters are a new type of scheduled, timed quests on different planets in Star Wars: The Old Republic. We’ve already had a chance to test thes out on the PTS (Public Test Server) but the developers revealed some of the new rewards and showcased some of players favorite encounters in a video!

Dynamic Encounters Guide in SWTOR

Some of the funny ones show include carrying baby tauntauns around, advertising as a gonk droid, and launching gamorreans into a sarlacc pit.

Watch Video

The developers did also show off some of the rewards from Dynamic Encounters!

We now know they reward Tech Fragments and Conquest Commendations as well.

Freckled Loth-Cat Kitten pet

A special rare Encounter will drop the Freckled Loth-cat mini pet.

Desert Sand and Frozen Peaks Mounts

Completing the meta-achievement for the Tatooine and Hoth Encounters will grant players the Desert Sand and Frozen Peaks Mounts.

Hidden Chain and Electric Gaze Armors

Dynamic Encounters will have a variety of rewards associated with them. Completing Encounters will yield tech fragments and Conquest Commendations, and unlocking Achievements. Hidden Chain Invasion Encounters will drop armor pieces.

Comlink

Comlink is a new interactive User Interface we’re introducing to enhance player engagement with the game world. There are two main scenarios where players will encounter Comlink in the game: interacting with terminals and communicating with characters.

First, Comlink provides a new way to interact with terminals in the game. For example, in version 7.4, during the Lane’s Lab mission, players controlled a mouse droid to retrieve [a droid’s] core, interacting with a terminal through a conversational interface. Comlink can replace this kind of interaction, offering players options such as interfacing with terminals, hacking droids, or even turning in event currencies. In 7.6, players will experience Comlink for the first time in a handful of dynamic encounters, where they will choose from standard dialogue options and make conversational choices, including light or dark side decisions. Players may also turn in currencies through this interface, making Comlink a versatile addition throughout the game.

The second type of interaction involves character conversations. Traditionally, players receive holocalls in the game, akin to receiving a voice call in real life—where a popup appears, and players have a voice conversation. Comlink introduces a “text message” style, where players can have chat-like conversations with characters in the Star Wars universe. Using a distinct UI, Comlink allows for text-based interaction, giving players dialogue options similar to those in traditional conversations.

It’s important to emphasize that Comlink is not intended to replace cinematic or voice content. Instead, it’s a value-add, providing a new avenue for delivering narrative context or content that might otherwise be missed. For instance, we can now add extra layers to missions or side quests. As an example, in the “Remote Trading Outpost” mission, Comlink might provide additional details about Dianogas. There’s also an introductory Comlink mission for the Lair Boss in 7.6, where players will encounter these text-based interactions in an immersive new way.

The developers emphasized, “This is not being used to replace cinematics or voiced content.”

Propagator Core XR-53 Lair Boss

The developers had started showing off Propagator Core XR-53 on the test server so they could start gathering feedback, and it sounds like testing for Veteran Mode is just around the corner. This is a single-boss operation known as a Lair Boss, and will be available in both Story and Veteran mode in 7.6, and the new higher-end augments will require a materials from the new boss.

Propogator Core XR-53 Lair Boss on Ilum coming in Update 7.6! UPDATE: Round 2 testing changes posted!

New Augments

While we got a hint that there would be new augments on the test server, the developers added a ton of clarification about how they would work.

In 7.6 the developers are going to be adding three new tiers of augments to the game.

• The first is Augment 83 at item rating 296 (blue/Prototype).
• The second is Augment 86 at item rating 302 (blue/Prototype).
• The third is Advanced Augment 86 at item rating 310 (purple/Artifact).

Augment 83

These are meant to be an introduction for players who don’t currently have augments and find the current offerings a little too difficult to obtain.

You’ll need crew skill combined components, processed isotope stabilizers and solid resource matrices.

These augments don’t require you to kill the lair boss to craft, unlike the higher-tier 86’s

The processed isotope stabilizers and solid resource matrices will be obtainable with Jawa Scraps on the Fleet.

Augment 86

These augments are going to use all of the crew skills in order to craft them. The augments themselves will be crafted by Armormech, Armstech and Syntheaving, but you’ll need components coming from Artifice, Biochem and Cybertech. You’re going to need materials coming from the new layer layer boss in order to craft these augments.

These new augments do require the existing  Cybertech crafting material the CM-1337. They also mentioned the CM-1337 will become easier to obtain, the details will come later. (The price for the rare OEM and RPM material has gone down to 2,000 Tech Fragments on the test server, though this might change in the future.)

The new higher-end augments also require two new materials – Purified Bioessence which comes from Biochem, and Overclocked Biostabilizers which come from Artifice.

These new materials will require the Corrupted Bioprocessor which comes from the new lair boss, Propagator Core XR-53, who also drops the schematics.

• In story mode, the boss will have a chance to drop schematics for Augment 83 and a low amount of Corrupted Bioprocessors.
• In Veteran Mode, there will be a chance to drop the schematic for Augment 86 and a high amount of Corrupted Bioprocessors

All of the schematics that drop are going to be completely tradable. You can learn them yourself. You can give them to guild members or you can put them up on the GTN. All drops are going to be personal loot, and every player who defeats the lair boss will have their own equal chance to obtain the materials and the schematics – no fighting over anything this time.

Advanced Augment 86

If you want to upgrade yourself to the Advanced Augment 86 you’ll have to go through your crew skills, deconstruct your Augment 86s to potentially learn the schematic.

PTS Testing & Rewards

Want to help test the game and get earn some fun retired rewards at the same time? You can help test some of the new content on the SWTOR Public Test Server for update 7.6 to earn these!

There is not a specific end-date for the test server, but we know it will be shut down sometimes before the update, which may be on December 10th – so it’s better to get them done earlier, as the PTS can shut down with little notice as the developers prepare.

To earn the “First of Many” title, players must defeat the Propagator Core XR-52 in Story Mode.

To earn the “First Among Veterans” title, players must defeat the Propagator Core XR-52 in Veteran Mode.

To earn the Cutting Edge Title and Kai Zykken’s MK-85 Log Mount, players must:

• Complete 25 Dynamic Encounters with a Republic character on Tatooine
• Complete 25 Dynamic Encounters with a Republic character on Hoth

To earn the Strike Team Hero Title and Kai Zykken’s MK-90 Holo-Log Mount, players must:

• Complete 25 Dynamic Encounters with an Imperial character on Tatooine
• Complete 25 Dynamic Encounters with an Imperial character on Hoth

Completing all of the Dynamic Encounters achievements above will grant players the B1-SAL mini pet droid! Players will also receive the following titles:

• First Line of Defense
• Strike Team Specialist
• Strike Team Commander
• Led the Charge

PTS Public Test Server Rewards for 7.6! – LAST DAY DECEMBER 1, 2024! Kai Zykken’s Log Mount and Holo-Log Mount, B1-SAL mini pet droid, Retired titles

PvP Season 7

PvP Season 7 will be called Path to Mastery and start with Update 7.6 and runs for 16 weeks.

Rewards

• New armors and decorations
• Honorable Bow Emote
• Legacy Title: Pathfinder
• Master of Paths Title
• Meta-achievement Title: Seeker

(Plumed Scout and Plumed Trapper Armors. Earned from the reward track)

(Feathered Range and Feathered Huntmaster Armors. Can be purchased from PvP vendor)

(PvP Season 7 Battler, small, and large trophy decorations)

Changes to PvP Balancing

• Warzone matching will be updated allowing players to group up with four players max (down from eight).
• Set Bonus effects on the level 75 Spoils of War gear will be disabled during PvP matches.

We actually have a couple of changes coming, starting with season seven. First off, let’s talk about premades. We wanted to start addressing some of the [concerns with pre-made groups]. One of the things we want to work towards addressing a little bit of that is players can no longer group, for warzones in groups above four. So that’s the maximum group size that you can group going into warzones starting in 7.6. That obviously doesn’t stop entire groups from queuing, because that’s important, we do want people to be able to group when they’re going into warzones, but it does stop things like 5/6/7/8 stacks from going in to warzones.

The second thing is set bonuses, level 75 set bonuses. The ones that came in from Spoils of War in Onslaught will no longer work in PvP. This might sound like a strange change, but let me explain why we’re doing it. This is kind of meant to target two things. This is either new players that are jumping into PvP under level 80 or where players come back into the game also under level 80 – so that kind of PvP bracket that’s under level 80. And what happens is there’s a lot of people, there’s enough people that are parked in that PvP bracket, that have ‘twinks’ by having really good gear and those level 75 set bonuses that are simply just way too powerful, those level 75 set bonuses give you a lot of power in PvP. And so one of the ways that we want to address that is by removing those set bonuses and not letting them work in PvP anymore. So this is to kind of address one of the things that we’ve heard a bit of feedback and from that we’ve gathered, of just trying to stop that on boarding of a new player goes into PvP and they just get decimated, through some of that power benefit that happens from those set bonuses. So they’ll be disabled going forward starting in 7.6. Again, they’ll still work in PvE, they’ll still be fine. They just will not work in PvP.

Life Day 2024

Life Day this year will start December 10, 2024!

The Life Day Event is a limited-time event in Star Wars: The Old Republic that only takes place once a year in the winter. The event focuses on the fiction Star Wars holiday of Life Day, allowing you to throw snowballs, hug wookiees, and earn holiday-themed rewards. You can participate in the event as early as level 10, you just need to complete your first planet. Unlike the other limited-time events, the Life Day event has no quests and is not very involved – players often participate in the snowball throwing part of the event while doing Flashpoints, Operations, PvP or just while hanging out on the Fleet.

New Reward: Tirsa G1-F7 Mount (present speeder!)

New Reward: Ornate Life Day Robes (dyed version on right)

Life Day Event Guide (SWTOR)

Best View in SWTOR finalists

The developers showed off some of their favorite entries to the contest.

Watch Video

Mac Launcher Update

Mac update! The developers are currently in testing and fixing bugs from testers.

We believe that we’re either gonna release it fairly soon or just open it to a wide audience. We’ve got a couple more bugs we gotta fix, but overall it’s looking really good. I anticipate maybe in the next week or two, we’ll make a decision about how many more people we can add into the test and after that, we’ll just release it and make it generally available.

Companion Mounts

Imagine if you were cruising around the galaxy and you said, you know what I would love to do? I’d like to have my companion and my mini pet cruising with me on a mount.

The developers are adding companion mounts and pet mounts to the game for the first time in 7.6!

Watch Video

how you can get a free companion mount!! subscriber reward! #SWTOR

AHHH PET POINTS ARE PART OF DYNAMIC ENCOUNTERS! #SWTOR

Meirm Cicada Mount Subscriber Reward

Note, not all pets and companions will fit in the speeder. The mentioned poor B3-S1 Bessie won’t fit. Lol.

Name Purge

The developers have announced they are purging character names of unplayed characters in Update 7.6, which does not yet have a date but seems to be coming out early December.

To guarantee you keep your character names you can do one of thee two things:

• Be subscribed on the day Update 7.6 launches OR
• Log in to each of your characters individually, on each server

Graphics Updates: Planets

You will notice a whole host of art modernization. There’s some pretty sizable stuff on Tython and Korriban and then a bit lesser but definitely also some art modernization across Hoth and Ilum as well. 

Graphics Updates: Characters

Watch Video

The top line goal was to improve the fidelity of characters across the game, while making sure that your character stayed uniquely yours. We actually attacked it from basically four different directions – first up targeting character textures, ocular specularity (which is the white spot in the eye), and then lighting improvements and shader improvements including skin and hair shader improvements.

The important thing here is that the character textures specifically apply to Humans, Chiss, Cyborg, Miralukan, Mirialan, Togruta, Rattataki and Zabrak (not Twi’lek, Nautolan or Cathar)

Our goal is to get continue this modernization. This would impact any character across the entire game that uses the same model that player characters do. The only exceptions here would be like Lana, that is, that’s a unique model. She wouldn’t necessarily see these improvements. She would see some improvements from like maybe like lighting changes and stuff like that and shader, but she wouldn’t see the texture changes because that would only affect the player, and anyone that uses the player characters

Summary

This is one of the longest and most amount of content shown in a developer livestream, and it didn’t even include anything about what is coming in future updates!

Cartel Sales

The SWTOR developers have announced the sales for Update 7.6 starting on December 10!

• The Rename: Character Name Consumable item will be 90% off from December 10 to December 17. [This is related to the character name purge happening December 10th].
• Character re-customizations will be 90% off from December 10  to January 7, 2025
• The 50% off Collection Unlocks sale will run from December 13 to January 7, 2025.
• Life Day items (except the Tirsa mount and Ornate Robes) will be 25% off from December 10 to January 7, 2025.
• The Double XP event will run from December 22, 2024 to January 2, 2025.
• More popular items on the Cartel Market will rotate through the Daily Sale with discounts between 50-80% off throughout the holiday season.

Upcoming December Cartel Market Sales – Character Rename 90% off, Character Designer 90% off, 50% off Collections sale, and more!

After  7.6

What will be coming up after 7.6? While we don’t have many hints yet, we do know that there will eventually be…

The 7.6 Galactic Threads Story

Unfortunately, due to the SAG-AFTRA video game strike, this will likely no be able to be finished until some sort of resolution to the strike is found.

Dye Changes

In the 7.6 Developer stream, the developers mentioned some changes to dyes might be coming.

Seasons

We will see the continuation of PvP Seasons and Galactic Seasons – Galactic Seasons Season 8 will be starting in Update 7.6.1,  and PvP Seasons Season 8 will likely start in Update 7.7.

Date Nights

There are about 28 romanceable companions and the developers are hoping to release more date nights in the cadence of 1-2 Companion Date nights per Galactic Seasons. So Update 7.6.1 will probably bring us more, potentially taking advantage of the new comlink feature.

Romanceable Companions

• Akaavi Spar
• Andronikos Revel
• Arcann (Update 7.4.1)
• Aric Jorgan (Update 7.5.1)
• Ashara Zavros
• Corso Riggs
• Doc
• Elara Dorne
• Felix Iresso
• Jaesa Willsaam
• Kaliyo
• Khem Val
• Kira Carsen
• Koth Vortena (Update 7.4.1)
• Lana Beniko (Update 7.4.1)
• Lieutenant Pierce
• Lord Scourge
• Mako
• Malavai Quinn
• Nadia Grell
• Raina Temple
• Risha
• Tharan Cedrax
• Theron Shan (Update 7.4.1)
• Torian
• Vector
• Vette (Update 7.5.1)
• Zenith

DirectX 12 & Improved Steam Integrations

In a previous developer post, the devs said…

With 64-bit now in the game, and DirectX 12 hopefully on the way, it’s possible we may see graphics updates in the future. We have already seen many graphical / art updates on the planets.

GTN Changes?

In addition to the recent changes to the GTN, the developers spoke in the past about potentially adding a buy-order system – you can put in a request to buy an item at a certain price, and other players can fulfill the order. Whether this will be added or not still is unclear, now that the new GTN is up and functional.

Additional Servers?

All SWTOR servers are now on the cloud, and the Shae Vizla server has been running for a while as the APAC server, with transfers opened with 7.4.1. A new Fresh Start server may come in the future, players have been asking for one in North America. Read More

Future Story

Crafting Update

From an interview by Vulkk.com with the developers:

The official answer stated that while the developers “cannot provide a definitive timeline right now, a change to the Crafting system will not be implemented in the immediate future. At this time, players can continue spending credits on augments.” When the time comes that a crafting revamp will happen, BioWare said that they will give everyone plenty of time to adjust to the changes accordingly.

Based on BioWare’s answer, it seems that they are planning a more significant rework to the crafting system in line with other modernizations we’ve gotten with 7.0. Furthermore, it should theoretically be pretty trivial to just add another crafting tier if that’s all they wanted to do. – August 2022

Master Mode R-4?

It is unclear if Master Mode R-4 is still coming out, due to the large delay in launch of both 7.0 and the R-4 Anomaly operation in both story and veteran mode, but it is currently the only outstanding item on the list from the tenth anniversary, originally shared on a livestream July 1, 2021.