What to expect in Update 7.7 in SWTOR! – NOW LIVE!

The Star Wars: The Old Republic developers have revealed what is coming with Update 7.7, including PvP Season 7, 7 planets worth of new Dynamic Encounters (wow!) and tons of new species colors in the character creator!

UPDATE: Update 7.7 is now live! It came out on May 28, 2025. See below for lots of guides about the new stuff, and a summary of everything that was added.

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Update 7.7

What will be in Update 7.7?

• PvP Season 8
• New Dynamic Encounter Planets
• 7 New Dynamic Encounter Mounts
• Master Mode XR-53 Boss
• New Gold Augments
• New Eras Window & Mission Log
• Nar Shaddaa Nightlife July 8
• Map Improvements
• Character Modernizations & Companion Graphical Fixes
• Preview Window Fixes
• New Cartel Market Items
• Small Class Changes

Free Stuff

There’s quite a few free things available in the game to pick up right now!

Free Rancor Mount

Now that Update 7.7 is live, players will be able to earn another Twitch Drop reward. The Umbaran Holo-Rancor Mount will be unlocked after 5 hours of watch time and earnable for 28 days following 7.7 launch.

To get the Umbaran Holo-Rancor watch 5 Hours of any SWTOR streamer starting May 28th until the end date. By the way, I’m live every morning 8 – 10 am Pacific every weekday morning, at twitch.tv/swtorista if you want to come say hi! If you aren’t familiar with Twitch Drops, here’s the how-to!

SWTOR Twitch Drops Guide

Free Amethyst Vulptilla Pet Code

From April 17 – May 30, players who redeem the new code will receive an adorable Amethyst Vulptilla Minipet. You only need to redeem the code to get a free copy in all your current and future characters’ mailboxes. You may need to log in and log out to get the pet to show up in your mailbox.

1. Login to your SWTOR.com account and go to the Redeem Code section
2. Code: SWTORSWC25

Story?

If you have been wondering why there hasn’t been new story in Star Wars: The Old Republic for a while, here’s a bunch of information about the ongoing Voice Actor’s Strike, and some behind the scenes look at the unfinished upcoming story, which can not be completed until the voice actor’s strike is resolved.

SWTOR Upcoming Story, Story Delay and Voice Actor’s Strike

Mission Log Updates

The develops are making it easier for new and returning players to figure out their quest log.

Eras Tab

To make it easier for new players returning to the game after a break, the developers are adding the “Eras” tab to the Mission Log. This will be a basic overview of all the expansions in the game, so you can figure out where you are in the story and where you can go next. It’s chronological and shows you where you are in the story, and will show you what quest you are on within each “era”. It’s not a comprehensive novella, and it won’t show you an in-depth explanation of your past choices, but it’s enough of a reference for when you’re trying to jump back in to your mission log. Each large era of the game will be represented by 2-3 paragraphs so you can figure out where you are at, and see what you have completed and which you haven’t. This is also useful for players who have many characters at different story points.

Mission Log

The Mission Log has gotten some nice upgrades.

• First, less quests will be marked as “purple quests” unless they are truly a part of the main critical story path, to make it clearer what the true main story path is.
• You can now open the Galaxy Map straight to the correct planet and travel to your quest’s planet more easily.

Master Mode XR-53

A new Master Mode single-boss operation is being added to the game in Update 7.7 – Relentless Replication will have XR-53 the hungry droid in its most difficult form.

The will include new mechanics, fun new achievements, and new rewards including Augments Schematics and a new mount.

The new mount is the top half of XR-53, called the Replication Throne, and has a fun orange-blue mount flourish animation. It will have bad-luck prevention on its drop.

New Gold Augments

New Gold Augments, which make your gear stronger, are being added for level 80 players. I’ve got all the info about how to craft the new gold augments on the crafting augments guide.

• You can only get the schematics from Master Mode XR-53 or the GTN from other players. (UPDATE: The developers changed their minds and now, “Schematics for Superior Augment 86 can be obtained by deconstructing crafted Advanced Augment 86 at a 20% Research chance.”)
• The Corrupted Bioprocessor materials will now drop more frequently from Vet and Master Mode.
• Corrupted Bioprocessor materials will now also come from PvP weeklies. (You can pick 3 bioprocessors instead of a Thyrsian gear cache or Thyrsian currency.)
• These augments are only meant for players who or can afford the best of the best. They are not required for any content.

SWTOR How to Craft Augments Guide

PvP Season 8

PvP Season 8‘s theme will be Champions of the Wild and will come out with Update 7.7, and last for 16 weeks. The Season as been off to a good start, and I’ve already jumped in my self on day 1 with lots of matches on my server.

SWTOR PvP Seasons 8 Guide and Rewards

A big to PvP seasons is that you will be able to unlock levels on the track with Cartel Coins, much like the Galactic Seasons track. It costs 100 CC per level, or 3,000 for the whole track.

Nar Shaddaa Nightlife

The Nar Shaddaa Nightlife casino event will return July 8 – August 19, 2025, running for a total of six weeks.

A new item is being added to the Supernova Helmet, it is similar to the Peerless Explorer’s helmet but it has a rainbow sheen animation. The helmet will only come from the Emperor’s Grace and Emperor’s Grace Max Bet machines.

All of the machines will have some new rewards.

New Dynamic Encounters

Dynamic Encounters are a type of scheduled, timed quests on different planets in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Some of the funny ones include carrying baby Tauntauns up hills, advertising as a Gonk droid, and launching Gamorreans into a Sarlacc pit. They wee introduced in Update 7.6.1, and we are getting more!

• Biome Dynamic Encounters on Dantooine coming in Update 7.8!
• SWTOR Coruscant Dynamic Encounters Guide
• SWTOR Dantooine Biome Dynamic Encounters Guide
• SWTOR Dantooine Biome Dynamic Encounters Secrets and Achievements Guide
• SWTOR Dantooine Dynamic Encounters List and Guide
• SWTOR Dromund Kaas Dynamic Encounters Guide
• SWTOR Dynamic Encounter Achievements Guide
• SWTOR Hoth Dynamic Encounters Guide
• SWTOR Hutta Dynamic Encounters Guide
• SWTOR Ilum Dynamic Encounters Guide
• SWTOR Korriban Dynamic Encounters Guide
• SWTOR Ord Mantell Dynamic Encounters Guide
• SWTOR Tatooine Dynamic Encounters Guide
• SWTOR Tython Dynamic Encounters Guide

We are getting SEVEN new Dynamic Encounter planets!

• Ilum
• The two Capital planets:
  • Coruscant
  • Dromund Kaas
• The four smaller starter planets:
  • Tython
  • Korriban
  • Ord Mantell
  • Hutta

PLUS more Hidden Chain encounters spread out across the planets including planets like Nar Shaddaa.

One of the cool ones they showed was hijacking a walker on Ord Mantell.

They also said there would be a whole bunch of new Dynamic Encounter rewards, including lots of decorations and the Killik Stalker Larva Pet.

Haven’t tried Dynamic Encounters yet? Learned about them in the Dynamic Encounters guide!

Dynamic Encounters Guide in SWTOR

New Dynamic Encounter Mounts

The meta achievements for each of the new Dynamic Encounter planets ALL reward you with a new mount… for a total of seven mounts to collect!! They all can also hold a pet on top of them.

Map Improvements

You can now click the quick travel points on a menu on the left of the big map.(A fun bug was added where you could see the enemy faction’s travel points when 7.7 launched, lol!)

You can now see the active Dynamic Encounters on a menu on the left of the big map.

Class Changes

There were a very small number of class changes in Update 7.7.

Update 7.7 Class Changes

Default Combat Choices Changes

The developers are changing some of the default choices for new characters being created – these are not class balance changes, and you can always change the defaults after creating your character.

If you want to see the default tree choice changes they made (which you can always easily change yourself in the tree panel) read the patch notes.

Sprint I/II/III Fixes

Some nice bug fixes for if you have the boosted speed perks from guilds.

Cartel Market

Update 7.7 brought a new round of Cartel Market items. View them here!

• Imperial Director’s Armor Set
• Guerilla Commander’s Armor Set
• Manaan Mini-Sub
• Nar Shaddaa Nightlife Decoration Bundle
• Storm I Mount

Update 7.7 “Dynamic Worlds” New Cartel Market Additions! Andor-inspired Imperial Director’s Armor, Guerilla Commander’s Armor, Nightlife Decoration Bundle, and Manaan Mini-sub

Character Modernization Updates

“In order to adhere to the modernization effort that we have to bring the fidelity level up to other NPC’s level with your player character but still respect the fact that we want your character, that you are used to, to look the way you prefer it to, we are eliminating a lot of the  programmatic smoothing we had applied to the updated texture sets, and we are bringing that back into artist’s control to more strategically define where those sharpenings and smoothings are located. We are really happy with where this is now and hope you will be too. This will be an ongoing  effort, we will likely never be done with these kinds of things, but we still want to bring the characters into the modern era, respective of people’s opinions and preferences in the way they should look.” – SWTOR Art Director

SWTOR Developer Character Modernization Updates going into 7.7

“There has been a flurry of activity behind the scenes as we wrap up our character modernization efforts for Game Update 7.7, and with it came some changes since the last time you were on the Public Test Server (PTS).  The team wanted to give you all one last update before 7.7’s release to showcase the improvements that were made based on your feedback, track current known issues, and talk about what to expect as we look beyond 7.7!”

Preview Window Fixes

The preview window will match better with what you see in-game. They did not have embedded reflections or correct specularity settings before.

New Species Colors

The developers surprise dropped a bunch of new colors come to various species in the game!

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Almost 100 Twi’lek colors are being added to the game!!! Other species getting lots of new colors include Cathar, Chiss, Mirialian, Nautolan, Sith Pureblood, Togruta, and of course Twi’lek! Preview all the colors here.

As long as you own access to this species, you have access to all of the skin colors that have been added.

It it free to use the skin colors on new characters. Changing an existing character as a subscriber costs 75 CC, and changing an existing characters as a free-to-play or preferred player costs 150 CC. There were no free changes offered.

After  7.7

What will be coming up after 7.7? While we don’t have many hints yet, we do know that there will eventually be…

The Galactic Threads + Master’s Enigma Story

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 that was supposed to come out with Update 7.6 and its counterpart in 7.7  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.” Story Info & Strike

Date Nights

Date Nights, the companion romance continuations, are likely also on hold until the SAG-AFTRA strike is resolved (see above). There are about 28 romanceable companions and the developers were hoping to release more date nights in the cadence of 1-2 Companion Date nights per Galactic Seasons, but this is likely delayed until further notice.

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

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 9 will be starting in Update 7.7.1,  and PvP Seasons Season 9 will start with 7.8.

Graphic Updates

The developer have been working on graphical updates on multiple planets. So far we have seen graphical updates on…

• Character Modernization (lighting, textures – ongoing)
• Preview Window
• New Alien Skin Colors
• Metallic Dyes and Textures
• Tython (waterfalls and trees)
• Korriban (lighting and textures)
• Hutta (lighting, ambient fog and trees)
• Ord Mantell (newer area)
• Ilum (ice and textures)
• Hoth (ice and textures)
• Banks / Cargo Holds

We will likely see more in future updates over time!

Dynamic Encounters

Dynamic Encounters are now available on many planets, with more likely coming in the future.

• Tatooine
• Alderaan
• Ilum
• The two Capital planets:
  • Coruscant
  • Dromund Kaas
• The four smaller starter planets:
  • Tython
  • Korriban
  • Ord Mantell
  • Hutta

DirectX 12

In a previous developer post, the devs said…

With 64-bit now in the game, and DirectX 12 is the next item on the list the developers are working on in the background. They posted some updated information on the progress in late 2024.

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

Crafting Update

New level 80 high-end Augments were added to Crafting in Update 7.6 and 7.7, but will there be a significant re-haul of the crafting system in the future?

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?

Master Mode R4 is currently the only outstanding item on the list from the tenth anniversary, originally shared on a livestream July 1, 2021. Since then, another single-boss Operation called the XR-53 Propagator has come out including its Veteran and Master modes, so it seems unlikely that a Master Mode version of the R4 operation will be worked on / released. The developers said in May 2023,

MM R4 is not on our roadmap. The priorities for our encounters team right now is focused on making more impactful, engaging bosses in story content, delivering Flashpoints in all modes with modern boss mechanics, and making additional challenging 8-player encounters. Now, all of that said. I want to express that we very much understand how critical aspirational endgame group content is. Whether that is delivered through MM Flashpoints, World and Lair bosses, or even Ops. It is still something we will prioritize as a part of our roadmap going forward.