What to expect in Update 7.9 in SWTOR! – Legacy Reborn

The developers have released a ton of info about what is coming up in Update 7.9, the next big update to Star Wars: The Old Republic! Update 7.9 will be focused on the finale story of the latest expansion, PvP Season 10, and we learned a bunch about what’s coming up in the future of the game.

What is in Update 7.9?

• New Story: Legacy Reborn
  • Finale to the Legacy of the Sith expansion
  • Takes place on Khar Shian, Naga Sadow’s Fortress
  • Play as key characters
• PvP Season 10
• Wreckage on Dantooine Changes
• Companion Return Terminal Upgrades
• Nar Shadda Nightlife Event (June 30 – August 11, 2026)
• New Cartel Market Items

When is Update 7.9?

We don’t have an exact date! The developers said “End of May”.  My guess is May 27th, but who knows!

What will be the May the 4th event?

• Free Pet item for logging in (May 1 – 22, 2026)
• Free mount for subscribers (May 1 – 22, 2026)
• 50% off collections unlock sale (May 1 – 22, 2026)
• 25-75% off “Inspired by” Cartel Market items sale (May 1 – 22, 2026)
• Double XP Event (May 1 – 22, 2026)

What is coming later?

• June 30 – August 11, 2026 – Nar Shadda Nightlife Event with new reward(s)
• July/August 2026 – Game Update 7.9.1
  • Galactic Season 11 – Fen Zeil & Amity Return
• October/November 2026 – Feast of Prosperity with new reward(s)
• PTS testing for 8.0 later in the year
• PTS testing for DX12 later in the year
• December 2026 – 15th Anniversary
• December 2026? Game Update 8.0
  • New Story
  • Level 85
  • New Gearing System
  • New Abilities & Combat Balancing
  • New 3-boss Operation in Story & Veteran Mode
  • New Dynamic Encounter planet – Ryloth, homeworld of the Twi’leks!
  • .. and more to be revealed!

Developer Livestream Recording

Watch Video

Twitch Drops

From now until May 14, to get the Poster: Dantooine Crash Site (Purple Frame) watch 1 Hour of any SWTOR streamer starting at launch until the end date 14 days later. 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!

Twitch Drops are a way of gaining rewards by watching players play Star Wars: The Old Republic on the Twitch live-streaming service, where gamers often share their screen while playing games and chatting with the audience. Players have long asked for Twitch drops to be added to the game, and the developers have now put in the back-end work to make this possible for players to gain rewards from.

SWTOR Twitch Drops Guide

Once 7.9 launches, to get the Nightshade Hssiss mount watch 4 Hours of any SWTOR streamer starting at launch until the end date 28 days later. 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! I’ll be streaming plenty on launch day.

Story

German & French Delay

There is an important caveat for the non-english voice acting (German & French): At the launch of Update 7.8, and now 7.8.1 & 7.9, players using a French or German client will be able to play Galactic Threads with English voices, and subtitles in their native language, but German and French recordings will be coming in the future, date to be announced. The reason the voice acting for these two language is likely delated even with the SAG-AFTRA voice actor’s union resolving their strike is that German and French voice actors do not have a unified Voice Actors union, unlike the US having SAG-AFTRA. This makes any negotiation with voice actors  complicated and per-person or per-agent, so it sounds like the developers have decided to at least get the English voice acting out rather then delaying the story even further.

Caught Up

If you are trying to find out if you are caught up, these are all the areas and quests you would need to complete to start the new story:

• Ossus
• Dantooine
• EXPANSION: Onslaught (Onderon & Mek-Sha)
• FLASHPOINT: Objective Meridian
• Echoes of Oblivion
• Spirit of Vengeance
• FLASHPOINT: Secrets of the Enclave (Dantooine Flashpoint)
• EXPANSION: Legacy of the Sith (Manaan)
• FLASHPOINT: Ruins of Nul
• Digging Deeper
• Manaan
• Ruhnuk
• Interpreter’s Retreat on Voss
• FLASHPOINT: Shrine of Silence (Optional)
• Kessan’s Landing on Ord Mantell
• Minboosa District on Hutta
• Galactic Threads
• Master’s Engima
• …then the new story.
• (ideally you’ve started the Basilisk droid quest too)

What’s the story about?

SPOILER WARNING: Skip this section if you do not want any story spoilers about what is coming up in the story!

Everything is coming to a head at Khar Shian. Darth Jadus has taken the holocron from you, with the help of a “traitorous ally”. The Hidden Chain has rebuilt Darth Null’s machine (that you saw from the disorder trailer) and the smaller one that was on the Hidden Chain ship. They’ve built the big one on Khar Shian.

The the thing that I love about this and we play the Disorder trailer right before the stream happens, but you should really just go watch it again because what what I think is cool here we are at the finale, but I mean obviously this was the setup that was we kicked this can or boulder down the hill. I’m bad at metaphors today. Um, at the very beginning, right, there’s a big machine. The big machine is there with Malgus walking up to it. Out of that machine pops a holocron. And here we are at the finale. And wouldn’t you know it, boy, there’s a big machine. And that holocron is going there. And so is Malgus. It’s like it’s like poetry. It rhymes. Huh. Sure does. So, um,

Not only is Jadus and the Hidden Chain going to be on Khar Shian, Shar Vizla and Malgus also know where Khar Shian is, and the player is going to Khar Shian. We’re all going to Khar Shian.

Khar Shian, you may have seen around Star Wars, was the home of the fortress of Naga Sadow. We might be exploring some of Naga Sadow’s history on Khar Shian, which is going to be super cool.

Gameplay

Spoilers: The Legacy Reborn story has a unique feature where you can play through unique other perspectives and experiences during the story, as key characters. The developers showed Lana Beniko and teased Darth Malgus.

Returning Characters

Lana and Theron

Your “ride or dies”, Lana and Theron are going to be there, if they’re still around. They are your main supporters in all of this, and are trying to figure out what Jadus is up to, and what Malgus is going to do, what Shae is going to do, stopping the Hidden Chain, and they’re with you 100%.

Jekiah and Rass Ordo and Lane Vizla

There’s the Mandalorians that have been loyal to Mandalore up to this point. We will be working a lot with Jekiah and Rass Ordo as well as Lane Vizla – it could be that she was working on something super special that could be relevant in a battle. Her technology would certainly come in handy right now, huh?

Arn Peralun

On the Republic side, we have Arn Peralun, Jedi Knight, who’s going to be who is going to be with us just like at the end of of Master’s Enigma. And so, basically coming into this moment, he is at your side as we approach Khar Shian.

Major Anri

On the Imperial side, we have Major Anri – she’s with you until the end.

Darth Jadus

Darth Jadus is returning. We’ve got Darth Jadus, we’ve got Darth Malgus, we’ve got Heta Kohl. There’s a lot of different pieces here, we’ll see how they’re all going to line up and what everybody’s priorities and goals are in this scene. Jadus is controlling a lot of those pieces, so we’ll see what he does with them.

Dark Malgus and Shae Vizla

Finally we are going to see Dark Malgus and Shae Vizla and her whole crew from the breakout at the fleet, the “Shae team” as we have called them, they’re all coming to Khar Shian as well. Malgus is the one that kind of quite literally kicked the door in to begin “breaking of the chains” and so he have to see that through. Malgus is the center of all of this – so we’ll see what he does when he gets there. (You get to play as Malgus!) He just wrecks shop and bulldozes through everybody. You’ll also see how you as the player decide what goes on around as well.

These are the only characters they covered – but it’s assumed we’ll see Sa’har, her brother, and Darth Rivix too!

Dantooine Biomes Changes

The developers are doing some cleanup on the Dantooine Dynamic Encounters quests.

• The intro quest will be skippable on later characters
• The Orbital Core will no longer be required for the main story quest
• Faster % for changing and moving through the biome levels
• More info coming later in patch notes

SWTOR Dantooine Biome Dynamic Encounters Guide

Companion Return Terminal Updates

This just makes it easier to get missing companions back so you don’t need to find the actual terminal in the galaxy. Now you can just use the Companions menu instead.

This terminal is so obscure and wonky that I don’t even have a guide about it on the site LOL.

PvP Season 10

PvP Season 10 will be called Honor in Battle and will be starting with the launc of Update 7.9 and will run for 16 weeks like the other PvP Seasons. The new armors and decorations will be showcased later on the SWTOR website. The theme is “knight” and there is some new flairs with heraldry shields.

Nar Shaddaa Nightlife

The Nar Shaddaa Nightlife will be returning June 30 – August 11, 2026. There will be new decorations  rewards from the Emperor’s  Grace Machine but they were not shown on the stream, and will be shown on swtor.com in the future closer to the event.

SWTOR Nar Shaddaa Nightlife Event Guide

Cartel Market

There are a bunch of new items coming with 7.9, and apparently there’s even more they didn’t showcase!

Naga Sadow’s Fortress Blade

Naga Sadow’s Fortress Bladestaff

Pit Fighter’s Vibroblade

Pit Fighter’s Dual Vibroblade

EE-2MAG Blaster Pistol, EE-2MAG Blaster Rifle, EE-2MAG Sniper Rifle

May the 4th Rewards (May 1 – 22, 2026)

May the 4th rewards are out now. From May 1 – 22, 2206

• 50% Collections Unlock Sale
• All Inspired By items on the Cartel Market will be 25-75% off
• Double XP Event
• Log in and receive an exclusive BX-RC Probe Droid Minipet!
• Players with an active subscription between May 1st and May 22nd will receive the Vectron Phantom RC2 mount, inspired by the Razor Crest in Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu!

Double XP Event (May 1 – 22, 2026)

The Double XP Event, some times known as “double XP week” or “double xp month”, is a limited-time event in Star Wars: The Old Republic. This event takes place sporadically every few months or so but does not have a set schedule, and allows players to level up new characters faster than the normal rate of leveling up in the game.

Double XP Event Guide

Collections Sale (May 1 – 22, 2026)

The Collections system is a way of unlocking Cartel Market items across your entire account, for all your characters on every server. Any Cartel Market armor set, mount, emote, color crystal, weapon, pet, toy, title, cartel companion or flair can be unlocked through collections. Items from the Cartel Market are easy to identify by the small Cartel Coin symbol on the bottom left of their item icon.

May 1 – 22, 2026 has all items in Collections 50% off.

SWTOR Collections Guide

Cartel Market inspired-by sale (May 1 – 22, 2026)

To celebrate Star Wars “May the 4th” be with you and the new movie coming out, the SWTOR devs have put a bunch of items on sale on the Cartel Market 25-75% off!

“Inspired By” Cartel Market Sale + 50% off Collections May 1- 22, 2026!

After  7.9

What will be coming up after 7.9? While we don’t have many hints yet, we do know that there will eventually be…

German & French Voice Acting for Galactic Threads

At the launch of Update 7.8, players using a French or German client will be able to play Galactic Threads with English voices, and subtitles in their native language, but German and French recordings will be coming in the future, date to be announced. The reason the voice acting for these two language is likely delayed even with the SAG-AFTRA voice actor’s union resolving their strike is that German and French voice actors do not have a unified Voice Actors union, unlike the US having SAG-AFTRA. This makes any negotiation with voice actors  complicated and per-person or per-agent, so it sounds like the developers have decided to at least get the English voice acting out rather then delaying the story even further. This delay has continued to Master’s Enigma and Legacy Reborn.

Date Nights

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. We do not know when the next date nights will come.

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 (Update 7.8.1)
• 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 (Update 7.8.1)
• Vector
• Vette (Update 7.5.1)
• Zenith

Seasons

We will see the continuation of PvP Seasons and Galactic Seasons – Galactic Seasons Season 11 will be starting in Update 7.9.1 and PvP Seasons Season 11 will starting after that.

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
• Dantooine (Biomes)
• Ryloth! (8.0)

DirectX 12

The developers have been working on switching the game to DirectX 12 since 2023. Here’s the latest details!

SWTOR DirectX 12 Progress Update – Frostbite Engine Integration!

Other

Dye Changes

In the 7.6 Developer stream in late 2024, the developers mentioned some changes to dyes might be coming. We have not heard more since.

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, colors – 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
• Character Select Screen
• Font colors and sizes adjustments for accessibility

We will likely see more in future updates over time scattered between updates.

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. This has not been brought back up in a while and may have been shelved in favor of other projects.

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