Broadsword revealed what SWTOR 7.5 will offer. The game update is titled “Desperate Defiance” and will introduce a new area on Hutta, a new Spring event on Datooine, a new companion, and Cartel Market items.
Several members of the SWTOR team over at Broadsword hosted a livestream event on May 1st to announce and preview the upcoming game update 7.5 to Star Wars The Old Republic. This article details every segment of the live stream and some additional announcements that follow it.
Exclusive 7.5 Livestream Code
As with every livestream, the developers shared a code players can redeem for an in-game poster.
To get this Darth Malgus stronghold decoration, use the code MalgusWhen on your account page on SWTOR’s website. Capitalization does not matter when entering this code.
Desperate Defiance Storyline
The first topic the devs touched upon is the new storyline being added to continue the events of 7.4’s Chains in the Dar storyline.
The Jedi padawan, Sa’ar Kateen, will play a much more prominent role as she’ll be struggling with her previous decisions. Who could have guessed that giving a power-hungry warlord an ancient and powerful Jedi artifact could cause so much trouble?
Your character will be able to interact with Sa’har and help guide her path for better or for worse.
Not many details were given beyond this outside of a short clip for an in-development cutscene with Sa’har, but this cutscene didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know.
New Hutta Area and Graphics Improvements
Hutta will be getting a new area known as the Minboosa District along with some graphic updates. There is not a lot of information to share about the new area outside of a few new character previews.
In the Minboosa District, you’ll meet a worker rebellion and one of their leaders is a Rodian named Adi Vonapa. He’ll play a key role in getting you the missing holocron and he wears an outfit you can get in the new spring event.
Rakit is another worker rebellion member who’s working with Adi Vonapa. She is an Evocii which was the native species to Nal Hutta (formerly known as Evocar before the Hutts took over). She’ll be Adi’s more aggressive colleague who seeks to reclaim Nal Hutta for her people.
Last we have Yusinduu the Hutt. Like many Hutts, he runs a “legitimate business” and he specializes in running a company that handles Tibanna gas. This gas is what’s used to craft fuel, ammunition for starship weapons, and hyperdrive.
As with previous updates, classic planets such as Tython, Ord Mantell, and Korriban have received visual updates. This time it is Hutta’s turn to receive some of those upgrades.
You can check out the VOD of SWTOR’s Developer Livestream for all the image comparisons, but we’ll be showing some of the more drastic updates here. Do note that these images may not reflect the final product when released.
The atmosphere of Hutta seems to be going from an amber-hued environment to more of a muddy green one. It’s not exactly pretty but this is likely the intent as Hutta is heavily polluted due to the Hutt’s numerous factories and lack of care for the environment.
We received three images of the new Minboosa area on Hutta, though it’s all more or less the same with what they gave us.
The devs provided pictures of an area called the Polluted Swamp, and it is definitely one of the swamps of all time. Let’s hope there’s something more substantial provided as we get future updates.
Dantooine Spring Abundance Festival Event
Dantooine is an often neglected planet as it was primarily introduced to host the Pirate Incursion event. The premise of the new Spring event is that you’ll help restore and maintain a farmstead that will be given to you.
What this entails has yet to be seen, it’s not confirmed if this farmstead is a temporary place to maintain during the event or if it’ll be a stronghold.
For event missions, you’ll need to do things such as planting, watering, and harvesting crops. Participating in the weekly missions will grant you plant decorations for your strongholds.
A farm wouldn’t be complete without critters roaming about, you’ll also be able to rescue abandoned creatures as part of event missions.
Other events include a Pie Crafting and Tasting competition, a festival dance around what I’ll refer to as the “Space Maypole”, Zapping Fish, and weekly egg hunts.
The pie mission will require players to craft pies and if there are an insufficient amount of pies, they can’t be judged and therefore the mission can’t be completed. This is to nudge players to participate in the mission for the benefit of everyone, so grab your friends and make some pies!
With the “Zap-a-Fish” mission, your character will relax on a small pond’s dock and remotely control a probe droid to zap areas of the pond to capture fish. This is certainly an interesting method to catch fish but it seems like a fun and quirky mission.
Weekly egg hunts will have players search the galaxy for these rather large eggs. It is not currently known what creature laid these eggs or what purpose they serve outside of being found. You’ll be able to find them on Alderaan, Rishi, Makeb, Onderon, and Yavin IV.
And who could forget the iconic Star Wars space maypole dance? You can partake in a Spring Festival dance to do… dance or something? Instead of using ropes, participants seem to be linked to some kind of holo or electro-tether anchored to the space maypole.
The last detail we got about this event is some of the rewards you can obtain. These are the Farmland Grazer and Nightshift Tech armor sets. The Farmland Grazer has two variants for the headpiece which allows you to have your goggles on or off.
Basilisk Prototype Venture
A long-awaited moment by many players, we’ll finally see the Basilisk droid we’ve been working on come to fruition! This companion will be known as B3-S1 or “Bessie”, and this will implement a new type of mission known as a “Venture”.
Ventures will be available to subscribed players and they are designed to be a solo mission experience. They plan to grant the player a premium reward upon completion of the Venture.
In the case of B3-S1, your venture will involve upgrading B3-S1 by training it on numerous missions. These missions will require B3-S1 to be in a tank, DPS, or healing mode.
Since B3-S1 is newly constructed, they’ll need training before they’re optimized for standard companion combat. As you complete these missions, B3-S1 will receive upgrades that update their look. When this venture is complete, B3-S1 will be a fully unlocked companion for you to use.
PvP Season 6 and PvP Season Changes
PvP Season 6 and PvP season changes were discussed during the live stream, this new PvP season is a “Pirate Hunter” theme to counterpoint the previous season’s pirate theme.
One major change with PvP Season 6 is that the season will run for 16 weeks instead of 12. All future PvP Seasons will be tied with game updates while Galactic Seasons will start and end when they are ready.
The maximum season level will be increased from 25 to 30 and the maximum catch-up level will be increased from 15 to 20. The catch-up start date will remain unchanged, and the points required to gain levels in the season will be increased from 280 points to 300. You’ll now need 9,000 points to complete the season instead of 7,000.
The PvP Season track will introduce new rewards such as:
- Warzone Adrenals and Medpacs
- A text-only emote, “Arr”
- A “Pirate Hunter” character title
- A “Privateer” legacy title
The warzone adrenal and medpacs rewards don’t add much at all as these were already incredibly easy to get by just participating in PvP or through PvP vendors. A preview of the new armor sets PvP season 6 was shown, these are the Cosmic Corsair and Astromarauder armor sets.
New Cartel Market Items
Two new items are coming to the Cartel Market in SWTOR. The Refined Mentor armor set is a very nice armor set that was inspired by the High Republic. This is likely related to the fact that Star Wars: Acolyte is coming out June 4th this year.
A new facial hair and hair customization option is being introduced, these were inspired by Baylan Skoll from the Ahsoka series. This is referred to as the “Fallen Master Beard”.
Nar Shaddaa Nightlife 2024
The Nar Shaddaa Nightlife event is making a comeback with 7.5. This is a great event to gain unique mounts, cosmetics, and decorations.
A new headpiece will be available when the event is active, the High Stakes Squadron Helmet. While the Nar Shaddaa event is coming July 9th, 2024, this is not the release date of 7.5.
7.5 Public Test Server
The 7.5 PTS server is expected to open within a week after the live stream. You’ll be able to test out the Dantooine Spring Abundance Festival missions, and the Basilisk Prototype venture.
You will not be able to test story content to prevent spoilers. When the time comes, we’ll be able to unravel the mysteries of the space maypole once and for all.
SWTOR 7.5 Release Date Timeframe
An exact date for the 7.5 was not revealed during the livestream. We could speculate that it’ll be coming out in late May or early June.
With the PTS expected to come up in a few days after the livestream and Summer starting on June 21st (for the northern hemisphere), this is the only slot of time that would make sense for its release.
May the 4th is around the corner, and as always the SWTOR team is providing promotional items, sales, and bonus XP. For more information, see our article on the May 4th 2024 Happenings!
While waiting for 7.5, and while enjoying the Double XP event, why not (re)visit some Flashpoints? We have a (soon to be) complete catalog of Flashpoint Guides and our Tacticals mega-catalog and guide will help you choose the best tactical item for every class and every situation! Check them out. For anything else, a great starting point is our SWTOR Guides Master List!
