Star Wars: The Old Republic – basic gameplay answers

This post is designed for the SWTOR player (like me) that needs to jump in and play without necessarily reading all the tutorials.

On levelling up my first beta toon (a Sith Inquisitor) and then my primary toon (a Jedi Consular), I struggled to find answers to a few things – not because the answers weren’t there, but because I didn’t have a lot of time to look.

So without further ado, here’s some key things that’ll make your playing experience more fun. This post will be updated as I progress through the game. I’ve only added things that really took me some time to work out to the point I was asking in guild or general chat.

Interface

1. How do I toggle between full screen and windowed mode? – Press Alt-Enter
2. How do I set auto loot? – Press Escape > Preferences > General > Select ‘Auto-Loot on Right CLick’
3. How do I change my Key Bindings? – Press Escape > Preferences > Select Key Bindings Tab at bottom left of the window
4. Does SWTOR have an auction house to sell gear? – Yes, it’s called the Galactic Trade Network, and there are kiosks in game that allow you to browse goods for sale and sell your own
5. How do I use my speeder after I’ve bought it? – Right click on it in inventory and it’ll grant you access. Then go to your abilities window, select the ‘vehicles’ tab and drag the vehicle you purchased to your action bar.
6. Can I talk to my companions on my ship? – Yes, you can’t summon them but they have their own quarters on the ship – go find em!

Gameplay

1. How do I find my class trainer? – Press ‘M’ to bring up the large map then on the bottm left select ‘Trainer’ and it’ll show where they are (assuming they’re in the area you currently are)
2. How do I compare the stats of an item with my companion’s item? – Go to Preferences > User Interface > Tool Tips > ‘Enable Companion Comparative Tooltips’
3. I’ve selected a quest reward but my inventory is full, how do I go back to get the reward? – You’ll see a flashing message in the very top right of your window – click on that and there’s your reward!
4. How do I get my Speeder Training Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3? – Your class trainer.

Random Quest Stuff – Republic

1. Taris, Prized Possessions Quest, where are the Nadu Seeds? – at -1053, 409 (in the shed with the bull dozers – it looks like a big hay bale)

2. Where is the Dynamet General Hospital Research Level? – it’s on the lowest level – go outside to -448, -168 and you’ll see the entrance.

3. Burnoff Quest, where are the toxic stockpiles? – ignore the green vats of sludge, what you’re looking for is the blue pots further into the Chemworks Factory. Just right click on one of them and they’ll be destroyed.

4. Missing Link Quest, where do I find the Rakghoul Camera? – You just need to kill one of the Rakghouls at the south of the Forward Research Camp and eventually the camera will drop.

5. Double Negative Quest, how do I get to the quarantine zone at the top right? – Work your way to the bottom left section on the map, then go to 2302,-3345 and there’s a little entrance that gets you there.

6. The Hunted Quest, where is the Public Holoterminal in Anchorhead? – it’s north east of where the map highlights, at 2154,434

7. A Time To Reflect Quest, what do I do when I get to the Republic Fleet? – I made the mistake of using my emergency fleet pass. You need to travel in your ship then the log will update to show you need to talk to Master Shanji-vru.

8. Fertilizer: Save The Fields Quest, how do I collect the soil samples? – You just go to the soil patches with the green gas rising off them. In your mission inventory you’ll see a sampling tool – use that and you’ll collect the sample. Clicking on the empty vial will do nothing.

9. Questionable Sources Quest, where is the Chiss defector? – He’s the frozen body being examined by a Cryo Commando just south of the mini-map marker.

10. Shattering, how do I disable the forcefield? – Use the console after killing the big robot. Wait for the little maintenance robot to go to each of the consoles around the room and once it’s in the middle of the force-field, use the item in your mission inventory on the maintenance robot and you can then open the door.

11. Green Battleground, how do I destroy the Imperial walkers? – This isn’t all obvious but you just need to mouse over main body of the walker at the top, right click and your toon will fire the rocket launcher in your quest inventory.

12. Operation: Overwatch, how do I use the drill scanner? – This is a painful oversight by BioWare in not instructing you how to use this. Go to your mission items in your inventory, right click the scanner, and once it launches, mouse up to the roof where the drill is and press AND HOLD the space bar and the scan will be taken.

13. Taking Back Talaos – Final Strike bonus: how do I get to the final Anti-Air Gun? – This is one of the stupidest things I’ve seen in the game, as you need to spend a long time roof hopping to get there. Here’s how: go to 3744,-169 and jump over the ledge onto the greenery/lattice, go straight ahead then left until you see another lattice ramping up. Make your way to around 3665, -439 and climb up onto that ledge then jump down onto the smaller ledge running perpendicular to the one you’re jumping off. You’ll now see the wrecked ship above you. Go to 3619,-174 and your binoculars will work – look up and to the right and you’ll be able to target the anti-air gun.