SWTOR Crew Skills Guide

Crew Skills Overview

Welcome to SWTORCrewSkills.com. Upon playing Star Wars: The Old Republic you will notice that crafting (professions) in SWTOR is very different to any other MMORPG’s currently out there. Firstly, they’re not called ‘professions’, they are known as Crew Skills , which you will need to level up whilst playing your character.

While you level up your crew skills, you will not be required to stand behind a ‘forge’ or ‘workbench’ in order to level up your skills. Here is a brief description on how it works:

• While leveling up your character, you will gain up to 5 companions and a starship which is the home for your crew.
• You can send your crew members out to the galaxy to complete missions (such as gather materials) and produce items.
• It is a little different to other MMO’s in the way that you get to ‘manage’ your crew members who level up your crew skills while you’re out in the galaxy completing quests and killing creatures. This gives you a little freedom because you do not have to commit hours and hours of gameplay to mundane tasks like gathering materials.
• Crafting items generally take a few minutes to produce but you can gain ‘affection’ points with your crew which will encourage them to work faster and decrease the time to gather materials or craft items.

Crew Skills Basics

• You can have a maximum of 3 x Crew Skills at any one time and only 1 of these can be a Crafting Crew Skill. For example you can have any of the below combinations:
  • 1 x Gatheing Crew Skill, 1 x Crafting Crew Skill and 1 x Mission Crew Skill only or
  • 3 x Gathering Crew Skills only or
  • 3 x Mission Crew Skills only or
  • 1 x Crafting Crew Skill and 2 x Gathering Crew Skills only or
  • 1 x Crafting Crew Skill and 2 x Mission Crew Skills only.
• You can learn any Crew Skills for any Class, there are no limitations although we would suggest you follow the “What Crafting Crew Skills should I use for my Class?” below
• When you reach Level 10 you will get a quest which will tell you to research a Crew Skill – however we suggest you talk to all of them as this will give you more experience
• Your companions cannot die on a crafting mission but they can fail
• Using your Gathering Crew Skills allow you to access various resources nodes (a resource point of interaction) around the Galaxy
• If you are with your companion, Right-Clicking a node will make you companion loot it
• If you are with your companion, [Shift + Right Click] will make you take it
• You can gain ‘Affection’ with your Companion to decrease the time it takes to complete a Crew Skill
• Crafting missions can take between 5 minutes to 24 hours (your companions will continue to work if you’re logged off)
• A companion can queue up to 5 sessions at one time, you can also keep adding onto the queue once they have completed a job but 5 is the maximum at any time
• You can keep your gathering materials in the bank and your companion will still have access to them. You don’t need to carry them around with you wherever you go

How to get started with Crew Skills

After you leave your staring world at around Level 10, you will be placed on a Starship where you get to select your Advanced Class. At this time, you will also pick up quests leading you to the Crew Skills Trainers. Here is a short guide on what you need to know:

• We suggest you talk to every skill trainer there, you will gain more experience (even if you don’t want to pick up that skill initially, you can just click Cancel when they ask if you want to learn it).
• Once you have learn your 3 Crew Skills, you can clik the diamond icon at the top of your screen and a new window will appear with your crew members’ pictures and three icons for you known professions. Right from here, you can send your companions out to gather materials.
• Each mission costs credits to start and usually takes a few minutes to complete.
• The longer the mission takes, the more chances the companion can return with a higher quality item (e.g. a blue item instead of a green item)

Orange??? Did I just get a Legendary Item??? (Custom Items)

I’m afraid not, sorry. Available in SWTOR is the ability to ‘Modify’ your armor and weapons. This is called ‘Custom Items’. This lets continue modifying your items (because you think they look cool) to use still be powerful enough to use to the end game. This means you can keep them indefinitely!

Custom Items (labelled orange) can also be used by your companions. So you can customise their look as well.

• Custom Items are shown with an orange border and are fully moddable (changes are purely cosmetic)
• Custom Items are very common, they can be obtained through class quests around Level 8
• Also commonly found in Flashpoints (instances) and as rewards for heroic missions
• Several pieces can be obtained through using planetary commendations
• Remember orange items do not mean legendary!

What is this ‘Reverse Engineering’ you speak of???

After choosing your crafting skills, you’re given the ability to reverse engineer certain items in your inventory. Reverse Engineering (RE) breaks items down into components you can then use to craft new items, including a higher quality version of that same item. You can reverse engineer most items that you craft and some items that you find in the world. To reverse engineer an item, open your Inventory Module and left-click the reverse engineering icon.

• Reverse Engineering (RE) is the process of de-constructing an item in order to gain some of its crafting materials. There is also a chance of gaining a new recipe.
• The quality of the item determines what materials you receive
• You can only Reverse Engineer specific types of items you can craft yourself. For example synthweaving will only allow you to Reverse Engineer force user armours.
• When an item is reversed engineered, the item is destroyed in the process. Make sure you RE the correct item because once it is gone, it isn’t coming back!
• Reverse engineering can be done at any time in the game, you do not require any form work bench
• To reverse engineer an item simply click the golden RE icon in the upper right corner of your inventory.
• When clicked this will blackout any non-reversible items and highlight those you can Reverse.
• Simply click on the item you want to RE and you will begin doing so.
• After the item has been RE’d a loot table will pop up with the materials you gathered from the process. Click take all.
• An important aspect of Reverse Engineering is that it will be the only way to get certain patterns/recipes.
• Reverse Engineering a green item has a small chance to give you a blue schematic of the same item
• Reverse Engineering a blue item has a small chance to give you a purple schematic of the same item
• If you want to reverse engineer health packs or stims be careful because you will reverse engineer the whole stack! Make sure you split up stacks before you reverse engineer if you want to keep a specific quantity.
• To split a stack simply [Shift + Click] the item then drag the cursor into an inventory slot.

Item Modification

It is important not to get this confused with “Custom Items”. Item Modification is a bit like ‘Reforging’ in WOW where you can modify equipment to enhance general Stats. The difference is, in WOW you would generally Reforge to swap and change Stats to better compliment each other. In SWTOR:

• Basically when you add a modification you are giving the item better stats
• Mods can be bought via credits and commendations some can also be traded and sold to other players.
• You can modify many weapons and armours in game whenever you like
• A general crafting table isn’t required, you simply have to [Ctrl + Right Click] the item you want to modify
• Simply drag and drop or [Right Click] the item into its designated slot and click apply for the mod to take effect.
• You can also de-mod an item, for a small fee
• To de-mod an item Simply drag and drop the modification out of its slot and into your inventory, you will then be prompted with a message saying “this will cost however many credits” and click OK. The mod will then be in your inventory and you can place another in its place.
• If you don’t remove the mod from its slot before placing another, the previous mod will be replaced and destroyed.
• Colour crystals change the colour of your weapons effect. These items also have stats on them which means at some point in time you will have to decide whether to keep the colour you want or choose the colour with the better stats.
• Whether this will be kept implemented is left for debate, voice your concerns in SWTOR Crwe Skills Forum.
• Also note that some colour crystals (and various other items) are forbidden to certain ranks within the Light or Dark side of the force. For example, red lightsaber crystals are forbidden to Rank 1 Light or above.

What Crafting Crew Skills should I use for my Class?

Here are our suggestions on what Crafting Crew Skills you should use for your Class:

• Jedi Knight – Artifice, Synthweaving, Biochem
• Jedi Consular – Artifice, Synthweaving, Biochem
• Smuggler – Armormech, Armstech, Biochem, Cybertech
• Trooper – Armormech, Armstech, Biochem, Cybertech

• Sith Warrior – Artifice, Synthweaving, Biochem
• Sith Inquisitor – Artifice, Synthweaving, Biochem
• Bounty Hunter – Armormech, Armstech, Biochem, Cybertech
• Imperial Agent – Armormech, Armstech, Biochem, Cybertech

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