Hyperspace Beacon: How to approach SWTOR as a total newbie

My experience with World of Warcraft is minimal. I played the game for about a month just after The Burning Crusade launched. I have hopped in and out for a day or two here and there since, but it’s never been the game for me. I know that one of the reasons that I didn’t stick with it was because the breadth and scope of the game has grown to colossal proportions. And if I want to experience everything that WoW has to offer now, I would literally have to play the game for years.

My issues with starting WoW got me thinking about people who might be hopping into Star Wars: The Old Republic for the first time. What is the new-player experience like now for SWTOR? It’s difficult to imagine what that’s like when you’ve been playing the game for over five years now. I may not be an ambassador for this game, and it’s not my job to promote the game in any way, but I do enjoy this game very much, and in spite of its mistakes, BioWare has created a wonderful MMORPG worth experiencing.

Today, let’s look at a couple of different approaches to starting the game fresh. Maybe you’ve never played this game before, or maybe you want to look at it with fresh eyes. This column is for you.

Free-to-play approach

I really, really want people to jump into this game without obligations, just to try it out. If you’ve not heard (wink, wink), SWTOR has story. The fastest way to experience that story is to jump in on a free account and play through some of it, but I’m not sure that the free-to-play experience gives you a solid understanding of what the game is like when you actually subscribe to it. In fact, the biggest bummer about SWTOR’s free-to-play model isn’t its restrictions; it’s that it gives in an inaccurate impression of how the game plays.

Of course, there are pros and cons to just jumping into the game without dropping a dime on it. Obviously, the the first pro is that you don’t have to pay anything; there is zero financial commitment. Also there isn’t much of a hard drive commitment either because the game will download in the background as you play through the first planet. But the restrictions on experience, character customization, and even hotbars hold players back so much that they make participation in the leveling process with anyone who is not a free-to-play player extremely frustrating for all parties.

F2P-hybrid approach

To avoid the F2P frustration, I suggest that you take a slightly different approach if you’re not looking to pay a monthly subscription just yet. However you approach the leveling process (I’ll outline a couple of these approaches later on), you will want to subscribe for a month so that you can earn in-game credits without restrictions. Then you’ll want to buy several different unlocks from the galactic trade network: Unlock Inventory Module, Crew Skill Slot, Display Character Titles, Unify Colors, Display Character Legacy Name and Tiles, Two Additional Quickbars, Hide Head Slot, and Authorization: Artifact Equipment. All but the last three are included in a bundle called Preferred Access Bundle.

Once you’ve obtained all of those, the game will feel better and a lot closer to the subscription model. With theses additions, you can comfortably unsubscribe, dropping down to Preferred access. And I know many people who play the game as a Preferred player quite comfortably and still enjoy the game. If you don’t play the GTN, then you will likely only need endgame passes, like operations weekly passes.

If you believe that you can absorb everything about the game in a week, there is another solution. A refer-a-friend pass will give you seven days of subscription access. Some people have been able to pull that off! If you think you can do it, I have included my refer-a-friend link assuming you don’t have one from another friend already.

Immersive story approach

These next few approaches to leveling up center around your goals in the game itself. You can do these in conjunction with the F2P or hybrid approach, but I honestly believe that you should be fully subscribed to get the best experience.

I love the story in SWTOR. The full story leading up to Knights of the Fallen Empire takes place over five years, which are divided into five different chapters. Deviant Artist DreamingEisha created a great visual aid for the story order of all the SWTOR content. If you’re looking for the most complete story content, this is order you should do everything. You’ll likely overlevel the content rather quickly, but that’s not why you’re playing, right? You want to know what the story is about.

However, if you are interested in story but just want the meat as you level up, follow the same chart but complete only the personal story quest and the planetary quests. Since update 4.0, all the story-related quests are now highlighted in purple in your quest log, and the quest givers now have purple symbols above their heads.

Fast path to endgame

I know that some of you are looking for a faster way to level up to max, and there is really efficient and simple way to do that.

Start by completing the primary quests on the starter world. This should take only an hour or two at most. You will have a companion and access to the fleet. On the fleet sit heroic terminals. Heroics are the group-oriented quests that I talk about in my post about earning a million credits in an hour. As a low level character, you’ll not gain a million credits in an hour because the rewards are scaled to your level. However, if you take the heroic quests in planetary order, you will gain levels at the same rate as if you were going through the story quests, except Heroics don’t take as long. And once you finish the heroics on Makeb, you will be level 55 and ready for story-mode endgame.

Killer approach

Lastly, the most inefficient way to level in SWTOR (other than roleplaying in the fleet cantina) is through PvP. I do not recommend doing this at all, unless all you ever want to do in the game is PvP.

You can start queuing for PvP once you hit level 10, and I will admit that low-level PvP can be a lot of fun. And even if you’re not looking to level completely through PvP, I would recommend peppering a couple of PvP matches in your leveling process before you’re completely jaded by endgame PvP.

PvP can level you all the way to level 65, if you wish. I’m not a proponent of that type of leveling in SWTOR, but to each his own.

What are your ways that you recommend leveling? I’ve not looked at leveling through flashpoints alone, but I heard it can be done. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.