SWTOR’s 6.1 Pinnacles of Power goes live today with new story beat and stronghold

Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Pinnacles of Power was meant to go live this past Tuesday. It didn’t. It was delayed, according to BioWare, over a “last minute issue with the patch” that apparently needed “[active] investigation.” Fortunately, it must have been a speedy investigation because fears that the delay could stretch to next week have been allayed with the release coming today now instead.

As we’ve previously noted, GU 6.1 is a relatively small release for SWTOR, with a brief prologue for the 2020 storyline; BioWare has characterized it as a “small story beat around the size of Hearts and Minds.”

“In the aftermath of the Sith Empire’s assault on the Meridian Complex Shipyard, both factions form elite organizations to carry out key objectives that could tip the balance of the war. As fighting intensifies across the galaxy, representatives from the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire arrive on Odessen to discuss plans of attack.”

The Alderaan Noble Estate stronghold and class tweaks may actually be the bigger draw this round, along with the tweaks to Uprisings, which BioWare has justified as necessary because Uprisings were “wildly out of tune” in regard to level and relative content difficulty. Servers went down at 8 a.m. EST this morning and are expected to be back up around noon.

Incidentally, if you’re angling to check out the stronghold in person before dropping coin on it, there are lovely community members offering to take you on a tour.

As for what’s coming after 6.1? Here’s BioWare’s Charles Boyd two weeks ago:

“6.1 will be followed by 6.1.1 and 6.1.2. After that, our next story beat will come in Game Update 6.2: The One Where Crazy Stuff Happens*. Since it’s still in the works and a bit further out, I won’t go into nearly as much detail, and I’m going to put just about everything in spoiler tags just in case. But the TL;DR is that 6.2 will deal directly with the situation Kira and Scourge bring to light at the end of Onslaught. […] Beyond that, in addition to the content, features, and quality-of-life improvements Keith mentioned that we’re looking to add past 6.1.2 and 6.2, you can expect the storyline that started with Jedi Under Siege and Onslaught to continue through our updates the rest of this year and beyond. After all, we’re in our ninth year, and our tenth anniversary is just around the corner–a very exciting time for SWTOR to be sure!”