Star Wars The Old Republic Part 4: Crew Skills

Munianci is level 21 now. A lot has happened. I’ve learned that every class gets multiple companions each with their own specialties and unique stories. I’ve also got a ship! The fury class vessel has yet to be tested in combat but I hope to try that out later this week. Take a look at the picture below. Aside from ship equipment, I’m not sure if there’s any customization possible. The space scenes I’ve seen so far are underwhelming in comparison to Star Trek online.

On the plus side I’ve got my new droid companion, 2V-R8, working tirelessly scavenging for metals and compounds needed for Cybertech.

If I’m ever able to role-play my Sith Inquisitor, I think I’d like her back-story to involve a fetish of killing parents. You ever notice how many children grow up to avenge their murdered parents? I figure Xiaolongnu can be the bad guy there. Would it be too cliche to say that the reason she kills parents is because her own were murdered and she believes that the children will grow to become strong like her and unlike those children with parents who were weak and looked own upon her growing up.

Tradeskills in SWTOR (called crew skills) seem to be pretty easy and for me they’ve been profitable. My favorite part of crew skills is that your character isn’t the one doing the work. You assign the tasks to your companions and they do the work (hence calling them crew skills over trade skills). I chose to learn Cybertech, Underworld Trading and Scavenging for my warrior. Cybertech allows the creation of a number of objects: item modifications that enhance your weapons and armor, droid parts (wearable equipment for the droid companion that comes with your ship), earrings and eventually parts for spaceships. Underworld Trading and Scavenging both require sending companions on missions to gather items used in Cybertech. Some of the byproducts of scavenging and underworld trading are also companion gifts. Last night my friend’s imperial agent began learning Biochem along with Bioanalysis and Diplomacy. Diplomacy and Bioanalysis are the two skills that gather the ingredients needed for Biochem and that enables players to make medpacs and stim packs, which are your heal pots and buff potions.

The crew skills scavenging and underworld trading missions do require spending credits but the rewards are worth more than the cost if sold on the Galactic Trade Network. For Cybertech, I found that the weapon mods sold particularly fast and for a decent return on my investment. I suppose though like any open market, supply and demand will play some part in that continued profitability. UPDATE: On Jung Ma, the prices on crafted items fluctuate constantly. Some days there’s a lot of profit to be made in the end game gear while other days there’s heavy demand and low supply for lower level stuff. Sometimes the ingredients become so scarce on the GTN that you can make more selling those than you would the finished product.

The main bottleneck to crew skill leveling so far has been time. Your companions go off starting for just a minute initially but scavenging and underworld trading above 250 is already taking 20-30 minutes per attempt(some special missions can take 2-3 hours). I don’t mind though because I can log in and have my companions begin crafting while I tab out of the game and list items on eBay. Today while crafting over a 4 hour period, I was able to list a few dozen Nintendo Power posters I acquired a while back. Every few posters listed and I’d tab back into the game to assign the next task as well as list the finished products on the Global Trade Network.

So you might be wondering: Can my companions complete their crew skill tasks while I’m offline? The answer is yes! If you are inactive for about 15 minutes the game will log you off but when you log back in your items will be waiting. I deliberately set Vette and my R2-V8 droid to work on some 3 minute scavenging and switched over to my other character. When I logged back in I was greeted with the rewards of their labor.

TIP: The higher your companions affection, the faster they will complete each mission or crafting.

Hidden Secret: In your Legacy unlocks pages there is an option to add a repair droid to your ship. He costs 1 million credits or 300 cartel coins (the CC is the far superior deal). I’ve never used mine to repair but this droid sells special items for 100,000 credits each that give crew skill bonuses to your 2V-R8 or C2-N2. FOr instance there is one that gives +5% critial chance for scavenging and +5% efficiency with cybertech. This legacy unlock activates for the entire legacy. If you don’t have 1 million credits or 300 cartel coins to spare then ask someone in your guild if they have one on their ship. You can purchase the droid sensors on any player’s ship if they have the unlock.

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