DS Jedi Consular: Nar Shaddaa

Before I dive into my consular’s adventures on Nar Shaddaa, I wanted to give a shoutout to the devs. Much to my surprise they fixed a feature that was long overdue, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Pets now stay with you even after traveling to different planets and zones. The game even remembers the pet you had after quitting and you’ll see your pet on logging in again. If you die you will have to summon it. I’m a pet enthusiast and for a while I went out of my way to add pets to my collection. Eventually, my enthusiasm waned because it became a chore having to constantly summon my pet.

Now that they stay with you all the time, I might start collecting them again. I wouldn’t have even known this feature was added if it hadn’t been for Intisar mentioning it on Twitter (X). I had read the patch notes ahead of the 7.4.1 update and thought it was strange that they hadn’t mentioned this change. Later Eric Musco made a dev post where he explained that they had accidentally forgotten to add certain information to the patch notes. He didn’t specifically mention the pet change in his post, but I’m guessing it was also something they had intended to highlight.

Galactic Season 6 is live and while that is taking up most of my attention, luckily there was an objective in the first week to complete 15 missions as a Jedi consular or Sith inquisitor. It gave me the perfect excuse to get my consular started on Nar Shaddaa.

Kas was sent to Nar Shaddaa to find Jedi master Duras Fain. Syo Bakarn believed Fain was leading a cult called The Guiding Hand against the Hutt Cartel. Naturally, it would be embarrassing for the Jedi Order if it was discovered one of their own was involved in the cult’s activities, so she was tasked with finding him before the Hutt Cartel. Kas went to Tharan Cedrax because she was told he could help them locate the Jedi. He wasn’t at his office, but she met Holiday a sentient hologram with a unique personality. Holiday informed Kas that he was delivering a prototype weapon to an interested buyer in the Nikto Sector, but she was beginning to get worried because he was long overdue. Kas expressed her annoyance at having to track him down since she needed to find the Jedi master as quickly as possible.

She headed to the Nikto Sector and arrived just in time to witness a Nikto boss threatening Cedrax. He wanted to use the weapon against the Hutt Cartel and Tharan Cedrax was less than willing because it could easily be traced back to him and he didn’t want to end up on the Hutt Cartel’s radar. Kas told the Nikto boss that threatening people in front of a Jedi was a very bad idea. In spite of her aggressive stance the Nikto boss was thoroughly unimpressed with her bravado, even going so far as to call her a puny Jedi compared to the powerful master who had shown him the truth. He warned that the darkness was coming, and the gangs of Nar Shaddaa were uniting against it because they were the master’s Guiding Hand meant to crush the Hutt Cartel. Kas questioned him wanting to know what the Hutt Cartel had to do with the darkness and was told they were an agent of the darkness. He ordered her to stand aside so he could take Cedrax’s prototype to the master. She said no and a fight broke out.

Cedrax was grateful for the save and really laid the flattery on a little thick. I had actually forgotten how off-putting the guy is with his constant flirting. If I’m remembering correctly, in my first playthrough he acted like we were in a relationship in spite of the fact I kept turning him down. I guess I have that to look forward to in the future. Even with his unwanted flirting, Tharan Cedrax and Holiday are actually one of my favorite companions for the consular. Their weird relationship is so hilarious, and I can’t wait to get to the part where he gives me the ‘we have to be just friends’ speech because Holiday is jealous.

Kas impatiently explained the situation to him and Cedrax admitted he didn’t know where to find the Jedi master but suggested a local gang called the Red Light Lancers might be the key to figuring out his location. The gang had been pestering him to do a special job for them and he could pretend to be interested and set up a meeting with them. In order to prove her expertise to the gang he gave her the prototype.

At the Red-Light Lancers hideout, she met a man named Klage who was less than thrilled that someone other than Cedrax had shown up for the job. Kas told him he could spend days chasing Cedrax or hire her now and give the weapon to his master. He decided to test her knowledge before giving her the job and asked a rookie question about a D3-TR port. Cedrax told her it was used to fix computer spikes and she repeated the information. He then asked if she were to slice into the Nar Shaddaa traffic control tower what channel would she cut? Cedrax adviced her to say any channel except 552 because it was too risky. She decided to bluff and told him she would slice channel 552 because she was that good. Klage was suitably impressed and welcomed her to the gang. She asked to see the master and was denied since new recruits never see him. He gave her the task to destroy a bunch of spice factories the Hutt Cartel shared with the Empire.

She headed back to Cedrax’s office, and he gave her a Sith Overseer’s ID after modifying it to trigger the defenses and bring down the factories. She entered the Defense Network Control Center where an Imperial captain stopped her and demanded she state her business. Kas pretended to be a Sith, showing him her ID and acted angry that he would dare question her authority. She bluffed and told him that the Emperor himself requested the inspection and would be displeased with his insubordination. The captain nearly wet himself and swore to do better. She then ordered him to leave. I was prompted twice with the option to kill him, and I seriously considered it, however, in the end decided scaring the pants off him would be good enough.

She imputed the ID into the computer, triggering the alarm and the factories were destroyed. Klage called to congratulate her and said the master wanted to meet her. She headed back to the Red-Light Lancers headquarters where Duras Fain was waiting for her via holoterminal. He immediately recognized her as a Jedi and asked her if Syo Bakarn had lightened up or was still the same old stuffed robe. Figuring she could get on his good side she told him that she doubted Bakarn would ever change. He told her the Order was backward but didn’t have time to chat because the darkness was coming, and he needed to prepare. He ordered his men to deal with her.

When the battle was over, Cedrax contacted Kas to see if she was all right. After a bit of back and forth he suggested she activate the holoterminal and let Holiday trace the signal to try pinpointing the Jedi master’s location. Holiday sliced into the terminal and traced Fain to Shadow Town. She headed back to Cedrax’s office to get his help and a Hutt Cartel enforcer was already there and confronted her, threatening to report back to his superiors that the Jedi were running The Guiding Hand. Knowing the information couldn’t get back to the Hutt Cartel, Kas attacked the enforcer and his men to silence them.

Cedrax took down the defenses and gave her a device that should prevent Fain from brainwashing them. They made their way to Shadow Town and Kas provided a distraction in order to let Holiday and Cedrax scramble the camera uplink. She approached the guard and he assumed she was a prisoner and ordered her back to the guard tower. She demanded a lawyer, but he was adamant she wasn’t going to get one.

Next, they needed to cut the power to Fain’s hideout and disable his security while Kas kept watch. A guard came into the room, and she force persuaded him that no one was there and everything was in order.

They confronted Fain in his hideout, and she ordered him to surrender. He declined and told her about the time he and her master, Yuon Par were on Malachor 3 where they had an affair. She tried to brush it off as none of her business, but he persisted and claimed that their passion paved the way for darkness to enthrall the others, including Parkanas. He told her the guilt had been weighing on him for years but now he was free from guilt and fear.

The first time I played the consular this whole conversation was very funny and awkward, and it still is this time around. It’s like when an older person says to you, did I ever tell you about this hot girl I dated in high school? and you say, please don’t and then they tell you all about it anyway? Maybe I’m just weird but I was chuckling the entire time this scene played out.

Anyway, Kas told him he had fallen to darkness and couldn’t even see it. He tried to brainwash her and Cedrax used his device to stop him causing Fain to feel great pain. Kas taunted him asking how it felt having his mind attacked and pointed out that was exactly how his victims felt when he brainwashed them. Fain didn’t appreciate her sense of humor. They fought and she bested him. He surrendered and told her it didn’t matter because Lord Vivicar would never stop. She tried to question him about Vivicar and he told her that he was everywhere and in everything.

Cedrax warned that Fain’s condition was deteriorating, and they should act quickly if he was to be saved. At that moment the Hutt Cartel showed up and she told them not to try anything. They demanded she hand over the Jedi and she refused. Eventually they came to an agreement after Kas promised the Order would owe them a favor if they let her take Fain. When the Hutt Cartel left, she shielded Fain. When he was himself again, she tried to ask him about Vivicar but like the other Jedi masters he couldn’t remember anything. He agreed to return to Tython and Holiday told Kas that Syo Bakarn was asking for her. They said their goodbyes and she headed to her ship where she found them waiting for her in the hanger. Cedrax asked to join her on her travels, and she agreed.

She reported to Syo Bakarn and he congratulated her on her success. He then told her they had received a distress signal from the Republic starship Carida, and he suspected it was plague related because the Jedi aboard the ship was Duras Fain’s daughter. Kas agreed to investigate. Once onboard the Carida she talked to Lieutenant Bek to find out what was going on. According to the Lieutenant, Laranna Fain had been fine until they were ambushed by Imperials. Laranna had fought them off and almost died from her wounds. They sent out a call for help and a Jedi master responded. He came onboard and healed her but acted odd and had scars on his face that he kept covering up. It was after his visit Laranna began to act strange and started slaughtering everyone. They managed to trap her in the aft section of the ship and then sent out a distress signal.

Their conversation was interrupted when a soldier came running up to tell them that Laranna had sliced into the systems and was taking over the whole ship. Kas headed in to stop her and fought through a bunch of reprogrammed droids to get to her.

Kas ordered her to stand down and Laranna told her that the darkness was coming but she wouldn’t let it take her. She claimed that Lord Vivicar had explained everything to her when he came to heal her. When Laranna continued to refuse to surrender they briefly fought and then she ran into the air lock and locked herself in. She threatened to open the air lock because she would rather die than let the darkness take her. Kas tried to call her bluff by saying she had to come out sooner or later so she would wait her out. Laranna opened the air lock and spaced herself.

The computer terminal chimed, and she saw Lord Vivicar for the first time. He was displeased that she had cost him a disciple and told her in spite of her efforts to undermine him it wouldn’t delay the inevitable.

He did the typical villain monologue and told her that he once believed in the Jedi way, but Morrhage’s teachings showed him the error of his ways. He claimed that Morrhage’s hatred nearly crushed the Jedi and that was true power.

She taunted him and said if he was so powerful why was he hiding. Vivicar told her that by sacrificing herself to shield the masters she would eventually perish because it would require too much of her strength and she wouldn’t be able to shield them all. After posturing a bit more, the conversation ended, and Kas reported back to Syo Bakarn. Fain was grief stricken that his daughter was dead and Bakarn asked if she had learned anymore about Lord Vivicar. She told him she spoken to him, and he needed to touch his victims in order to spread the plague. Later she was sent to Tatooine to help another Jedi master.

The first time I played the consular I convinced Laranna to surrender so she lived. Much like the padawan on Taris, taking an aggressive stance caused her to die. This entire time I’ve been choosing to make the light side decision to shield the Jedi masters that Kas encounters mostly because I couldn’t come up with a good enough reason not to. She was tasked with the job of finding and using the shielding technique on the Jedi and she knew they were behaving irrationally because of the plague. She didn’t blame them for their actions, but I knew eventually I would have to come up with a reason why she might start sacrificing the Jedi as she slowly slid down the path to the dark side.

After talking with Lord Vivicar I began to get this idea that my character would believe his claim she wouldn’t be strong enough to take him down if she kept shielding the Jedi. Obviously, we know that the consular can shield all the Jedi and take him down, but hindsight is 20/20. So, I was thinking going forward she could begin to sacrifice them for the greater good. It would fit her personality very well and give me the RP excuse I needed to start making more dark side decisions as she becomes more obsessed with bringing Lord Vivicar down.

Date Night with Arcann

In the 7.4.1 update, Date Nights with Arcann, Koth, Lana, and Theron were added. The date night missions are available at first through the alliance alert and then reset to a datapad on your personal ship. A couple of achievements, a title, and decoration were added if you do date night five times.

This was a much-needed addition to the game because I’ve been feeling rather meh about romances in general since they never go anywhere once you reach a certain point in the story. I even wrote about this a while ago stating that new romances were overrated because those relationships eventually fall to the wayside. I’m hoping the developers will eventually add other romances to the date night roster. There are some romanceable companions we haven’t interacted with in some time and at this point it almost feels like my characters aren’t even in a relationship with them anymore.

So far, I’ve only experienced date night with Arcann. I’ve never romanced Lana, mostly because I haven’t made a character who would romance her yet and I really, really don’t like Koth. Maybe someday I’ll force myself to romance Koth in order to get the achievements with him. I did have a light side Imperial agent who was in a relationship with Theron, but I restarted the character because I made some decisions in the base game I later came to regret. So, obviously I’m going to have to race her through the base game and expansions in order to do the date night quests with him.

I’ve had date night with Arcann twice now. Both times he and my Jedi knight sparred with sticks. There were two options to pick before the sparring began. The first time I picked the option to show off my skill and it ended with my Jedi knight winning the fight.

The second time I picked the option to do my best and not only ended up losing the fight, but my character almost fell over the cliff and Arcann panicked. He used the force to pull Alastrina back and was seriously freaked out because he felt he had been too aggressive and almost lost her. My character played it off as no big deal. Afterwards they smooched.

I liked both interactions and can’t decide which one was better. I was excited to receive mail from him afterwards because we don’t get nearly enough mail from our romanced companions. I am seriously regretting restarting my Imperial agent because I’m curious to see how date night goes with Theron. How about the rest of you? Are you enjoying the Date Night missions?

Failing To Find Quests

I hit an early roadblock during my failed Jedi run because it turns out ignoring the main quest means the majority of the side quests on Tython are not available. If I had talked to Derrin Weller and partially started the main mission, they may have appeared, but since I made the rule to avoid purple missions, I was stuck with what I could get. The first side mission I did was finding the padawans. Once that was done, I made my way to the Jedi temple. It was around this time I realized none of the usual side quests were showing up.

I was only level three and thought maybe the quests were level locked, so I backtracked to the starter area and killed several flesh raiders until I leveled up a couple of times. I made my way back to the temple and none of the quests were appearing, so I ran around leveling up by killing things. I was able to do the flesh raider baby quest and after delivering the little tyke to the temple decided to try my hand at the heroic to give myself something to do. Getting through the heroic area at a low level was much easier than I thought it would be and it helped me level up a little more.

After that I explored Tython, revealing the map and leveling up. I don’t typically go for the matrix shard on starter planets, but since I was scrambling to find anything to do, I thought why not. If nothing else, I got a codex out of it. Eventually, I reached level ten and figured if any of the other side quests were going to show up, they would have done so by now. I swung by the Kalikori village to see if there was anything for me to do there and circled around to all the other areas where I knew side quests would be and none of them were showing up. I even double and triple checked to make sure exploration quests were checked off on my map.

Since there seemed to be no reason for me to stick around on Tython I headed to the fleet and picked up a few gathering skills. After that I made my way to Coruscant by way of the Esseles flashpoint. It was slow going at first because I was fighting with the practice saber staff my character received on the starter planet. I was hoping a lightsaber would drop and one did early on, but it was for dark side characters. It wasn’t until I was almost done with the flashpoint when a lightsaber I could use finally dropped. It made the rest of the combat so much easier.

I can already tell Coruscant is going to be better because most of the side quests are available. A couple aren’t appearing, and I have no idea if they are level locked or only trigger if you’re doing the main mission. The plan is to double back later to find out, but I think now that I’m off Tython I’ll have more quests to do, and it’ll be easier leveling up going forward.

At first, I was disappointed that there wasn’t much for me to do on Tython but the more I thought about it the more it made sense from a roleplaying perspective. Since Nimrae is supposed to have flunked out of the Jedi academy it makes sense that she wouldn’t be helping the Twi’leks or any of the Jedi masters.

Aside from back tracking a lot trying to find quests it was a fun experience. I look forward to seeing the challenges Coruscant can throw at me.

DS Jedi Consular: Taris

Fair warning there will be major spoilers for the consular story on Taris. This is part of my ongoing series about my Jedi consular and how she fell to the dark side and became a traitor to the Republic.

One thing I really enjoyed doing while on Taris was figuring out justifications for the dark side choices Kas made that fit within the personality I gave her. At the same time, I was also thinking ten steps ahead into the future and how these decisions would eventually lead her down the wrong path. I didn’t make solely dark side choices because there were some quests that were downright brutal, and she still has a conscience at this point. The personality I gave her is as an impatient, single minded, driven woman who believes that the ends justify the means.

After learning there were other Jedi inflicted with the same illness as her master, Kas headed to Taris to find Master Cin Tykan who was reportedly behaving erratically. She was told he was out with an expedition team and began searching for them. She arrived at a scene of chaos where members of the expedition were trapped by fire and rubble in an explosion. She saved a man by using the force to lift him and was going to save the woman next but was told that there were holocrons down there that had information that could save millions of lives. Kas made the decision to save the holocrons first and the woman died in another explosion.

This was my first major dark side decision. I already knew she would preserve knowledge at any costs, especially one that promised to save many lives. She did feel guilty letting that woman die but tried to justify it to herself as thinking of the many over one person.

After things settle down the survivors told her that Tykan led his team into a trap and ignited the pollution in the area to cause an explosion and then watched them burn. Kas expressed her admiration with his clever plan, which didn’t sit well with the survivors. Master Tykan’s trail led her to the Junction, so she headed off to intercept him. Once there she confronted Tykan who began ranting about the darkness. When he mentioned Parkanas, she was intrigued and tried to learn more about this person. The Jedi master ignored her questions, so she tried to provoke him into a fight. Tykan continued to make dire warnings and then busted the main gas line to aid his escape.

She was given the choice to save everyone or the Junction. Here was my second major dark side decision. If the Junction had been destroyed it would have set back progress to the restoration of Taris. Kas again justified this to herself as saving more people in the long run since halting the restoration of Taris could have a lasting impact on their future endeavors. When the Junction was saved, they found recordings that were encrypted. She was on her way back to Captain Nelex to have him decode the datapad when the captain frantically contacted her to let her know that Master Tykan was using rakghouls to raid the base.

She hurried back to the base but was too late to catch up with him and was told he had abducted his padawan, Aris. Kas had to seal the tunnels to prevent the rakghouls from getting in again and then Captain Nelex helped decrypt the datapad. They discovered the disturbing news that Master Tykan’s plan was to commit genocide on a grand scale by causing a reactor meltdown.

Eventually, Kas caught up with the elusive Jedi and confronted him and his padawan. During his incoherent speech he mentioned a Lord Vivicar. She tried to ask him who he was and why he was taking his orders. Master Tykan became confused and was unable answer. Padawan Aris defended her master and told Kas that her master’s work must continue. Kas tried to reason with her by talking about her own experience with her master’s illness, but Aris insisted that Tykan had shown her the truth.

Kas accused both of them of falling to the dark side and a brief fight ensued. Padawan Aris was killed, and Kas was able to defeat Tykan and shield him. When he became himself again, he was struck with grief for his fallen padawan. She tried to comfort him with the knowledge that Aris had been a true Jedi, compassionate and brave until the end. She tried to get more information about Lord Vivicar now that Master Tykan was sane, but he couldn’t remember anything. She returned to Captain Nelex to wrap things up and he was less than thrilled to find out she let the Jedi live.

Once back on her ship she contacted Master Syo Bakarn to give him an update and tried to question him about Lord Vivicar, but he claimed to have never heard of any such person.

The first time I played the consular I never got into a fight with the padawan, and she lived. So, I thought it was interesting that by being confrontational it ended with her death. I personally think it made the story better because now Tykan had to live with the knowledge that his actions under the influence of Vivicar lead to losing his padawan. I was also astonished by the number of deaths that occurred because of the decisions I made. Though there could be an argument made that many more lives were saved.

It has been interesting comparing the impact of the light vs. dark side choices made on Taris and I’m curious to find out what kind of havoc Kas can cause on Nar Shaddaa.

A Dark Beginning

The Jedi Consular is my least favorite of the class stories and it took me several tries to finish it. On my last attempt I made the decision to power through the story no matter how many times my eyes glazed over. I previously wrote about my experiences playing through the consular here and here.

I was told playing a dark side consular made the story more interesting, but I didn’t want to play it again at the time to find out. It’s been three years since then and I’m ready to dive back in and give it a second chance. I also need a Republic saboteur so now seemed like the perfect time to try out a dark side consular and see if it lives up to the hype.

Meet Kas Goto. I wanted her to have a very specific look and planned out her outfit and dye shortly after creating the character. The lightsaber was earned from Galactic Seasons, and I love how it’s strapped to her back instead of hip. It makes the whole ensemble look great.

Next came figuring out her personality and whether or not I wanted to make mostly dark side decisions early on or gradually work up to it. I settled on making her impatient and impertinent, so she made a few questionable choices on Tython. So far, I’ve played through the starter planet and Coruscant and I have to admit I’m already enjoying this character more than I did Nautalina.

One of the things that bored me to tears was how monotone the light side consular’s voice is, especially when they’re trying to be diplomatic. They have the type of voice you put on repeat when you can’t get to sleep. In contrast a dark side consular’s voice is far more emotional and kept my attention.

In my first playthrough Nautalina wanted to save her master from the sickness, but this time around I had Kas far more interested in learning and preserving knowledge much to Qyzen’s dismay. I foresee a lot of disapproval from my companions in the future. I’m curious to see how my dark side loving character will influence Nadia when Kas takes her on as a padawan later.

I’d like this to be the beginning of an ongoing series documenting my progress toward creating my Republic saboteur and the decisions she makes along the way that made her turn traitor. Stay tuned for further updates.

The Failed Jedi Experiment

One of my favorite games is Skyrim and the absolute best way to play is by completely ignoring the main quest. I have spent many enjoyable hours wandering around and roleplaying as a thief, ranger, mercenary, adventurer, and so on. Before I start a fresh game, I always establish ground rules for my characters and what type of quests they will do. Since Skyrim is a dangerous place, I also have to decide beforehand what my character will do if they are bitten by a vampire because those bloodsuckers are everywhere.

The last time I played Skyrim I had this random thought that it would be interesting to play Swtor by completely ignoring the main quest, but I wasn’t sure it would be feasible. A few years ago, Shintar from Going Commando did a pacifist run that I followed with great interest. It was a unique way to play the game and I had a lot of fun reading about Pacis’ adventures.

Lately I’ve been feeling burnt out playing Swtor and I think some of it has to do with boredom from doing the same thing over and over again. Another reason is because I have this bad habit of fixating on one game at a time and then moving on to something else when I’m bored. I’ve been trying to get better at that and play multiple games at the same time. I’m also trying to log into Swtor a minimum of three times a week, but not every day to the exclusion of everything else.

I’m hoping this change will make me more enthusiastic about Swtor and give me reasons to blog more. In the spirit of this change I thought it would be interesting to run my own experiment to see how far I can get with a character who doesn’t do the main quest. It will be a little difficult to get around the galaxy without a ship, but I think figuring out ways to get passed that limitation will be half the fun.

I haven’t come up with a name for my character yet, but she is a failed Jedi who flunked out of the academy and travels the galaxy helping out wherever she can. I’ve already come up with a set of ground rules of what she can and cannot do.

a) No purple missions, including planet arcs
b) Can only use practice blade unless lightsabers drop from enemies
c) Can only do side quests, flashpoints, and occasional heroics
d) Have to navigate galaxy without ship
e) No companion
f) Can have gathering skills
g) No guild
h) Can only use clothes that are dropped in-game
i) Can use emergency fleet pass but sparingly
j) Have to earn credits from side quests, killing enemies, and heroics

To make these ground rules even more interesting I decided to create this character on the Satele Shan server. Since my main server is Star Forge, I don’t have nearly as many legacy unlocks on other servers. So, for example, the emergency fleet pass rule will be easy to abide because it has a long cooldown. I also don’t have nearly as many credits on that server and won’t be tempted to cheat and send money to the character. I would have to check, but I’m pretty sure I only have one stronghold on Satele Shan so that’s another bonus because I wouldn’t give into temptation and use my strongholds to teleport to places. I added heroics to the list since I’m not sure how far I can get on just side quests and flashpoints, but I do know from personal experience that a lot of the heroics aren’t easy to do without a companion. I could create a stealth character and see if that helps. As soon as I come up with a name for her, I’ll get started leveling the character and update my progress.