SWTOR: Galactic Seasons Guide
Galactic Seasons are a part Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Patch 6.3 update. This feature, simply put, is Bioware’s take on the battle pass model seen in many other online games today, with their own twist of course. Let’s dive into the feature, discuss the various aspects, design decisions, as well as what the actual daily experience looks like for the average player. If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to comment after reading!
What is Galactic Seasons?
As mentioned, Galactic Seasons is SWTOR’s take on the battle pass. It’s a longer-term reward system, which unlocks different rewards as you earn Season Points during each Galactic Season. These seasons will last 5 months and contain 100 tiers to progress through, with rewards available for both Free and Subscribed players. Unlike most battle passes seen in other games, players are not required to purchase in order to participate each season. There are merely new objectives players are welcomed to progress each season and the rewards are increased if you are a Subscriber.
How do I progress?
Working your way through the tiers of each Galactic Season is pretty simple, actually. Every week you have the opportunity to complete 2 Weekly Priority Objectives and each day you can complete 2 Daily Priority Objectives. Weekly objectives yield 12 Season Points each and Daily objectives yield 3 Season Points each.
These objectives generally align with Conquest Objectives, so completing your Seasonal Objectives is a solid way to also complete your Conquest at the same time. It’s worth noting the Seasonal Objectives are Legacy-wide, so completing them on different characters each day is an effective way to complete Conquest on multiple characters across your account. Objective goals range the entire variety of content the game has to offer, however if you receive an objective with a type of content you don’t enjoy, you have the option to click the recycle icon one time per objective to swap it out for another selection from the weekly pool of possible objectives.
Subscribers also have the added benefit of receiving an additional 8 Season Points as part of the Subscriber Login Rewards after logging in for 4 days each week. This provides some additional progress for Subscribers, or some padding if you just aren’t feeling like completing certain daily objectives. As you progress through the tiers, you will also earn Galactic Season Tokens, which can be redeemed at a vendor on the Fleet for a variety of rewards!
Note: You can view a complete listing of all potential objectives each week in this SWTOR article explaining Galactic Seasons in further detail.
What if I fall behind?
It’s not expected for the average player to be able to complete every single daily and weekly objective through the 5 month lifespan of a Galactic Season. The 100 tiers of rewards don’t require that either – even more so for Subscribers who receive the extra Seasonal Points via Login Rewards each week. That said, if you do fall behind (or if you’re just extremely impatient and have money to blow), the ability to purchase tiers with Cartel Coins is available for 100 CC per tier. It was also mentioned the ability to catch up with in-game Credits will become available as the Galactic Season progresses.
As the season progresses, a catch-up system will unlock, allowing players to spend in-game credits to catch up on season levels.
http://www.swtor.com/info/news/article/20210426-1
Final Thoughts
Overall, I think Bioware’s version of the battle pass with Galactic Seasons is a solid foundation and a pretty positive addition to the game. It complements the existing Conquest system really well, which on its own is not super engaging or interesting, so I think it’s a good start as the game continues to evolve. The decision to make the Seasons available to both Free and Subscribed players without an additional purchase is something I highly commend and wish other games would adopt as well.
While there is potential for this system to be frustrating to some players who either don’t enjoy grouping with others or make a strong effort to avoid various forms of gameplay within SWTOR, I think overall this system will have a positive impact on the game and provide a good foundation to grow and improve over time with player feedback. If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below and if it was helpful, please consider sharing with a friend!
If you’re a new or returning player to SWTOR (WELCOME!), you may find my SWTOR Character Progression Guide helpful as well!
