SWTOR 5.9: What We Know About the Nathema Flashpoint

The third Flashpoint from the “Theron” Story Arc completes this chapter of the story. It takes you to Nathema and offers the traditional three difficulty modes, five bosses and a chance to upgrade your characters with new Augments along with many new decorations!

Note, this article is based on my interview with Musco and Boyd from 6th of April. Everything is subject to change until the release of the update. There are NO Story Spoilers here.

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On 6th of April I sat down with Star Wars: The Old Republic Creative Director Charles Boyd and Community Manager Eric Musco to talk about the upcoming Game Update 5.9 “The Nathema Conspiracy” and the new Flashpoint on Nathema that will be released with it. The release date for this patch is 1st of May.

The Story

The Flashpoint is a part of the “Traitor Theron” Story Arc that started way back in the Spring of 2017 with Game Update 5.2 and took us through Iokath’s Daily Area, Umbara and Copero before the final part and the resolution on Nathema.

In fact, the Nathema “chapter” starts you off from another place, not the planet. The prelude is on a space station that sets things in motion and leads your character to Nathema. Theron is very seriously involved in all of the action. This Flashpoint has a lot more story than the previous two had (Umbara and Copero). It also puts a closure to these events.

Valkorion is not back, that much is certain. He is dead, for real. But it is something from his past, related to him that draws you back to Nathema. Charles Boyd specifically mentioned that the developers wanted to use this opportunity to show how much Nathema has changed since Vitiate’s death. Expect to see quite a different looking Nathema.

Charles Boyd revealed on Twitter that Lana Beniko will be your active companion for this Flashpoint’s story mode.

The whole experience including all cinematics, the gameplay inside the Flashpoint itself and all that is expected to take about an hour, maybe a little longer.

SWTOR Nathema Flashpoint First Look — Exclusive First Look at the Nathema Flashpoint

Gameplay and Bosses

The Nathema Flashpoint has the three standard difficulty modes, plus a Solo Mode for the sake of the story element. The level of challenge is the same compared to the previous two.

There are four standard boss encounters with the final fight being two bosses one after another, separated by a Cinematic cutscene. There is also one bonus boss. One of them “involves a ton of lasers” as Charles Boyd hinted. The playability of the Flashpoint outside of the story will mirror the Umbara and Copero ones with special “replacement scenes cutscenes” put where heavy story revealing elements usually happen during the cinematics.

SWTOR 5.9 Nathema Teaser — Valkorion rose to power after devouring the life force of every creature on the planet Nathema. Since his death, the planet’s surface has changed dramatically… but it’s still dangerous. What threats do you think you’ll face here?

Loot and Rewards

It seems that the Nathema Flashpoint can be set apart from the previous two in regards to loot options. As Charles said – “a spread of rewards” will be available from this one.

When I asked him about loot and rewards, the first thing he fired away was that there are “a ton of decorations coming out of this one”. He even mentioned a number – more than 15. There is a new companion in the form of a loot drop. This is a simple kind of companion, not related to the story. It’s based on an add from the laser-heavy boss fight mentioned earlier. A new armor set is also available here.

The Master Mode of the Flashpoint drops the new Tier of Augments – item level 240. They are Bound on Equip, which means that the schematics will NOT be bound to you unless you decide to “use” them (learn them). They will be available to be traded and sold on GTN. Eric Musco added that there might be a chance for the last boss on Veteran Mode to have a chance to drop these too, but could not confirm it at the time of the interview.

SWTOR 5.9 Nathema Teaser 2 — Ancient temple complexes stretch across much of the planet Nathema, their secrets laid bare as the planet regains its lost life. What do you think you’ll find hidden in these mysterious structures?

You can watch the full video archive of the interview in the embedded video below. We talked in great detail about everything that is coming with Update 5.9 and discussed a lot of the planned new content and changes for the July patch (5.10 or 5.9.2 – still unclear of the number at the time of the event).