BioWare hosted a San Diego Comic Con SWTOR Cantina event on July 20. In it the devs revealed additional details about the game’s new expansion Onslaught, more changes coming to F2P players, a lot of new images and the traditional code for some in-game free goodies!
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NEW KEYART FOR 6.0 ONSLAUGHT
On July 20, BioWare hosted their unofficial San Diego Comic Con SWTOR event – the San Diego Cantina. The first news reveal I want to show you is the new official keyart for the game’s 6.0 expansion Onslaught:
Chaotic, isn’t it! The theme of the keyart is very similar to the one released with 5.10 and 5.10.1. We immediately notice two big things – Malgus is on the Empire’s side, meaning he will likely remain a part of the Empire’s agenda and serve it.
A NEW NON-PLAYABLE REPUBLIC CHARACTER
A new character pops right in the middle of the screen. He’s new! Meet Arn.
Arn will fight on the Repulic’s side. On the image above he appears to be more of a robot than a human, but since we have no more official info on him (except the name and his allegiances), I don’t want to speculate. I would love to hear you do that in the comments below, though!
ONDERON – NEW IMAGE GALLERY
Next topic – one of the two new worlds – Onderon. “Lush jungles, winding caves, ferocious beasts, and much more will be awaiting players that visit Onderon.” – says the text of a Tweet from BioWare’s official SWTOR account. Check out the new images they shared with it:
These images are obviously touched and re-worked, but they still show that Onderon will be an interesting new place to explore and venture through.
MEK-SHA – NEW IMAGE GALLERY
The second new world, announced back with the original reveal, is Mek-Sha. “Carved deep inside of an asteroid, check out some screenshots of the lawless den of Mek-Sha!” – the Tweet says and shares the following images:
If you compare these to the classic planets in the game, you may think this is not the same SWTOR. The lightning, the detailed textures and beautiful visuals don’t really match the game’s old and crappy engine. Like with Onderon’s images, these are likely also re-touched. I specifically loved the first one – it reminds me of Nar Shaddaa, but an upgraded, more modern and much darker version of it. Kind of like the city designs from Blade Runner (the original movie).
THE CORELLIA FLASHPOINT
I don’t know why only one new Flashpoint and why is it bringing us back to Corellia, but when you look at the new concept art, it kind of makes you want to go back there, doesn’t it?
NEW OPERATION ON DXUN
The following images are a mix of early in-game screenshots and concept art.
That last one shows yet another giant monster-like creature. It will likely be one of the boss encounters. The size of the monster and the circular arena almost prove that. I wish they’d come up with nice human-size opponents and multiple in numbers, like it was promised. How many of you remember that promise given by, I think it was, Daniel Erickson more than 8 years ago – SWTOR would rely on realistic human-sized boss encounters and not only have giant robots and monsters to pitch against the brave heroes of the Republic and Empire.
The third image features some re-used tree models from Onderon… and other places, but that’s not something new for SWTOR. It’s not something bad either. The whole Rishi Stronghold was built with re-used textures, skins and whole models and even areas taken directly from other places.
FREE-TO-PLAY CHANGES COMING WITH 6.0 ONSLAUGHT
If you didn’t like the 5.10.4 F2P and Preferred changes and thought they are nothing special, how about the next announcement. BioWare will allow players to level up for free to level 60 starting with Onslaught this Fall.
The Rise of the Hutt Cartel and Shadow of Revan become accessible for free. This may not be a big whoop to Preferred players, but Onslaught is expected (and hoped for) to bring not only old players back to the game, but attract new ones as well. This change would surely be great for them as the game’s F2P model becomes slightly less of a Demo and more of a real F2P one now.
Remember that it’s just the story content that will be unlocked. Other changes are coming with more details being announced later, but as it stands – the Rishi and Yavin 4 Operations are unlikely become available to Free-to-Play accounts as part of this.
The Rise of the Hutt Cartel was the first official digital expansion to SWTOR. It came with Update 2.0 and introduced a level cap change from 50 to 55. A new story narrative takes you to the world of Makeb, where you have to fight for your faction’s needs in the war for a special resource. The story is slightly different for Empire and Republic, but ultimately you follow the same steps.
Shadow of Revan came with Update 3.0. I remember criticizing it a lot when it came out, because we were all still hoping for diverse stories for our characters and didn’t get them. Now I view it as a great addition to the game (based on what came next, D’OH!). The expansion pack introduced another level cap – from 55 to 60. It also allowed players to explore Rishi and Yavin 4.
DOUBLE REWARDS EVENT RETURNS FOR A MONTH
The Double Rewards event returns for a month. Starts on July 23rd and ends on August 20th, 2019. That’s a whole month of an opportunities for you to get your Legendary Status, complete your Galactic Command achievements, get your titles. Some will disappear with Onslaught!
THE SDCC CANTINA CODE AND REWARDS OVERVIEW
Tradition dictates that with each SWTOR Cantina players get a new code to use and share. This time it’s not a mount, but just a flair. The design is similar to the previous one from the Star Wars Celebration 2019, but the Aurebesh is different, in accordance with the current convention.
To claim the code, you have to do the following:
- Visit swtor.com and log in to your active SWTOR account.
- Go to https://account.swtor.com/user/codes
- Click on the “Enter Code” button.
- Type “SDCANTINA19” (without the “) and press “Continue”.
- Log in to SWTOR and check your in-game mailbox.
That’s it for now. If you were present live in the Cantina and have more images or news to share, please, leave a comment below and I will include your info in the article, where appropriate.
SWTOR’s 6.0 expansion Onslaught is set to release this September. The Public Test Server is expected to launch in the coming week. It was expected this week, as per my previous news article, but was apparently pushed back a few more days.
