The Alderaan-located private castle-like SWTOR Stronghold offers extensive space for decorations both indoors and outside in likely the largest Stronghold yet. But, is it worth it? Let’s take a closer look!
I’ve updated this post from a preview to a full-scale guide for the Alderaan Stronghold now that the update is live.
An early build of the Alderaan Stronghold was briefly available on the SWTOR Public Test server for a few days last week. I apologize for the delay in releasing this preview. It was due to my trip to London, visiting family.
The Alderaan stronghold was also previewed by SWTOR creative director Charles Boyd and community manager Eric Musco on a developer live stream. On it they announced the studio’s intentions to bring the PTS back up in the beginning of January 2020 with a more complete and functional version of the new Stronghold.
Charles Boyd also teased that 6.1 will likely include a brief story element for your character(s), but as tradition dictates, nothing major ever comes with the first content update following an Expansion. Reminder: we call Onslaught an expansion, it’s not just a patch or a DLC. *cough*
Now, the Alderaan Stronghold itself!
Despite the fact that most of the features were not available like clickables and taxi travels, the Stronghold was in more than a decent state to be previewed.
Pricing is yet to be determined, but BioWare confirmed that it should fall in line with the rest of the Strongholds of this size.
Devs were not able to confirm it on the live stream, but it is more than likely that the number of Strongholds you can own will increase with the next update, to acknowledge the inclusion of the new Alderaan castle.
When you first enter, you find yourself in the front yard leading up to the Noble Estate. The Stronghold is split into Noble Estate and Mountain Retreat.
There are nine unlockable/expandable rooms and areas in total. One of them is “secret”, which turned out to be not-so-secret.
The Noble Estate includes the following expansions (unlockable rooms/areas):
- Killik cave (secret)
- Drawing room
- Throne room
- Balcony overlook
- Study
- Guest chamber
The Mountain Retreat can be reached and unlocked by traveling to it via an elevator from the Noble Estate’s main room. It features the following unlockable elements:
- Exterior unlock
- Northern lodging
- Western lodging
Shortly before the official release of SWTOR 6.1, BioWare posted the pricing model for the Stronghold! Here’s what you will have to pay to unlock each room and wing.
- Initial Unlock – 4 million credits / 1900 CC
- Drawing Room – 900K credits / 600 CC
- Guest Chambers – 900K credits / 600 CC
- Study – 900K credits / 600 CC
- Mountain Retreat – 2.5 million credits / 1200 CC
- Northern Lodging – 2 million credits / 900 CC
- Western Lodging – 2 million credits / 900 CC
- Throne Room – 2 million credits / 900 CC
- Balcony Overlook – 900K credits / 600 CC
- Hidden Area – 1.5 million credits / 700 CC
The Noble Estate Overview
The following few images show you how to get to the not-so-secret Killik Grounds cave.
Here are a few images previewing the Noble Estate’s exterior:
The following images show the Interior of the Noble Estate:
On this map we have from top right going counter-clock-wise:
- Drawing Room
- Throne Room
- Balcony Overlook
- Study
- Elevator to the Mountain Retreat (bottom middle)
- Guest Chambers
No, toilets and bathrooms are not available here either. Pee in the snow, please! Don’t do it inside, it’s not polite.
Mountain Retreat Overview
To get to it, you need to take the Elevator, available in the southern middle transit-room from the Noble Estate’s big hall.
The Mountain Retreat itself has a large outside area and the two arrows you see on the map above lead to the Northern and Western Lodgings. They are connected internally too.
First, a few images previewing the outside space:
Now, let’s get inside and explore the Lodgings:
Back outside for a few final shots of the best part of this Stronghold (in my opinion):
