On September 9th 2020 BioWare released Game Update 6.1.3 for Star Wars The Old Republic. This patch was most well-known for bringing the long-awaited Steam Achievements. It has a few other surprises that you should not skip on. Things like Double XP, new Ranked PvP rewards and Uprisings rewards changes! Let’s dig through the changes to find the gems!
Table of contents
SWTOR Steam Achievements are now live
As of September 9 2020 SWTOR has a large set of achievements available on Steam. The game launched on this platform a little surprising and without a lot of hype building upfront a couple of months ago – in the end of July.
BioWare presented the launch with a dev stream on Twitch on which the studio revealed the SWTOR Roadmap for second half of 2020.
The game came to Steam with a set of eight collectible cards, which you get a you play and can use to trade for special Steam rewards.
It was announced that in the end of the Summer a set of Steam Achievements will be added to the platform as well. If you play on Steam you will now be able to earn those.
The SWTOR Steam Achievements count 191 in total. I have a complete guide of all of them and how to earn/unlock them all. A large number of these achievements are “hidden”, which means you wont know what to do until you actually do it.
The majority of the achievements are related to you simply playing the game, leveling up your characters and completing missions and story arcs.
When you log in to Steam and check your SWTOR game tab you will see none of these achievements yet.
Update the game by launching it and log in to one of your characters. When you exit, check Steam again and all of the achievements you have previously completed will be added to Steam now as done.
That’s right! All Steam Achievements are identical to achievements already available in SWTOR. If you have completed them before, the first time you log in to SWTOR via Steam, you will get them all added to your account automatically. They are all retroactively rewarded.
I have a handy guide to show you how to find your missing hidden achievements and complete them. This will save you a lot of trouble and time!
Double XP Event is back for a month
The Double XP event is arguably the most popular and most demanded event from the community. With the recent launch on Steam it is a good move by BioWare to launch this some two months later.
Double XP allows you to level up your character faster by doubling the Experience gain from everything you do – defeating mobs, exploring new territories, completing missions and so on.
The Double XP event also doubles the amount of Valor points you earn from playing PvP matches as well as the Renown points.
Double XP does not boost Conquest points. But that you do not need. The Conquest system in SWTOR is currently so ridiculously generous that if the event doubled your earnings, you might as well even get angry for finishing your Weekly goals before you realize you are doing Conquest…
The Double XP month begins on September 15th and ends on October 13th. Be sure to take full advantage of it during that time!
Ranked PvP Rewards
About a week earlier BioWare revealed the schedule of Ranked PvP Replica rewards to be added to the PvP vendor. SWTOR 6.1.3 delivers the first batch with a bang (more on that below)!
Here is the list of Ranked PvP rewards added to the vendor with this update:
- Furious Armor Sets (Season 3 – there are four sets) – 100,000 pvp tokens each
- Furious Weapon Set (Season 3) – 50,000 pvp tokens
- Baron Deathmark’s Furious Walker mount (Season 3) – 200,000 pvp tokens
- Ember Makrin mount (Season 8) – 200,000 pvp tokens
There were demands for lower pricing on these, but the devs confirmed that they do not plan to alter the cost for each item for the moment and may consider that for the future eventually.
The good news (the aforementioned bang) – all of the PvP tokens have now been converted into Legacy currency. As of update 6.1.3 you will be able to earn these tokens by playing any character you want and also spend them on any character you want, as long as they belong to your Legacy.
Improved Uprisings rewards
Uprisings were released in two sets of five – in game updates 5.0 and 5.1. I have, of course, full guides for all of them, so don’t forget to check the SWTOR Uprisings Guides List to get yourself familiar with the content and how the mechanics of each encounter inside work.
Uprisings are relatively short (but not always) four-men group content, that looks like Flashpoints, but is instead a bit more simple in terms of design and is also created using known environments instead placing you in a unique new world like the Flashpoints usually do.
As with Flashpoints, not all Uprisings are equal in terms of level of challenge and time to complete.
The change to Uprisings in SWTOR 6.1.3 relates to the rewards you earn from them. They are now on par with what you would earn from Flashpoints.
“This increase means Uprising rewards are now comparable to rewards players receive from Flashpoints. Across the board, the average rewards for Uprisings have been doubled or better” – BioWare explained in a recent article.
Uprisings have been massively ignored, neglected and nearly forgotten by a large part of the community. I am not certain if this change bringing them on par with the Flashpoint will be enough for the players to turn their heads and realize there’s fun to be had in these encounters as well.
A wiser decision might have been for Bioware to up the rewards to a higher degree compared to the Flashpoints. A couple of patches later, after everyone has been farming them like crazy, because Uprisings would be totally worth the time spent in them, a nerf could bring the balance back.
At this point we will all know of the Uprisings’ existence (Duh) and despite the nerf, we would all have the habbit of doing them and will at least include a few into our routines.
And yes, I say “we”, because I too have been kind of ignoring them for the most part since… well since 5.2.
New Cartel Market items added with 6.1.3
It is a tradition that with (almost) each new game update a new batch of Cartel Market items is deployed to the store as well. Here is a quick preview of what was added with 6.1.3.
I have an in-depth review for all of these items in high quality images and videos (some of the items have clickable parts and/or Flourish effects): New SWTOR Cartel Market Items, September 2020
Changes to the Swoop Rally event
The All Worlds Ultimate Swoop Rally event returns in the end of September. From September 22 – September 29, 2020 you will be able to once again race on the tracks on Dantooine, Onderon and Tatooine.
With update 6.1.3 BioWare introduced a number of previously teased and demanded changes, which include bug fixes as well as quality of life improvements. Here is the list:
- A Small Yield Conquest has been added to The All Worlds Ultimate Swoop Rally event.
- The “Horizon Razor: Onderon Course” Mission is now tracked for the “Horizon Perfection” Achievement on Onderon as intended.
- The Merchant in the Swoop Gang Event Mission “Morale Boost” no longer leaves the phased area when a Republic player chooses to duel him.
- Mek-Sha now has an icon when appearing as a Small Yield Planet in the Conquest Guild Invasion tab.
- The Swoop Rally Event holo signs are no longer visible on Dantooine when the event is not active.
- The Conquest Objectives “Tatooine: Saboteur Spy Games” and “Tatooine: Loyalist Sweep” now appear during the Swoop Gang Mayhem Conquest.
- Corrected the name of the “Swoop Gang Mayhem” reward into “Personal Conquest Reward: Swoop Gang Mayhem”.
Misc 6.1.3 Changes worth noting
One of the more frequently mentioned bugs in SWTOR was not a game-breaking one literally, but was annoying a lot of players. The overly brigh Odessen War room banners are finally getting a fix in 6.1.3!
The Guild Repair option now uses all remaining Guild Repair Funds first, and then will debit the remainder from the player’s credits. If you don’t have enough of your weekly quota for repairs, the game will use whatever you have left and fill the gap with your own funding.
A set of self-healing abilities from various classes have been changed to no longer generate threat when used:
- Unnatural Preservation
- Kolto Overload
- Responsive Safeguards
- Shield Probe
- Vital Regulators
- Renewing Darkness
- Restorative Shade
- Force Mend
- Adrenaline Rush
- Echoing Deterrence
The Sentinel’s and Marauder’s Centering/Fury stacks now reset when you change your Utilities setup. This means that you will now be required to start the fight with the Contemplation/Brooding utility.
If you need some help with your class, remember that the SWTOR 6.0+ Class Guides List will always have something for you!
On the PvP front: Players can no longer queue for an Unranked Warzone in a group to circumvent the Deserter Penalty.
For a full list of all changes introduced with SWTOR Game Update 6.1.3, check out the official Patch Notes.
The Rakghoul clicky relics that grant you a vaccine/immunization against the Rakghoul plague’s negative effect is not staying if you unequip the Relic. This was brought as a question to the forums recently and the studio’s answer was:
“It is intended that if you are not wearing a relic that you lose it’s on-use effect as noted, which includes the Antiviral Kit. However, we definitely understand this has gearing implications and so we are looking at ways to make the experience of the Antiviral Kit be less detrimental to your character’s power where possible. We will share any updates as we have them and thank you for the feedback.”
A loot head into the future of SWTOR
The next announced big patch to SWTOR is going to be the big Holiday SWTOR 6.2 Update. It will include the next installment of the main story and a new Flashpoint.
Before the big story update that will wrap up 2020 there will be another one. Some time this Fall 6.1.4 will land bringing a new Seasonal event.
6.2 will be a big story patch. Creative director Charles Boyd revealed on the July live stream that this will be essentially two story patches combined into one update.
A new Mandalorians-themed Flashpoint will be the major group content release to come with it. It will not be directly related to the main storyline.
By the way, do you know exactly what happens in the SWTOR timeline and when it happens? Check this out: When all SWTOR Stories take place in the Timeline.
Meanwhile, to get a better idea of what to expect from the December update, read the July Stream overview and for more details on what is coming in the final months of 2020.
And then there is that one big mysterious thing BioWare teased in the beginning of 2020 that is coming some time in 2021. There is literally no information yet what this could be – a new big expansion, new class(es) and/or disciplines introduced, new game engine (D’OH!) or something else?
It’s nice to know something is coming and the game will be here for years to come. It’s annoying not knowing what is coming. There’s a hidden almost weird charm in that. Or at least I think so. Do you?
That’s it for now! If you have any questions or simply want to share your feedback and thoughts on this patch and all that was included with it, write a comment and let me know what you think.
