This walkthrough will give you an explanation of what and how you need to complete to unlock Ruhnuk as well as how to get to the planet and start the new storyline there, available with SWTOR Update 7.2!
What is Ruhnuk
Ruhnuk is a new planet, added to SWTOR with Game Update 7.2. It is located in the Wild Space. It is a brand-new creation from the BioWare SWTOR team. This planet has not been featured anywhere before.
Ruhnuk is an arid world, scratched by big canyons formed by occasional flooding. The original inhabitants of the planet were not the Mandalorians, but miners seeking to exploit the planet’s rich natural resources. For an unknown (yet) reason they abandoned the planet completely, leaving all of their equipment behind.
Please note that the next segment of this guide contains story spoilers from the starter mission that leads you to Ruhnuk.
Requirements to Unlock Ruhnuk’s Story
Your story with Ruhnuk begins with the main mission (purple) called “A Rock and a Hard Place”. To receive it, you first need to meet certain story progression requirements.
To be able to access Ruhnuk’s story in SWTOR you have to first complete the main story from SWTOR Legacy of the Sith 7.0 and 7.1. This means you have to do the following:
- Complete the 7.0 Story on Manaan, released with 7.0.
- Complete the Elom Flashpoint, released with 7.0.
- Complete the Digging Deeper story, released with 7.1.
- Your character needs to be level 80.
You do not need to be currently subscribed to receive the “A Rock and a Hard Place” mission. You will get it when you update to 7.2 or higher for free if you have subscribed previously at SWTOR 7.0 Legacy of the Sith, which was released in February 2022. Thanks to Daniel for confirming this for me in a comment below. Later I also got a confirmation from BioWare’s Jackie Ko as well.
You do not need to do the Manaan Daily Area either. It is optional storyline and not related to the critpath required for the Ruhnuk Story. Thanks to Jackie from BioWare for confiring this for me.
How to access Ruhnuk in SWTOR
With the release of SWTOR Update 7.2, Ruhnuk is actually visible on the Galaxy Map even for characters that do not qualify for the story there. You can fly to Ruhunk and explore its map, but none of the missions will be available to you until you meet the requirements for them.
The Story on Ruhnuk is not available, the Daily Missions and the Relic Hunt as well. It’s unclear if this is intentional or a mistake BioWare made by not hiding the planet from the Galaxy Map until the moment you receive “A Rock and a Hard Place”.
After you complete the required missions, listed above, you will automatically receive “A Rock and a Hard Place”. This main mission tasks you with talking to Shae Vizla in the Alliance Operations room on Odessen.
Shae Vizla, Mandalore the Avenger, has requested your help to confront Field Marchal Heta Kol and the Hidden Chain organization under her command. Shae has found that Heta has established a secret base of operations on the treacherous planet called Ruhnuk.
As you arrive at the Alliance Operations room, a cinematic will play. Shae will introduce Heta before you with a brief history of Heta’s past and new details about her skills and experience as a leader.
There are a few dialogue choices you can make during this cinematic, but none of them are essential or meaningful to the story. They are just role-playing options to help you immerse yourself in the conversation by answering the way you like your character to do it.
Shae explains why Ruhnuk was not discovered until very recently. It’s in the middle of some kind of electrostatic storm, which messes with comms and navigation.
The last dialogue option is interesting. It may impact events down the line, but it’s just a warning message, not a definitive and final choice.
After the conversation, head to the Hangar on Odessen to meet up with Shae and fly off to Ruhnuk. While you talk to Shae next to the ship, Rass Ordo will appear. He will accompany you on this mission.
In case you forgot, a quick reminder: Rass accompanied you on board of the Spirit of Vengeance II where you had to stop an attack by Clan Varad, the Dar’manda, and the Ash’ad. You fought Heta Kol on the bridge, but she escaped you back then.
The cinematic scene continues while Shae is piloting the ship. You approach Ruhnuk and see the crazy storm that has engulfed the planet.
How to complete “A Rock and a Hard Place”
After a near-crash-landing experience, you arrive to Ruhnuk. The planet is quite large and is divided into many small areas ranging from surface zones, underground tunnels and complex building interiors.
Shae orders Rass to stay near the ship. She also recommends you to stay off comms as it’s unknown who might be listening at this point. What is strange is that she beaks silence for no apparent reason just a momenta later, while you explore Mandalore’s Encampment underground area.
Your next task is to go up to the surface and Slice 5 Probe Droids to learn more about the situation on Ruhnuk. Head to right end of the Duct Maintenance Network and take the ramp.
When you reach the surface, find the Probe Droids (yellow HP bar). Engage in combat, they will pull you immediately, so don’s start with a cast that can be interrupted.
After you take them down, the droid will go into Repair mode. Stand close to the droid and use the special ability that is placed next to your mission objective in the Mission Tracker. You have to repeat these steps five times to five different droids.
Time to search for the Probe Droid Source! There is a structure on the west side of the giant gap in the middle of the Arid Wastes area. Go there.
One short combat encounter with Dar’manda enemies is waiting for you inside and another cinematic will start. After you take care of them, another cinematic will play, introducing two NPCs to you, two technicians, hired by Dar’manda.
At the end of the conversation, you can choose to Knock out the technician or to kill her. This is a moral choice more than anything else.
Your final task is to return back to Rass Ordo in Duct Maintenance Network. You can walk back or Quick Travel to it. This concludes the intro mission to Ruhnuk. You have to continue with the next few and complete the storyline.
After that, the Ruhnuk Daily Area will be fully accessible to you with all of its Daily and Weekly solo and group missions. There’s also a non-repeatable set of Relic Hunt missions and a Datacron on Ruhnuk.
