How to Create Darth Sidious in SWTOR: Full Build Guide

This SWTOR Darth Sidious Build Guide is designed to be as faithful to the lore and authentic as possible within the constraints of the game. You’ll find everything you need to know in order to create a toon in SWTOR and play like Darth Sidious as he appeared when wielding 2 lightsabers in his fight against Maul and Savage on Mandalore in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Note: This build is not optimal for endgame content and should only be used when playing alone or role-playing with friends. It is beginner-friendly and does not require you to be at level cap to play it.

Physical Appearance

Darth Sidious is an old man with whitening blonde hair that’s been pulled back, pale blue eyes, a cleft chin, and a wrinkly face.

Here are the physical appearance parameters I recommend using for Darth Sidious as he appeared when facing off against Savage Opress and Maul in Star Wars: The Clone Wars before the attempt on his life at the end of Episode 3.

Darth Sidious Build in SWTOR - character creation

Sex: Male
Species: Human
Body Type: 2
Head: 10 (or 11)
Scars: 1
Complexion: 37 (or 14)
Eye Color: 1
Beards: 1
Hair: 24
Hair Color: 14
Skin Color: 6

Don’t get your hopes up too high for a perfect match on this one. SWTOR’s character creator struggles to produce older folks since the protagonist is meant to be younger.

Many of the customization options are bundled together too, so you can’t have things like a wrinkly face and cleft chin at the same time.

How to Create Darth Sidious in SWTOR - outfit

If you are creating a new character, this is done during the creation process. You can use the Appearance Design Tool on the Fleet to alter the appearance of an existing character, but this will cost you Cartel Coins each time you do it.

Outfit and Weapon

I recommend an outfit that utilizes Kreia’s Robes as the base and a pair of either the Czerka Special or Altuur’s Exquisite Lightsabers. All of the armor pieces are Cartel Market items, but at the time of publishing are not up for sale and can be purchased from the GTN or directly from another player. The dye is available on the Cartel Market as well though.

Slot	Icon	Piece
Head		Nothing (Hide Head Slot)
Chest		Kreia’s Robes
Bracers		Covert Wrist Energy Armor
Gloves		Covert Hand Energy Armor
Belt		Orbalisk Belt
Pants		Kreia’s Lower Robes
Boots		Kreia’s Boots
Dye		Mandalorian Scout Dye Module
Weapons Option 1		Altuur’s Exquisite Lightsaber x2
Weapons Option 2		Czerka Special Lightsaber x2

Darth Sidious Build SWTOR - Altuur's Exquisite Lightsaber

Darth Sidious Build SWTOR - Czerka Special Lightsaber

There is no perfect match for Palpatine’s lightsaber. Altuur’s Exquisite Lightsaber matches the overall color scheme of his lightsaber better, while the Czerka Special Lightsaber has a more accurate silhouette and form factor.

It’s up to you which one you think looks more accurate (or is available right now). Here’s a shot of Palpatine’s lightsaber from Episode 3:

Darth Sidious Build SWTOR - Palpatine's
Lightsaber from Episode 3 — Image Credit: StarWars.com

The Czerka Special Lightsaber is the level 55 free tier reward in Galactic Season 3 and Altuur’s Exquisite Lightsaber was a Galactic Season 1 reward that is currently sold by Ki’at Thavo, the Nautolan Galactic Seasons – Seasonal Rewards vendor for 3 Galactic Seasons Tokens. It is unclear what long-term availability will look like for these items, but both are available at the time of publishing.

How to Create Darth Sidious in SWTOR - Full Character Outfit (Front)

How to Create Darth Sidious in SWTOR - Full Character Outfit (Left)

How to Create Darth Sidious in SWTOR - Full Character Outfit (Right)

How to Create Darth Sidious in SWTOR - Full Character Outfit (Back)

These robes also conveniently conceal his lightsabers when standing still!

Story, Combat Style, and Gearing Choices

This section will focus on key choices you’ll have to make in order to end up with a playstyle and story that fits Darth Sidious’ character.

Origin Story

Darth Sidious was the Sith Master during his time. His knowledge of the Force was unparalleled. The Sith Inquisitor is the way to go as their story delves deep into the mysteries of the Force and ascending the ranks of the Sith hierarchy.

Combat Styles, Disciplines, and Ability Tree Choices

Sidious is ridiculously skilled in lightsaber combat and has taken out multiple opponents while using either 1 or 2 blades. Since the outfit is based on his fight against Maul and Savage, I recommend Marauder because that is the only dark side discipline that wields 2 lightsabers.

In that duel, he utilized the lightsaber form called Jar’Kai, which is not available in the game. He also frequently used Force Push, which is not accessible to any dual saber-wielding disciplines.

That said, I think the Fury discipline still matches his fighting style pretty well. It does use Shii-Cho Form instead of Jar’Kai, but features brutal lightsaber swings that look quite similar to how he fights along with overwhelming Force attacks that look like the Force Pushes he employs so frequently. Instead of knocking the opponent back, these attacks channel the Force into their body, so they take a shipload of damage.

How to Create Darth Sidious in SWTOR - the full build

Build Essentials:
Unrelenting Rage
Predation
Seething Defense
Furious Power
Force Choke

This specific Fury build emphasizes empowering individual hits as much as possible to make Palpatine’s attacks feel as weighty as they looked in his fight against Maul and Savage. I’ve also included a few abilities that he either uses outright or will make it feel more like you’re playing as Darth Sidious with a couple of lightsabers.

Seething Defense might stand out as an odd pick, but I think it fits pretty well considering he completely brushed off a spikey head-butt from Savage, the same move that spelled the end for Jedi Master Adi Gallia on Florrum.

Legendary Implants and Tactical Item

Darth Sidious always appears incredibly aggressive when fighting with his lightsabers while still managing to avoid taking damage himself, so I recommend a mixture that boosts your damage output, survivability, and mobility. You gain access to legendary implants at level 80 and tactical items at level 75.

Fearless Victor

Fearless Victor makes your melee attacks deal more damage for a short period of time after spending Rage, your class resource, on a melee attack.

Nimble Master

Nimble Master makes it so Saber Ward also massively increases your movement speed.

Grit Teeth

Grit Teeth reduces the cooldown on Saber Ward whenever you take damage, enabling you to use it a lot more often.

For more information on gearing, check out my guide on Which Mods to Buy from Hyde and Zeek. For a Darth Sidious build, I recommend gearing as a DPS, which means you’ll want to focus on increasing stats that boost damage output like Accuracy, Critical, and Alacrity.

Key Abilities

In this section, I’ll be going over specific Fury Marauder abilities that match Darth Sidious’ fighting style, including lightsaber swings, Force attacks, and defensive maneuvers. To be clear, this is not a complete list of all Fury Marauder abilities, I am only shining a spotlight on specific attacks that closely match his dual lightsaber skills.

Offensive Abilities

These are attacks that deal damage to one or more enemies. Typically, they cannot be used at the same time as one another. Some of them cost Rage, which is the Marauder’s class resource and most of them have short cooldowns that prevent them from being spammed.

Furious Strike

Unlocked at level 60
Furious Strike is one of the most powerful and expensive lightsaber swings in the game. You’re really putting your full weight into this attack and I think it’s the one that’s most emblematic of the kinds of swings that Sidious uses against Maul and Savage. Furious Strike also makes your next Raging Burst deal more damage and makes you more likely to dodge attacks for a short time.

Furious Power

Obtainable at level 43
Furious Power boosts the damage dealt by your next lightsaber swing considerably. Since it doesn’t deal any damage outright, you can activate it at the same time as your other attacks. It’s best to use it right before activating Furious Strike since that’s your strongest lightsaber attack. The ability has charges, so you can save them up if you want to boost multiple swings in quick succession.

Raging Burst

Unlocked at level 15
Raging Burst blasts a gargantuan amount of raw Force energy into the target. The animation is quite similar to that of a push, just with the Force energy going into the enemy rather than sending them flying backward. Raging Burst is gets buffed in some way by many of your other attacks, resulting in a mega-powerful hit that’s enough to finish off many enemies completely on its own. After dealing damage with Raging Burst, you’ll deal a bit more damage with all of your attacks for several seconds.

Force Crush

Unlocked at level 47
As the name suggests, Force Crush causes you to use the Force to crush your opponent, dealing a little bit of damage over time and slowing them to a crawl until they can hardly move and collapse. Force Crush also makes your next Raging Burst deal more damage and cost no Rage.

Obliterate

Unlocked at level 35
Obliterate causes you to leap to your target with the power of the Force as you slam your lightsabers into their body as a macabre brace for impact. This ability also makes your next Raging Burst automatically critically hit.

Force Choke

Obtainable at level 68
Force Choke functions as a stun against a single target rather than a lethal ability, though it’s still quite strong in that capacity because you can get in a couple of attacks while your opponent can’t do anything but gasp for air. Force Choke is a bit better than other stuns too because it grants 3 Rage. Sadly, there isn’t a way to Force Choke 2 enemies at the same time as Sidious does to the unlucky Mandalorians guarding the throne room.

Vicious Slash

Unlocked at level 1
This is a basic lightsaber swing that deals moderate damage to a single enemy and has no cooldown, but costs 2 Rage per activation. It is weaker than the attacks I’ve mentioned already, but if you will probably have Rage to spare, this is a great option to use while you’re waiting for a stronger attack to become available.

Sweeping Slash

Unlocked at level 10
Cyclone Slash is extremely similar to Slash. The only differences are that it can hit multiple targets, but doesn’t deal quite as much damage as Slash, so only use it instead of Slash if you can hit multiple enemies.

Battering Assault

Unlocked at level 7
Battering Assault doesn’t deal a lot of damage on its own, but grants a whopping 6 Rage, enough to fill up half your bar, and makes the victim take a little bit more damage from all your other lightsaber swings for quite a while.

Assault

Unlocked at level 1
Strike is your most basic lightsaber swing. It deals a small amount of damage to a single enemy and has no cooldown. In lieu of dealing more damage, it generates 2 Rage instead of costing any, so you are always able to use it assuming you’re in range.

Defensive Abilities

All of these abilities can be activated at the same time as other attacks and offer some sort of temporary boost to your survivability. Their cooldowns are significantly longer than that of most attacks.

Saber Ward

Unlocked at level 15
Saber Ward increases your chance to completely dodge and/or deflect weapon attacks including things like lightsaber swings and blaster shots. And lets your lightsaber block some of the damage from non-weapon attacks like Force abilities and non-blaster technology like explosives.

Saber Ward Thanks to the Grit Teeth tactical, you’ll be able to use it a lot more often, and the Nimble Master legendary implant increases your movement speed by a massive amount while it’s active. You’ll also have partial immunity to controlling effects for part of the duration and heal a bit each time you get attacked for the full duration thanks to the Blood Ward buff you’re taking.

With all these bonuses to Saber Ward, you’ll be able to glide around the battlefield just as The Emperor was able to effortlessly evade countless lightsaber swings from the Zabrak brothers.

Predation

Obtainable at level 27
Predation is basically a weaker version of Saber Ward thanks to all the buffs we’re giving to that ability. It still increases your movement speed significantly, purges effects that impair your mobility, and slightly increases your chance to dodge or deflect weapon attacks, but doesn’t absorb any damage from non-weapon attacks. That said, it has a significantly shorter cooldown than Saber Ward, and normally, the functionalities of each ability are more distinct.

If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to check out what to do for Palpatine’s other combat style, Sith Sorcerer!

This concludes the Darth Sidious Build Guide. If you have recommendations for tweaks or slight variations in appearance or other abilities that might fit well, or if you have a favorite character you’d like to get a build for, leave a comment.