Everything you need to know if you’re considering buying the Yavin 4 Temple Stronghold in SWTOR!
Table of contents
Yavin 4 Stronghold at a Glance
Fully unlocking most strongholds costs tens of millions of credits. We don’t list specific prices for each stronghold because the amount you’ll spend unlocking all the rooms is nothing compared to the money you’ll have to spend on decorations. Unfortunately, this is a case where if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
| Expansion Count | 9 |
| Max Deco Count | 750 |
| Centerpiece and Starship Hook Count | 18 |
| Maximum Number of Occupants | 60 |
| Layout | Complex |
| Style | Jungle Temple Ruins |
| Source | Fleet SH Listings, Yavin 4 |
| Release Date | Game Update 3.3, 2015 |
| Usable by Guild? | Yes |
Floorplan and Appearance
The Yavin 4 stronghold is a temple ruins complex. It has a single, large 3-story temple with 2 rooms on the main floor and 2 smaller buildings behind, connected by a bridge. You can also decorate some of the surrounding greenspace and parts of a cave at the back of the stronghold.
The overall size of the Yavin 4 stronghold is most similar to that of Tatooine, so it’s one of the largest available, second only to the more guild-oriented estates like Rishi and Alderaan.
Hooks and Room Alignment
As the first stronghold released after the initial batch of 4, hook and room alignment on Yavin 4 are pretty solid. The ruins style also helps greatly to conceal any inconsistencies or asymmetries.
That being said, the rear sanctuary temples are a bit awkwardly sized. They can accommodate pretty large decos, but they will feel pretty empty if you don’t use large decos or leverage all that negative space with a strong focal point to inspire a sense of awe or grandeur.
I shrunk one of mine down and turned it into a little meeting room, and while it looks pretty cool when you’re “inside”, you see behind the stone curtain while you walk into the building.
Matching Decorations
Yavin 4 has more matching decos than any other stronghold in the game. Some come from the Cartel Market, but there’s also a bunch sold by Meridat Stato on the Fleet. The Reputation vendor on Yavin 4 proper also sells a couple decos.
Most Yavin 4-themed decos have the word “Yavin” in their name so you can find them easily. Other potentially relevant search terms are “Massassi” and “Revan”. The colors are different, but many decos associated with Ossus, Nathema, Rakata, and Voss also work well.
I haven’t done anything major to mine since 5.0, but I suspect you’ll have a lot of trouble using newest decos thanks to their typical smaller scale and inconsistency. Older decos tend to be larger and those are what the devs had in mind when they built this place.
Ease of Decorating
Any stronghold can be decorated easily by just plopping down a thousand Basic Beds, but that’s not what I mean. When I say “ease of decorating”, I am referring to how easy or hard it is to make the stronghold look good.
Some strongholds have well thought-out Hook layouts, reasonably sized-rooms, and a variety of Hook sizes. These sorts of things make it easier to decorate because you don’t have to think as much about where to put things and it’s more about what you want to put in each room.
Other strongholds, particularly the more recent ones, are more difficult to decorate. It’s harder to decorate a stronghold when you aren’t given a lot of space to put decorations, or the room size doesn’t match the hooks, or you can’t line anything up because the devs slapped the thing together in half a day.
Since you need to hit 100% decorated for the Conquest Bonus and get all of your Prestige for Public Listings, the maximum number of decos you can place in a given stronghold also affects how easy it is to decorate.
If the deco count is too high, you’ll be forced to hide a bunch of small decos inside walls and larger decos or end up with a super cluttered stronghold. If the max deco count is too low, your stronghold will likely feel barren or you’ll be forced to leave some rooms undecorated.
| Easy to Decorate | Hard to Decorate |
|---|---|
| Thoughtful hook layouts | Floors and walls are covered with hooks |
| More variety of hook sizes | Less variety of hook sizes |
| Hook sizes match room sizes and shapes | Huge open spaces and tight quarters |
| Appropriate deco maximum | Excessive or insufficient deco maximum |
| Close attention to geometric alignment of architecture | Misaligned architecture and pointless asymmetry |
Yavin 4 is moderately difficult to decorate. The hooks are laid out thoughtfully, especially in the most vacuous areas of the forest, but the sheer amount of space in some places can be challenging to work with.
Near the entrance to the cave, there’s a gigantic stone canvas that can’t be converted to a Starship Hook. It will probably be one of the last places you decorate, so be sure to do some brainstorming on the side while you’re decorating the other areas.
The Sith temple ruins aesthetic also limits what you can do with the stronghold. Yes, there are a lot of matching decos, but there are also a lot that clash horribly.
Yavin 4 Stronghold Secrets
The Yavin 4 stronghold has a few secrets including Macrobinocular targets, a speeder taxi, an elevator to the top of the Sentry Tower.
Taxi
There is a little speeder taxi near the entrance to the stronghold that you can take to quickly get to the back of the stronghold, or return to the front from the back.
Sentry Tower Elevator
Near the Starship Hook behind the ruins complex, there’s a Sentry Tower just like the one we see in Episode IV.
There’s actually an elevator button at the bottom that will take you to the top. It’s not nearly as cramped or precarious as the one in Episode 4, so you can even put a few small decos up there!
Macrobinocular Targets
While you’re up in the Sentry Tower, pull out your Macrobinoculars. You can scan a 3 of the temples in the distance and get a Codex entry.
Cave
There’s a large cave near the waterfall behind the temple complex that leads to a little spring.
Yavin 4 Stronghold Ideas and Inspiration
Yavin 4 is a planet littered with Sith ruins and strong in the dark side of the Force. However, one of the largest temples on Yavin 4 was also the headquarters of the Rebel Alliance during the time of the sequel trilogy.
- Sith Temple
- Sith Palace
- Sith Academy
- Rakata Ruins
- Republic Military Base
- Revanite Headquarters
- Archaeological Site
- Mandalorian Proving Grounds
- Smuggler’s Hideout
Don’t forget to check out the Public Listings for more ideas!
Review and Recommendation
The Yavin 4 stronghold is one of the better strongholds when it comes to ease of decorating, as well as hook and room alignment. It’s also one of the most picturesque places in the game.
Category
Score
Ease of Decorating
Hook and Room Alignment
Visual Appeal
It’s a little big for a first-time home buyer and about as small as I’d recommend for a Guild Headquarters, but it’s a great place to decorate once you’ve learned the ropes!
