Broadsword released a video showcasing a brand-new type of content coming to SWTOR with 7.8 “Wreckage on Dantooine”.
Video
Check out Broadsword’s full video below, then, we’ll take a closer look at what they showed. Don’t worry about pausing it to get a closer look, we took a bunch of pictures.
Teraforming Ship
Located on the tip of Imperial Space, Dantooine is SWTOR’s event hub, featuring Pirate Encursion, Spring Abundance Festival, and All Worlds Ultimate Swoop Rally, along with the Secrets of the Enclave Flashpoint.
The focus of the next update, aside from new story content, is a mysterious ship that crash-landed on Dantooine. It seems to be built for terraforming and zoology because droids have emerged and begun changing the environment of the planet.
The ship and its droids have managed to create three distinct biomes. Broadsword showed off several environments including the crash site, tundra, toxic jungle, and the ship interior. It’s unclear how these regions relate to the three biomes.
Crash Site
The crash site is managed by GSI, the organization responsible for neutral support in times of crisis, like managing Rakghoul Plague Outbreaks and haunted planets.
While they have brought in heavy industrial equipment, it seems to be rather impromptu and cobbled together.
Toxic Jungle
Large machines spewing toxic chemicals everywhere seem to be producing a sort of semi-tropical jungle environment more reminiscent of Yavin IV.
Emerging Tundra
The snow zone looks particularly alien and reminds me a lot of Metroid’s frosty areas, like Phendrana Drifts on Tallon IV.
Ship Interior
The ship interior doesn’t have a clear source, though the rounded doorways and windows suggest the ship has a Republic origin, while the large, circular rooms are synonymous with Czerka. Most noteworthy are the Rakatan light bridges.
Gameplay
Dynamic Encounters are a new-ish type of content in SWTOR and are the foundation of the content Wreckage on Dantooine.
Each biome will have an assortment of dynamic encounters that need to be completed before it levels up. After every region has been fully leveled up, there’s a boss fight players can participate in. It sounds like this process is meant to take the better part of a day.
Dantooine Stronghold and Other Rewards
We are FINALLY getting a stronghold on Dantooine. They only teased it in the video, but it looks like a giant greenhouse built around some Batuu masonry from the Remote Trading Outpost deco bundle.
It seems like the stronghold will be the pinnacle reward, which is a new approach for Broadsword. We only got to see one new, very snazzy deco displayed on Yavin IV.
Please note that only the willow tree terrarium is a confirmed deco, the chemical spewer just looks cool and and deserves to be one!
Of course, not everyone is into space barbie dream house, and there will be a bunch of the usual Reputation rewards too, like mounts, minipets, armor sets, and more for those of you who like playing homeless space barbie.
PTS Coming Soon and 7.8 Release Timeline
The video ended with a PTS announcement. They didn’t mention any dates, but it will definitely be available before US Thanksgiving towards the end of November.
Broadsword is pretty consistent when it comes to their holiday update because they have to plan around time off in November and December into January.
They’ll probably get 1-2 rounds of PTS iteration done before Thanksgiving Break, collect their final bit of feedback as others play it during that time, and then release it sometime in early December with Life Day before they go on winter break.
