Broadsword announced Game Update 7.8 “Pursuit of Ruins” via official Twitch livestream with a bevy of new story and gameplay content, balance changes, and rewards.
Twitch Drops and Current Rewards Reminder
These are the current and future Twitch Drop rewards available for SWTOR players. Only 1 reward is obtainable at a time, coinciding with the update livestream and eventual release.
Poster: Voss (Purple Frame)
The Poster: Voss (Purple Frame) is a Sign deco reward that will be given to players who watch 1 hour of SWTOR streams within 2 weeks after the 7.8 livestream, from 19 to December 4th, 2025.
Twilight Acklay Mount
The Twilight Acklay is a mount reward that will be given to players who watch 4-5 hours of SWTOR streams in the month after 7.8 is released. It’s a purple recolor of the Acklay mounts with a unique white line pattern.
Check out our SWTOR Twitch Drops Guide for more details.
Galactic Threads Story
Ashley Ruhl (Narrative Director) and Caitlin Sullivan Kelly (Lead Writer) took to the stage to talk about the Galactic Threads story content coming with 7.8. That’s right, folks! We’re finally getting story content again now that the SAG-AFTRA video game voice actors strike is over.
The Emperor Will Tolerate No Further Delays
The strike ended earlier this year, but they didn’t have the voice recordings prior and can’t animate the mouths and such until they have the vocal performances, so that took some time.
Non-SAG-AFTRA voice actors around the world struck in solidarity with said union and since it’s a bunch of different negotiations, that has taken longer to resolve, so only the English voices will be coming with 7.8.
Players using the French and German clients will be able to play Galactic Threads with subtitles in their native language and English voice acting, and native voice acting will be added as soon as it becomes available.
Naming Scheme and 7.0 Story Summary
The story coming with 7.8 is called “Galactic Threads”. Usually, that would be the name of the major update, but they can’t call it update Galactic Threads because that was the name used for Update 7.6 back at the end of 2024, when this story content was meant to release.
Instead, Update 7.8 is called “Pursuit of Ruin” and future story updates, including 7.8.1 and 7.9 will return to form. For more information on upcoming story content, check out our dedicated guide.
Since it’s been almost a year and a half since we’ve gotten any update to the story, Ashley and Caitlyn provided a lengthy summary what’s transpired.
I would strongly encourage you to replay it on a Mandalorian toon prior to the launch of 7.8, but you can check out my notes below if you prefer a summary.
- Sa’har held onto holocron, knows about brother with Force sensitivity.
- Alliance Commander learns that Nul worked with Vitiate and made Children of the Emperor
- Sa’har finds her brother as the right hand to Heta Kol, who is unsatisfied with Shae Vizla because the Mandalorians are under the Alliance Commander’s boot
- The Alliance Commander learns of the location of the Hidden Chain’s base and we have a Showdown on Ruhnuk.
- Shae is injured, Heta gets away but lost their hidden base. Ri’kan brings up the holocron as a solution.
- Shae realizes Sith are involved and Sah’ar has holocron. Malgus gets under her skin when they visit the prison.
- At the Interpreter’s Retreat on Voss, the Alliance Commander learns that Nul used to be a Jedi named Master Raniah, gifted with the ability to make mental connections with people who could feel the Force and awaken that connection.
- Jedi didn’t like that because they were kind of useless. She left the Jedi. She kept reaching out and found the Sith Emperor and that’s a big uh-oh.
- At Kessan’s Landing on Ord Mantell and the Minboosa District on Hutta, Sa’har enlists the help of the Alliance Commander because it turns out Heta is very bad.
- Heta thinks she can use the holocron to awaken an army of force-sensitives trained by Sa’har. The machine does what Nul can do, presumably built with schematics inside the holocron.
- Ri’kan is furious about betrayal and there’s another showdown. Player gets to pick what happens in Nul’s holocron, but then Shae breaks Malgus out of prison to help find Malgus.
While the Mandalorian Civil War (feat. Darth Malgus) arc hasn’t gotten the best reception from fans, I believe much of the criticism is the result of their 6-month release schedule, unscheduled lapse right before the climax, and much of the story being less suited to Force sensitives.
Notable Characters
Ashley and Caitlin reiterated a brief overview of the Galactic Threads storyline for the 66th time, including the major characters with a few additional nuggets of information.
Jekiah and Rass Ordo
As Arbiter, Jekiah Ordo, along with his younger brother Rass will be taking charge of the hunt for Mandalore (Shae Vizla). They’re very upset with Shae’s betrayal and are looking to mend the rift she opened up with the alliance.
Major Anri
Major Anri, now attaché to Darth Krovos, will be assisting Imperial players on Elom as we learn more about Darth Nul. She’s meant to be a liaison for Krovos, but I think it’s worth noting that Darth Rivix was not mentionted this time around.
Arn Peralun
Arn Peralun, former Jedi Padawan and current Jedi Knight will be assisting Republic players on Elom as we learn more about Darth Nul. He is the republic foil to Major Anri.
Akaavi Spar
Akaavi Spar will help the Alliance Commander will help us find a Hidden Chain defector on Tatooine. She’s very pro Shae and Jekiah and anti-Hidden Chain.
Torian Cadera has not been mentioned as part of Galactic Threads, and it’s unclear if Akaavi will only be present to supplant Torian or he’s just absent entirely.
Talos Drellik
Talos Drellik, our favorite archaeologist (not a fighter) formerly part the Imperial Reclamation Service has been focused on excavating the Ruins of Nul on Elom. With the help of his team, he’s managed to breach the ruins brought down by Malgus.
He needs something specific only found on Nar Shaddaa, but he’s not street smart and needs someone to hold his hand, so you’re going with him.
Lana Beniko
Everyone’s favorite Sith, Lana Beniko, will accompany us on Ilum to explore wreckage of the False Emperor’s station, including locating the Rakata Mind Trap that probably has Nul in it.
Wreckage on Dantooine
Eric Musco (Game Director) and Joe Graves (Senior World Designer) took to the stage to talk about the Wreckage on Dantooine, SWTOR’s new gameplay content coming with 7.8.
A ship of unknown origin has crashed into Dantooine’s surface. The ship was built to preserve, propagate, and run experiments on various species from across the galaxy.
Crashing a terraforming zoo ship onto a planet has been causing problems for Dantooine and GSI has sent a subsidiary using the same acronym to study the crash site and stop the terraforming.
The beasts onboard are proving to be too dangerous for the researchers, so the Alliance Commander has to get involved.
The crash site is a separate landing zone on Dantooine and there are 3 terraformed regions called Sporefall, Glacial Tresspass, Geothermal Disruption Biomes.
Each region has its own environmental debuffs it applies to the player and you’ll need the help of GSI to protect you.
The actual gameplay is centered around Dynamic Encounters in each of the 3 regions. As these encounters are completed, the ship AI gets mad and the encounters get more challenging.
There’s a transitional mini-boss players have to defeat before the region levels up, and once all regions have been fully leveled up, you fight the Orbital Core inside the crashed ship.
The Orbital Core is intended to be fought by a well-geared standard group composition including a tank, healer, and pair of DPS. It is balanced like a Master Mode FP boss, but it will get easier thanks to buffs you can get from the Reputation Vendor.
Dantooine Cosmetic Rewards and Stronghold
Eric Musco (Game Director) stuck around and enlisted Byrant Wood (Senior Systems Designer) to talk about the cosmetic rewards and new farmstead stronghold coming with Wreckage on Dantooine.
Since Wreckage on Dantooine straddles the line between Daily Area and Dynamic Encounter, there is a reputation track, but it’s mostly for unlocks, not cosmetic rewards.
Standard Rewards
Broadsword only showed off some mounts, minipets, and decos on the stream, but there are a ton of standard rewards like armors, titles, decos, mounts, etc.
You’ll get them from the types of places you’d expect for Dynamic encounters, like defeating enemies and bosses, earning achievements, and from secret vendors.
Achievement Mounts
There are 4 achievement mounts, likely each associated with the meta-achievement for each region and a 4th fancy mount with minipet functionality for completing all achievements in every region.
GDW Repair Platform Mounts and Minipets
There are 3 GDW Mounts inspired by the Willys Jeep used in WW2. They can transport a minipet of your choosing and some relevant cargo from Dantooine, including a very nice boulder that Eric Musco is positively enamored with.
Decos
Bryant Wood specifically noted that “there’s a whole stronghold’s worth of decorations”, and they showed off just a few, including 3 starship hook-sized dioramas and 6 potted plants in a new high-tech type of planter.
Dantooine Stronghold
The Dantooine Farmstead Stronghold is unlocked by purchasing rooms from the GSI Reputation Vendor on Dantooine. Rooms include:
- Main building with two main rooms
- A greenhouse
- A separate storage room
- A secret hideout behind a waterfall
The building materials match those of the Remote Trading Outpost Decoration Bundle and would look right at home on Batuu.
From what they showed, it seems pretty big, akin to Tatooine or maybe Alderaan, but we’ll have a better idea when it shows up on the PTS.
PvP Season 9 “Gladiators of the Outer Rim”
Joe Stramaglia (Senior Systems Designer) and Jackie Ko (Senior Community Manager) tagged in for Eric and Bryant to discuss PvP Season 9 “Gladiators of the Outer Rim”.
PvP Seasons release alongside new major updates (ex. 7.6, 7.7, 7.8) and it appears that Season 9 is pretty standard, though the rewards are a stylistic departure from Season 8. We’re done with Rishi and birds-themed drip.
This time around we’re getting a sleek, art deco aesthetic that seems to take inspiration from the Crimson Dawn gang from Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars Outlaws.
The decos include a Jetpack Design Station and Display for the jetpack mount we’re getting!
That sleek linework continues with Mandalorian armor that features said jetpack mount. I’m curious how it will interact with the mount itself. Hopefully there’s some new tech under the hood.
They only showed us what looks to be the base armor set that doesn’t have any lights or VFX, but I can already tell this suit is gonna look ultra-snazzy with the recently released Metallic Gold and Metallic Red Dyes. Other rewards include:
- Indisputable (Legacy Title)
- Fastest in the Outer Rim (Title)
- Unshakable (Legacy Title Achievement)
- PvP Season 9 Trophy Decoration (Small & Large)
- Red and Blue Battle Flags
- Heraldry Flair (Imperial & Republic)
They didn’t address the fact that you can buy old ranked PvP rewards for Cartel Coins, nor the continued inclusion of Warzone Medpacs and Adrenals on the rewards track, nor the inability to preview many of these rewards until you buy and bind them.
That being said, you will have to do all the seasons achievements to get the mount, and while we’re still very salty about being able to buy the season for Cartel Coins, putting a more tantalizing reward behind full season participation is a small step in the right direction.
Balance Changes
Joe and Jackie briefly referenced forum post containing the proposed combat style balance changes coming with 7.8, which I have rewritten for clarity and consistency below.
I encourage you to check out my entire analysis and explanation of these changes because most of them are really good for the game, even if a lot of them are nerfs.
Powertech | Vanguard
Increased the cooldown of Hydraulic Overrides | Hold the Line to 45s (was 35s) and reduced the duration to 8s (was 10s)
Made the following adjustments to Advanced Terminator Droid | Suppression Droid, the Stealth Scan replacement for Powertechs | Vanguards:
- Increased the cooldown to 45s (was 20s)
- Reduced the range to 10m (was 30m)
- Reduced the AoE radius to 5m (was 8m, note has typo)
- Reduced the accuracy debuff to 10% (was 20%)
Neural Trigger tactical item no longer ignores Resolve in PvP
Mercenary | Commando
Increased the duration of Hydraulic Overrides | Hold the Line to 8s (was 6s) and increased the movement speed boost to 40% (was 30%)
Sorcerer | Sage
Lightning | Telekinetics
Increased the damage dealt by Halted Offensive | Power of the Force by 7%
Increased the damage dealt by Thundering Blast | Turbulence damage by 5%
Increased the damage dealt by Lightning Flash | Telekinetic Gust by 10%
Madness | Balance
Increased the base damage dealt by Creeping Terror | Sever Force damage by 5%
Increased the base damage dealt by Force Leech | Force Serenity by 10%
Reduced the base life steal of Force Leech | Force Serenity to 35% (down from 40%, still doubled with Parasitism | Focused Insight to 70%, down from 80%)
Increased the base periodic damage dealt by Demolish | Vanquish by 10%
Operative | Scoundrel
The Aggressive Treatment implant is now only useable by Medicine | Sawbones
Marauder | Sentinel
General
Increased the non-weapon damage dealt by Vicious Slash | Slash by 5%
Increased the non-weapon damage dealt by Dual Saber Throw | Twin Saber Throw by 5%
Annihilation | Watchman
Reduced the healing dealt by Berserk | Zen to 0.85% of max HP (down from 1%) and added the range of the effect to the tooltip description (range unchanged)
Increased the damage boost provided by the Draining Center | Melting Center talent to Force Rend | Force Melt during Berserk | Zen to 200% (was 100%)
Vengeance Juggernaut | Vigilance Guardian
Cut to Pieces now has an internal cooldown of 3s
Cartel Market
Phred Newman (Art Producer) stepped in for Joe to discuss Cartell Market additions alongside Jackie Ko (Senior Community Manager).
The amount of stuff they announced was on the lighter side, but we’ll be getting a Reforged armor set, a couple of Yavin deco bundles, and a new Master the Fight Bundle. They also talked about holiday sales and a change to ceiling hooks.
Reforged Havoc Squad Armor
We’re getting Reforged Havoc Squad Armor including a version of the chestpiece that does not have the (no longer oversized) generator and backpack.
It’s wild to see how far this game has come visually now that we have perfect replicas of armor from the original CGI trailers released over 14 years ago. Hopefully, we’ll see the Eradicator and Valiant Jedi Sets get reforged in the near future as well.
Decorations
The devs are expanding on the rebel base-themed decos from Galactic Season 9 to include a Yavin Utility Decoration Bundle and Yavin Equipment Bundle.
Yavin Utility Decoration Bundle
We’re finally getting a Utility Decoration Bundle for the Yavin IV Stronghold! Rather than trying to do something with stone computers like we see with ancient Voss and Rakata, they’re continuing with the rebel base aesthetic.
Yavin Equipment Bundle and Updated Ceiling Hooks
There’s a new bundle for more Yavin rebel base wall tech greebles and a few other doodads. The lights can cycle through colors on click and come in packs of 1, 3, or 5.
This isn’t strictly related to the Cartel Market, but Ceiling Hooks in all strongholds are being updated to allow an array of 9 Small Hooks, making them the same as the Large Hooks on the floor.
Master the Fight Bundle: Mobile Market
Stay tuned for a dedicated guide on the Master the Fight Bundle: Mobile Market Edition, available from November 25, 2025, to January 13, 2026, but the contents include:
- 180 days of fixed sub time + 600 Cartel Coins per month
- 5500 Cartel Coins granted instantly
- BN-4UC GTN Access Droid
- BN-LTR Mail Delivery Droid
- BN-T0 Utility Droid Minipet
- Gray/Red Vulcanized Dye x5 (per character)
- Red Vulcanized/Metallic Gray Dye x5 (per character)
- GDU MG Droid Carrier Mount
- Companion & Minipet Compatible
- Rideable at level 1
- Has a probe droid deploy flourish
- Base speed as fast as Speeder Rank 5
Below, you’ll see the pictures of the mount, the dyes, the utility toys, and the minipet.
The Mail and GTN Droids are functional toy equivalents to the associated legacy perk, similar to the difference between the Revan Holostatue and Field Repair Droid.
Collections Unlock Sale
The Collections Unlock Sale is happening early this year and will remain active from today, November 19th until December 9th, 2025. Other items will be on sale as well, but Broadsword did not specify what those would be.
If you’d like to don your tinfoil hat with me for a moment, I bet they’re doing the sale early so players have to pay full price to unlock the Reforged Havoc Squad Armor in Collections for all their Trooper alts and companions.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it’s the most frequently unlocked armor in collections.
Life Day and SWTOR Anniversary
Keith Kanneg (Executive Producer) and Eric Musco (Game Director) finished out the stream to talk about Life Day and SWTOR 14th Anniversary, both of which will run from December 16th, 2025, until January 13, 2026.
They showed off a new reward on the Life Day vendor, the Vectron Tinsel Taxi Mount, a shiny gold reskin of the red Vectron J0-1Y.
The Anniversary Vendor will add an unpictured Havoc Squad Droid Minipet and there will be a Double XP Event from December 23rd, 2025 to January 6th, 2026.
7.8 PTS
The Wreckage on Dantooine Dynamic Encounters have been on the PTS for a little bit, but they’re planning to release a final iteration and contain the Dantooine Farmstead Stronghold. They’re aiming to release it tomorrow and it will likely remain available throughout next week, probably taken down after Thanksgiving.
Eric is also going to host a developer livestream from the PTS on November 21st from 1-3 PM CT. This is the first time we’ve gotten a developer livestream since like before the plague. I’d take it as a sign that nature is healing (not on Dantooine though).
Recap and Story Teaser
Eric and Keith finished off with a recap and teaser trailer for the story.
- Update on Story
- Galactic Threads Storyline
- Wreckage on Dantooine
- Rewards + First look at Dantooine Stronghold
- PvP Season 9 “Gladiators of the Outer Rim”
- Cartel Market Offerings
- Master the Fight: Mobile Market Edition Bundle
- Life Day & Anniversary Events
- Public Test Server Stream
Update 7.8 does not have an official release date yet beyond coming in December 2025, most likely on December 9th when the Subscriber Login Event ends and definitely before December 21st, which is probably when Broadsword goes on their winter holiday break.
They also teased a “meaty” end of year Producer Letter that will come with additional details about DX12 and a 2026 roadmap, complete some sort of surprise, likely an expansion announcement.
Here’s all the cool stills from the trailer:
