Broadsword has announced SWTOR Update 7.9 “Legacy Reborn”, coming in late May with a conclusion to the Legacy of the Sith storyline, PvP Season 10, new QoL changes and CM items, Nightlife event, and some concrete details about 8.0!
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: Dantooine (Purple Frame)
The Poster: Wreckage on Dantooine (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 7.9 livestream, from April 30th to May 14th.
Nightshade Hssiss Mount
The Nightshade Hssiss (pronounced like the sound a snake makes) is a mount reward that will be given to players who watch 4 hours of SWTOR streams in the month after 7.9 is released, from (UNCONFIRMED) May 26th to June 23rd, 2026. It’s a purple recolor of the Darkside and Oriconian Hssiss mount.
Check out our SWTOR Twitch Drops Guide for more details.
May the 4th Happenings
May the 4th (be with you) is a day to celebrate Star Wars. This year, there’s login and subscriber rewards as well as CM sales and Double XP from May 1st to May 22nd.
Login and Subscriber Rewards
We have two rewards for May the 4th. You can get a little BX-RC Probe Droid for logging into SWTOR between May 1st and May 22nd, 2026, and if you have an active subscription during that time, you’ll get the Vectron Phantom RC2 mount.
Sales and Double XP
As expected, there’s a 50%-off Collections Unlock Sale and 25%-75% off all Inspired by ™ items on the Cartel Market. There’s also a Double XP Event. All will run from May 1st to May 22nd.
Legacy Reborn Story
Update 7.9 brings us the thrilling conclusion to the Legacy of the Sith storyline. Darth Jadus has Darth Nul’s Holocron and plans to use it in her rebuilt machine to awaken latent, if weak, connections to the Force in average Joes across the entire galaxy.
Oh, and the Mandalorian Civil War lead by Heta Kol and Shae Vizla should be wrapping up as well. Conveniently, this storyline is complete right around the time that The Mandalorian and Grogu™ releases in theaters. It’s almost like they planned it this way!
At launch, the story will only be available with English voice acting and French/German subtitles due to ongoing negotiations with French and German voice actors.
Khar Shian
All of this is taking place on Khar Shian, an icy world home to one of Naga Sadow’s fortresses. This location has really only been depicted in the Tales of the Jedi comic book, so it will be interesting to see it brought to life.
Based on its description, I had figured they’d reuse pieces of living Ziost and new Korriban, but there are a surprisingly large number of new assets, but the only one I’ve been able to pick out is the aurora reused from the Ancient Hypergate Warzone.
Major Characters
If you’ve been playing the Legacy of the Sith story, you probably have a pretty good idea of who will be involved. Strangely, Broadsword didn’t mention some of them.
Lana and Theron
Our most loyal companions who will be by our side until the end, Lana and Theron.
Ordo Bros and Lane Vizla
Rass and Jekiah Ordo and Lane Vizla will be helping on the Mandalorian front. The devs teased that the Basilisk War Droids Lane has been working on will be making an appearance.
Republic: Arn Peralun
Republic players will be accompanied by the cyborg Jedi Knight, Arn Peralun. I wonder how he feels after the end of Master’s Enigma.
Empire: Major Anri
Imperial players will be accompanied by everyone’s favorite Twi’lek soldier, Major Anri, who is definitely just completely done with the Sith at this point.
Darth Jadus
Darth Jadus will be in attendance, but I have a feeling he’s going to be the main antagonist in 8.0 rather than have a significant physical presence in Legacy Reborn. He’s so many steps ahead, he might as well be on a different staircase.
Malgus and the Shaes
Malgus, Shae Vizla, and her crew of mercenaries will just have a small cameo. The story is actually going to focus on C2-N2 and 2V-R8 bickering over which cleaning supplies to buy at the Bed, Bath, and Beyond on Khar Shian.
Unmentioned Characters
The devs didn’t mention them on stream, but we know Heta Kol and the Hidden Chain will be involved. They’re the ones who rebuilt Darth Nul’s machine, after all.
It’s unclear how involved Sa’har and Ri’kan will be but given that the new planet coming with 8.0 is Ryloth, the Twi’lek homeworld, I suspect they might be absent from Khar Shian.
Playable Companions and Contacts
On top of it being the finale, we’re going to have the opportunity to play as some of our companions and contacts during the Legacy Reborn Story. They gave us a brief showcase of playing as Lana and teased getting to play as Malgus at the very end of the stream.
SWTOR has dabbled with this in the past during KotET Chapter IX: The Eternal Throne where you inhabit Valkorion’s body for a little bit and in the bonus Shroud of Memory Chapter where you get to play as HK-55.
I get the impression Broadsword is trying to do more a A/B-plot type of thing this time, like in the past where they cut away to Darth Rivix fighting with Tau Idair over Darth Nul’s saber, or Shae breaking Malgus out of Hulk jail. Now, I would expect sections like those to be playable instead.
It’s an interesting concept for sure, but I am not sure if it’s a good idea. SWTOR is an RPG, and this sort of multi-perspective thing is pretty much never done because the point of the genre is that we get to define our character.
If we want to mix it up with different gameplay and perspectives, we have alts with completely different origin stories for that.
Given SWTOR’s consistent problem with giving reasonable attention to Force/Tech origin stories and keeping separate narratives for the Empire and the Republic, perhaps it would be better to marry these ideas.
Let’s have a singular story arc (or perhaps dual story arc for Imp/Pub) where all of the classes are playable characters and we play through different parts of the story as those classes via A/B plots rather than playing through the entire story on every single toon.
Something like that is obviously not possible to add for the current Legacy of the Sith storyline, but perhaps it’s a shift for 8.0.
Quality of Life Changes
Quality of Life (QoL) changes are coming to Wreckage on Dantooine and the Companion Return Terminal on Odessen.
Wreckage on Dantooine
Wreckage on Dantooine is getting a cleaner onboarding mission that’s skippable for alts. In addition, the Orbital Core mission will be separated from the Wreckage on Dantooine wrapper mission so players who don’t care about the boss fight can return to having a clean quest log.
As players finish up with their achievements, reach Legend Reputation, and unlock the Dantooine Farmstead SH, the crash site will naturally become less populated, so Broadsword is making it each biome levels up faster. There will be more details on these changes in the Patch Notes.
Companion Locator Terminal
The Companions Relocation terminal on Odessen is getting migrated to a new category under the Companions and Contacts window on a new tab called “Ineligible for Story”.
The idea is that you’re only locked out of certain companions while doing the main story, rather than being locked out entirely for unrelated content until you do the main story.
This might be a pretty major change. We didn’t get too many specifics, but it sounds like they might be completely revamping how they take away your companions, like even going back to KotFE/KotET, where they’ll just get moved around in the Companions and Contacts window rather than getting completely removed at all.
PvP Season 10 “Honor in Battle”
It’s been the case for a while, but new PvP Seasons come as part of every major 7.X update while Galactic Seasons coincide with 7.X.1 minor updates, so 7.9 comes with PvP Season 10 “Honor in Battle”.
They’re going for a Knight theme this time around, likely moving away from the underworld/smuggler/bounty hunter themes we’ve had for past seasons.
They described it as “metal, space knight”, which sounds like the Gothic Master set Inspired by Marrok, the First Brother, not a more literal Jedi Knight.
They only showed off the Flairs and Titles, so we’ll have to wait and see how the set turns out. The helmet in the Flairs picture is part of the Armored Messenger set, a GS4 armor coming back with GS11, not the new sets on the season.
There will also be a pair of decos they didn’t show and the Titles:
- Legacy Title: Honorable by Nature
- Character Title: [Name], the Loyal
Nightlife Event
The summer Nightlife Event is coming back for 6 weeks from June 30th to August 11th with new deco rewards available through the Emperor’s Grace Slot Machines.
Cartel Market Items
There are a bunch of weapons coming to the Cartel Market as part of 7.9, many of which are Inspired by The Mandalorian and Grogu™.
Naga Sadow’s Fortress Blades
We’re getting some sick vibroswords that will undoubtedly make an appearance on Khar Shian called the Naga Sadow’s Fortress Blades. The blade itself looks to be some sort of translucent obsidian material that glows with your chosen color crystal and pulses when you swing it.
My main Sith, Endonae, is a lightsaber man through and through, but these vibroswords are making me rethink that. At the very least, these are the perfect weapon for any Callous Conqueror.
Inspired by The Mandalorian and Grogu™
Broadsword showed off some vibroblades and blasters that will come alongside 7.9 and mentioned that there is more coming that is also Inspired by The Mandalorian and Grogu™ that they have not yet revealed.
Pit Fighter’s Vibroblades
We got a pair of sleek tech-oriented Pit Fighter’s Vibroblades that are semi-retractable and come in both single and double-bladed versions.
EE-2MAG Blasters
We’re getting a set of EE-2MAG Blasters with lights governed by color crystals and Rifles that have an animation when you pull them out.
Maul Shadow Lord Cosmetics
Cosmetics Inspired by Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord™ were added recently with Update 7.8b, including the single and double-bladed version of Maul’s lightsaber and his robes with robo legs.
Master the Fight Bundle
Broadsword recently refreshed their $100 USD Master the Fight Bundle with the Cargo Transport Edition, featuring Vulcanized Green | Gray Dyes, a teal version of their GDU Mount, a minipet, and a trio of superior Legacy/Guild/Cargo Hold Droids alongside 6 months of sub time and 5500 CC.
Galactic Season 11 and 7.9.1
There will be no dedicated livestream for update 7.9.1 because the focus will be on 8.0 (and probably because GS11 will be the only “content” coming with said update).
As previously announced, Galactic Season 11 “Light and Shadow” will follow the same pattern as Galactic Season 10 where it’s mostly a rehash of old rewards including Fen Zeil and Amity companions with new customizations, reskinned mounts, and titles, but unlike GS10, there will be a new armor set alongside the old FOMO stuff from GS2 and GS4.
For players who already did those seasons, it sounds like there’s a bit more of a reason to do GS11 than there is with GS10, but the big value is really for players who didn’t participate in those seasons. This is gonna be a bonanza for the people coming in because of the Mandalorian and Grogu movie.
The devs also reiterated plans to add previously retired seasonal rewards from GS1-4 to the GS vendors and are updating the Classic Cartel Packs with Retired Market Items, adding a new Gold Weapon Pack, and adding more items to the Silver Classic Packs.
Galactic Season 11 will not feature DvL Bosses, so if you want those achievements and armors, make sure you participate in GS10.
New Details about 8.0 and DX12
After 7.9.1, we’re getting update 8.0 with a holiday 2026 launch window. DirectX12 is also around the corner but not linked to 8.0.
DirectX12
Alongside the Q1 2026 Producer Letter, Broadsword published an article on their progress with migrating the game from DirectX 9 to DirectX 12 API, which is how games can communicate with GPU drivers in a standardized way, kind of like a translation book.
The only major component they have left to migrate is the game’s UI. Once that’s done, we’ll get a technical alpha test, which will be announced prior to 8.0. Pictures are one thing, but…
“You need to be able to clickity clack the video game”
– Eric Musco, 2026
Broadsword also clarified that they have integrated some rendering parts from EA’s Frostbite engine into the SWTOR engine and while SWTOR was originally made with the HeroEngine, it has been heavily modified and upgraded over the years to the extent that it is no longer reasonable to call it that.
First Details on Confirmed Features for 8.0
The focus of 8.0 is new content, gameplay, and systems for group, solo, and story that celebrate the breadth and depth of SWTOR to power new content and systems.
We expect something similar to what we’ve gotten in 6.0 and 7.0, which really were quite similar to each other in terms of types of content.
The features they announced with the 7.9 Livestream are only a portion of what’s coming. They’re drip feeding us, starting with the core nutrients.
There will be a new Era of SWTOR story, and that’s Era like the Eras window. Much of the current Legacy of the Sith Era will end, but there will almost certainly be lasting consequences on the Galaxy that will have significant ramifications in the next Era.
The level cap will increase to 85 and the gearing system will “evolve”, acting as an iteration on the current system rather than a complete revamp like every single other expansion.
There will be more combat balance changes and new abilities for every discipline, but I’m skeptical about what form that will take.
They were already grasping at straws when they added abilities for each advanced class (combat style) in 6.0 with many of them being locked away and never used in 7.0. I think it’s far more likely they’ll make significant improvements to ability trees and revamping many talents and choices.
I highly doubt we’ll get a new combat style with 8.0. Perhaps that can be a headline feature for 9.0, assuming Star Wars hasn’t been hated into oblivion by its “fans” by then.
There will also be a new 3-boss Operation in both SM and VM at launch with unspecified, concrete plans for MM after. I think it’s safer to assume that we will actually get MM this time or they definitely wouldn’t have said it, and 3 bosses is a lot more manageable than 4 or 5.
The new planet is Ryloth, the Twi’lek homeworld, which will have a bunch of Dynamic Encounters, perhaps in a similar style to Wreckage on Dantooine as opposed to a daily area.
I suspect we’ll probably get the remaining improvements to character are then as well, particularly for Twi’leks. Since Sa’har and Ri’kan are Twi’leks, I have to think they’ll survive the chaos on Khar Shian and continue to be a major part of the story in 8.0.
While it makes sense that SWTOR would have an important planet like Ryloth, the environment is quite similar to Ruhnuk, so I’m curious how they’ll differentiate it.
The biggest source of content post 7.9 up until 8.0 will be on the PTS.
Summary and Expected Release Date
Update 7.9 and especially 7.9.1 are looking to be pretty light on new content as Broadsword focuses their development resources on 8.0.
- Legacy Reborn Storyline
- QoL Improvements
- PvP Season 10 “Honor in Battle”
- Nighlife Event
- CM Offerings
- 7.9.1: GS11 “Light and Shadow”
- DirectX 12 w/ Technical Alpha
- 8.0 First Details
- May the 4th
It’s likely that the only other thing we’ll see with 7.9.1 is Feast of Prosperity this autumn, though we’ll almost certainly be able to check out parts of 8.0 on the PTS throughout the remainder of 7.0.
Broadsword was coy about it, but it sounds like the release date for 7.9 “Legacy Reborn” will be May 26th, 2026, the day after Memorial Day.
