Prepare for the SWTOR 8.0 Masters of the Force expansion coming this holiday 2026. Get the most out of 7.0 and be ready то hit the ground running once 8.0 releases!
Which Items to Stockpile for 8.0
7.0 Augments
Broadsword has said that there will not be a new tier of augments available for 8.0 since there won’t be a new tier of crafting, so don’t get rid of your current augments. Based on how stat distributions look on the PTS, you can reach the Accuracy and Alacrity thresholds pretty precisely without augments, so Critical Augments will likely be in high demand.
Augmentation Kit MK-11
Since there won’t be a new tier of augments, there won’t be a need for a new tier of Augment Kits either. The new gearing system has a feature that lets you upgrade your gear without ripping out augments, dyes, crystals, or tunings, so you’ll only need 14 per role per toon.
Personal Conquest Requisition
These grant 100k conquest points and are one of the possible Weekly Subscriber Login Rewards. It’s pretty easy to earn conquest now, but if you have a lot of alts, you’re looking at up to 1k Tech Frags (depending on CQ yield target) and possibly some Force Imbued Fragments for each one.
XP Boosts
You’re gonna have to level a lot soon, XP boosts make that go faster. Don’t forget to buy the XP Boost Legacy Character Perks either!
Jawa Junk and Crafting Mats
If Broadsword sticks with their plan to make endgame gear bind to character and no longer legacy transferrable, you’ll need a whole bunch more augments. The current cost of augments assumes you only need to buy one or two sets for your entire legacy, so they’ll need to dramatically reduce the cost per augment. This means crafting mats hold more value than augments themselves, for the moment.
Credits
As with any expansion, there will be new gear. This means you’ll need to spend a hefty chunk of credits on buying gear and installing augments. If you’re not a crafter, you’ll need to buy those augments and Biochem items as well.
Endgame Currencies
Unless it’s absolutely necessary, any gear you get now outside of tactical items and maybe legendary implants are gonna be worthless very soon, so there isn’t much of a point to gearing right now.
Broadsword has already declared that Tech Fragments will be sticking around, though all other endgame currencies are getting removed, including:
WZ-1 Accelerants
FP-1 Stabilizers
OP-1 Catalysts
Conquest Commendations
Those currencies may get converted to a paltry sum of credits, but you’ll be better off converting them into Bags of Tech Fragments 200 and stockpiling them in a cargo hold until 8.0.
It’s risky to buy OEM-37s and RPM-13s right now since those are the most expensive components in making augments, so they’re prime candidates if Broadsword decides to reduce material costs for augments to lower their price. It’s safer to hold onto Tech Fragments instead.
There are also a whole bunch of cosmetics that cost Tech Fragments, and the end of an expansion is the best time to buy them. You can find most of them in the alcove with all the <SOW> (Spoils of War) vendors in the Supplies section of the Fleet
There is also a vendor on Ossus named D3-CO next to the Masterwork gear vendors that sell decos in exchange for Tech Fragments. If you’ve done the story from Update 7.3 at the Interpreter’s Retreat on Voss, there’s a vendor there as well that sells a selection of decos for Tech Fragments.
Don’t forget you can buy a set of Fitted Thyrsian Armor from the PvP Gear Vendor on the Fleet as well.
Maybe Broadsword will remember to move that somewhere else so it remains accessible, but they don’t have the cleanest track record for remembering about individual cosmetics like that, so it could be a while before it becomes available again.
Tactical Items
Most disciplines are getting their most popular tactical item converted into a discipline passive, so you may need to buy a runner-up to replace it if you haven’t already.
You can check out my analyses of the balance changes for each combat style for updated recommendations going into 8.0. I’ve been updating them as new changes have been rolled out.
- Sorcerer | Sage
- Powertech | Vanguard
- Marauder | Sentinel
- Sniper | Gunslinger
- Operative | Scoundrel
- Assassin | Shadow
- Mercenary | Commando
I have been trying my best to convince Broadsword that it would be better to stick the core 3 tactical items for each discipline at a new choice in the ability tree, but it seems my efforts are failing. I say this just because there’s no guarantee that this is a wise investment.
Crafting Materials
Broadsword has confirmed that we will not receive a new tier of crafting right away, so when 8.0 is released, all of your current mats will remain useful. They want to do a revamp at some point, but they said the same thing leading up to 7.0.
Crafting touches so many other game systems, I don’t see how they could do a proper revamp outside of an expansion release. It seems more likely to me that we’ll get a new crafting tier at some point during 8.0, though that is just speculation on my part.
Catch Up on the Story
They don’t call them Chapters, but we basically got the equivalent of something like KotFE or KotET over the course of 7.0, and it will take quite a while to get through all of it if you haven’t started.
Check out the Eras window in game if you’re not sure where your toon is at in the story, or consult the Legacy of the Sith section of our SWTOR Story Order Guide.
Plan Your Venture Toons
One of the new features coming with 8.0 are new difficulty mode settings for the open world. You can increase your difficulty setting to make enemies deal more damage to you and your companion and reduce the healing both of you receive.
Broadsword is releasing two new Ventures (subscriber-only) that reward you for playing through the game while locked into these higher difficulties on fresh toons.
Since you decide if a character will participate in these new Ventures at Character Creation, you can’t make the actual toons yet, but you can still figure out their appearance sliders, snag their name, and get a few outfits ready while you wait.
All Fitted Gear (both armor sets and weapons) are being added to Collections alongside 8.0, so if you’re looking to collect them all, now is a great time to start hunting.
SWTOR 8.0 Release Date
Broadsword hasn’t announced a release date for the 8.0 “Masters of the Force” expansion beyond saying it will come out in “holiday 2026”.
We expect to learn the release date at their next livestream which will go over all the new content and changes coming with the expansion, though unless it gets delayed like 7.0, we are pretty confident that 8.0 will come out on either December 8th or 15th, 2026, since they go on winter break shortly after.
