Go Again: The SWTOR Hardcore Challenge

After months of speculation and hope following last spring’s trial run, yesterday Papa Keith Kanneg announced the launch of a brand new Star Wars: The Old Republic server for the Asia-Pacific region called Shae Vizla! I won’t lie seeing SWTOR open a brand new server is pretty exciting, and I am very happy that my friends on the opposite side of the planet now have a quicker and more reliable server to call home for their characters and adventures.

To celebrate I want to revisit a topic I posted this summer and throw down a HARDCORE CHALLENGE to veteran players looking to check out the Shae Vizla server. This challenge is, of course, inspired by the success of World of Warcraft‘s community driven challenge and recently opened Hardcore servers. I have enjoyed watching players test themselves this way in WOW, and this spring I started wondering if this might be fun to try in SWTOR. Let me be clear from the start, leveling in SWTOR is significantly easier than it is in Classic World of Warcraft. My goal is not to force players delete beloved characters because they missed a jump to an elevator; instead I think veteran players might find some unexpected pleasure in leveling characters without endless credits and character, legacy and guild perks.

There are two elements to the challenge, but the main one is simply to advance your character to maximum level without dying. Should you accept the challenge and your character dies at any point on their journey, you are expected to abandon that character and try again. The second element of the challenge is that players play using a set of restrictions called SSF: “Solo-Self-Found”. That is to say that the only weapons and armor and accessories they can use are those they’ve looted, crafted or earned as quest rewards. Use of the auction house, the mailbox and trading with other players is forbidden. Without being able to feed a fresh character unlimited credits and high quality equipment, Hardcore players need to be careful when forced to make do with the loot they find for themselves along the way, just like founding players did back in 2011.

Here is the rules set for a my “SWTOR Hardcore Challenge”:

• Players may not use the GTN. They may not trade with other players (or their own alts) in person or through the mail or Guild or Legacy storage. Use of Legacy gear obtained by other characters is forbidden.
• The gear vendors on Fleet and on the leveling planets are off-limits. Cheap and plentiful mods were simply not available back in 2011.
• XP Boosts awarded from the story may be used, however boosts and other consumables from daily log-in rewards or the Cartel Market are off-limits. My initial impulse was to ban all boosts, but it seems unfair to prevent players from using fairly earned quest rewards.
• Conquest rewards may be used. Conquest is a later addition to SWTOR, but it feels too ingrained into today’s gameplay to ban.
• Each planetary Heroic and Story-based Flashpoint may only be completed ONCE and ONLY while your character is within the suggested level range for the planet or that part of the story. Once you out-level the planet, you CANNOT go back and do its Heroics.
• Today the GSI Droid super-companion is an expected part of most Story Flashpoints, but I would award an extra gold star to players who opt to dismiss the “Jesus Droid” in Story Flashpoints.
• Crafted gear is allowed. You may even drop and level new Crew Skills if you want to craft different types of gear. All crafting materials must be found by the character or generated from their own crew skill missions. The use of Jawa Junk is forbidden.
• Claiming cosmetic gear, mounts and pets from Collections is allowed. I’m not a monster. Absolutely take advantage of the Outfit Designer and ride your favorite speeder. However, because they have stats, Color Crystals cannot be claimed.

I will be giving it a go myself and will be sure to let you know how it goes!

It’s All About the Journey

These rules aren’t really so much a code as a set of guidelines for a more old school pace of leveling. The degree to which anyone might want to engage with this challenge is entirely voluntary and there is obviously no way to enforce them. No, my goal here is to encourage veteran players like myself to take a step back and re-experience the game like a new player might now or maybe in a manner closer to how we leveled back in the day. Many aspects of the leveling experience have changed over the years, and mostly for the better. SWTOR has always aimed for a slower leveling pace, but things like waiting until level 14 for Sprint and level 25 for Speeder Piloting deserve to stay in the past. Nevertheless over the years, I’ve leveled many characters “efficiently” and while it’s quicker, it isn’t exactly fun. Running the same Heroics and the same Flashpoints over and over gets tedious. I started a fresh legacy on a new server recently. and opted level just through a class story I had not run in a long time. To my surprise, I became more attached to that dumb little blue haired Smuggler than nearly any other of my recently created characters. Advancing my Legacy to the point where I could unlock Rocket Boosts felt like a genuinely momentous achievement!

Since Shae Vizla is a fresh start server closed to transfers for now, all players there will be able to experience a new economy both for themselves and the server, It will be interesting to see what life is like when you have to pinch your credits! Indeed many players will have no choice but to follow some of the rules above at least to start!

I Ain’t In This For Your Revolution

But what’s in it for you? The quiet satisfaction of a job well done or the simple joy of playing a fun video game? Of course not! To celebrate the new server and to encourage folks to check it out, I am hosting raffle whose prizes include more than three dozen codes generously donated by the good people at Broadsword that are redeemable for Cartel Coins, subscription time and even a few Mandalorian Heavy Jet Packs! To be eligible to win a prize all you need to do is send me a screenshot (as seen here) of your Achievements window from a character on the Shae Vizla server showing that you’ve completed Act Three of ANY Class/Origin story of either faction anytime between today and midnight of January 17, 2024.

Do you have to follow the rules of the Hardcore Challenge to enter? NO! The challenge is for fun, but it is not part of this raffle. All you need to do is complete one Origin Story in the next two months on the Shae Vizla server in any manner you prefer. If you do attempt the challenge, please let me know how you did!

Does the character have to be on the Shae Vizla server? YES! I want to celebrate the debut of the server and help launch it with a bang.

Do you need to be subscribed to enter and win? NO! Any player regardless of experience or subscription status is encouraged to enter.

What are the prizes? I will be awarding up to forty SWTOR prize codes including twenty codes which can be redeemed for 450 cartel coins, ten codes that can be redeemed for 30 days of SWTOR subscription time, five codes that can be redeemed for a Heavy Mandalorian Jet Pack, and five codes that can be redeemed for 2400 Cartel Coins. Codes will be distributed randomly among all entries after the raffle period ends.

To enter, contact me with the following information:

• Your character name (be mindful of spaces and special symbols!) on the Shae Vizla server
• Your faction
• A screenshot of your character’s achievements window (Achievements>Locations>General>) showing that you have completed Act Three of any Class or Origin story between November 16, 2023 and January 17, 2024.

That’s it!

I will accept Entries through email at twia@generic-hero.com, or through Twitter, or Instagram or here in the comments section of this post!

I will accept entries for two months from this posting and will randomly select winners on January 18, 2024 at 1 PM ET.

There are no country restrictions on any of the prizes that will be awarded. Each entry can only win one code.

This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with LucasFilm Ltd, Broadsword or Electronic Arts Inc.

We’re on the honor system here, so one entry per person, please.

Please only enter for yourself!

Good luck, and may the Force be with you!

If you’re a new visitor, I hope you’ll take a look around. I’ve been translating SWTOR’s alien languages for a few years now and sharing commentary about the state of the game as I see it.