Following on from our previous Twitch streams after the episodes of Disney+ Star Wars shows, we’ve continued with our tradition of jumping online to play Star Wars: The Old Republic and discuss episodes after each Andor instalment concludes. We’re uploading the streamed video and conversation, where we break down our immediate post-episode thoughts for each week, to the Villa Varykino YouTube channel.

Episode 7 of Andor is now up, and we’ll be going live again in the middle of next week for episode 8. Join us on the Villa Varykino Twitch channel as we run through planetary heroics as a background to a deep dive into Andor straight after the credits wrap. You don’t need a Twitch account to lurk and read chat, but sign up if you want to participate in the live chat.

The post SWTOR Streaming and Andor Chat – Episode 7 appeared first on Villa Varykino.

Following on from our previous Twitch streams after the episodes of Disney+ Star Wars shows, we’ve continued with our tradition of jumping online to play Star Wars: The Old Republic and discuss episodes after each Andor instalment concludes. We’re uploading the streamed video and conversation, where we break down our immediate post-episode thoughts for each week, to the Villa Varykino YouTube channel.

Episodes 1-3 of Andor are now up, and we’ll be going live again in the middle of next week for episode 4. Join us on the Villa Varykino Twitch channel as we run through planetary heroics as a background to a deep dive into Andor straight after the credits wrap. You don’t need a Twitch account to lurk and read chat, but sign up if you want to participate in the live chat.

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Following on from our previous Twitch streams associated with the weekly episodes of The Book of Boba Fett, we’ve continued with our tradition of jumping online to play Star Wars: The Old Republic and discuss episodes after each Obi-Wan Kenobi instalment concludes. We’re uploading the streamed video and conversation, where we break down our immediate post-episode thoughts for each week, to the Villa Varykino YouTube channel.

Episodes 1 & 2 are up now, and we’ll be going live again in the middle of this current week for episode 3. Join us on the Villa Varykino Twitch channel as we run through planetary heroics as a background to a deep dive into Obi-Wan Kenobi straight after the credits wrap. You don’t need a Twitch account to lurk and read chat, but sign up if you want to participate in the live chat.

The post SWTOR Streaming and Obi-Wan Kenobi Chat – Episodes 1-2 appeared first on Villa Varykino.

Following on from our previous Twitch streams associated with the weekly episodes of The Book of Boba Fett, we’ve continued with our tradition of jumping online to play Star Wars: The Old Republic and discuss episodes after each Disney+ Boba Fett instalment concludes. We’re uploading the streamed video and conversation, where we break down our immediate post-episode thoughts for each week, to the Villa Varykino YouTube channel.

Episodes 5-7 are up now. We will return to this format on the Villa Varykino Twitch channel, running through planetary heroics as a background, when new episodes of Star Wars series screen on Disney+. In between seasons, we’ll play Star Wars games including SWTOR, and chat about Star Wars in general. You don’t need a Twitch account to lurk and read chat, but sign up if you want to participate in the live chat.

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There’s something about watching Star Wars content on Disney+ that just makes us want to log in and play Star Wars RPGs. For The Book of Boba Fett, Anaria and I will log in to SWTOR to stream via our Twitch channel Villa Varykino (www.twitch.tv/villavarykino) and discuss the evening’s episode of TBOBF. Tonight we’ll run through planetary heroics on Tatooine.

If you’d like to join us for the stream and chat, head on over to our Twitch channel. You don’t need a Twitch account to lurk and read chat, but sign up if you want to participate in the live chat. We’ll have the recording of the stream up on our YouTube channel shortly afterwards (edit: it’s live now!)

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Happy Star Wars Day! Each year, Star Wars The Old Republic rewards players that log in on May 4th – with a free little astromech pet! This year, the droid is M4-Y10, which stands for ‘May 4th Year 10’ – as this year SWTOR celebrates 10 years!

When I logged in this morning, the free pet was awarded to all my characters via in-game mail. The astromech pet is similar to previous versions, but this year’s droid features a colour scheme inspired by the black and red armor of the ‘Bad Batch’ clonetroopers, to tie-in with the new animated series that debuted on Disney+ today as well.

I love collecting the pets in SWTOR, so this little droid was a fine addition to my collection. As a veteran player, I have all the previous May 4th droids, and I really like the design of M4-Y10. A great little gift for playing SWTOR – which of course we always play on Star Wars Day.

May the Force be with you!

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I love the events in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and the new Feast of Prosperity is no exception – it might even be my new favourite from them all!

The new annual event launched on October 20th 2020 and ran until November 10th 2020 – giving players three weeks to cook exotic dishes, serve hungry cantina patrons, hunt down rare ingredients across the galaxy, and earn fantastic vendor rewards!

Here is my complete play-through of the event with my Jedi Sentinel Anaria, including the daily quests, three-part storyline, and vendor rewards.

As with many other SWTOR events, players started by visiting an event npc on the fleet –

Then it was off to Nar Shaddaa, to meet with the two Hutts that organised the feast – Gaboorga the Abundant, and Duuba the Magnanimous. Depending on whether your character is Empire or Republic, you would start by talking to a different Hutt, and would later encounter a choice to support one or the other.

Once you were properly introduced to the event, it was on to the quests. There were four main quests to choose from, which I referred to as the cantina dash, the cooking quest, the world boss quest, and the ingredient quest. In all honesty, these quests were addictive, and I spent hours each day running as many characters as I could through the quests!

First up, the cantina dash. This quest was available in two modes, that is, easy and hard. Easy mode had one round, and was as you might guess, easy to complete, but the hard version had four rounds, and was considerably faster! It took concentration to pay attention to which table timers would run out fastest. Honestly, this one was a bit stressful, and the fast-paced music really kept me on my toes.

Next up, the cooking quest. This was also available to two modes – easy, and hard. In the easy mode, there was no timer, and the ingredients were easy to find. In hard mode, you had more steps, a timer, and the ingredients were not ‘lit up’ so you had to really memorise where everything was in the room to finish quickly.

I think the cooking quests were my favourite part of the event. They were quicker to complete than the cantina dash quests so I did them more often, and I had fun imagining what the strange concoction I was cooking up might have tasted like! I think my favourite would have been the jellied glowshroom stew with extra glowshrooms.

I ran the kitchen quests as often as I could – it was quick, fun, and it made me laugh, throwing ingredients into the pot from across the room! I ran these quests with nearly every character I had – I’m pretty sure I was running these cooking quests in my dreams at night too!

Lastly, the world boss quests and ingredient quests – which were linked. Each day, there was a different world boss quest and a matching ingredient quest – the ingredients were items to pick up/loot from mobs around the same area as the world boss, so it made sense to get them both done at the same time.

The world bosses included Corellia, Belsavis, Nar Shaddaa, Hoth, and Tatooine. I got Hoth and Belsavis a lot, and only got one group for Lucky the rancor on Corellia on the last day. I hadn’t done a world boss group in a very long time, so it was a fun multiplayer component to the event. The event weekly didn’t require players to complete the world boss quests, so you didn’t have to do them, but they were fun, relatively quick due to the popularity of the event, and helped with earning event currency.

The event also had a storyline, which was released in three parts – one part each week. If you waited until the third week, you could play through all three parts of the storyline and get it finished in one go, but for the most part I kept up with the weekly releases.

The story took players all across the galaxy – Rishi, Mek-Sha, Onderon, Dantooine, Voss – helping the Feast of Prosperity organisers find ingredients, recruit chefs, and more. One of my favourite parts was stealing wine from the cantina bar on Rishi. Oh, and controlling a mouse droid in the kitchen was so funny!

All in all, I had so much fun playing this event – and it’s a shame it will only happen once a year, but the annual schedule makes sense to coordinate with the Thanksgiving season inspiration. The vendor rewards were amazing, and I earnt as much event currency as I could – though I still need more food launchers, they are so much fun! I fell in love with the new outfit available from the event vendor, and created a new character just to wear it – but more on that in another blog post.

Happy Feast of Prosperity!

• SWTOR Friend Referral links – MattG and Anaria

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We both really enjoy the stronghold decoration component of Star Wars The Old Republic, so of course we were very excited when a new Alderaan stronghold location was recently announced. It’s been at the top of the list of most-requested stronghold locations among fans for ages, and even though we all know the eventual fate of the planet, that’s thousands of years later – no reason why we can’t enjoy it now

It was such a tease seeing the fleet stronghold directory update to include the new stronghold, but it’s not yet available to purchase. Unable to wait, we had to check it out on the public test server of course. On the PTS, the purchase and room unlocks were all free – but we’re currently saving up the 18 million credits it’s rumored to cost so we can unlock all the areas straight away.

The Alderaan stronghold is huge! It’s comparable to the Yavin IV or Rishi strongholds, with multiple buildings, wide open areas with starship hooks, and hidden bonus rooms as well. One particular aspect I like is the sheer number of indoor decoration hooks this stronghold has – the hooks even overlap in some places.

I really like the elegant ‘house’ elements of this stronghold, which feels like a refreshing change to the junk/ruin feel of the some of the recent stronghold designs. Not that I don’t love ancient ruins, but I do enjoy creating ‘home bases’ for my characters, with beds, living rooms, kitchens etc, which tends to suit the ‘city building’ stronghold style a little better.

The Alderaan stronghold has several ‘houses’ – I especially love the decorative windows looking out at snowy vistas and the amazing stained glass window. Outside, the scenery is just fantastic as well – gently falling snow, realistic looking clouds, and there’s even fish in the river!

Check out our video tour of the areas, rooms, and decorating hooks of the Alderaan stronghold below. Overall, we’re both really impressed, and can’t wait to unlock our own strongholds and get straight into decorating when this update goes live. At the moment, Rishi is the main base for my characters, but this Alderaan stronghold might take that over.

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvbFNcZ4QzA

• SWTOR Friend Referral links – MattG and Anaria

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August 28th to October 8th

We took a little break from our regular conquest schedule, and explored the new content on the SWTOR public test server (PTS). There are two main areas to check out – Onderon and Mek-Sha. There is also a new playable species, new gear, new mounts, and some PTS achievements. We haven’t played on our regular server as much this past month, it’s been so fun to check out the new PTS content – we are so excited for the Onslaught expansion to launch soon!

Our main goal for playing on the PTS was of course the new mount and titles! We grouped up and joined the PVP queue, and completed ten matches. We hadn’t played around with gearing our ‘newly level 75’ characters up beyond their level 70 transferred gear, so it was a bit messy but still a lot of fun.

Kai Zykken’s MK-85 Log Mount is such a fun speeder – even if it’s slow. As the game notes say, this mount does not increase movement speed at all! It has a cute flourish though – the little handlebar bell rings. Here are Banshila and Toombs taking their new mounts for a drive on Onderon –

Speaking of Onderon, I really like this new planet design! From the details around the Hunting Lodge, to the creatures roaming around outside – I can’t wait to play the storyline here. Also, I want a lot of these decorations for my strongholds!

These guards at the hunting lodge are wearing awesome gear that is also available from the reputation vendor. I’m sure I’ll give it to one of my characters, just have to decide which one! I really like the metallic shoulder/chest armour – I’m curious to see how it dyes as well.

These are two new mounts available from the Onderon reputation vendors – the Heavy Arkonok and the Adorned Grefna. These are saddled versions of two creatures seen roaming around on Onderon – I’m always happy to see new creatures added as mount options.

I love the vibrant colours of the bird-like Grefna creatures, they remind me of a cross between varactyls and raptors. I do enjoy earning new reputation levels, so I’ll definitely be working towards these new mounts as fast as I can when the expansion launches.

Mek-Sha is another new area we checked out on the PTS – it feels like a dark mixture of Iokath and Nar Shaddaa. We didn’t really explore this area too much – didn’t feel like taking on the new higher level 75 mobs without better gear! We did a simple daily quest we found close to the landing area – a quirky digging quest with a shovel.

Checking out some of the new gear available on the fleet, I put together this outfit which I absolutely love! The detail is amazing, with textures, buckles, and even stitching. I defintely need to put this outfit together when the expansion launches – perhaps for a new Nautolan character?

Banshila is wearing the Onderonian Force-Lord’s robe and boots, with Space Guardian belt, pants, gloves and bracers (all purchased from vendors on the PTS Imperial Fleet). The holstered blasters on her thighs are part of the gear!

It has been a while since there has been a new playable character species added to the game, so I am very excited for Nautolans! I found quite a few option combinations I quite like, like this purple jedi consular with yellow stripes. Matt also tried out the new species, with this blue jedi knight.

When a creating new character, I usually roll a few test versions, to see how they look under normal game lighting and scenes. I enjoyed playing this test ‘Cavara’ character, and will probably create someone very similar (I’m a little undecided on the headband option).

I find it too tempting to create new jedi characters, I have to limit myself! I probably have too many characters already, and I know I need to save a few slots for the new Nautolan species. It was fun to run around Tython again as a new padawan, it’s been so long since I’ve done those first quests.

Lastly, back over on the regular server, Banshila reached her personal conquest target and completed the ‘Titans Of Industry’ achievement.

Overall, I’m really excited for the new expansion, and while it was fun to take a break from our usual gameplay routine, I’m ready to get back to it – I need to save up some credits too!

• SWTOR Friend Referral links – MattG and Anaria

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During Star Wars Celebration Chicago in April 2019, Bioware held a community cantina fan event for Star Wars The Old Republic. As I was attending Celebration Chicago, I was excited to also attend a fan event for my favourite Star Wars game.

To coincide with the Star Wars Celebration event happening from April 11-15th 2019 in Chicago, there will be a Cantina event. This is your chance to join the Star Wars: The Old Republic community for a Q&A with the development team, complimentary drinks, giveaways, and more. Attendees will also receive Cantina exclusive swag!

Space is limited, so be sure to come early. If you’re in the area and would like to hang out, be sure to stop by and meet everyone!

Venue: Marriot Marquis Chicago in the Grand Ballroom
Address: 2121 S Prairie Ave, Chicago IL 60616
Date: Saturday, April 13th 2019
Time: 7:00 – 11:00PM CST

I have attended a SWTOR community cantina before, back at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in 2015. It was a great event, and I definitely was looking forward to attending another. Thankfully this year’s cantina was held within walking distance from the Celebration convention, which was great!

The event was hosted by SWTOR team members Eric Musco, Charles Boyd, and Keith Kanneg, with many other team members in attendance as well. It was a great chance for fans to be able to meet them in person, and thank the people that help create a game we love and enjoy playing so much.

The slideshow presentation revealed lots of upcoming new content – first up, Dantooine with a new daily area/event. This has been released now, and I love the event – and there’s even alternate quests to do when the event isn’t running (I love patting the kath hounds). Still need to hunt down the food items for the achievement, that will take a while.

The rest of the new content that was revealed during the slideshow hasn’t been released yet – I’ve had a little look at Onderon on the public test server, and it looks amazing! I can’t wait for the full release soon.

• New Planet – Onderon
• New Planet – Mek-sha
• New Flashpoint – Corellia
• New Operation – Dxun

One reveal that got me really excited straight away – Nautolan as a new playable species! It’s true I already have a lot of characters, but I can’t help it, I want to try out all the different advance classes/skill trees. I’ve been waiting for a new species to add a bit of variety to my line-up, so I’m really looking forward to getting a better look at all the customisation options.

Another great reveal – the level cap will be increased to 75, along with new abilities. The slideshow presentation also went into a bit more detail about the whole new gearing and set bonus systems that are coming. Sounds like it will be quite a change compared to the current gear system, but I’m keen to explore the variety and options.

The swag bag for attendees was fantastic – a postcard with two in-game flair codes, a poster, unisex t-shirt, and three enamel pins! I was so happy to see that they had heaps of t-shirts, so fans could choose their size. Stay tuned for a separate post taking a closer look at these cool SWTOR collectibles.

After the main presentation, the SWTOR team invited fans to assemble for a big group costume photo. There were so many incredible costumes – Darth Revan, Darth Malgus, Arcann and Thexan, Kira, Lana Beniko, Theron Shan, Satele Shan, Dread Masters and more!

The night ended with the SWTOR game trailers playing on the big screen, as fans mingled with the SWTOR team, picked up their swag, and chatted with fellow fans.

This was just a fantastic event – I had a great time celebrating my favourite game with fellow players and fans. The SWTOR team shared some really exciting upcoming content – I can’t wait for the Onslaught expansion coming soon!

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