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.

The post SWTOR Streaming and Andor Chat – Episodes 1-3 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 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.

The post SWTOR Streaming and Boba Fett Chat – Episodes 5-7 appeared first on Villa Varykino.

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

The post SWTOR Alderaan Stronghold Preview appeared first on Villa Varykino.

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

The post SWTOR Adventures #10 appeared first on Villa Varykino.

August 21st to August 27th

A bit of a quiet week in SWTOR – we focused on getting Matt the ‘Resolute Commander’ achievement (getting all 8 classes to command rank 300). We did a lot of dailies which helps for credits, command rank, and making good progress with our Star Fortress companions for those achievements.

• Tennika completed the achievement ‘Subjugator Of The Kon’me’ with her companion Ak’ghal Usar.

• Irgunn reached command rank 300, completing the ‘Commanding Consular’ achievement, and finishing off the ‘Resolute Commander’ achievement as well – with bonus cartel coins!

• Hadron completed the companion achievement ‘More Like Headhunter’ with K’krohl and ‘A Belated Apology’ with Rokuss.

• Vexi reached influenced level 50 with her companion Corso.

• Our family Republic guild reached level 12.

• SWTOR Friend Referral links – MattG and Anaria

The post SWTOR Adventures #9 appeared first on Villa Varykino.

August 14th to August 20th 2019

This week featured the Gree event, and it was also the last week of double xp/cxp, so we really focused on that this week. I reached command rank 300 with my last class needed to complete all 8, and leveled almost all of my newer toons to level 70 – only one left to go! Matt also made significant progress towards reaching command rank 300 with each class, with only left (Irgunn) to level now.

• Nadessa leveled from 59 to 70, Nalorka leveled from 58 to 70, and Nerriko leveled from 60 to 70.

• Zhylaw and Taryonn reached Command Rank 300 – with Taryonn finishing up the ‘Resolute Commander’ achievement for having all 8 classes to rank 300 (plus bonus cartel coins)!

• Kallaris finished the achievements for 1,000 kills with all of the Sith Warrior companions, which was the class need to complete the ‘All For The Empire’ achievement and granted the legacy title ‘Imperial Squad Commander’.
• Our family Empire and Republic guilds both reached level 11.

• SWTOR Friend Referral links – MattG and Anaria

The post SWTOR Adventures #8 appeared first on Villa Varykino.

August 7th to August 13th 2019

Double xp/cxp continued this week, so that’s where our focus was. I spent most of my game time working on leveling my newer toons to get them to level 70 (troopers Nalorka and Nerriko, smuggler Nadessa, and bounty hunter Kamiro).

• Our family Republic guild reached level 10.

• Banshila and Toombs both reached legend level of Dantooine Initiative reputation (maximum level) with left over rep tokens from last week’s event.

• Nalorka leveled from 43 to 57, Nerriko leveled from 49 to 60, Nadessa leveled from 54 to 59, and Kamiro leveled from 46 to 54.

• Vexi and Kaderra both reached command rank 300, completing the ‘Commanding Smuggler’ and ‘Commanding Trooper’ achievements.

• Vexi completed the ‘Korriban Invader’ achievement for completing the Korriban Invasion flashpoint 10 times in ‘Veteran Mode’.

• SWTOR Friend Referral links – MattG and Anaria

The post SWTOR Adventures #7 appeared first on Villa Varykino.

July 31st to August 6th 2019

The Dantooine event finally returned! We love this event, so we teamed up to get the heroics done as a team, and earn as much ‘Dantooine Initiative’ reputation tokens as we could. We decided to go for it and locked in both our family Empire and Republic guilds for the medium yield invasion targets (instead of our usual small yield). This week also had double xp/cxp, so we worked on leveling some lower toons and increasing our command ranks.

• Nadessa leveled from 49 to 54, Nerriko leveled from 43 to 49, and Nalorka leveled from 36 to 43.

• Our family Republic and Empire guilds both reached level 9, and our Empire guild also reached level 10 this week too!

• At the end of the week, our Empire guild had earned 823,549/550,000 conquest points, and our Republic guild had earned 853,666/550,000 conquest points! Not bad for our small three-player family guilds!

• SWTOR Friend Referral links – MattG and Anaria

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