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 after last weeks episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, 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.

Episode 3 is up now, and we’ll be going live again in the middle of this coming 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 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.

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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 first Twitch stream 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 2-4 are up now, and we’ll be going live again in the middle of this current week for episode 5. Join us on the Villa Varykino Twitch channel as we run through planetary heroics as a background to a deep dive into The Book of Boba Fett 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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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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One of my Star Wars Celebration Chicago highlights was being able to attend the SWTOR Chicago Cantina event.

This year the cantina was held in a hotel that was connected to the convention centre, so it was an easy walk (and a short taxi ride back to my own hotel afterwards). I unfortunately missed the previous Celebration Orlando cantina event in 2017, so I was determined not to miss this one. I got there nice and early, and it was fun to chat with other SWTOR players in line and check out the awesome costumes fans had made.

On top of the exciting presentation from Bioware staff, attendees were given two tokens – one for a free drink, and one for a swag bag. Add in the great assortment of free food and snacks available, and it was a fantastic way for Bioware to say thank you to the loyal fans who attended.

First off, the swag bag itself. A simple item some may have just been thrown away by some, but I kept mine. I am excited to find any official SWTOR merchandise, and while this isn’t as exciting as the items it contained, I was happy to see that the swag bag was printed rather than plain. Just a little extra touch that Bioware didn’t have to do, and I appreciate that. The bag measures approximately 33.3cm x 22.5cm.

On to the swag bag contents – first up, a full colour print of the new SWTOR in-game loading screen. Each new game expansion features unique loading screen artwork – you see it every time you enter the game, so it’s really memorable for fans. This print showcases the new Ossus/Dantooine story line, with Darth Malgus right in the center with the Jedi and Sith factions on either side. This print measures approximately 21.5cm by 12.5cm.

As well as the print, the swag bag also included a poster. This poster features original artwork of two of the central characters in the current game story line – Darth Malgus and Jedi Knight Tau Idair. I love collecting Star Wars posters, and I was lucky enough to snag a full size SWTOR poster from a local store when the game first launched – but I always wanted more SWTOR artwork for my walls, and now I do! This poster measures approximately 43cm by 28cm.

My personal favourite item from the swag bag was the free t-shirt. In the past I have hunted down SWTOR promotional t-shirts on eBay, but now I finally have a free one of my very own. They had lots of stock available – it was so great to able to choose my size. Honestly, I wish a Star Wars apparel brand would make SWTOR t-shirts for fans to buy, I need more!

The unisex t-shirt features the classic SWTOR Galactic Republic and Sith Empire split logo symbol printed in blue and red on the front, while the back features the SWTOR Onslaught expansion logo in white, and the left sleeve features the Bioware logo.

Last but not least – SWTOR pins! The swag bag contained not one, but three enamel pins. The first features the classic black and yellow version of the SWTOR split faction logo, while the other two feature the lightsabers of Darth Malgus and newcomer Jedi Knight Tau Idair.

I also stopped by the SWTOR fan community tables at Celebration Chicago – it was great to see that these booths were always busy with fans and costumers hanging out. Of course I also grabbed some of the free fan-made swag available to add to our SWTOR collection. I love the pins and postcards, and I entered the giveaway – I even won a free in-game item!

It made me so happy to see a great SWTOR presence at Celebration Chicago this year – from fan tables, to costumes, swag and of course the cantina event. SWTOR is a big part of my Star Wars fandom, and I love to celebrate it with others.

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One of our favourite SWTOR events is back! The Star Wars: The Old Republic Nar Shaddaa Nightlife casino event runs until July 30th (details on the official SWTOR website).

We have both played this event every year it has been run, and thankfully we have both been able to hit the jackpot each event – sometimes quickly, and sometimes not. Toombs really ‘hit the jackpot’ this year and won the rodian companion within his first few plays! It took Anaria a little longer, but she won a good stock of golden certificates along the way.

We really like the rewards available this year – a rodian companion is a great follow-up to the gamorrean guard companion last year. Another fabulous bonus this year – the chance to win Cartel Market Certificates! These are highly sought after since they were removed from the game some time ago – Anaria had been holding on to her hoard, too nervous to spend them!

Things to buy with Cartel Market Certificates:

• Clem Stato (Crew Skills & Strongholds section of the Fleet)
• Settar Upredas/Tol Feshin (Underworld Exchange, Cartel Bazaar area on fleet)
• P-5C3/J-OS4 (Underworld Exchange, Cartel Bazaar area on fleet)
• Therj’io’nuruodo/Zannlyn (Underworld Exchange, Cartel Bazaar area on fleet)
• Malieovo Valaine/Serrath (Underworld Exchange, Cartel Bazaar area on fleet)
• Bizal MavoleGrada Zusi (Underworld Exchange, Cartel Bazaar area on fleet)
• Captain Bellana (Underworld Exchange, Cartel Bazaar area on fleet)

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I always enjoy seeing fan art of player’s characters from Star Wars The Old Republic, so it’s especially neat to see SWTOR-inspired artwork show up in official Star Wars sources! We were checking out the new ‘Star Wars Alien Archive’ book when we noticed a familiar-looking design for the togruta artwork – it’s inspired by the features available in Star Wars The Old Republic!

I headed to my SWTOR character creator to check out the settings – and sure enough, I could make a togruta character very similar to the artwork! There are just a few small differences to the settings available – the colours of the montrals/lekku/headtails are switched, and the left montral has two jewelry bands instead of one. Other than that, I think I found a pretty good match!

The artwork also uses SWTOR in-game armor – the ‘Balanced Combantant’s Armor Set’, which is a variation of Darth Sion’s armor, also available in the game.

It’s pretty cool to see SWTOR-related artwork used in an official book like this, and makes me want to roll a new togruta character! I already have three togruta characters, but there are so many great options, I’m pretty sure I’ll end up with more!

For reference, the settings I used for this togruta sith warrior character are –

• Body Type – 3
• Head – 15
• Eye Color – 7
• Jewelry – 5
• Face Pattern – 8
• Montrals and Lekku – 8
• Montrals and Lekku Pattern Color – 10
• Skin Color – 10

Read more about Star Wars: Alien Archive in a review on SWNZ, Star Wars New Zealand.

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