Starting Out

When you start a new game, you'll be given some customization for your character, including sex and what class you wish to start out.

Scout - The scout is the average character. You have average Vitality Points (VP), feat progression, and skill points. The scout is a safe bet for those willing not to take a chance. Luckily, the scout automatically receives Implant feats.

Scoundrel - Your scoundrel is a character who survives on skills, while relying your allies to help during combat. They have low Vitality Points (VP), slow feat progression, but get a lot of skill points. Use these to boost your character's Awareness, Persuade, Security, Computer Use and Stealth.

Soldier - The soldier is for those who want to spend all their time beating up on enemies (and NPCs). They get high vitality, slow skill progression, but a lot of feats. This makes giving them a ton of Weapon Specializations and additional combat feats easy. But, they will have to rely on your allies to perform skill-based actions.

Later in the game, you'll be given the choice of three Jedi classes to become.

Jedi Guardian - The soldier of the Jedi classes, the guardian gets a ton of vitality per level, low Force points, slow skill progression and fast feat progression. You'll want to improve your Dexterity if you plan on wearing Jedi robes rather than standard armor. Invest in Force Aura, Shield, and Armor if you do equip robes.

Jedi Consular - The consular is a more Force-oriented character who gets low vitality, good Force points, slow skill progression and slow feat progression. This class should stay on the backlines and focus on Force attacks. Unless your character was either a scoundrel or soldier, you'll be hard pressed for skills and feats with this class.

Jedi Sentinel - The sentinel is the middle ground of the Jedi classes. They gain average vitality and Force, skill progression and slow feat progression. Much like the Scout, you can really choose how you wish to develop this character.

Characters

These comments are intended to give first-time players an idea of how best to use your allies in their default setups. You can alter the way your allies grow on Level Up, so feel free to differ from these comments. If you wish to take a more active hand in your allies' development, change the option in the options menu.

Carth Onasi - The Republic's goody two-shoes will be a strong ally early on, most often being a great aid to you before you get off of Taris. He's pretty strong and has decent dexterity. You'll benefit from hooking him up with upgradeable blasters (Carth's Blaster) and letting him perform covering fire behind your Jedi assault on most enemies. Focus on giving him feats like Two-Weapon Fighting, Rapid Shot and Weapon's Proficiencies with Blasters,

Mission Vao - If you don't have a scoundrel, Mission's greatest contribution to your party will be her strengths in Stealth, Computer Use, Awareness and Security. She isn't the strongest character and her low VP will cause her to fall in battle often. If you do use her, consider equipping her with a blaster or bowcaster. You may also want to use her Sneak Attack skill with a vibroblade to inflict a brutal opening attack.

Zaalbar - The Wookie is a pure fighting machine with a ton of VP and a high strength. You could equip him with a blaster, but I'd serious suggest giving him vibroblades (especially with the Two-Handed Fighting skill). His melee attacks can plow through many enemies. His only drawback is the inability to equip armor, which means you'll need to raise his Dexterity to dodge attacks.

Bastila Shan - Your first jedi ally is a fine addition to any combat team and depending on how you raise her, can be essential to winning some of the tougher fights. Her lightsaber does great damage and her force powers, including the Cure ability, make her very useful. On the down side, she has very low defense, but since you'll want to keep her in jedi robes to keep her Dexterity up.

T3-M4 - This protocol droid is much like Mission - useful if you don't have your main character focused on less combat-intensive skills. T3-M4 is strong in Computer Use, Demolitions, and Repair. If you spend the time, you can make this droid a decent part of your team, especially with the arm slot equipment, like the flamethrower or stun ray.

Canderous Ordo - Once you get Canderous, you may find yourself replacing Carth with the Mandalorian as your gunner that provides cover fire. With his upgradeable Repeating Blaster and his ability to slowly regenerate hit points, Canderous is a sturdy fighter who, with the right armor and upgrades, can be a dangerous and even devastating ally. Keep him out of the range of melee attacks and he'll even polish off Dark Jedi for you. As a soldier, though, he won't get a lot of skills. Great if your character is a Scoundrel.

Juhani - Much like Bastila, Juhani is a solid fighter and is more than willing to use force powers during a fight. She tends to have less VPs and takes more damage than other sturdy fighters, but once you teach her Cure/Heal and get her Dexterity up, she can prove to be a great ally, despite her lack of defense.

Jolee Bindo - The final jedi to join you proves to be less effective with melee than the others. Because of that, you're best to give him more Force Powers to use from afar. He comes with a ton of Force Points and because of his more neutral alignment, Dark Side Powers are actually something he can use without much in the way of penalty.

HK-47 - This droid is an optional ally, but I'd suggest picking him up. Once you get him some nice armor and a good ranged weapon, HK-47 can prove to be a dangerous ally. Load him up with heavy rifles and have him attack from afar.

Tips

Characters regenerate Force Points, so once you gain Heal or Cure, be sure to use that rather than Medpacs. Also, you can regenerate Force Points during conversations. Force Points do regenerate during combat, but not fast enough to make it worth it.

During a fight, you can go into the Start Menu and use healing items, which saves time if you're low on Vitality Points. You can only use one healing item per round, so you may have to use the item, wait to complete an attack or two, then go back in if your in dire need of healing.

If you have the option to return to the Ebon Hawk (not all areas are capable of Transit), feel free to do it as it allows you to be completely healed for free. Also, swap out characters on the fly if one is weak when you have the option available.

Grenades are effective weapons when fighting large groups of enemies. Toss one in on a group to weaken them before fighting them. Try to use Concussion or CryoBan grenades to immobilize some enemies and follow up with Frag or Plasma Grenades to thin your enemies' ranks. Ion grenades work well on droids.

Depending on your Force alignment (Light or Dark), Force Powers can cost more Force Points to cast. If you play a predominantly Light Side character, Dark Side Powers like Drain Life will cost more Force Points than Heal or Cure will. Be sure to take that into account when choosing you powers.

Before major fights, it's in your best interests to use Stimulants. They can boost your strength, dexterity and even give you a hit point boost. Most battles that could be challenging become easier with stimulants.

Equip and use shields to your benefit. Standard shields are great in deflecting initial volleys of blaster fire while melee shields can help deflect physical blows for a while.

Mines can be set up like boobytraps for your enemies. With a character with a good Demolitions skill, you can set up mines for enemies to run into. Depending on your location, you may need to use stealth generators to set up the mines close enough. Or, set them up in front of closed doors and let the enemies rush out into them. Be careful your own allies don't trigger them.

If you have decent computer hacking skills, be sure to try and hack into nearby computers to turn the system against your opponents. Often, you can disable droids, shields, unlock doors or even incapacitate enemies in a room without having to fight them.

Keep upgradeable armor and weapons. Be sure to use the Workbench in the Ebon Hawk (near the swoop bike and Canderous) to add upgradeable items to make your armor, blades, blasters and lightsabers stronger and more effective.

Multi World Quests

Most of the Multi World Quests are initiated after talking with your teammates enough to get a good bit of their background. You can talk to them after gaining new levels or after certain lengths of time. You will need to bring your character's along to initiate certain events to get their quests moving along.

Romance - Depending on the gender of your main character is, you can have a romance between either Bastila or Carth. Neither quest does much except accent the main story and there no real pay off unless you wish to really get the most out of your story.

Bastila - After talking to Bastila for a number of times, you'll be approached by a messenger that will tell Bastila that her mother is dying. Head over to Tatooine and see Bastila's mother in the cantina. She'll ask you to retrieve her father's holocron from the Krayt Dragon cave (see the Tatooine main quest section). After you find the holocron in a pack in the cave, talk to Bastila. Light Side - Give it to her mother. Dark Side - Keep it.

Carth - Speak to Carth a good bit and in one of the spaceports, Carth will be approached and told that his son, Dustil, is alive and well. Go to the Sith Academy on Korriban and speak to Dustil. Light Side - Break into Master Uthar's room and get a datapad to prove that the Sith are evil and give it to Dustil. Dark Side - Just kill the kid.

Mission - After getting Mission to talk about her brother and Lena for a while, Lena will run into you and tell you that Griff is working for the Czerka Corporation on Tatooine. Talk to the people at the office there to find out that Griff is a hostage of the Sand People. At this point, you'll either need to convince the chief to let him go or just spring him when you massacre the lot. Note: If you don't set this sidequest into motion before dealing with the Sand People in the main quest, there is a chance that he won't show up in the cell. After Griff is free, talk to him in the Czerka office, where he'll ask you to get him some Tach glands (from the poachers in Kashyyyk's Upper Shadowlands) and some investment credits. Don't expect any return, though.

Canderous - After hearing a lot of Canderous' tales, you'll run into an old "pal" named Jagy, who wants you to meet him in a duel on the Dune Sea in Tatooine. Show up and kill him. After a while, Canderous will feel like talking about the situation, which will end the quest.

Juhani - After talking with the fiery Cathar, a man named Xor will show up at one of the space ports and offer to buy her. Xor will leave, but expect him to show up with friends when you arrive at a spaceport later in the game.

Stowaway - During you quest for the star maps, Zalbarr will tell you about somebody tampering with the food in the storage room. Go check the food and then walk around the area. After a few messages about footsteps, run back to the storage room to find a little girl who doesn't speak basic. Light Side - Work through the conversation tree to "learn" what she's saying. Once you've learned the language enough to know what the girl's deal is, head back to Dantooine and speak to Lur Arka Sulas at the landing port. Dark Side - Tell the little nerf-herder to get the hell off your ship.

Calo Nord and Darth Bandon - Once you leave Dantooine, Darth Malak will send Calo Nord to finish you off. Depending on what planet/location you arrive, he'll have different allies to help him out. To deal with him, equip everyone with shields and take out his allies first. Once you've got it down to just him, go three-on-one and keep everyone healthy. Once Calo Nord is dead and you've collected at least one star map, expect to see Malak's apprentice, Darth Bandon and two Dark Jedi. Bandon and the Sith will use lots of Dark Force powers, like Drain Life. To counter this, use Force Resistance or Immunity or bring along droids to counter the Drain Life attack. These conflicts occur in the following locations: 1) First time heading down into the Shadowlands on Kashyyyk. 2) When you enter the Valley of the Dark Lords on Korriban. 3) When you leave Hrakert Station after getting the star map on Manaan. 4) Leaving the Krayt Dragon cave on Tatooine.

GenoHaradan - After finishing in Kashyyyk, you'll be "given" a datapad that asks you to visit the Rodian Hulas in Manaan. But, you have to visit him by himself to get two assassination quests. All you have to do is finish one of the quests to get the next three. The first two missions involve taking out Lorgal in the Republic Base on Manaan (you can use the nearby computer to gas him) or Zuulan Sentar near by the Matale Estate on Dantooine. The next three missions involve Vorn Daasard (in the Sand People Territory in Tatooine), Ithoriak Guldar (talk to Vek in the Manaan cantina to set up a meeting), and Rulaan Prolik in the Upper Shadowlands, near Jolee's hut. Rulaan will prove to big your biggest challenge as he is a shapeshifter. Pick up a datapad off a dead Wookie nearby and confront him to get him to change shapes. Once you get him down to a certain VPs, he'll run off disguised as a Tach. Walk around and talk to each of the Tachs to discover him. After you perform the last three assassinations, Hulas will tell you that you have been tricked. You can write this all off or challenge him to a duel in the Dune Sea of Tatooine. He'll say that this is going to be one-on-one. Don't believe him. It'll be seven on three, but you should make quick work of them.

Gizka - Once you reach Tatooine, a delivery boy by the name of Jor Ul Kurak will drop off some Gizka on the Ebon Hawk for you to deal with. These annoying little beasts will multiply and will even replicate when you kill one. You have two solutions - buy some poison from the cantina in Tatooine or take them to the Selkath Nubassa in the Manaan dock.

Unfinished Business - Once you reach the port in Korriban, a Rodian named Lurze Kesh will ask you about a package in the secret compartment in the storage area. Open it up and take the package back to him for 1000 credits (or 1500 with some persuasion). Lurze will then ask you if you want to make another delivery, this time to Motta the Hutt (in the Swoop Bike Racing office) on Tatooine. The delivery itself is easy enough, but if you get a little inquisitive, you can open the box to find yourself transported into an alternative dimension where you need to answer some riddles correctly to get out. The Riddles: I am always hungry... [Flame]. Until I am measured... [Time]. I never was, yet always will be... [Tomorrow]. Who makes it has no need of it... [Grave]. Deliver the box to finish the quest.