An Updated Beginner’s Guide to Planetary Conquest in The Old Republic

On Tuesday, March 20, BioWare introduced game update 5.8: Command Authority for Star Wars: The Old Republic and brought massive changes to its Planetary Conquest system that was first introduced with 2.9: Galactic Strongholds in 2014. Among a new interface design, players can enjoy increased challenges, opportunities, and rewards for their participation.

Getting Started

Planetary Conquest is an in-game event that allows guilds to compete for control over sectors, or planets, by acquiring points through objective completion. The event resets weekly on Tuesday afternoon. Players can participate by opening their Mission Log (hotkey “L”), selecting the Conquest tab from the menu, and completing the objectives on the left. While some can be performed individually, others require group settings. Objectives have been rebalanced to yield points appropriate to their respective difficulty and now offer credits, experience, and Command Experience upon completion.

There are 13 unique Planetary Conquest events with 19 conquerable planets. Prior to 5.8, cycles operated on a fixed schedule, which gave players and guilds the opportunity to strategize and take proactive measures to build significant points at the start of the event; however, Command Authority has made the Planetary Conquest schedule obsolete, and cycles are now chosen at random (unless one coincides with another recurring in-game event, such as Relics of the Gree or Rakghoul Resurgence).

Meeting Personal Goals

Planetary Conquest’s new interface design separates personal contribution from guild invasions. To be eligible for the personal rewards, players must accumulate enough points to meet the event’s designated goal, which is usually 20,000. While the planetary bonuses for objectives have been removed, update 5.8 introduces daily objectives to supplement the one-time and repeatable tasks. One-time objective completion is now indicated by a “complete” or “incomplete” status, whereas the lemniscate that accompanied repeatable missions has been replaced with a variant of the universal recycling symbol. For additional clarity, players can filter objectives by points, name, repeatable eligibility, and percent complete.

Note: War Supplies: Invasion Force, which previously served as the “toxic waste” of Planetary Conquest, can be combined into ten stacks and donated to the guild for conquest points. Crafting War Supplies now requires additional materials.

Applying a Stronghold Bonus

A well-received change with Command Authority is how stronghold bonuses affect player scores. Prior to update 5.8, a player could achieve a 150% stronghold bonus by unlocking several strongholds and filling their rooms with decorations. Strongholds retained a 100% decoration completion that could be satisfied by filling out the maximum allotment of decoration hooks, which contributed a 25% stronghold bonus toward the overall 150%. Players took advantage of this feature by purchasing cheap decorations, such as Basic Metal Chairs and Basic Junker’s Lights, from the decoration merchants; however, update 5.8 has removed decoration hook requirements and instead bases a player’s stronghold bonus on the number of strongholds and rooms unlocked. The Coruscant Apartment, Kaas City Apartment, and Umbaran Mobile Base are the cheapest and easiest to fully unlock (granting a 75% stronghold bonus).

A 150% stronghold bonus makes achieving personal conquest goals relatively easy. For instance, completing an operation through Group Finder, prior to 5.8, would typically yield 3,000 points. With the bonus applied, a player could earn 7,500 points for completing the same objective. Stronghold bonuses are now reflected in the Conquest interface.

Guild Invasions

A new panel has been introduced to reflect a guild’s progress in Planetary Conquest called “guild invasions.” Update 5.8 categorized conquerable planets into three planetary invasion targets, each with unique reward yields: planets with the highest invasion target require the most participation points and offer the strongest rewards, whereas planets with the weakest invasion target offer the smallest rewards.

Guild leaders or officers with invasion privileges can commit a guild’s flagship to a planet, which will lock the guild into that planet’s leaderboard for the duration of the event; however, guild rewards are no longer tied to placing on the leaderboards’ top ten. Instead, guilds that meet their point goal, which corresponds to the sum of the guild’s members’ scores, will be eligible for receiving the invaded planet’s yield. Guilds that take first place still acquire the achievement: “Conqueror of…,” which can be found under Strongholds in a player’s legacy (hotkey “Y”).

More new features introduced with Command Authority are the top five guild member participation panel, where guild members can see who their highest contributors are, and the Current Conquerors panel, which shows planets that have been last conquered by an invading guild.

Rewards

Players who complete their personal conquest goal will receive the following rewards:

• Gathering Lockbox (Universal): “Contains [three] material gathering decorations for your stronghold, which can be harvested for crafting materials.”
• 25k Credit Certificate
• 2x Superior Resource Matrix
• 10x Scrap: Assorted Droid Parts
• 15x Scrap: Scavenged Scrap

Guilds that meet their planetary invasion target will receive the following rewards:

Small Yield:

• Gathering Lockbox (Universal)
• 50k Credit Certificate
• 2x Superior Resource Matrix
• 10x Scrap: Jawa Junk
• 1x Command, Engineering, or Logistical Encryption

Medium Yield:

• Gathering Lockbox (Universal)
• 2x 50k Credit Certificate
• 3x Superior Resource Matrix
• 15x Scrap: Jawa Junk
• 1x Command, Engineering, or Logistical Encryption

Large Yield:

• 2x Gathering Lockbox (Universal)
• 3x 50k Credit Certificate
• 4x Superior Resource Matrix
• 20x Scrap: Jawa Junk
• 1x Command, Engineering, or Logistical Encryption

Note: When a player meets their planetary conquest goal, a new vendor will appear in the Strongholds and Crew Skills section of the Republic and Imperial Fleets. Players can exchange five War Supplies: Invasion Force and 100,000 credits for new stronghold decorations. Additionally, players can purchase the new Commander’s Compendium for three Dark Projects and 4.5 million credits — an item that instantly brings a companion’s influence level to 50 (with the exception of temporary companions).

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Following these strategies can help you and your guild obtain more favorable and substantial results in Planetary Conquest with the SWTOR 5.8 update. Be sure to check back with GameSkinny for more on Star Wars: The Old Republic!