Crafting and professions, or better known as Crew Skills is an important part of your SWTOR gameplay. As such, we feel it’s important to know the basics of it, which we will list on this page. Additionally, we’ll add more crafting information as it becomes available.

• Crew Skills Introduction
• Gathering Skills
  • Archaeology
  • Bioanalysis
  • Scavenging
  • Slicing
• Crafting Skills
  • Armormech
  • Armstech
  • Artifice
  • Biochem
  • Cybertech
  • Synthweaving
• Mission Skills
  • Diplomacy
  • Investigation
  • Treasure Hunting
  • Underworld Trading
• Companions
• Reverse Engineering
• Mods
  • Modulators
  • Armor
  • Weapons
• Which Crew Skill for Which Class?
• More Info

Crew Skills Introduction

The Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ galaxy is rich with valuable resources, high-tech schematics, and intriguing opportunities, but what hero has time to devote themselves personally to so many pursuits? That’s where your crew comes in. The Crew Skills system allows you to take advantage of everything the galaxy has to offer without getting in the way of your adventure!

You’ll assign your crew of companions to gather resources, craft useful and valuable items, and even to undertake their own missions, bringing you and the rest of the crew a variety of benefits and rewards. Crew skills keep you in the action while you take advantage of all the galaxy has to offer!

Your Starship is home base for you and your crew. While you’re exploring the galaxy and progressing through your storyline, you can relay orders back to the ship. You’ll be able to assign tasks to your companions to gather resources, to craft items at the ship’s workstation, or to embark on special missions. Based on their personal backgrounds, some companions will be more proficient with certain skills, and the higher their opinion of you, the better they’ll perform across the board.

You will be able to select three Crew Skills for your team to train in from among these main categories listed below: Gathering, Crafting and Mission skills.

Gathering Skills

As you explore planets in the galaxy, you’ll discover a variety of exotic resources and valuable pieces of information. With the right training, you and your crew will be able to scavenge for raw materials, slice computer systems, and track down valuable artifacts.

The resources and information you gather can be sold on the open market for a profit, or your crew can use them to craft useful and valuable items. If you like, you can select Gathering skills for all three of the Crew Skill slots available to your team.

There are four different gathering skills in The Old Republic:

1. Archaeology

Archaeology crew skill enables you to find imbued items like Lightsaber crystals and ancient artifacts. It’s mainly used to mine crystal nodes; think of it like mining in other MMO games. Crystal formations contain crystals that an Artificer can use to construct lightsaber modifications and armor for Force users. Archaeological finds contain artifact fragments of Force-imbued technology. These valuable items contain ancient formulas and algorithms used in Artifice and Synthweaving. Archaeological finds possibly conceal rare datacron components that are used in the creation of attribute-enhancing Matrix Cubes.

2. Bioanalysis

With Bioanalysis you can collect genetic materials from creatures and plants. No doubt this skill is best paired with the Biochem crafting skill. Genetic materials include cell fibers, bacterial strains, toxic extracts and medicinal fluids. Biochemists use these materials to create medpacs to restore health, stimulants (single-use injections) that provide a boost to physical abilities, and biological implants that enhance combat prowess by stimulating neural networks and regulating brain stem functions.

3. Scavenging

With Scavenging you can recover useful materials and parts from old and damaged technology you come across. The crafting skills Armormech, Armstech, and Cybertech utilize Scavenging resources, and is typically suited for Bounty Hunters and Troopers.

4. Slicing

Slicing enables you to access secure computer systems and lockboxes and acquire valuable data, items, tech materials and rare schematics from it. This basically enables you to get various recipes that can later be used for different crafting skills to make mostly weapons and armor. Common slicing targets include electronic safes, data stations, security mainframes and biometric footlockers. They contain lockboxes that can yield valuable items, credits, rare tech materials used to construct prototype and artifact droid armor and generators, and mission discovery objects that unlock challenging missions that can potentially yield great rewards. You might want to know that slicing is currently by far the biggest money maker. Resources (tech schematics) are used for Cybertech crafting skill, but a lot of items are beneficial to all crew skills.

Crafting Skills

Whether your team gathers resources or you acquire them through other means, they’ll be the cornerstone of crafting. Depending on how you choose to specialize, your crew will be able to construct armor, weapons, implants, or other types of useful items and gear. You can use these items yourself or put them up on the open market for profit.

You’ll receive Crew Skill reports even while you’re away from the ship, and if one of your companions returns with the schematics for a valuable item, you can assign someone else to start crafting the item right away on the ship’s workstation without having to return to the ship! Crafting skills are very specialized disciplines; for your three Crew Skills slots, you’ll be able to select only one crafting skill for your crew to master.

There are six different crafting skills: Armormech, Armstech, Artifice, Biochem, Cybertech and Synthweaving. Below are a few details on each one.

1. Armormech

Armormech gives you the ability to work with hard metals and electronic shielding to construct personal armor for non-force users. Vendor-purchased fluxes are used during the armor creation process to refine the materials to ensure suitability. Armormechs can reverse engineer their crafted armor and possibly discover new ways to improve armor creation. The gathering skill Scavenging and mission skill Underworld Trading provide crafting resources for Armormech

Recommended for: Smuggler, Trooper, Imperial Agent, Bounty Hunter

2. Armstech

This skill specializes in creating weapons like the Assault Cannon, Blaster Pistol, Blaster Rifle and Sniper Rifle. It also allows a player to craft weapon upgrades and modifications: Barrels, Scopes and Triggers. Most useful for Bounty Hunters and Troopers. Vendor-purchased fluxes are used during the blaster creation process to refine the materials to ensure suitability. Armstechs can reverse engineer their crafted blasters and possibly discover new ways to improve blaster creation. Materials are mostly gathered with Scavenging (metals and compounds), but also with Investigation (researched compounds).

Recommended for: Smuggler, Trooper, Imperial Agent, Bounty Hunter

3. Artifice

Artifice includes construction of Jedi and Sith artifacts. This skill specializes in creating modifications for items, including lightsabers. The item categories the Artifice skill can craft are: Circuitry, Emitter Matrix, Focus Crystal, Focus Lens, Gadget, Harness, Overlay, Underlay and Resonance Crystal. Most useful for Sith Warriors and Jedi Knights. Color crystals also determine the lighsaber’s beam color. Armor overlays and underlays provide additional armor protection and augment combat prowess. Artificers can reverse engineer their crafted focii, feet and wrist armor and possibly discover new ways to improve armor creation. The gathering skill Archaeology provides crafting resources (power crystals, color crystals and artifact fragments) for Artifice, and Treasure Hunting provides gemstones.

Recommended for: Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor

4. Biochem

Allows the creation of performance-enhancing serums and various biological implants. You can consider this the Alchemy/potion making in SWTOR. Also makes Med Units, which function as ranged Medpac heals. Biochemists can create medpacs to restore health, stimulants (single-use injections) that provide a boost to physical abilities, and biological implants that enhance combat prowess by stimulating neural networks and regulating brain stem functions. Biochemists can reverse engineer their crafted implants and possibly discover new ways to improve implant creation. The resources required (biochemical samples and compounds) for Biochem are gathered via Bioanalysis skill, and some are even gained with Diplomacy (medical supplies). Potions are always sought after so this profession is decent for making credits.

Recommended for: all classes

5. Cybertech

This skill specializes in Droid upgrades, but can also craft earpieces. They also make modifications for certain items: Harnesses, Overlays, Underlays, Circuitry, Gadgets and Generators; grenade and droid armor craftable items. Also tech wrists and boots. Earpieces are external mini-computers that are worn on or near the ear. They enhance combat prowess by giving audio and visual feedback to the wearer or through direct neural feedback via an external nerve relay. Cybertechs can reverse engineer their crafted droid, feet and wrist armor, earpieces, electro weapons, and generators, and possibly discover new ways to improve their creation. The gathering skills Scavenging and Underworld Trading provide crafting resources for Cybertech.

Recommended for: Smuggler, Trooper, Imperial Agent, Bounty Hunter

6. Synthweaving

This skill specializes in creating lighter armor, presumably mostly for Sith Inquisitors and Jedi Consulars. Think of it like tailoring/leatherworking. Vendors provide premade solutions, suspensions and composites that are used during the Synthweaving process. Synthweavers can reverse engineer their crafted armor and possibly discover new ways to improve armor creation. The gathering skill Archaeology and mission skill Underworld Trading provide crafting resources for Synthweaving.

Recommended for: Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor

Mission Skills

Companions

Companion characters are a key part of The Old Republic, so one of the goals for Crew Skills is to fully incorporate them into the system. Players can issue crafting orders to up to five companions at a time, and each companion can add up to five crafting tasks to their queue. You can cancel crafting progress from anywhere if you need to, and the resources your companions were using will be returned to you. Your crafting queues will even continue to progress if you have to go offline – when you log back on, you’ll receive any items that were completed while you were gone.

Your companions all have different skills and personalities, and their strengths carry over into the Crew Skills system. Some companions are better suited to particular Crew Skills than others. Companion traits in Crew Skills are designed to be story-appropriate and meaningful, but the bonuses aren’t designed to be so extreme that you’ll feel you only have one companion choice for a given task.

There’s more information on companions and their bonuses for Crew Skills in our class guides, so be sure to check out the guide for your class to find out which companion might be better for your choice of professions. You can quickly jump to the list of companions for each class with these links: Bounty Hunter, Imperial Agent, Jedi Consular, Jedi Knight, Sith Inquisitor, Sith Warrior, Smuggler, Trooper.

All companions, except for the ship droid who’s sole purpose is a profession bot, have bonuses to 2 professions. +Efficiency reduces the time it takes to complete missions by a percentage and +Critical increases the likelihood of getting a critical craft or acquiring epic gems, metals, fabrics, and polymers from mission-based professions. All bonuses cap out around 5-10, and some are lower (+critical to missions are +2 while crafting is +5, because missions have a 20% crit chance already, and crafting is 5% base).

Note: it’s currently not determined whether companion bonuses to crew skills will remain.

Critical crafts do 3 things:

• Armor/Weapons: Adds a modulator slot
• Mods: Makes 2
• Missions: Gives epic quality crafting materials

Companions are much more than just a block of stats to be ordered around, of course. In true role-playing fashion, what your companions think about you will affect how motivated they are to work for you. Companions with high affection will have their ability to perform crafting tasks greatly improved. For example, a companion with high affection can craft items faster – this becomes really significant when crafting tasks can take hours or even up to a day to complete! You can raise your companion’s affection rating by giving them various gifts: most can be obtained with mission skills.

Though companions are vital to The Old Republic and the Crew Skills system, some players want to be the primary crafter for all their crafted items, or for particularly special pieces of equipment. It’s worth noting that players will definitely need to be directly involved in the process when learning rare schematics, and that Lightsabers aren’t acquired or assembled via the Crew Skills system.

Reverse Engineering

Reverse Engineering is TOR’s version of disenchanting. You are only able to RE items similar to ones you can craft, and the item’s overall quality determines what kind of goodies you get from it (you always get crafting materials). Generally speaking, you should never Reverse Engineer anything you cannot craft as it is unprofitable.

You currently cannot RE mods. I don’t know if you ever will be able to, but I feel it has to be added in order make crafting viable endgame. The main reason RE exists is to learn how to make better craftable items. When you RE an item that you can craft (which you learn off of trainers or schematics) there is a chance you will learn to make a better version of the same item, both in rarity and power. This is done through a prefix system, that will determine a static property being added to whatever item you reverse engineered.

Lets say you RE’d a Space Blaster (uncommon quality) and learned how to make a Commander’s Space Blaster (rare).

“Commander” is a prefix (like WoW’s “of the _____” suffixes) that adds +Presence to the item. If you don’t like the prefix you got, you just RE more Space Blasters until you get something you do want, like “Overloaded” (+power) or “Critical” (+crit rating). I do not have a full list of these, but as far as I can tell, you cannot get a prefix from crafting that gives core stats.

Now that you can make Commander’s Space Blaster, you can now reverse engineer that to learn an epic version. This epic version will retain the prefix of the first, but since it’s an epic, will have increased stats by having better base mods.

Another important aspect of Reverse Engineering is that it will be the only way to get certain patterns/recipes. Details on this are still mostly unknown, such as the chances of getting these patterns etc.

Mods

It should be first stated that not all items have modification slots and cannot be upgraded in any way.

The mod system is like socketting gems in WoW, but they give more stats and generally drop into items that, on their own, have absolutely no stats; not even armor. Armor values are determined by the type of armor (light/med/heavy), and the armor rating stat listed on mods. Damage is the same thing, but with damage modifiers and weapon types (assault cannons do more than blasters, for example.) Your level 10 armor can be your level 50 armor if you can mod it enough to keep it relevant.

Almost all mods have variable quality (not rarity.) They will have minor variations in their name, and will provide different statistical bonuses even though they will have the same level requirements and rarity.

Example: Patron MZ-40y Power Cell

Patron is a prefix that always gives +CUN +END. y can be a number between 1 and 4 and is the indicator of quality, 4 being the best (having the highest stats.) The range from 1-4 can be fairly significant. This will drive min/maxers completely insane as you cannot craft them (currently.)

Patron MZ-401 might be [+10cun +8end] and Patron MZ-404 might be [+13cun +10end]. You have 21 mod slots that can have this variable quality “feature”, which can result in the difference of hundreds of stat points on high level mods.

Mods are crafted by Armstech, Artifice, and Cybertech crew skills.

Modulators

Modulators are the only common mod shared between weapons and armor pieces. Modulator slots are found on critical crafted items, and are effectively a “free” slot. Crafted items with static stats can have modulator slots. Modulators are obtained through Underworld Trading crew missions and can have any stat, making critical crafted epics potentially the best items in the game unless high-level epic items spawn with more mod slots or static stats (both of which are expected.)

Armor

The 6 types of Armor mods: Harness, Underlay, Overlay, Support, Circuitry, and Modulators. Items are composed of: Harness or Underlay + 1-2 of Overlay/Support/Circuitry + Modulator (crit craft only). Harnesses (head/leg/chest) and Underlays (everything else) always have armor rating and core stats, and no items have both Harness and Underlay slots. Overlays have core stats, support/circuitry do not. Optimal armor items are always Harness/Underlay + Overlay (+ Support/Circuitry if 3 mods.) It is actually not worth upgrading if you lose an overlay slot because of how much better core stats are than secondary stats.

Weapons

Weapons have the potential, unlike armor, to have 5 mod slots and have more mod types.

• Ranged: Barrel + Power Cell + (Trigger or Scope) + Color Crystal + Modulator (crit craft only)
• Melee: Power Crystal + Hilt + (Focus Lens or Matrix Emitter) + Color Crystal1 + Modulator (crit craft2 only.)

Barrels and Power Crystals control damage rating, Power Cells and Hilts have core stats while Triggers, Scopes, Lenses and Emitters do not. Color Crystals can have core stats (but usually just have endurance), so using vibro weapons is not advisable.

Which Crew Skills for Which Class?

If you’re wondering which crew skill is best for your class or just need a quick overview of them, take a look at the image below.

Someone also compiled info from this site in the PDF/image for quick reference. You can download it below:

Download as PDF

More Info

• Players will have three crew skill slots to fill with any combination of Gathering, Crafting, Mission skills.  However, a player may not fill more than one slot with a crafting skill.  This will force specialization and make sure that players are not self-sufficient when it comes to crafting. You could have a mission skill, gathering and crafting or two gathering and one crafting
• Companion bonuses to skills are currently mild so that players will not feel they can’t take companions out on the field because they are too valuable on the ship taking advantage of their bonuses.
• Only companions do the actual crafting.
• You will not see anyone’s companions running around completing their assigned tasks.
• You do not need special workbenches to make items
• Crafting is based on time invested more than XP level. Do not expect to decide to become a Master Crafter over a weekend
• Some recipes will be limited per server to make them rare
• If you wish to do the harvesting/gathering yourself you can. It’s not limited to your companions
• Crafting missons can take between 5 minutes to 24 hours
• All crew skill trainers are available at the Capital worlds.
• There are no limitations on what class does what type of crafting
• The majority of crew skill missions are accessed from a pool of random missions but some are unlocked when you find rare items which give better rewards.
• Companions can not die while on Crafting missions but they can fail. If it fails the lost incured is the credits it cost you to send your companion on the mission
• Your companions do not have crew skills themselves. The crew skills they can use are based on the crafting skills your main character has.
• The maximum number of crew that can perform any crafting skill, at one time, is 5. Any others spare could be doing missions, gathering or traveling with the main character
• If you want to quickly farm companion favor and dark/light side points, get Diplomacy and Treasure Hunting. You could additionally pick Slicing with these two if you’re only interesting in making credits rather than crafting.

 

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