After this week’s unveiling of upcoming SWTOR companion, HK-51, fans have been excited to find out more information about the little, dangerous guy. We already know he’s going to be a full companion with voice over, and will be pretty hard to get our hands on, but what about his role as a companion? Will he be able to perform multiple roles in combat, or will he be a one-trick droid, excellent at one role but not the others? Let’s speculate a bit, shall we?

During E3, Darth Hater hosted an interview with Daniel Erickson. Some questions on HK-51, the new companion droid coming sometime in the next year, were asked, and Erickson filled in some juicy details for us.

Here is one quote from the interview:

“HK-51 is actually part of the Legacy system. He is a very hard companion to get, and there is an incredible amount of work that you’ll have to do. I will say right now that if you do not have people on both sides of the war, you probably need to go roll somebody on the other side.”

The fact that HK-51 is part of the Legacy system isn’t too surprising. The fact that it will be very difficult to obtain him isn’t too surprising, either, especially given the nature of many of BioWare’s vanity pet requirements. But that last bit? Interesting information. It almost sounds like players will have to have characters on either side of the Empire/Republic coin in order to get HK-51. SWTOR is obviously a very alt-friendly game, but the community’s response to this is quite varied. Here’s the community feedback thread on it.

Previously you could send a companion out on a Mission Discovery (like Slicing), and then use the same Mission Discovery a second time to send a different companion out at the same time.  Things change.

In 1.2 this is no longer possible.  So if you banked up several duplicate Mission Discoveries for 1.2 intending to send your companions out while you were sleeping or at work, you’re going to be disappointed. 

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Welcome to SWTOR Mechanics 103.  Previously we discussed Attributes with SWTOR Mechanics 101: Attributes and Game Mechanics with SWTOR Mechanics 102: Game Mechanics.  But what about Crew Skills?  Crafting has been an integral part of many MMO’s over the years, but BioWare’s take on the familiar is definitely a departure from the classic mold.  Click to the “jump” for your new “laws of reality”.

Today’s SWTOR Force Junkies Pro-Tip is for all of you people out there that collect different sets of gear. Some max level players will often carry different sets of gear for PVP, Tanking, Healing, DPS or solo play and often enough they have to keep them in their inventory taking up a lot of space. In SWTOR there is a little trick that you might not have thought of: Use A Companion!

Find a companion that you don’t use and can wear the same type of gear you do and equip them with your second set of gear. So now when you need that set of gear you can just summon that companion and un-equip your gear! You no longer need to keep it in your inventory or cargo hold.

As you gain companions you might want to find different ways to make them like you more. Even your occasional Sith Lord who enjoys a good weekend of shocking Vette might want to buy her a gift from time to time. The follow guide is to show you, at a single glance, how each companion favors different types of gifts. The more a companion likes a gift the more favor you gain.

You might see companions have two different types of attitudes towards gifts in each column. This means that a companion likes or dislikes a gift based on your characters sex. You will always see how your companion views a gift from a female first in the table then the male (see courting column).

Keep reading to see the full guide.

You can make your companion do almost everything for you. However, there are two primary uses that might not be evidently clear to you when you first get your companion and move off the newbie world. If you take a gathering skill, like Bio-Analysis, you can have your companion gather all your materials for you. When you see a node or a beast-corpse you can right click it and have your companion farm it for you while you move on to your next objective.

By default, a single right click is the command to order your companion to gather, however in preferences you can change this to shift-right click among others if you wish.

The second best thing your companion can do is run off and sell all of your grey vendor trash items! No more walking back when your inventory is full, or cutting an adventure off early. Many people might miss this option since it’s not obvious for you in the UI.

Now, it’s no secret that in any MMO everyone wants to have the best gear. Many times in such games, you have to roll against other players in order to get the gear you want. Sometimes you get what you want, and sometimes you do not. But what if you have to roll against another player’s companion? How does that change the dynamic of the Need vs. Greed roll? In SWTOR, companions are an NPC that travel with you and fight along side you in the absence of real players. They act out many of the positions in your team, so don’t they deserve the gear to act out the positions tasked to them? And does a companion deserve a need roll, when a real player needs the gear as well? How should it be determined?

Today I’m continuing my focus on early Smuggler gameplay and introducing Corso Riggs, the first Smuggler companion. You’ll get him around level 7-8 on Ord Mantell after you complete a certain story progression quest. You’ll be quick to pick up on the fact that you’re going to get him for a companion since he randomly whines about wanting to join you as you complete Smuggler quests. He’s not a bad guy– just a little eager to help you shoot down enemies. Hey, the more the merrier, right?

Corso Riggs wears heavy armor and rifles, and starts out as a ranged tank. He later gains the ability to perform just as ranged DPS. He comes with a nifty ranged taunt ability, and later gets a ranged AoE taunt along with some ranged AoE abilities. He also has a harpoon-type ability that can be used to bring enemies into melee range, but it’s toggled off by default.

Some of you might be wondering when you can begin customizing your companion character’s appearance. We found out originally in our interview with James Ohlen that you will be able to purchase and find kits to change your companion’s physical appearance. Today we find out when you can do that for the first time.

Originally posted by Georg Zoeller (Source)

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It’s fairly simple.

At the same quest step where you get your companion, you get to chose from several alternate appearance options. These are ‘customization kits’ that can be equipped on your companion’s character sheet.

Since you meet most of the companions earlier in the story, you already know their default appearance, so there’s no sense in ‘hiding’ that you’re changing something here. Think of it like a forced reconstructive surgery on your companion

So apparently you get them right away! We also find out that companions will be part of your story early on. So when you fire up the game for the first time and start a new character, keep an eye out for future friends.

Now as far as “forced reconstructive surgery”, maybe we need a Star Wars version of Nip/Tuck?