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?

Yesterday, BioWare unveiled an awesome teaser video featuring the upcoming droid companion, HK-51. The video was also shown during Comic-Con 2012.

Buried deep beneath the icy surface of Belsavis rests an army of the deadliest, most feared machines in the known galaxy. Thought to have been lost when an Imperial freighter was destroyed, they have recently been rediscovered by a group of renegade Sith Lords. Now both the Sith Empire and Galactic Republic seek to control these dangerous weapons for themselves. Those who are brave enough to venture into the wreckage will emerge with a powerful new ally.

We are excited to unveil the dangerous assassination droid HK-51! Cold, calculating, and ruthlessly efficient, HK-51 will stand by your side and loyally follow your command as you and your allies continue your journey. Journalists were given a brief preview of HK-51 at E3, but now we are happy to be able to show everyone at San Diego Comic-Con, and all of you at home, the full trailer.

The above news article and video can be found on the official SWTOR site. The video seems to be a little wonky for some viewers, in which case it can be alternatively downloaded on the main site or viewed on YouTube.

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.

It’s speculation time again! One of the earliest sources of future SWTOR patch leaks stated that HK-47, the popular droid companion from the Knights of the Old Republic series, would be reborn, of sorts, into a new version– as HK-41, and would enter SWTOR as a new companion in Game Update 1.3. Here is the source of the original leak (view at your own risk, since spoilers may abound!).

How true are those leaks? Good question. Last year, there was some discussion of a quest series that some players thought may start the process to obtain HK-41. The thread was closed with a statement saying that the companion wasn’t currently in the game. And it wasn’t. Then. What about in the future?