[2022] Road Ahead: November 2022

Hi Holotable Heroes,

Welcome to the November Road Ahead! Below you will find all that you could wish for in regards to our Seventh (!) Anniversary Celebration, an update on the new Territory Battle, a sneak peek at a Gear economy update and Doctor Aphra!

Thank you for your continued journey with us in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and as always we look forward to sharing the latest updates with you and hearing your feedback.

Now without further ado - grab a snack, kick back, and put on your reading glasses.


Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes 7th Anniversary!

It’s celebration time! We have a lot in store for you from FREE things to great deals! Here is just a snippet of what you can look forward to:

• Free Inbox Gift - Will include a new Portrait and Title
• Free Calendar - Mod Slicing Materials and Jabba The Hutt Requirement Items
• Double Drops - All Light Side Battles, Dark Side Battles, Mod Battles, Cantina Battles, and Fleet Battles are rewarding double drops from 11/24 through 11/28!
• Crystal Promos (In-game + Webstore)
• Special Jawa Deals
• Trove Packs
• Relic Offers
• A Brand New Pack focused on Razor Crest, Commander Ahsoka Tano, Maul and Boba Fett, Scion of Jango
• And more!

Inbox Gift Contents:

• Ability Material Omicron x1
• Ability Material Zeta x25
• Ability Material Omega x15
• URoRRuR'R'R Character Shards x5
• Boushh (Leia Organa) Character Shards x5
• Aurra Sing Character Shards x5
• Skiff Guard (Lando Calrissian) Character Shards x5
• Krrsantan Character Shards x5
• Credits x1,000,000
• Ship Building Materials x1,000,000
• Data-cache Currency x250,000
• Mk 3 Carbanti Sensor Array x2
• Mk 5 A/KT Stun Gun Prototype x2
• Mk 5 Arakyd Droid Caller x2
• Mk 8 BioTech Implant x2
• Fragmented Signal Data x40
• Incomplete Signal Data x20
• Carbonite Circuit Board x100
• Bronzium Wiring x80
• Chromium Transistor x20
• Aurodium Heatsink x5
• Electrium Conductor x5
• Zinbiddle Card x5
• Mk 1 Bonding Pin x60
• Mk 1 Fusion Disk x60
• Mk 1 Power Flow Control Chip x60
• Mk 1 Fusion Coil x60
• Mk 1 Amplifier x60
• Mk 1 Capacitor x60
• Mk 2 Circuit Breaker Module x15
• Mk 2 Thermal Exchange Unit x10
• Mk 2 Variable Resistor x10
• Mk 2 Pulse Modulator x25
• Mk 2 Micro Processor x10
• Clone Wars Chewbacca Shards x3

New Territory Battle Update
The new Territory Battle draws near! Following the exciting-yet-ominous rise of the Empire in the period between STAR WARS™: Revenge of the Sith and STAR WARS™: A New Hope, this event has more zones than previous Territory Battles and will evolve over time with new Bonus Zones. More information on Bonus Zones, their rewards, and how they are accessed will be coming in the future.

As there are no Dark or Light side restrictions to this Territory Battle it will be available to select during any TB window, meaning you can run the new Territory Battle twice a month if your guild feels up to the challenge. Furthermore, players will be able to utilize their entire roster, including all Territory Battle Omicrons, whenever playing this event.

Guilds currently earning higher level rewards from Geonosis: Separatist Might and Geonosis: Republic Offensive should expect to be well suited for success in this new Territory Battle! While it can vary greatly from Guild to Guild, we expect Guilds to generally move to this Territory Battle when they are earning around 20 stars from Light Side Geonosis Territory Battle or getting close to Max Stars on Dark Side Geonosis Territory Battle.

Just like other Territory Battles, this map will have a special group of Heroes that gain additional bonuses when used in any battle!

• Light Side: Jyn Erso, K-2SO, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Old Ben), Bodhi Rook
  • Rebellious Persistence: This character gains 50% Potency and deals additional damage equal to 35% of their Potency. Whenever a buff expires, all allies gain 2% Offense (stacking, max 100%) for the rest of the battle.
• Mixed: Jabba the Hutt, Hondo Ohnaka, Doctor Aphra, Qi'ra, Ahsoka Tano (Fulcrum)
  • Back Alley Deals: Whenever this character calls other allies to assist, they gain 20% Turn Meter and the assisting allies deal 20% more damage. Whenever this character attacks out of turn, attack again.
• Dark Side: Grand Inquisitor, Second Sister, Third Sister (Reva), Lord Vader, Director Krennic, Gar Saxon
  • Might of the Empire: Whenever this character uses an ability on their turn, they recover 5% Health and Protection and deal bonus damage equal to 2% of this character's Max Health to all enemies.

(Note: These are still in balance testing and are subject to change. Other units may be added to these lists prior to release or in the future)

Careful planning around character usage in aligned and mixed zones, as well as Platoons and mission requirements, will be of utmost importance. We highly recommend you get your Jabba the Hutt, Inquisitors, Scythe, and Doctor Aphra geared up and ready to go for this event as they will be required for certain missions within this Territory Battle.

What to expect
Battle across the galaxy in six phases across eighteen planets in the starting Zones, earning rewards like the new exclusive Third Sister (Reva) shards, and the new Guild Event Token 3 currency (as well as Guild Event Tokens 2 so you are not locked out of those shipments). The return to six phases allows us to create more phases of content as well as provides a consistent experience for timing of each phase.

Zones are divided across three paths: Light Side, Dark Side, and Mixed. Each zone features iconic planets or locations from the Star Wars universe with a number of character and ship combat missions, as well as mixed platoons and deployments. Battles are shortened to two encounters each, and utilize new and existing planet modifiers, akin to those in Conquest and Galactic Challenges.

Light Side Zones: Coruscant, Bracca, Kashyyyk, Lothal, Ring of Kafrene, Scarif
Mixed Alignment Zones: Corellia, Felucia, Tatooine, Kessel, Vandor, Hoth
Dark Side Planets: Mustafar, Geonosis, Dathomir, Haven-Class Medical Station, Malachor, Death Star

Players can expect to see some classic encounters as well, like the Petranaki Arena monster battles from Geonosis. Success across the Territory Battle will require strategic thinking around which teams and characters to use in the Light, Dark, and Mixed paths. Furthermore, guild coordination will be more important than ever with the wide variety of new content available at launch.

Platoon Bonuses:
(Note: These are still in balance testing and are subject to change)

Third Sister (Reva)
As we mentioned before, Inquisitors play a significant role during the rise of the Empire. This new Territory Battle reflects that and will reward a brand new unit, Third Sister (Reva). Being a Territory Battle acquired unit, Third Sister’s power-level is aimed to be similar to that of the Grand Inquisitor, challenging Galactic Legends in the Grand Arena game mode through her Omicron abilities. While Grand Inquisitor builds up as the battle progresses, Third Sister is impatient and comes out swinging. She will also be a tank, providing Inquisitorius squads with flexible compositions.

With the caveat that she’s still undergoing balance passes, her Leader ability’s Zeta tier will start all enemies with 5 (five) stacks of Purge. Teamed with Grand Inquisitor and his version of Patience, all enemies will be starting at max Purge stacks (6), allowing Inquisitor teams under her to impose on the enemy team quickly. Taking inspiration from her backstory as seen in the Obi-Wan Kenobi™ series, the first time Reva is defeated, she revives with Hatred (a buff previously seen on Darth Sion). This will allow her to self-revive a second time during the battle making her a tough target to take down.

Territory Battle Rewards Update: Hoth and Geonosis
As we mentioned in the last Road Ahead, we will update the Gear Rewards of the existing Hoth and Geonosian Territory Battles with the release of the Rise of the Empire Territory Battle. There will be an increase in the lower star rewards which will smooth out the ramp up to the top prizes. These changes are intended to help newer and lower-power Guilds get caught up, but still preserve clear incentive to push for higher star totals. These are in addition to the changes below (read on for some exciting news!) and we will publish these changes to the forums as we get closer to launching the new Territory Battle.

Gear Update -
As we enter our 7th year, we continue to be committed to bringing new and exciting experiences like the Territory Battle to you and we are also committed to ensuring that our new, returning, and existing players are able to access all the game has to offer.

With that in mind, we’re announcing significant changes to a wide range of Gear items, modeled after the Character Shard Acceleration we did in 2020. At a high level, these changes will double the amount of most Gear available to all Players and then adjust the Salvager to limit impact on the Relic system. These changes are designed to be focused on accelerating Gear and not dive into significantly changing Relics for the moment.

So let’s walk through our major goals for this phase.

Goals:
1. To help Existing Players get new characters up-to-speed and usable in high-level content
As the game has grown, so has the difficulty and requirements for many events. Bringing a Marquee Character up to viability, in a game where strong squads are often Relic 5+, is a longer road than when we first introduced Marquees many years ago. These changes will help shorten that journey and get characters up to snuff so you can feel confident in using them in a variety of modes sooner. This also benefits older Journey Guides events, where we want players to be able to complete those faster and then be more able to pursue exciting releases like Jabba the Hutt and Doctor Aphra.

2. To help Newer Players catch up
New Players have 7 years of releases and content to catch up on! While we will ensure long term progress of our oldest players is still valuable and respected, newer players need to be able to pursue top tier characters earlier on in their experience. Just as for existing players, new players need to be to unlock Journey Guide characters more quickly. Which means they need enough early Gear supply to work on multiple squads at once and allow early players to explore their favorite characters. They also need to be able to reach the Relic system swiftly and begin to be competitive.

The Details:
All Gear Items below Gear 12 (this excludes Mk12 Armatek and Mk 12 Czerka items, the suite of "purple" items only used in G12 recipes, and Injectors in addition to Kyrotechs) will see their quantities doubled on most Nodes, Events, Shipments, Bundles, and Packs.

• All PvE nodes - Light Side, Dark Side, Fleet, (Normal and Hard)
• Raid Rewards
• Mythic Events
• Assault Battles
• Territory Battles (Gear Prize chests will increased quantities of ONLY the targeted items)
  • Note: These are in addition and reflected in the updated Territory Battle rewards for both Hoth and Geonosians as detailed above.
• Grand Arena Championship (Gear Prize chests will have increased quantities of ONLY the targeted items)
• Territory Wars (Gear Prize chests should see increased quantities of ONLY the targeted items)
• Galactic Challenges
• Conquest End Crate & Milestone Prizes
• Old Journey Guide Events that award Gear (Such as Jedi Knight Luke and Jedi Knight Revan)
• Quests
• Achievements
• Quantities available in most Shipments (see below)
  • Includes Crystal and most other currencies such as Guild Event Tokens, Shard Shop Currency, etc
    • Does not include Conquest currency
• Any Packs & Bundles with the targeted items
  • HYPERDRIVE bundle will be half price permanently once this update goes live, the amount of gear will remain the same
  • Excluding the Hyperdrive Bundle, all packs and bundles will reward twice the amount of items for the same price

Not Adjusted by these Changes

• Gear Challenges will remain unchanged (these were adjusted previously)
• Daily Activities gear rewards (these were adjusted previously)
• Any places that reward Gear 12 only items (Mk 12 Armatech/Czerka, Mk 8 Nubian Security scanner, etc.), Kyrotech, and Injector items are unchanged

List of Gear NOT affected by these changes

• Mk 8 Nubian Security Scanner Salvage
• Mk 7 Nubian Design Tech Salvage
• Mk 7 Chiewab Hypo Syringe Salvage
• Mk 8 Nubian Design Tech Salvage
• Mk 7 CEC Fusion Furnace Salvage
• Mk 6 Carbanti Sensor Array Salvage
• Mk 7 Merr-Sonn Thermal Detonator Salvage
• Mk 6 Athakam Medpac Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Multi-tool Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Armor Plating Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Bayonet Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Tactical Data Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Visor Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Wrist Band Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Cybernetics Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Medpac Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Fusion Furnace Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Stun Gun Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Thermal Detonator Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Holo Lens Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Key Pad Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 ArmaTek Data Pad Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 Czerka Stun Cuffs Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 Czerka Hypo Syringe Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 Czerka Sensor Array Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 Czerka Implant Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 Czerka Security Scanner Prototype Salvage
• Mk 12 Czerka Shield Generator Prototype Salvage
• Mk 7 Kyrotech Shock Prod Prototype Salvage
• Mk 9 Kyrotech Battle Computer Prototype Salvage
• Injector Cell Salvage
• Injector Handle Salvage
• Injector Head Salvage

Other Changes

• Gear Accelerations items will have their Salvager conversion to Relic Materials reduced by 50%
  • Helps ensure these changes accelerate gear, but remain net-neutral to the Relic system
• The Shipment prices of these goods will be reduced by 50%
  • Conquest Currency prices for these gear items are not changed
• We plan for new Marquee Bundles going forward to begin offering more gear at the established prices, making it easier to get a head-start on new Characters

I’m sure one of the first questions many of you are asking after reading this is when are all these changes happening? While there may be further changes to Gear in the future as we closely monitor the impact, all of these changes will be released alongside the new Territory Battle in December!

Getting to G10-G12 will be a smoother experience and your characters will be up and running faster than ever. We will monitor the effects of these Gear changes very closely to ensure they have the effect we intended and make future changes as needed. We hope you are excited for these changes and you feel the impact in your day to day experience!

Doctor Aphra and Sana Starros
Sana Starros, the final Marquee character in Doctor Aphra’s Legacy event will be coming soon, and with her release the countdown to the event will begin! Patterned after the Starkiller Legacy event, this will require you to have all of the recently released Marquee characters (Hondo Ohnaka, BT-1, 0-0-0, and Sana Starros) at Relic 5 to participate in the event and earn Doctor Aphra shards. Also like the Starkiller event, Doctor Aphra’s event will be available permanently upon launch.

Information on Sana Starros is forthcoming, but we thought we’d give you a sneak peek at what Doctor Aphra will be bringing to the table. Doctor Aphra is designed to work exceptionally well in Grand Arenas alongside BT-1 and 0-0-0, as well as in the upcoming Territory Battle. Her Dark Side alignment and Scoundrel synergy gives her flexibility on being used in either the Dark Side or Mixed path battles.

Doctor Aphra’s affinity for Droids will see her reviving a selection of them mid-combat, as well as summoning a hacked Separatist Commando Droid to her side of the battle.

Her Omicrons are designed to work in 5v5 Grand Arenas (it’s worth noting that two key members of her squad, BT-1 and 0-0-0, have Omicrons in 3v3 Grand Arenas). You’ll find that these three characters will form the core of any Grand Arena team involving any of them, as Doctor Aphra and her droids are often working together in their comic book appearances.

UI/UX Improvements to Territory Battles
In addition, we are looking to improve the readability in aspects of the new Territory Battle. Here are some highlights but not limited to what we’re looking to do. These will also be retroactively applied to earlier Territory Battles!

• Graphic update to the activity log to better help Guilds see important mission updates and where Guild Members have contributed
• Updated text strings in the activity log for all Territory Battles, new color coding for easier parsing
• Graphic update to all TB icons for Combat Missions, Deploys, Platoon Missions
• Icons now show if there are any actions players can still take for that mission
• Added a new icon to the top layer of the map that shows which zone character shards can be earned by Guilds
• Added better progress bars that will help show Guilds what milestone they have achieved and how many points remain until they unlock their next milestone
• New updated character tiles for Deploy and Platoon Missions
• New info screen showing what bonuses Guilds will unlock for each completed level of a Platoon Mission

That’s all folks

Thanks for reading! However long you’ve been with us over the course of seven years, from the bottom of our hearts we thank you! We look forward to building upon everything fans know and love about Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, and it’s because of you that we get the opportunity to continue that journey.

Until next time…

See you on the Holotables!