SWTOR 7.4 Endgame Gearing Guide (2024)

BioWare has made loads of gearing changes over the course of SWTOR 7.0+ in order to streamline the process. This guide will cover the entire endgame gearing process from the perspective of someone who just hit level 80 based on the state of endgame gearing in 7.4.

If you are totally new to this, I recommend you take your time and carefully read the full guide. Reading only portions of it or skipping ahead may make you feel confused and lost. If you have questions, leave them in the comments section below the guide.

The guide is up-to-date for Patch 7.5

Gearing Tracks and Currencies

Each type of endgame content has a dedicated gearing track and an associated currency that drops exclusively from said content. That associated currency is required to purchase and upgrade gear from that specific track. Different gearing tracks offer different quality gear, so harder content tends to offer better gear and extra currency.

Gearing Tracks and Rarity

Flashpoints (FPs) and Operations (Ops/raids) offer different rarities for each difficulty such that higher difficulties offer higher rarities. Higher rarities offer slightly more optimal stat distributions that favor Endurance over Defense Rating for tanks and Power over Endurance for DPS and healers.

These different rarities are essentially sub-tracks that cost the same type of currencies but are separate in terms of their upgrade path. You can only upgrade gear within its immediate track.

For example, you cannot upgrade a piece of (blue) Supreme Decurion gear you get from MM FPs into (also blue) Columi gear you get from VM Ops. Similarly, you cannot upgrade the (blue) Columi gear you get from VM Operations into (purple) Rakata gear that drops from MM Operations.

There is a single exception to switching gearing tracks. You can convert and upgrade the purple 340 Virulent gear (not the blue stuff, only purple) from VM R-4 Anomaly to purple 342 Rakata.

Endgame Currencies and Gear Upgrades

Purchasing a piece of gear requires a type of content-specific currency and a small number of credits. Upgrading a piece of gear to a higher item rating (iRating) that offers more stats costs the same currency and credits in addition to the lower iRating piece of gear.

OP-1 Catalysts
Required to upgrade the rating of Operations gear (Tionese, Columi, Rakata). Can be obtained from Operation bosses and Operation weeklies. Higher difficulties reward more OP-1 Catalysts. As of 7.4, you can also get 10 from completing a MM Chapter.

FP-1 Stabilizers
Required to upgrade the rating of Flashpoint gear (Elite and Supreme Decurion). Can only be obtained from Flashpoint bosses and Flashpoint weeklies. Higher difficulties reward more FP-1 Stabilizers.

WZ-1 Accelerants
Required to upgrade the rating and rarity of PvP gear (Thyrsian). Can only be obtained from PvP and GSF matches and weeklies. The better you do, the more WZ-1 Accelerants you get and the faster you progress the weeklies.

Conquest Commendations
Earned primarily through completing Conques objectives and doing Dailies, but smaller amounts are also awarded through Groupfinder, PvP, and GSF. They are required for both Conquest Gear and Legendary Implants.

Tech Fragments
Earned from everything. Tech Fragments are only required for Legendary Implants, Tacticals, and cosmetics, but you need a lot of them. All other currencies can be converted into Tech Fragments at a 1:1 conversion rate at the Gear Vendor that accepts the currency you wish to convert to Tech Fragments.

All enemies have a chance to drop a small bag any of these currencies. Any currency can drop from any piece of content, enabling solo players to theoretically obtain 344 Rakata gear.

Currency Conversion Rates

In order to give everyone the best gear, you can convert Conquest Commendations and FP-1 Stabilizers into OP-1 Catalysts. There is no conversion for WZ-1 Accelerants because PvP gear is meant to remain separate from PvE gear.

Input Currency	▶ Input Amount	Exchange Rate	Output ▶ Amount	Output Currency
Any Endgame Currency	200	1:1	200	Tech Fragments
Conquest Commendations	400	4:1	100	FP-1 Stabilizers
Conquest Commendations	2000	~12:1	175	OP-1 Catalysts
FP-1 Stabilizers	500	~3:1	175	OP-1 Catalysts

Hey Broadsword, if you’re reading this, it’s high time we put all these currency conversions at a dedicated currency exchange vendor in a single location on the fleet. It just so happens that there’s an empty alcove in the GTN section of the fleet that would make for a perfect location!

I’m envisioning one of those little kiosks like you see at the airport. Sometimes they have them at movie theaters too. Also, the vendor must be an Ortolan or an Ugnaught sitting on a very tall stool behind the glass.

Gearing Tracks List

Gear is split into 4 tracks based on the type of endgame content: Operations, PvP, Flashpoints, and Conquest. Items of the same rating and rarity offer identical stats across different tracks, except for PvP DPS gear which offers an accuracy offhand in addition to the alacrity one.

PvP gear has an iRating range from 322-336. All PvE gear (except Rakata and R-4) has an iRating range from 324-340. In Warzones and Arenas, players with gear that is greater than iRating 336 will be bolstered down to 336, including tertiary stats.

If you bring PvE gear with an iRating greater than 336 into a Warzone or Arena, check to make sure you’re still reaching your desired Accuracy and Alacrity thresholds inside the Warzone!

Conquest Gear (+)

Flashpoint Gear (+)

R-4 Anomaly Operation (, , or x1)

Legacy Operations Gear (+)

PvP Gear (+)

The next time they adjust gear, they will likely raise the floor so the new players begin the gearing process at a higher iRating.

Vendors

Gearing vendors sell base-level iRating gear for each content track and sub-track that you can purchase in exchange for just the content-specific currency and a small number of credits. Then, you can upgrade that gear by spending additional content-specific currency + credits + the armor piece you want to upgrade.

Do not forget to remove the augment from your gear before upgrading!

You will find the vendors in the marked locations on the Fleet. PvE vendors are located on the outer side of the Supplies section. PvP vendors are on the inner side of the Combat Training section.

PvE Gear Vendors

Gearing vendors for PvE are located in the same alcoves as they were in 6.0 at the end of the outer ring in the Supplies section. There are separate vendors for upgrading gear from each type of content: Flashpoints, Conquest, and Operations, as well as separate vendors for purchasing base gear. You will also find the blue Twi’lek (and eventually droid), where you can purchase Legendary Implants.

PvP Gear Vendors

Gearing vendors for PvP are located in the Combat section of the Fleet in the same alcove as Ranked PvP rewards, to the left of the Giradda the Hutt hologram. There are 2 vendors, 1 that sells the 322 Thyrsian gear and another that sells the upgrades.

S3T-BNS Droid

Kai Zykken has fled the endgame cosmetics alcove on Vyken Spacedock and Carrick Station, but a droid has taken over his shop and organized all the gear he sold into boxes with full sets. Each box costs 10k Tech Fragments and 1 million credit and contains a full set of 306 gear, one of the 6.0 set bonus armors.

The purpose of these armor sets is cosmetic; they all use old raiding gear that you typically can’t find anywhere else. There is an achievement that you’ll get for purchasing each box, and while they are retired (not worth any points), you will get a title that shares the name of the set.

The droid also sells some crafting schematics for a few tacticals and set bonuses. Each schematic costs 2k Tech Frags and 1 million credits.

Tactical Items Vendor

In the endgame cosmetics alcove, you’ll find the vendor that sells all tactical items. By default, you are only shown items usable by your active discipline, though you can change the dropdown if you wish to see other disciplines for your combat style or all tactical items. They cost Tech Fragments and credits. Tactical items cannot and do not need to be upgraded like other gear.

We have a complete catalog of all Tacticals in SWTOR 7.0 including recommendations for every single one of them. If you want to learn what is the best for each combat style and individual build, check it out.

Galactic Command Armor Set Vendor

The cosmetic armor sets that came from Galactic Command boxes (the 5.0 precursor to Renown) are available here. The vendor is located in the endgame cosmetics alcove and the pieces cost Tech Fragments and credits.

Weekly Boxes

Each weekly gives you a box that contains a direct iRating upgrade for the lowest-rated piece of gear equipped. The rarity and type of gear are defined by your loot discipline and the type of content from which you earned the weekly. These weekly boxes are the only way to “convert” a piece of gear from one track or sub-track to another.

For example, let’s say loot discipline is set to DPS, you completed a VM Operation weekly, and your lowest-rated piece of gear is your 328 Supreme Decurion helmet. You’re gonna get a piece of 330 (blue) Columi DPS gear for your combat style from that weekly box.

Mods from Hyde and Zeek

328, 330, 332, and 336 mods are available for purchase for credits from a pair of Rodian fugitives in the Supplies section of the Fleet in the outer alcove to the left of the one with the endgame cosmetics.

Hyde will give you missions where you have to deconstruct specific items and in return, you’ll be able to purchase mods from Zeek. There are 8 missions that correspond to different rarities and iRatings:

In order to complete each mission, you only need to deconstruct 1 piece that has equal or greater iRating and rarity, so you can exclusively deconstruct 336 artifact (purple) pieces to complete all 8 missions, though you can only do 1 mission at a time, so don’t deconstruct more than 1 piece of gear per mission. You only need to do the 336 prototype and artifact missions to get access to the most powerful gear available at the moment. You will not have access to any of the missions unless you have 324 or greater average item rating.

Each mission only gives a portion of the overall mods that are available. Not all mods are available in purple rarity, but by combining purple enhancements with blue modifications and armorings / hilts / barrels, you will have a piece that offers the exact same stat distribution as a full purple piece. Yes, you read that right, a piece of gear that both has blue and purple mods offers the same stats as a purple unmoddable piece.

The mods can be purchased for 100k or 200k credits depending on rarity, so this is probably the easiest way to gear up your legacy, though legendary implants are much harder to come by, so you’ll still likely need to transfer those around between your toons.

Check out the dedicated guide that will help you make a choice ofwhich mods to buy from Hyde and Zeek.

332 Purple vs 336 Blue – Which is better to use?

Many of you will be confronted with a choice between 336 blue gear from PvE and 332 purple from PvP. The bottom line is that the difference between the two is minimal and BioWare deliberately narrowed the gap between green and blue vs purple in 7.1.

336 blue gear offers more overall stat, but the stat distribution is slightly worse. 332 purple offers fewer stats overall, but the stat distribution is more optimal.

In PvP, you won’t be able to take advantage of the extra stat provided by 336 blue gear, so you’re objectively better off using the 332 purple. In PvE, the extra stat amount helps to compensate for the worse distribution, so it’s fine to use either.

Remember that the difference between PvP and PvE gear is small. Neither set of gear is “wrong” for a given type of content. Skill and having the correct stat amounts will have a far greater impact on your numbers.

Legendary Implants

Set bonuses from previous expansions have been replaced by Legendary Implants, which are implants that have higher rarity than the rest of your gear and have a set bonus effect on them.

They can be purchased at 326 and upgraded to 340. In addition, the SN-4RK droid vendor on the Fleet that sells you these implants will charge fewer Tech Fragments and Conquest Commendations once you’ve upgraded and equipped a pair of 330, 334 and 340 implants.

The game tracks this through 3 achievements, one for 330, one for 334, and one for 340. Once you have each achievement, legendary implant upgrade and purchase costs will be reduced accordingly:

• Tech Fragments: 6500 ▶ 2500
• Conquest Commendations: 100▶ 60

The purpose of reducing the costs of upgrades is primarily to make it cheaper to procure implants for your alts.

To be most efficient with Tech Fragments and Conquest Commendations while getting access to implants on all of the toons you care about, you should purchase and upgrade implants in the following order:

1. Purchase a single pair of 326 implants and upgrade them to 330
2. Purchase all the 326 implants for alts, but don’t upgrade them to 330
3. Upgrade the initial pair of 330 implants to 340
4. Upgrade the rest of your implants and prioritize upgrading the implants you use the most

Once you’ve unlocked 340/336 mods from Hyde and Zeek, you can begin converting your content-specific currency into Tech Fragments at the relevant vendor in order to obtain Tech Fragments at a faster rate.

R-4 Anomaly Operation Gear

SWTOR’s most recent R-4 Anomaly Operation has its own dedicated gearing track that is completely separate from the rest of the game’s gearing. Just like with legacy Operations, there is a gearing divide between SM and VM.

Since Rakata gear now goes up to 344 while VM R-4 Anomaly Gear is stuck at 340, doing R-4 Anomaly for gearing is optional. However, it is potentially a shortcut if you aren’t progging the raid since you can upgrade 340 Virulent to 342 Rakata.

Story Mode R-4: 328-330 Blue

Each boss in SM R-4 Anomaly drops a generic R4 Gear Token: Story for each player. These tokens are bound to legacy and can be exchanged for the following:

• Purchasing 328 Hazardous blue gear
• Upgrading a 328 Hazardous piece to 330
• Purchasing Delver or Excavator cosmetic shells that are dyeable and moddable

Since gear from other content now goes up to 340, there isn’t much of a point in doing SM R-4 for gearing beyond being able to immediately jump to 328 instead of starting at 324, so the main reason is if you like the cosmetic armor.

SM R-4 Cosmetic Armor

These are the Delver and Excavator shells you can purchase. Hazardous is used to describe blue, white, and green, while Virulent describes red and black.

Veteran Mode: 332-340 Blue and 340 Purple

Veteran Mode R-4 Anomaly acts as a shortcut to 344 Rakata because it drops tokens that can be exchanged for purple 340 Virulent gear that can be converted to purple 342 Rakata gear.

Each boss in VM R4 will drop the following:

• 1 generic VM R4 token per player
• 2 boss-specific tokens for the whole group
• Tech Fragments

A generic VM R4 token can be exchanged for a piece of 332 blue gear from a new vendor in the same alcove where other gear can be purchased. Since these tokens are generic, they can be used to purchase any piece of VM R4 gear.

They can also be exchanged for upgrading a piece of 332 gear that you already own or a dyeable, moddable shell of the armor. This 332 blue gear can be upgraded all the way up to 340 blue. Furthermore, you will need 1 generic VM R4 Token to convert each piece of purple 340 virulent gear to purple 342 Rakata.

Boss-specific tokens can be exchanged for 1 of 3 specific 340 purple pieces, effectively allowing you to completely bypass the R-4 upgrade system. For example, the first boss, IP-CPT, drops a token that can be exchanged for a 340 purple head, waist, or relic.

VM R-4 Anomaly Loot Table

Boss 1: IP-CPT

• Helmet
• Belt
• Relic

Boss 2: Watchdog

• Legs
• Bracers
• Relic

Boss 3: Lord Kanoth

• Chest
• Offhand
• Earpiece

Boss 4: Lady Dominique

• Boots
• Gloves
• Mainhand

VM R-4 Cosmetic Shells

Just like with SM, you can also exchange the generic VM R4 Tokens for moddable, dyeable shells. This is meant to offer further progression after you’ve finished gearing. From VM, there are 2 distinct armor sets each with 4 color variants.

Again, Hazardous refers to the blue, white, and green color scheme, while Virulent is red and black.

7.4 Optimal Gearing Process for New Players

If this is your first toon to level 80, start by completing conquest and using the Conquest Commendations to purchase a set of 324 green Noble Decurion gear. Then your path will diverge depending on whether or not you plan to progress through VM R-4 Anomaly for 340 gear.

Do not forget to remove the augment from your gear before upgrading!

VM R-4 Anomaly is a shortcut to 344 if you know how to do it, but if you have to prog and legacy raids in MM, it will probably be quicker to just skip R-4 and grind Rakata all the way up to 344.

Path 1: Incorporating Veteran Mode R-4 Anomaly

If you plan to do VM R-4, that’s the majority of the optimal path for you as it will get you all the way up to 340 Purple, which can then be converted to 342 Purple and upgraded to 344 Purple. Keep in mind that part of the process is experiencing and progging R-4 Anomaly. If you already know how to do Legacy NiM, it will probably be quicker to skip R-4 if you don’t care to do it.

Watchdog and Lord Kanoth (the second and third bosses in R-4) are considerably easier in VM compared to the other bosses, so if you can get started with a lockout, consider doing that.

Since you’ll beat the earlier bosses many times before you beat the final boss for the first time, you’ll get access to the pieces of gear you can purchase with those tokens before you beat the whole raid.

For example, the first boss, IP-CPT, drops a token that can be exchanged for a helmet, so most or all of your group will probably have 340 purple helmets long by the time anyone in your group has a 340 purple mainhand because that one requires a token from the last boss, Lady Dominique.

Therefore, you have a strong incentive to prioritize purchasing and upgrading pieces to 340 blue, which will take the longest to obtain 340 purple. It’s pointless to bother buying a 332 blue helmet, let alone upgrade it, because you can easily get a 340 purple helmet from the first boss. In practical terms, you’ll likely obtain the pieces of gear that drop from Watchdog and Kanoth before those from IP-CPT unless you can’t get into groups with lockouts.

It’s most efficient to prioritize purchasing nearly a full set of 332 blue gear, except for the pieces that drop off the first boss (head, waist, relic), and then begin upgrading pieces to 340 blue starting with pieces that you’ll have for the longest period of time.

The order in which you should buy and upgrade blue 332 gear is the opposite of the order in which you get pieces of gear. You should start by purchasing the 332 mainhand, boots, and gloves because the 340 purple version can only be obtained from the last boss, so you will have the blue version for the longest time compared to other pieces of gear.

Once you have a full set of 332 blue gear or better, start back at the end and begin upgrading the pieces of gear you’ll have for the longest period of time (again, mainhand, boots, and gloves).

Path 1 Summary (VM-R4 Anomaly)

1. Obtain the legendary implants mission.
2. Complete Conquest.
3. Purchase a set of Noble Decurion gear with Conquest Commendations.
4. Craft or purchase a set of augments and Biochem items.
5. Do SM R-4 Anomaly a couple of times to get 328 blue gear and get familiarized with the basic mechanics.
6. Obtain relevant tactical items and purchase a pair of legendary implants.
7. Begin VM R-4 Anomaly progression. Consider starting with Watchdog + Kanoth if possible.
8. Get gear from VM R-4 as you defeat bosses.
9. Upgrade a single set of legendary implants all the way to 340.
10. Purchase legendary implants and tacticals for alts.
11. Begin spending Tech Fragments on cosmetics, OEMs, and RPMs as you continue to play the game and convert content-specific currencies to OP-1 Catalysts.
12. Convert your purple 340 Virulent gear to 342 Rakata.
13. Upgrade your purple 342 Rakata gear to 344.
14. Continue spending Tech Fragments on cosmetics, OEMs, and RPMs as you play the game and convert content-specific currencies to Tech Fragments.

Path 2: Unlock Mods from Hyde and Zeek

For the rest of you that aren’t interested in joining a (realistically) NiM progression raid team, your end goal is unlocking the ability to purchase 336 or 340 mods from Hyde and Zeek for credits because that basically eliminates the need to grind for the content-specific currencies.

Do not forget to remove the augment from your gear before upgrading!

How do you get started with this upgrade process? Start doing the content you plan to focus on and save up your currencies to buy a piece of the blue (or purple, if applicable,) from the vendor. Depending on your preferred type of content, here’s what you should buy:

• If you plan to do Operations, purchase (purple) Rakata boots or gloves.
• If you plan to do Flashpoints, purchase (blue) Supreme Decurion boots or gloves.

I recommend boots or gloves because they are the cheapest to purchase and upgrade while providing the greatest amount of overall stat. Belts and bracers cost the same but don’t offer any tertiary stat while earpieces provide slightly suboptimal stat distributions.

If you prefer, you can buy a mainhand weapon instead if your discipline deals a lot of weapon damage. The purchase and upgrade costs will be slightly higher, meaning the upgrade process will take a bit longer; however, the mainhand weapon boosts weapon damage substantially, so you’ll deal more DPS (it’s not relevant enough for tanks and healers).

You can skip this initial purchase step entirely if you start out in VM/MM Operations or MM FPs since bosses drop blue/purple or blue pieces of gear respectively. However, you will have a harder time pulling your own weight if you only have the 324 Noble Decurion gear.

From there, keep saving up the requisite currencies and focus on upgrading a single piece all the way to 340 (or 336 if you’re doing PvP). Make sure to complete weeklies, too, since those give you a box with a direct upgrade to the piece of gear with the lowest iRating and a bunch of content-specific currency.

Once you’ve upgraded your piece to 340 (or 336 in PvP), head over to Hyde and obtain the mission to deconstruct it and unlock the relevant iRating and rarity of mods. Here’s broadly what each mission unlocks for purchase with credits from Zeek:

These are the only missions you should care about and you should work towards upgrading the highest applicable rating and rarity.

Players that do Operations or PvP will need 2 pieces of 340/336 gear, one for the Prototype and one for the Artifact Mission. Players that plan to only do Flashpoints will only need a single piece of 340 Prototype gear.

Everyone should unlock the Prototype mission first since it will let you create a full set of 340/336 blue gear, and you can get a piece of 340/336 purple from doing Nefra NiM or the next PvP weekly, respectively.

Path 2 Summary (Hyde and Zeek)

1. Obtain the legendary implants mission.
2. Complete Conquest.
3. Purchase a set of Noble Decurion gear with Conquest Commendations.
4. Craft or purchase a set of augments and Biochem items.
5. Do the content you prefer (Ops/FPs/PvP) and save up the content-specific currency.
6. Obtain relevant tactical items and purchase a pair of legendary implants.
7. Purchase the boots or gloves from your preferred gearing track.
8. Upgrade that piece of gear to 340/336, doing the preferred content along with dailies and/or world bosses and completing conquest to earn the required currencies.
9. Obtain the relevant deconstruction mission from Hyde.
10. Deconstruct the piece of gear.
11. Purchase a set of 340/336 mods and install them in a set of moddable gear.
12. Upgrade a single set of legendary implants all the way to 340.
13. Purchase mods, legendary implants, and tacticals for alts.
14. Begin spending Tech Fragments on cosmetics, OEMs, and RPMs as you continue to play the game and convert content-specific currencies to Tech Fragments.

7.4 Optimal Gearing Process for Continuing Players

If you had the highest tier of gear available (to you) going into 7.4, you have more work to do now. Everyone except PvPers have access to 340 gear so there’s a new set of blue and purple mod missions from Hyde and Zeek that you can do to unlock 340 mods.

Do not forget to remove the augment from your gear before upgrading!

Everybody can now also upgrade their implants to 340. Each upgrade for the first pair of implants going from 334 to 340 will cost 6250 Tech Fragments each, and then once you equip 2 340 implants at the same time, you’ll get an achievement that will drop all future upgrade and purchase prices to 2500 Tech Fragments.

The story gets a bit more complicated for non-implant gear as everyone now has access to the best gear because it is no longer locked behind VM R-4 Anomaly. The best gear in the game is now 344 Rakata. However, it’s still very inefficient to get unless you actually do NiM raids.

If you’re fine with endless NiM Nefra farming just to get a fake number up a little higher, go right ahead and keep doing what you’re doing. Otherwise, the practical end of gearing will be a continuation of what you did before, where you just need to get a blue and purple piece of gear up to 340 and then deconstruct those items for Hyde and Zeek’s missions.

Check out Path 2: Unlock Mods from Hyde and Zeek in the previous section if you need a refresher on the entire process of getting to 340 moddable gear.

If you did VM R-4 before 7.4, you’ll need to spend 1 generic VM R-4 token, 60-80 OP-1 Catalysts, and some credits to convert each piece of your purple 340 Virulent gear to 342 Rakata and then upgrade those pieces to the new max tier, 344 Rakata, using OP-1 Catalysts and Credits. Remember, the NiM weekly boxes guarantee an iRating upgrade to your lowest-rated equipped piece of gear.

If you have purple 340 Virulent gear but no spare VM R4 Tokens, you will either need to do VM R-4 to get those tokens or do some Legacy NiM raids to get purple 342 Rakata drops. In essence, having purple 340 Virulent gear and excess VM R4 Tokens, and OP-1 Catalysts lets you skip a single tier of gear.

Now, if only Broadsword would let us spend the literal hundreds of excess generic VM R4 tokens that some of us will STILL have after upgrading to 344 so we can buy the Wings of Nihrot from the vendor!