Star Wars: The Old Republic's patch 7.6, "Galactic Threads" will begin a modernization process for the game, with a series of visual improvements to various locations and player character models. The team showed off what's coming in the update in a new stream, with a peek at the next story chapter, new cosmetics, a new TV tie-in, the Dynamic Encounters task system, new boss, and more.
The situation is tense with your Mandalorian allies in the next story chapter, which we got a peek at. It follows the events of Desperate Defiance, and Shae Vizla’s consequential decisions.
Dynamic Encounters is a feature with mission-based world content, offering tasks to complete and rewards to earn anytime you need something to do. It also opens up planets for additional content and maybe exploring places you haven't been in a while. Do some tasks and earn some new rewards that include armors, mounts, and the Loth-cat kitten pet.
A new lair boss, the Propagator Core XR-53, is a Rakatan droid replicator trying to fix itself through resource harvesting. In 7.6 expect Story and Veteran modes. You’ll want to take on this boss. There are three tiers of augments coming in 7.6 and you'll need to get components from drops after defeating the new boss before you can even start crafting them.
There are a number of new cosmetics on the way, including several inspired by the upcoming Star Wars TV show on Disney+, Skeleton Crew. For those who want a new hairstyle, the one originally modeled by the spring event vendor will be available for free to all.
Skeleton Crew also inspired the new Meirm Cicada Mount, which has mini-pet and companion functionality. Yes, your companions can use mounts. And you can add mini-pets to some mounts too. Subscribers will get the cicada mount for free early next year.
Another subscriber perk is the ability to keep your character names if you are not logged in for a while. Non-subscribers who haven't logged in all their characters by time 7.6 drops in early December, will have to rename them.
Tune into SWTOR content on Twitch to unlock some new Drops, including an Amethys Vulptilla mount and Ilum art poster. More details over in the stream and the full recap notes. This will be a big update, and many more of the features (Dynamic Encounters and the Propagator Core XR-53 boss included) will be headed to the PTS for testing before the launch. The team also confirmed work on the native Mac launcher continues, and it will now release later.
