If you had played SWTOR before Legacy of the Sith released this February, you were probably aware of the “Social Level” bar that used to be stapled on your character sheet next to your Dark/Light and Valor(PvP) levels.
When Legacy of the Sith released, the Social Level that each of your character’s had was removed, instead the system was merged into the existing “Groupfinder” Achievements catergory in your Legacy Window.

What does this mean?

From now on, you no longer need to manually level a character’s “social level” by playing flashpoints or cutscenes/dialogues with a group and relying on rolls to earn “social points”. Now, SWTOR simply checks your achievement to see what level your social is when giving you access to the Social Vendors.
Previously there were 10 levels that may have taken hundreds of flashpoint runs per character to achieve maximum, and it was per character. With the new system, the game checks which achievement you have (with each one of 10 Groupfinder achievements equalling 1 server wide legacy level), and then giving you appropriate access up to level 10.

Where are the Social Vendors?

The old social vendors are still found in the Cantina’s of each planet through all of Vanilla SWTOR, and they still offer all the items they have had since 2011.
However in 2022, SWTOR added a new “Party” Vendor NPC, to both faction’s Fleet. You can find them hanging out in the center near the Cantina bar, they are hanging out with a cohort of dancing NPCs and dropping disco balls to draw attention to themselves.

What makes the new Social “Party” Vendors special is that they sell everything that you have access to from every social vendor planet, all on the fleet. That way you don’t have to travel across planets to pick up social items you want to equip!

How do I check my Social Level?

To check your new Social Level, open your Legacy Window (default: Y), and scroll down the Achievements section until you find the tab named “Legacy” and the sub-catergory “Advancement”.

In the “Advancement” catergory should be a clickable tab named “Groupfinder”, each one of these achievements corresponds with an old/classic “Social Points Level”.

Friendly: Complete 1 Groupfinder Activity — Equivilent Old: Social Level 1
Outgoing: Complete 5 Groupfinder Activities — Equivilent Old: Social Level 2
Coordinator: Complete 10 Groupfinder Activities — Equivilent Old: Social Level 3
Party Planner: Complete 15 Groupfinder Activities — Equivilent Old: Social Level 4
Guide: Complete 25 Groupfinder Activities — Equivilent Old: Social Level 5
Chatterbox: Complete 35 Groupfinder Activities — Equivilent Old: Social Level 6
Extrovert: Complete 50 Groupfinder Activities — Equivilent Old: Social Level 7
Charismatic: Complete 65 Groupfinder Activities — Equivilent Old: Social Level 8
Leader: Complete 80 Groupfinder Activities — Equivilent Old: Social Level 9
Big Time: Complete 100 Groupfinder Activities — Equivilent Old: Social Level 10

Each level requires clearing any difficulty of Operation, Uprising or Flashpoint available through Groupfinder Queue, and yes, you can group up and take friends in, it doesn’t have to be completely solo’d.