This week I reached 100% achievements in Galactic Seasons 3: Luck of the Draw, while I had completed all 100 levels of the Season Pass a while ago I had to do just 3 more Weekly Seasons Objectives this week to earn the 100 Weekly Objectives achievement.
Unlike prior seasons, I only completed the Galactic Season on 2 servers due to the release of Ruhnuk and the PvP Pass that also occupied a lot of my free time.

Seasons 3 Overview

Galactic Seasons 3: Luck of the Draw, or GS3 as I’ll call it from here on, released indipendently of any content update, instead on it’s own in Patch 7.1.1. This seasons companion was PH4-LNX, a gold plated Iokath inspired droid that keen eyed users may recognise as being teased for a different Star Wars game 6 months earlier. Unlike prior seasons, GS3 is inspired by ‘gaming’ yet still retains the feel of the prior Seasons 1/2 direct Underworld themes.
This season very much followed the same formula as Galactic Seasons 2, however there were several key changes made to differentiate the two seasons.

Comparing prior Seasons

Season 1 gave us Altuur Zok-Adon and Season 2 gave us Fen Zeil, both characters referentially meta to major Star Wars TV series, the Mandalorian and the Book of Boba Fett.
However GS3 would break this formula and give us a completely brand new Lore character named PH4-LNX or ‘Fay’ as she likes to be called. The major change brought forward to differentiate all past Galactic Seasons and GS3 was the inclusion of a much more focused and adventurous Story Quest line based on Fay herself.

In Season 1, we were only given an introductory cutscene on Odessen and then all further lore was given via Codex Entries obtained by clicking on the interactive decorations rewarded in the pass.
In Season 2 the Story Quest element was expanded with 2 additional Quests that Fen Zeil gave you aboard your player ship, as well as the inclusion of Qi’us Dnar the Reputation NPC on Nar Shaddaa.
Galactic Seasons 3 elevated the Story Quest element introduced in Season 2, Fay instead gives us actual Quests that involve travelling aroun the Galaxy and participating in story beats related to her interests as a character with some minor dialogue changes based on your Faction and overall expansion progress in SWTOR.

The second mechanical change to the pass was the minor overhaul of the Reputation System included in GS3. Like Season 2, this Season also included a new Reputation called G.A.M.E. that could be progressed by turning in GAME Module Currency.
Bioware clearly learned the mistake of Season 2, in which many players both casual or less focused didn’t realise they were meant to be turning in the Season 2 Syndicate Plan Currencies to an NPC called Qi’us Dnar on Nar Shaddaa each week to level the Reputation. This lead to some complaints after Season 2 ended with many a confused player asking questions about the currency and why they couldn’t earn Reputation anymore, especially those not able to put in the hours to grind the Reputation to max before Season 2 ended.

This was fixed in 2 ways with Season 3, both retroactively and for the new Season:
The first fix Bioware made was to re-add the Season Currency as a drop from NPCs as long as you were using the relevant companion: Fen Zeil for S2 currency, PH4LNX for S3 currency.
The second fix was the merging of Companion and Reputation, in Season 2 you had to remember to travel to Qi’us Dnar contantly to turn in your season currency.
In GS3 Bioware changed this so that you simply have to find PH4LNX on your player ship and click on her to trade in the currency instead. In my opinion this was a great change as players that often use their ships will most likely notice and click on her, thereby learning how to turn in the Currency by proxy.

There was also a single minor change to the weekly Objectives during GS3 over Season 2. Fen Zeils disguise mission was replaced by a much easier Soloable non-combat [Weekly] that involves simply taking PH4LNX as your active companion into any Cantina in the game and catching NPCs cheating at Slot Machines. While it is a time consuming objective, it is super easy and you can do it from level 1 in the Cantina on your starter world, so it earns brownie points from me for having an easy inclusive Objective that anyone can do.

The Season Pass

Galactic Seasons 3 followed the same established formula as Galactic Seasons 2, the one notable exception was that half the Cartel Coins from the levels were removed and instead, replaced by Ultimate Cartel Packs instead. This change seemed to divide the community and I myself was somewhat on the fence about how to feel until I opened my first Ultimate Cartel Pack, scoring a Platinum quality Lightsaber which was worth more Cartel Coins to buy then I could earn from the pass.

GS3 featured the same rewards structure as Season 2, which gave 2 armor sets and 1 weapons set in the Subscriber track and 1 weapons set in the F2P track. I couldnt help but notice that both the armor sets given this time around shared many similar qualities to other universes and properties, such as the GAME Jacket being very similar to real world Air Force bomber jackets and the patches being similar in placement to Top Gun. Likewise the color scheme of Yellow and Blue jumpsuit reminded me a great deal of Fallout’s Vault-Tec colorscheme.

The armor sets design in general somewhat reminded me of the Aldhani Rebels from the new ANDOR series, and the patches on the armor themselves feature designs from Star Wars’ Sabacc cardgame as well as the Cartel Market logo itself.

Likewise the Galactic Seasons 3 special mounts came in 4 varieties for a new creature called the Rodir, a sabertoothed feline with tiger-like markings, reminiscent of the Sabertooth Cats seen in the first Ahsoka episode of the new Tales of the Jedi series.

Compares to Seasons 2, the weapons of GS3 were very different thematically. The weapons themselves did not seem to be referential to any existing Star Wars tech, nor any real world references to movies either. Instead they were brightly colored with special effects and the Subscriber weapons track even has painted Sabacc card logos plastered on the buttstocks of the guns.

Galactic Seasons 3 also gave us our first alternatively styled decoration, with a giant computer mainframe capable of acting as a Mailbox instead of the small yellow tube-terminals seen throughout the game. Many of Season 3’s decorations were all Iokath themed instead of following the ‘gaming theme’ set by the rest of the Season.

Review & Comparison

Galactic Seasons 3 was the first time that Bioware created the lore and cosmetic design of a season that referentially stood on it’s own, at least in tandem with Galaxy of Heroes. This was elevated by the Story Quests that accompanied PH4-LNX which was yet again a direct upgrade in story quality to the prior 2 Seasons.

The [Weekly] Objectives and bonus Completionist Achievements structure remained the same as Season 2 showing that Bioware seems to have found that stable balance in Reward and Progression structure that was established in Season 2, as long as future seasons continue to have the same Achievement and Weekly Objective structure I believe that I will continue to go for 100% Galactic Seasons for each season to come.

However unlike Season 1 and 2 that had that thematic cohesion, in my opinion Season 3 fell short cosmetically due to differences in design. This is not a complaint as I truly adore all of the rewards and how Bioware attempted to tie them all together through PH4-LNXs story, unfortunately the decorations being heavily Iokath themed and the creature mounts being so primal, compared to the Armor and Weapons sets gives me a little internal conflict.
If all of the decorations had been a part of a ‘techno’ themed Season, or the Rodir Mounts a part of a ‘primal/lost worlds’ themed Season I would have enjoyed them more. I’m not saying I don’t want them in Season 3, I really like the Rodir and decorations, but I would have preferred we got a bit more ‘Gaming’ themed decorations and Mounts instead, like a spray painted podracer or an interactive Sabacc Table that has your character throw cards or coins as an emote.
I do still appreciate what we were given so I don’t think my criticism is negative, just wishful thinking.

Galactic Seasons 2 is still my favourite Season to date rewards wise, but it will be a hard peak to reach again solely due to its reference factor being so directly tied to the biggest Star Wars TV shows.
I liked the fact that this Season stood more on it’s own of just being SWTOR themed and using established game lore and design references, and I hope we see Bioware do more of that in the future. So far we have had 2 back to back Underworld themed Seasons and now a partially Underworld based ‘Gaming’ Season.

Personally I hope that future Seasons show some more diversity although I understand the appeal of the Underworld themes greatly, especially with the massive resurgence in popularity that both the Mandalorian, ANDOR and Bad Batch has brought.
SWTOR has yet to release a Lightsaber using Ranged companion so I would absolutely adore if we got some kind of KENOBI inspired Inquisitor companion or perhaps an exiled Zakuulan Knight that uses the force to attack. Even Don the Exiled Knight is still out there in the Galaxy somewhere.