Everything we know about Star Wars the Old Republic Game Update 7.8 Pursuit of Ruin, including the Galactic Threads & Wreckage on Dantooine updates, new locations, events and more.
Contents
Release Date
The release date for SWTOR 7.8: is 9th of December 2025.
Wreckage on Dantooine Trailer
Our first official look at the upcoming (and much delayed) story update for SWTOR 7.8: Wreckage on Dantooine was silently dropped on Youtube with no prior warning on the 16th of October.
Twitch Livestream Reward
Watch any SWTOR livestream from the 19th of November to the 4th of December to unlock the reward!
Watch for 4 hours on the release of 7.8 to unlock the Twilight Acklay!
Cartel Market
Starting today, Cartel Market unlocks 50% off!
New dynamically colored lamps!
There is also a new Master the Fight: Mobile Market Bundle!
Dantooine Dynamic Encounters
A brand new area has opened up on the surface of Dantooine, with the wreckage of a huge crashed terraforming starship whose rogue inhabitants and wild animals have now spread across the surface of the planet.
As the creature spread across the planet in SWTOR, the droids that were responsible for upkeeping the flora and fauna are now working across the planet to support the new ecosystem!
Upon arriving at Dantooine, you will be contacted via the new Commlink feature and speak with the lead GSI Researcher that will be aiding us in healing the planet. From here, you will be able to start playing Dynamic Encounters and contributing to the repair of the planet, progress reputation and earn rewards!
The planet is broken up into 3 biomes: Sporefall, Glacial and Geothermal. Each biome has its own progress and levels (up to level 3), when a biome reaches 100%, it increases a Level. When all 3 biomes reach level 3, a special limited time boss spawns that needs a group to beat!
Dynamic Encounter Guide
There are over 40 Dynamic Encounters across Dantooine in Star Wars the Old Republic. Unlike any other planet, the Dantooine Crash Site has its own style of Dynamic Encounters in which you must Progress across 3 Dynamic environmental Biomes, level up each Zone to unlock additional rewards and quests!
Dynamic Planet Biomes
As the planet was ravaged by the wreckage of the starship and the animals and their droid keepers, the planet’s ecosystem has been damaged, it will be up to you, aided by GSI to repair Dantooine and the crashed landed invasive species.
As you participate in Dynamic Encounters, the planets own biomes and dynamiv quests will dynamically change to match the current status of the planet!
As you complete Encounters across the crash zones, each area will ‘level up’, providing fresh new dynamic encounters and even dynamically change the games scenery to reflect your contributions!
As areas reach new ‘levels’, inaccessible areas will unlock, allowing you access to brand new quests, enemies and locations! Players will need to work together in groups or as individuals to level up each biome on the planet to unlock the deeper levels and rooms!
Dynamic Bosses
Upon a Biome reaching the maximum area level, special time limited bosses will become available to be challenged by small groups of four players, which upon defeat appear to reset the entire zone back to its first level again. Eric Musco remarked that skilled players may be able to defeat the bosses and level the zones multiple times in one day.
He also remarked that team work is required, and that there are three different ‘paths’ you can choose to flavour the boss, aka 3 boss variants! One based on the effect of each biome.
Dantooine Rewards
Here are the new rewards, provided by levelling the new Dantooine GSI Reputation track and Dynamic Encounters:
Dantooine Stronghold
Lastly, the developers teased an upcoming Dantooine stronghold, that looks like a giant glass greenhouse surrounded by some kind of stone castle or temple.
It appears that this stronghold may require access to and playing the new Dynamic Encounters on Dantooine.
Stronghold Guide
The Dantooine Stronghold can be unlocked once you obtain Newcomer Rank with the Galactic Sustainability Initiative Reputation. Small amounts of Reputation points are earned every time you complete a Dynamic Encounter on Dantooine.
For a full breakdown and picture guide of the entire Dantooine Stronghold and every unlockable room and their hooks, read this guide.
PvP Season 9
PVP Season 9, Gladiators of the Outer Rim will run for 16 weeks and start with 7.8!
Lifeday and Anniversary Rewards
New rewards this year! Runs December 16th until January 6th! Also a second Collections Unlock sale during this time!
Double EXP runs from December 23 to Jan 6th!
PTS Let’s Play Stream with Eric Musco!
Join the SWTOR livestream and play with the devs on the PTS on November 21st at 1-3pm CT!
Also make sure to check out the quaterly anniversary producer letter coming out soon for some teasers 😉
New Story Update
At launch, only English VA will be available for the story. French and German will be releasing later.
While a majority of the trailer for SWTOR showed content upwards of 10 years old, to interest convention goers to try all of SWTOR’s content, appealing to Star Wars fans that have never played the game before. The final minute of the Celebration trailer showed story cutscenes for the main game storyline that was delayed back in November of 2024.
The developers talked about Master Reniah and how she relates to Darth Nul, including how she created Mind connection probes when her and her followers left into Wildspace, and how she met the Emperor.
The following characters will be featured in the 7.8 storyline:
Jekiah and Rass Ordo, Lana Beniko
Republic: Arn Peralun
Imperial: Major Anri
Everyone: Akaavi Spar and Talos Drellik
So lets deconstruct the trailer and combine what we know about the existing story of Legacy of the Sith compared to what the new trailer showed us!
Spoilers Ahead!
Malgus Monologue
The final minute of the trailer depics several brand new cutscenes, assumably from the unreleased 7.6 and upcoming 7.7 main story quest. While the video clearly shows a bunch of old and new cutscenes stitched and edited together, Darth Malgus features a unique narration over each segment of the trailer.
Darth Malgus Narration with reference to each cutscene the video originates from
Our paths are not destined they are forged. – A compilation of Darth Malgus boss fight and capture at the start of Legacy of the Sith (7.0 Elom Flashpoint and immediate Jail cutscene)
Shaped by Ambition… – A player character and Lana Beniko inside a throne room on Ilum (not yet released content)
… And Fear. – Cutscene depicting Sahar Kateen taking the Datacron of Nul (7.0 Elom Flashpoint)
The desire for Power… – Heta Kol staring at the banner of Clan Cadera (7.2 Showdown on Ruhnuk)
…the need for Control… – Flashpoint Cutscene before Malgus Boss fight at the throne room of the False Emperor Flashpoint (1.0 Ilum)
…The price of Obedience. – Ri’kan Kateen becoming jealous as Heta Kol talks to Sahar Kateen about the Holocron of Nul (7.2 Showdown on Ruhnuk)
We allowed corrupt doctrines… – An Imperial player character in the Jail cutscene with Darth Rivix and Krovos (7.0 Jail cutscene after Elom Flashpoint)
… to dictate the paths before us… – What appears to be a hologram of Darth Jadus standing infront of the player character (not yet released content)
… No Longer. – Shae Vizla breaks Darth Malgus out of his jail cell on the fleet. (7.5 Mimboosa District)
A change is coming to the galaxy… – The Darth Nul machine from Heta Kol’s ship with its shield activated (7.5 Mimboosa District)
… Forged from Pain and Rage and Sacrifice. – A compilation of Heta Kol vs Shae Vizla on Ruhnuk (7.2 Showdown on Ruhnuk), Darth Rivix vs Tau Idair (7.3 Voss Retreat) and Sahar vs Rikan vs the Player Character (7.6 Mimboosa District)
My Chains are Broken and Now… – A new cutscene depicting a Rakatan Mind Prison being activated (not yet released content)
… I will break them all! – A compilation showing Shae Vizla’s crew and Darth Malgus ransacking Tatooine (not yet released content)
Return to Ilum
There are two separate sections of the video that show a Mirialan Jedi Knight (pictured above, likely representing the player character) and Lana Beniko wandering around Ilum.
The room appears to be the destroyed remains of the Space station Throne Room that players fight Darth Malgus in during the False Emperor flashpoint from the end of the vanilla game (14 years ago).
Given that the space station appears to have survived relatively unharmed. It is likely that our player characters and Lana Beniko will be exploring the destroyed remains of Darth Malgus’ space station from the original flashpoint in search for clues as to his whereabouts.
As the 7.6 game update released without a story BUT released with a new Raid boss, XR-53, that also takes place within the crashed ruins of the space station on Ilum, we could easily assume that this part of the video takes place in the unreleased story content for game update 7.6 which was meant to release in November of 2024.
Heta Kol and Mandalorians
Heta Kol and the Hidden Chain do not feature in any new capacity in this cutscene, nearly as if the developers themselves are pivoting the story away from the Twilek twins and the Hidden Chain and instead focusing towards the newly unchained Darth Malgus and the rogue Shae Vizla.
In fact the current ‘substitute’ leaders of the Mandalorians, Jekiah and Rass Ordo, are not even mentioned in the trailer.
The trailer shows an old cutscene from a prior game update, with Heta Kol looking at the new banner of Clan Cadera (Torian Cadera) which was stolen during the Showdown on Ruhnuk update in 2022. It is likely a reference to the fact that Heta Kol throughout the expansion has accomplished nothing except the continual loss of power of her faction, the Hidden Chain.
Darth Malgus and Shae Vizla
Darth Malgus and Shae Vizla both feature prominently in the trailer, while most of the earlier trailer segments are dedicated to showing cutscenes from Legacy of the Sith that we have already played:
Malgus Capture on Elom
Malgus failing to escape on his own
Shae Vizla breaking out Malgus
There is a rather large 10 second cutscene (pictured above) that depicts Darth Malgus, Shae Vizla and her rogue militia, seiging Hidden Chain strongholds on what appears to be Tatooine.
Just like the previous snippets of Ilum, it is very likely that these cutscenes of Malgus on Tatooine also take place during the events of the unreleased 7.6 story (November 2024), as it would lend continuity and lore as to why there are Dynamic Encounters featuring Hidden Chain Mandalorians on Tatooine.
Sa’har and Ri’kan Kateen
Two of the biggest unresolved plot points going into Master’s Enigma is the fate of Sa’har and Ri’kan Kateen.
Both of these characters can potentially either live or ‘die’ (or so we assume) based on your choices at the end of the Mimboosa District storyline – 7.5 Desperate Defiance.
There is no new footage of Ri’kan or Sa’har shown in the teaser trailer, instead it focuses only on compilations of cutscenes from 7.0, 7.3 and 7.5.
So for now, the fate of Ri’kan and Sa’har is still ambiguous until otherwise.
Rakatan Mind Trap
One of the most interesting parts of the trailer is this specific cutscene which appear to be part of the upcoming and unreleased main story content.
The cutscene depics what appears to be a Rakatan Mind Prison being powered on and activated. However the location and technology around the Rakatan Mind Prison does not match any locations we have seen in SWTOR already.
For those that need a refresher, a Rakatan Mind Prison is a pyramid like device powered by the force, that was created by the ancient an extinct Rakatan Infinite Empire, it first appeared in KOTOR before briefly reappearing for a minor side quests on Belsavis in SWTOR.
Rakatan Mind Prisons are physical pyramids that are able to ‘suck a person’ into a kind of alternate reality where they live ‘inside’ of the mind prison in a form of infinite stasis. Theoretically meaning anyone stuck inside a Mind Prison could live forever, trapped inside, until they are ‘set free’.
Due to the fact we see the camera get ‘sucked in’ and the screen turns white, it is likely that we will either be Opening a Mind Prison, or our characters are going to be sucked into a Mind Prison in whatever cutscene awaits us in the next game update.
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Darth Jadus!?
Towards the end of the trailer, we see Darth Malgus narrate over the holographic image of Darth Jadus. As there is no spoken words by the ‘player character’ or Darth Jadus in this cutscene recording, we dont know if Darth Jadus is actually involved in the story or if it just the developers teasing his character.
However if you look closely, Darth Jadus has an all new appearance, being a custom Chestpiece (based off of level 80 R4 Anomaly gear) and a Cartel Market robe. So it is very likely if anything that this means that Darth Jadus will return in at least a small capacity if they have updated his appearance.
That being said we must all wait and see how he is involved in the story, whether he is an ally to Darth Malgus, the Empire, or us.
Opinion Segment:
In an absolute twist of Ironic Fate, I made up an April Fools post earlier this year with my Discord Server that coincidentally teased the return of Darth Jadus at Star Wars Celebration.
While wholly unintentional, based on nothing more than the main storyline on Iokath in KOTET where Lana Beniko says Darth Jadus is alive and working in the shadows. We decided the shadow planet of Dathomir would be an awesome place for Darth Jadus to raise an army of Nightsisters to attack the Empire, despite it being literally impossible due to canon/lore impossibility.
And I somehow struck lightning twice with Star Wars Celebration ‘leaking’ that Darth Jadus would return. Which technically came true I guess.
Broadsword please don’t ban me.
Read More:
Placing the Timeline
As Game Update 7.6 released without it’s main story (most likely due to ongoing SAG-AFTRA Voice Acting Union Strokes) component. It still released all of its side quest and new content, such as the XR-53 lairboss on Ilum, Dynamic Encounters and more.
However, as the side content, which assumably takes place AFTER the ‘main quest’ was meant to be completed, some plot holes appeared to have been opened. As the story we will most likely be getting in 7.7 takes place BEFORE the content from 7.6 that released Last November (2024).
So knowing what we know about the SWTOR Star Wars Celebration trailer, lets attempt to piece together the timeline:
Legacy of the Sith: Starting on Elom, Darth Malgus is finally captured by the player character and put in Jail on the Fleet.
7.1 Our character is then tipped off by Mex Briggam and the newly reformed Czerk Interstellar (not Corporation) that a rogue Sith Cult has uncovered the Mass Shadow Generator from Malachor and is attempting to use it for nefarious purposes, we travel there and destroy them all.
7.2 Our character then heads to Ruhnuk in order to aid Shae Vizla in attempting to track down Heta Kol, who escapes. However we defeat several Hidden Chain leaders.
7.3 Our character goes to Voss where the mystics have a vision of the Galaxy in flames, before we are sidetracked by a corrupted ancient Sith presence taking over the underground tombs on Voss, also Czerka Corporation is involved for some reason and it’s never mentioned again.
7.4 After Voss, our character aids in the liberation of Kessan’s Landing on Ord Mantell from the Hidden Chain attempting to recruit the Separatists, we defeat one of the Hidden Chain clan leaders and ally with Sa’har Kateen.
7.5 Desperate Defiance: Set on the Mimboosa District of Hutta and finalising a battle between our player characters and Ri’kan/Sa’har Kateen for ownership of Darth Nul’s Holocron.
7.6(7) Master’s Engima Story: Assuming the trailer is accurate to the unreleased story content, it is likely that the footage depicting a Player Character + Lana Beniko on Ilum AND the cutscene showing Darth Malgus attacking Hidden Chain on Tatooine takes place during this time.
7.6 Galactic Threads: Released in November 2024, The XR-53 Lairboss on Ilum and the Dynamic Encounters featuring the Hidden Chain stealing technology on Ilum and Tatooine most likely take place after the 7.7 story on Ilum as our characters should not know the location of the crashed Space Station of Darth Malgus and its reactivated droids if we have not been to it in the main story yet.
7.7 and Beyond?: The sections of the trailer featuring the Rakatan Mind Prison and Darth Jadus most likely are related to the planned story content fo 7.7 or take place after the actual playable events of 7.6.
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