A recent post on the SWTOR website was quickly taken down after it leaked upcoming information related to the release of SWTOR 8.0! Including in-development photos of multiple planets across the game!
Announcement
With recent news of SWTOR moving to DirectX 12 and implementing the Frostbite Engine features in preparation for 8.0! It appears in a recent Executive Producer by the developers, its more than confirmed that Jadus will rise from the ashes of Khar Shian and lead the New Sith Empire.
Piecing together numerous prior devposts with brand new images released for an in development DirectX 12 build of SWTOR, keen eyed dataminers have been able to figure out the next expansion before the upcoming official developer reveal for 7.9!
Brand new Sith Temple areas are being constructed from scratch in an all new combat systel, effectively making the move to DirectX12 “SWTOR 2”, which players have been asking for a long time.
Ontop of this, many of the games planets such as Korriban are being rebuilt from SCRATCH to support the years passing in the games timeline to fit the expansion Storyline for 8.0 the Rise of Jadus. Long gone are the days of returning to hang out on Korriban or Tython only for NPCs to treat your max level character like youre still a newbie apprentice! From now on endgame players will be able to visit ‘aged’ versions of their beloved planets!
All brand new dynamic lighting effects have been added thanks to the Frostbite Engine! As you can see from the image above, unlike the current version of SWTOR, lightning will now illuminate the world and enemies around your character, with all new dark caves and locations to explore for the release of The Rise of Jadus in 8.0!
Planet: Dathomir
The newest planet to be added to SWTOR for the release of 8.0 is the long awaited Dathomir. To access Dathomir, you need to be logged into the PTS on a level 80 character, from there you can go to the Galaxy Map and click on Dathomir which is located next to Taris.
Codex Blurb:
A dark world of uncontrollable weather, swollen by the Dark Side of the Force. Dathomir is home to the ancient Rancors that were once prized by Sith Alchemists. Primal beasts roam the surface of it’s forsaken jungles and treacherous mountain ravines. While there are no known colonies or sentients that call this planet home, there are rumors of nomadic Zabrak tribes that attack anyone that dare step foot within their hunting grounds.
It appears as if the planet itself will feature the same mechanics as the Crash Site on Dantooine. A dangerous planet split apart by Biomes that must be levelled through Dynamic Encounters!
It’s likely that the Dantooine Crash Site was a test run to see how players would stay engaged with Dynamic Encounters in the ‘main game’ as a repeatable activity. Perhaps we may see the end of lifeless Daily Areas or Flashpoints as part of the main story quest going forward in The Rise of Jadus!
Dathomir does not have standard quests, Simply there is just the main Story concerning Jadus as well as the Nightsister Dynamic Encounters. There are about 10 total Dynamic Encounters that are constantly appearing all over the planet at ‘Nightmother Coven Grounds’ which look like campsites and huts with Green fire.
It appears that Jadus has grown his immense force fear powers from the Witches of Dathomir, and as such we have travelled to the planet to stop him from growing in power.
The reward for completing Dynamic Encounters appears to be some form of “Nightsister Force Token” as well as a random piece of ‘Dathomir Coven’ gear.
It is likely that this Dathomir Coven gear is equivilent to our existing Decurion Gear, requiring the Force Tokens to pay for upgrades to increase in item rating.
Rise of Jadus Story
HEAVY SPOILERS BELOW, ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK
Leaked Story Blurb from Jedipedia:
With the defeat of Darth Malgus and the Hidden Chain on Khar Shain, the enigmatic Darth Jadus was able to activate the final beacon of Darth Nul, and has set his sights on taking the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith for himself!
Failing to stop Darth Jadus from activating the empowered holocron on Khar Shian, a newly reawakened army of Force Sensitives answer only to <SWITCH%Rep:Tau Idair%Imp:Darth Rivix>, dragging both the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire down to their knees.
As the galaxy is plunged into chaos, it will be up to <%NaN%PlayerName> to unify the <%NaN%PlayerFaction> and stop Darth Jadus before they are able to take control of the greater Sith Empire and set an unstoppable inferno from burning the galaxy to ashes.
For now <%NaN%PlayerName> meets with their allies, Jekiah Ordo and Lana Beniko on Odessen to discuss the future of the Alliance and which side to support in the oncoming war against Darth Jadus.
A big feature of the 8.0 expansion appears to be a new Computer Terminal on Odessen that allows players to SWAP their faction. A commonly requested feature of SWTOR both since its inception as well as Knights of the Fallen Empire.
However it is unknown whether this feature will require completing ALL the way up to The Rise of Jadus, which might take a while since SWTOR’s furthest skip point is still Ossus!
It also appears that at random points across the expansion, your character will be approached by masked [UNKNOWN] enemies that will fill you in on story progression without the use of voice acted cutscenes.
This is likely a way to give constant or weekly story updates to make your character feel ‘hunted’ by the newly reawakened Force Sensitives loyal to Darth Jadus since he successfully activated Darth Nul’s holocron on Khar Shian.
Keen eyed players will recognise that the [Unknown] NPC is the same mysterious figure that pretends to ‘help’ the player if you unlock the secret Buff on the L.A.V.A Dynamic Encounter on Hoth, which is required to unlock the secret achievement related to hearing the ‘screams of those trapped below the Lava’ on Hoth.
Linked below are my personal findings from the HOTH commlink conversation, as well as referencing KOROS, which I will get to below:
As 90s Legends Canon fans will recognise, KOROS is a majorly significant location in the old Expanded Universe!
KOROS is the major sun of the Empress Teta planet, which used to be called Koros in the time of the Old Republic (2009 Star Wars: Essential Atlas).
This planet and the entire Koros/Teta system featured heavily in the old Knights of the Old Republic stories featuring characters such as Ssk Kahorr, Jori Daragon and Naga Sadow, which makes perfect sense given that Khar Shian, the planet we visit in the unreleased 7.9 Legacy Reborn update features the Citadel of Naga Sadow!
Most likely the Citadel of Naga Sadow being the location our characters will fail to stop Darth Jadus from activating the Holocron of Darth Nul! Which was teased in the current Master’s Enigma storyline.
It’s likely that the characters pictured above will represent some of Darth Jadus’ new force sensitive army, which we already saw a little of in the Master’s Enigma update aboard his ship.
Item Rating and Gear
There are several vendors currently active on the existing PTS that are selling ‘test out’ 350 item rating gear in exchange for credits, however it appears that this gear is all based off of the existing R-4 and Rakatan 340 and 344 gear we currently have today, only with a much higher stat boost.
Perhaps unlike prior expansions, we will simply need to grind gear from Dynamic Encounters on Dathomir and trade in the armor pieces we collect as rewards to increase their item ratings and power levels!
On the PTS you can buy them on the Fleet for 1 Credit each from the 350 Dathomir Gear Vendor in the Supplies Section.
A new Ring Slot has been added to the game and is available to Level 85 players on Dathomir. Each Ring appears to be built around your Class and major characters from the Legacy of the Sith Story!
These new Ancient Rings may serve to act as replacements for Legendary Implants, whose addition to SWTOR at the start of 7.0 polarized the community in reaction to originally removing the ‘set gear’ component of classes gear from the original armor piece system.
Livestream Announcement
Lastly, the developers have teased Public Testing will become available this year for you to experience the brand new DirectX 12 SWTOR later in the year, as well as more news to follow for the release of 8.0 in their official roadmap plan, which is currently scheduled to have an Official Announcement around the release of ‘Legacy Reborn’ update planned later in 2026!
You can read ALL the news for that here
Happy April 1st SWTORnerds. Get trolled LMAO. If I can predict ‘dynamic encounter daily areas with no voice acted story’, I can predict my way to how 8.0 will start if Khar Shian and the Hoth Dynamic Encounters are realistically setting up the upcoming 8.0 story.
The main image was made by extensively editing Izorax’s Darth Jadus cosplay in photosho (Credit: Izorax on deviantart for the cosplay, SkyehammerArt for the background and title editing!)
All other images in this guide were made by applying red overlay filters to existing SWTOR trailers and screenshots taken on location on Yavin IV’s daily area using Darth Jadus cosplay as reference!
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