Friday, January 25, 2013

Star Wars - The Old Republic (Part Seven)

Datacrons

SWTOR - DatacronSWTOR - Touching Datacron
Datacrons are these small tiny glowing cubes which supposedly is a form of technology left behind by an ancient race called the "Infinite Empire". They are usually found hidden in all sorts of hard-to-reach places, on planets all over the SWTOR universe.

Upon finding one of them, you must first strive to get close to it (within touching distance) and activate it. Once activated, the datacron would grant the character either a one-time permanent bonus to one stat (strength, presence, aim, cunning, endurance or willpower) or a colored matrix shard.

Ignoring the stat-increasing datacrons (as what they do is fairly straight-forward), I suppose you should be wondering what those colored matrix shards are for, right?
SWTOR - Red Matrix Shard
First of all, you ought to know that there are four kinds of colored matrix shards, Red, Blue, Yellow and Green. Next, you will actually need to collect at least three colored matrix shards before they become useful.
SWTOR - Matrix Cube AssemblerSWTOR - Input Shard
After gathering them, you should then head to a "Matrix Cube Assembler" like the one shown. And for your information, this "Matrix Cube Assembler" can be found inside the Jedi Temple Ruins on Coruscant (for Republic characters) and near the Sith Temple on Dromund Kaas (for Imperial characters).
SWTOR - Assembling Matrix Cube
SWTOR - Matrix CubeSWTOR - Assembled Matrix Cube
Once inside, start placing colored matrix shards into each of the three "Shard Input Panels" and then start the assembling process via the terminal in the center before finally touching the finished object to retrieve your assembled matrix cube.

Basically, as far as I know, the stats of the finished matrix cube actually depends upon the color of the matrix shards you use when constructing it (the order does not matter).
  • Level 15 Matrix Cube
    NameShard ColorStats
    Matrix Cube M2-W01 Blue
    1 Green
    1 Yellow
    11 Strength
    14 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M2-W11 Red
    1 Green
    1 Yellow
    18 Willpower
    8 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M2-W21 Red
    1 Blue
    1 Green
    15 Aim
    10 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M2-W31 Red
    1 Blue
    1 Yellow
    18 Strength
    8 Endurance
  • Level 24 Matrix Cube
    NameShard ColorStats
    Matrix Cube M3-J11 Blue
    2 Yellow
    19 Aim
    24 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M3-L11 Green
    2 Yellow
    28 Cunning
    14 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M3-O11 Red
    2 Yellow
    28 Strength
    14 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M3-A21 Green
    2 Blue
    28 Aim
    14 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M3-J21 Yellow
    2 Blue
    19 Strength
    24 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M3-V21 Red
    2 Blue
    19 Willpower
    24 Endurance
  • Level 32 Matrix Cube
    NameShard ColorStats
    Matrix Cube M4-L01 Yellow
    2 Green
    29 Strength
    33 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M4-A11 Blue
    2 Green
    29 Aim
    33 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M4-B11 Red
    2 Green
    39 Cunning
    23 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M4-V11 Blue
    2 Red
    29 Willpower
    33 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M4-B21 Green
    2 Red
    39 Aim
    23 Endurance
    Matrix Cube M4-O21 Yellow
    2 Red
    29 Strength
    33 Endurance
  • Level 50 Matrix Cube
    Character TypeNameShard ColorStats
    Force UsersMatrix Cube M7-G03 Green66 Strength
    56 Endurance
    27 Critical Rating
    Matrix Cube M7-B33 Blue66 Aim
    56 Endurance
    27 Critical Rating
    Matrix Cube M7-R33 Red66 Willpower
    56 Endurance
    27 Critical Rating
    Matrix Cube M7-Y33 Yellow59 Strength
    68 Endurance
    21 Defense Rating
    Tech UsersMatrix Cube M7-G03 Green66 Strength
    56 Endurance
    27 Critical Rating
    Matrix Cube M7-B33 Blue66 Aim
    56 Endurance
    27 Critical Rating
    Matrix Cube M7-R33 Red80 Cunning
    54 Endurance
    8 Critical Rating
    Matrix Cube M7-Y33 Yellow59 Aim
    68 Endurance
    21 Defense Rating
And from what I can tell, this finished matrix cube is actually just a stat-boosting equipment that you can equip into any of your "Relic" slots. And while it does offer way much more bonus to your stats when equipped, it does not offer any temporary boosting effect like that of relics.
Furthermore, regardless of how many matrix shards you may have found, you are only allowed to create and own one matrix cube. Therefore it may be more advisable to leave these shards alone until you have found more of them and have sufficient level to equip the high-leveled cubes.
SWTOR - Matrix Cube DisassemblerSWTOR - Reconfigured Disassembler Core
But in the event that you have already made a cube, you can always make use of the "Matrix Cube Disassembler" (which is also found nearby) to disassemble the matrix cube back into shards so that you can remake another better one. However, this process requires you to have a "Reconfigured Disassembler Core" in your inventory.

For your information, this "Reconfigured Disassembler Core" can be bought at 10,000 creds from a Jawa named Kitpth (2127, 438), north of Anchorhead, on Tatooine if your Republic or a Jawa named Pitkth (626, 2788), in Mos Ila, also on Tatooine if your Imperial.

Finally, to make your datacron hunting easier, you can visit this website - SWTOR Datacron Locations. The website not only tells you the coordinates of the datacrons, but also provides you with a detailed walkthrough (with screenshots) to help guide you to them.

Conversations & Alignment
Do you remember that in Star Wars - The Old Republic (Part One) that I mentioned about conversation choices?
SWTOR - Conversation 1SWTOR - Conversation 2
Now the thing with them that I've discovered is that while most of the option choices you get would lead you towards the same outcome at the end of the conversation regardless of your selection, there are some times where you would get to make a difference.
SWTOR - AlignmentSWTOR - Light V Relic
The greatest tell-tale that you've encountered these life-mattering conversations is when the choices you make affects your "alignment". And the way it is set is that when you make a "righteous" choice, you will gain light points which shifts your alignment slightly towards the "Light" while doing something "sinister" would net you dark points instead and moves you closer to the "Dark" path.

But overall, this "alignment" thingy can be considered as somewhat of an "aesthetic" feature...something that's more in line with a person role-playing and "sculpting" their own character rather than anything that could be considered "life-threatening". As far as I could tell, the only thing that appears to be affected would be a restriction to equipping certain items (like weapons or relics), but please be rest assured as SWTOR has prepared "equivalents" catering to both sides of the alignment.
SWTOR - Conversation Choice Outcome
The last thing that I would like to commend is the way they made the system send these simple pre-programmed messages (via the in-game mail) that appears to be from the various NPC characters that we've encountered or helped in our class and side quests. In my opinion, this small gesture or act simply makes the whole questing and role-playing experience that much better as the characters seem more "alive" compared to other MMOs.


Previous: SWTOR (Part Six)Next: SWTOR (Part Eight)