SWTOR - Planetside Travel Guide

**Sephiroth** · 12-22-2011

Starships are all well and good if you’re travelling vast distances from planet to planet, but once that ship is docked, how does one traverse the harsh desert landscape of Tatooine or the icy Tundra of Hoth? In this guide we answer that question by taking a look at the modes of travel you will be using to get from A to B and back again while planet side.

Quick Travel & Emergency Fleet Pass

The quick travel system is comprised of Binding Points (small computer stations), which are placed in various locations around the map. Finding them is quite easy as they are more often than not located in quest hubs right next to the taxi terminal, and can be found on your map by checking the “Bind Point” filter in the legend. Once you arrive at a new bind point, a quick right click will activate it for future use.

The quick travel ability is initially located in your primary action bar, but if it has been removed for some reason, can be found in your abilities menu under “general”. Activating it will bring up a map of the planet you are on complete with all the bind points both available and unavailable. After that simply select the point you wish to travel and, a short cast time later, a shuttle will be dispatched to whisk you away. After using quick travel you will have to wait for a 30 minute cool-down to expire in order to use it again. Using bind points effectively can save a player a lot of travel time, the best way being to reserve it for the return journey to quest hubs after completing the quests in that area.

Another useful feature is the emergency fleet pass, obtained at level 10, which provides instant transport back to your faction’s space station. For example, if your guild is in need of another member for a Flashpoint, and you’re off fighting Tauntauns on Hoth, you can be back at the station and ready to go in a matter of seconds. This ability does have a massive 18 hour cool-down however, and should therefore only be used when absolutely necessary.

The Taxi

The taxi service will most likely be your most used form of transit and, like binding points; there are terminals available in most quest hubs and locations of importance throughout the map. These appear as either a protocol droid with a double sided arrow above his head in game, or as a double sided arrow on the map. You will need to unlock these terminals in the same fashion as quick travel points, with a right click, upon which they become unlocked and available for use. Like in the real world though nothing’s free and you will be charged a small fee each time you use the taxi.

Speeders & Sprint

Your first form of any sort of speed increase to your person will be the sprint ability. All players acquire this from their class trainer when they reach level 14, and it provides a decent speed boost of 35 percent so long as you’re not in combat. Since the ability is toggled, finishing off any enemy combatants and returning to out of combat status will automatically re-activate the ability without you having to select it again.

Getting your first car is a major moment in anyone’s life and in SWTOR this happens at level 25. Once there you are able to train Speeder Piloting at your nearest class trainer for a mere 40,000 credits. This then grants you access to rank 1 speeder’s, providing you a healthy boost of 90 percent to movement speed. Rank 2 and Rank 3 speeder piloting skills are available later on at levels 40 and 50 and give bonuses of 100 and 110 percent respectively.

Speeder Vendors can be found on most planets post level 25, and in your faction’s fleet. The rank 1 speeder’s will run you 8,000 credits and come in a variety of shapes and colors that vary with each vendor. Prices for both the speeders and the required skill increase with each rank (the second tier costing 210,000 to train and 25,000 per speeder) so be sure to set some credits aside and spend wisely during the levels in between. PVP vendors also provide a few unique versions but these are paid for in Warzone/ Mercenary Commendations and are currently only available to characters that are level 50 and have the rank 3 piloting skill.

Thanks to our friends at tentonhammer... I touched this up for here -Seph