KOTOR 1 Non-spoiler Tips

KOTOR Non-spoiler tips:

Note: this is just for the first game, KOTOR I. KOTOR II is different is several ways. Also, I mention a few things that happen in the game, but none of it gives away the main plot.

Disclaimer One: the purpose of this document is to get you through a first playthrough without major regrets. It is not a detailed set of instructions on how to min-max every bit of XP/money/content. That would take a full guide, with heavy spoilers. Several things in here are intended as good general advice, but might be bad ideas for a seasoned KOTOR player trying to get every last bit out of the game. If you know the game well enough that you are spotting those sorts of things herein, then you probably aren't the target audience anyway.

Disclaimer Two: I do mention some things that happen in the game in a vague way herein. Stuff like the names of some places you will visit or the names of some people you will meet. I do this in a way that does not spoil the plot of the game, but if you don't want to know anything at all before you start, maybe just read the first few tips. I tried to arrange the tips with the more general ones towards the top and the more specific ones towards the bottom. So if you start reading and feel like you're learning too much, stop there.

Disclaimer Three: These are all from my own notes, which I have accumulated over years. Some of it is probably cut-and-paste from various online sources, but I don't remember what. If you see something you wrote and you either want credit or want me to remove it, let me know. My contact info is on this website's home page.

Save the game often, in different slots. That way, if you run into a bug or glitch you don't have to go back very far. Seriously, this is the most important tip in this whole document. The game is not super buggy, but glitches do occasionally happen, and it would really suck to lose hours and hours of play time.

On the map, there's a button to return to whatever your base is at that point in the game. It is only available in "safe" areas, but it can save a lot of travel time. And when you fast-travel, you also get an instant full heal.

The combat looks real-time but behind the scenes it is actually turn-based using D&D rules. If you use items directly from your inventory instead of from the action buttons on the main game screen, they'll often activate immediately instead of waiting for your next turn. Takes a few extra clicks, but really useful for heals.

You can pause and save during combat. Sometimes useful in a long hard fight in case it goes bad at the end. Just make sure you don't overwrite a slot you might need to go back to if you happen to save at an inopportune point and decide you need to start the fight over from the beginning with a different strategy.

Unless you are trying to do something specific with your build, it is usually better to go deep than wide on special attack feats. Here's what that means: you will be able to select from three melee special attacks that make you hit harder/faster/stun (I'm glossing over a few details, read the feat descriptions for full info). There are also three corresponding ranged special attacks. Each special attack type has three ranks. At each rank, the special attack gets more powerful. It may seem like a good idea to get the first rank of each, so you'll be versatile. But each special attack type also comes with penalties, which get smaller at the higher ranks. So you are usually better off picking one special attack type and getting all the ranks for it, instead of bouncing around between them.

Solo mode can be useful for luring enemies around. One strategy is to set some mines, turn on solo mode, and have the enemies follow you across the mines. You can then turn solo mode back off and have your companions help you finish off any remaining enemies.

Don't forget to use shields. There are a lot of different kinds, but they're basically variations on two kinds: energy and melee. If somebody is shooting you or hacking on you with a lightsaber, use an energy shield. If they're slicing you up with vibroblades, fists, other some other sort of physical attack, use melee.

Also, shields sell for the same amount no matter how many charges they have. So if you really care about money, you can use them up until the have one charge then sell them.

Choices you make throughout the game will move you closer to the Light Side or the Dark Side. This will affect some dialog and some plot points, but in general the game progresses the same for both alignments. There is a relatively small bonus for getting all the way one direction or the other, but you'll be fine without it. You don't have to always pick one side or the other. Feel free to play your character's personality without obsessing about alignment.

With that said, there are only two endings to the game: Light and Dark. If your alignment is near the middle when you finish the game, you get the Light ending.

Light Side characters can use Dark Side Force Powers and vice versa. It won't affect your alignment. So for example, a Light Side character using Force Lightning doesn't move toward the Dark Side. However, it will cost you more of your Force Points. So it probably makes sense to match the powers you expect to use most to your alignment, just be aware you can dabble in the other side a little if you want to.

The game isn't *that* hard, so you don't have to obsess about what class/feats/powers you take. With that said, there are a few good general rules: If you go with a Str/melee build, prioritize Force powers that aren't restricted by armor. You'll probably find you need to wear heavy armor to survive, and it is a pain to pull it off every time you want to cast a Force power (and you can't switch armor in combat).
Light Side characters have access to better Wisdom-boosting gear than Dark Side characters.

Never, ever use the auto level up button for either yourself or your companions. Ever. Seriously. It is horribly terribly evil and bad. It is the real Dark Side. You can't possibly do a worse job of selecting stuff yourself even if you just close your eyes and click stuff at random.

You don't have to level up immediately. You can wait and level up any time, even in the middle of a fight. If you level up during combat, you'll get a full health bar. So one kinda hacky trick is to save level ups, wait until you're about to die in the middle of a hard fight, and level up then.

Also, you start as one class, and get a second class partway through the game. The overall level cap for both classes combined is 20. So if you do 8 levels (the max) of the first class, you can only do 12 levels of the second class. If you do (for example) 4 levels of the first class and save the rest, you can then do 16 levels of the second class. There's no right or wrong answer here - you'll be able to beat the game whatever you do. But you don't start getting Force powers until the second class, so if it is super important to you to have lots of Force powers, you might save some levels. Again, don't stress about it, though. For your first playthrough, just enjoy the game.

All the first classes are okay. Most people seem to prefer either Scoundrel or Scout, but any of them are fine. Do what you think you'll enjoy.

Sentinel may sound like a good second class to a new player, but it really isn't. That doesn't mean you're doomed if you pick it - I played Sentinel for my first playthrough and it was fine. But it is pretty gimped. "RNGtan" on Reddit said it a lot better than I can: Sentinel, to put it plainly, just suck at everything because they have the same low base Attack of a Consular while their class feats can easily be covered by an item with Immunity: Mind-Affecting. They don't even get the extra class skills because some dingus switched them with the Consular; it is the Consular who gets all the skills. Long story short, play a Sentinel if you really want to, but you are probably better as either a Guardian or a Consular.

Your companions all have backstories. Talk to them now and then. They'll tell you more as you gain levels and complete various planets and quests. If you're too mean or dismissive to them, they may stop talking to you, but they're generally pretty forgiving.

Skills mostly don't matter that much, and you can often use your companions to do skill-related things for you. Even when you can't, there's usually another way to do whatever it is you're doing. The two exceptions are:
  1. Persuade. This only matters for the main character. It isn't strictly necessary, but if you like being able to talk people into things, raise this. You probably don't need to raise it above an adjusted 19 ("adjusted" means with all modifiers. You can see this on your character screen.)
  2. Repair. To complete one of your companion's backstories, your main character will need an adjusted Repair skill of 17. This isn't essentialy for the main storyline, so if you can't get this, no big deal. You basically just miss a bit of fun dialog.

Things that help boost Repair: You may want your main character to get Master Valor - it is a very good power - but if not make sure one of your companions gets it.

There's another item in the game that gives +1 to Intelligence, but you have to do a certain quest in a certain way to get it. If you happen to get it, great but it isn't worth doing that quest that way just to get the item, and describing how would be very spoiler-ey.

Unlike Feats and Force Powers, you don't have to spend all your Skill Points when you level up. You can save them and spend them later. This can be nice if you aren't sure at first which skills you care about. It can also be useful to optimize builds. Suppose you really care about Persuade, but your starting class doesn't have it as a class skill. All the second classes do. So you could save up some skill points to catch up on Persuade when you get your second class.

Droids use the Repair skill (along with Repair Kits) to heal themselves, unlike everyone else who uses Medpacks and Treat Injury (or even better, Force Heal)

Mines sell for a decent amount, and are also useful to plant in preparation for hard fights. If you (or a companion) have sufficient Demolition skill, make sure to Retrieve mines you come across instead of just Disarming them. It is a lot harder to disarm/retrieve mines in combat than it is out of combat.

If you meet an angry person on Dantooine in a grove wielding a lightsaber, you don't have to kill them. Keep talking to them instead. Maybe save before you start talking to them, in case you goof it up.

If you find an interesting and talkative rust-colored droid for sale in a shop on Tatooine, buy it. Even if it seems expensive. Trust me.

You will acquire a number of companions that accompany you through most of the game. You get to level them up and pick their equipment, just like you do the main character. Generally speaking, it is best to pick a role for each companion (melee attack, ranged attack, support) and focus that companion on that thing. That way, they are each really good at something, rather than all being good at nothing. You can usually choose two of them to bring with you at a time. So if, for example, you decide you need two melee companions for a particular situation, then bring two that you have built into that role, instead of using use the same two companions the whole game and trying to make them good at everything. Just be warned that there are a few places in the game were you will be obligated to bring certain companions, or even where you won't be able to bring any of them at all.

Several companions have "messenger quests". These are quests triggered by meeting an NPC at a spaceport, usually very close to where your ship lands. They only trigger if that companion is actually with you. If you leave them on the ship, it won't trigger. The companions with these quests are: DO NOT start Juhani's personal quest until you have completed all other quests involving a messenger due to a massive bug. To avoid this, either don't talk much to her until you've finished the other companion messenger quests, or don't take her off the ship. Her messenger quest only triggers after you talk to her a bunch, and then take her off the ship with you.

If you are playing as a male main character and do something special with Bastila on your ship that seems important (like it won't happen again, maybe, until the end of the game), don't speak to her AT ALL after that point, to avoid an unfortunate basegame bug. It is pretty obvious what this is when it happens. But to make it even more clear, you'll be talking to her in a part of the ship that she isn't usually in. This bug is fixed in some mods, but unless you're positive that you are using a mod that resolves this issue, it's best to not speak with her again until a point which will become obvious.

At the start of the game, you won't be able to pick which planet you go to, you'll have to follow the story. Same for the end - at a certain point you just have to go where the game sends you. But in the middle of the game you get to pick.

You can do planets in any order. Don't leave Tatooine for last because certain events in late game will block you from finishing a certain quest there. You probably also shouldn't do Korriban first, because you won't have a certain quest yet.

You don't have to do planets all in one go. You can jump around. Some quests will probably send you back to planets you thought you were done with. Nothing wrong with that.

Certain things in the plot advance when you "finish" a planet. This means finding a certain thing on that planet. The thing you're trying to find will become clear fairly early in the game, because it is pretty much the reason you're going to these particular planets in the first place.

Save to a new slot at least at the beginning and end of every planet. So, right after you land, before you leave your ship, and right before you leave, after you're on your ship but before you take off. It doesn't hurt to make lots of saves, so maybe make one at the beginning of every major area or when you think a big plot point may be coming up. Having lots of saves doesn't crash or slow down the game. Another option to to have one save slot called something like "Progress" and save to it super often. But don't make that your only save - keep at least a few. There are two spots in particular where interesting cutscenes/dialog happen that you may want to see again, so having a save before them might be convenient:

There's a bug in some versions of the game (I ran into it on Mac using Steam) where if you take anyone off the ship with you on Yavin Station all your equipment in your inventory gets duplicated. That sounds great, until you realize you have thousands of junk items and it crashes the game. Simple workaround: don't take anyone with you on Yavin. There's one thing that happens where you may absolutely not be able to progress on Yavin without help. In that case, take companions with you only for that thing, then take them back to the ship. A little duplication won't hurt, but a lot is bad. (Yavin was added after the original game was released and may not be in all versions of the game. All I can say for sure is that it was on the Mac/Steam version that I played.)

Yavin gets new items as you complete planets, so check back to see if there is new stuff to buy. Also, the merchant on Yavin generally pays more than other places, so it is usually the best place to sell stuff.

If you beat the guy on Yavin at Pazaak 10 times he'll give you a discount. Save before each Pazaak game in case you lose. He's pretty good.

Other than Yavin, Pazaak is mostly just for fun (and a little money). Play it if you enjoy it, but skip it if you don't. Swoop racing is the same - other than one quest the game will force you through (so you can't possibly miss it), swoop racing is just for fun and a few bucks. Skip it if you don't enjoy it.

There's a thing that happens in the final fight of the game where it is very helpful to have at least one of the following Force Powers: There may be some other powers that work as well, but I'm certain the above will, and it shouldn't be too much trouble to work in at least one of them. You don't use the power on the enemy you're fighting, you use it on ... well ... you'll see. 😊
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Here is a good "first playthrough" build. It is designed to play fast, and to allow unlocking all the important parts of the story. It is not an optimal build from a min-max perspectve. But you shouldn't have much trouble completing the main storyline, as well as the major side quests, and you shouldn't have obsess too much about the more obscure game mechanics.

You'll start the game using whatever weapons you have available, probably switching between a ranged weapon and a melee weapon depending on your preference and what seems to work best for whatever enemy you're fighting and whatever companions you have at that point.

Don't actually equip two weapons at the same time until you get the second rank of Two-Weapon Fighting. Otherwise you'll just miss a lot.

You probably won't get enough experience to level up past 7 on the first planet. But if you do, just pretend you didn't and wait until you get off that planet to start leveling again. On the other hand, if you happen to not make it to level 7 on the first planet, don't worry too much about it. It shouldn't change that much.

Once you get a lightsaber, you'll pretty much never want to use anything else. Two of 'em as soon as you can find a short lightsaber for your off hand.

Once you become a Jedi you should wear robes and not armor. Otherwise you lose a lot of special abilities that are worth way more than the armor would be.

Progression details per level (g = granted, s = selected)

Character Level Class Level Attributes Skills Feats Force Powers
1 Scout 1 STR: 16 (+3)
WIS: 10 (+0)
CHA: 10 (+0)
INT: 14 (+2)
CON: 12 (+1)
DEX: 12 (+1)
 20 points
Awareness +4 (4)
Computer Use +4 (4)
Demolitions +4 (4)
Repair +4 (4)
Treat Injury +4 (4)		 Armor Proficiency: Light Armor (g)
Armor Proficiency: Medium Armor (g)
Weapon Proficiency: Blaster Pistol (g)
Weapon Proficiency: Blaster Rifle (g)
Weapon Proficiency: Melee Weapons (g)
Flurry (g)
Rapid Shot (g)
Implant I (g)
Two-Weapon Fighting (s)
2 Scout 2 4 points
Awareness +1 (5)
Demolitions +1 (5)
Repair +1 (5)
Treat Injury +1 (5)		 Toughness (s)
3 Scout 3 4 points
Awareness +1 (6)
Demolitions +1 (6)
Repair +1 (6)
Treat Injury +1 (6)		 Conditioning (s)
4 Scout 4 STR +1, 17 (+3) 4 points
Awareness +1 (7)
Demolitions +1 (7)
Repair +1 (7)
Treat Injury +1 (7)		 Implant II (g)
Uncanny Dodge I (g)
5 Scout 5 4 points
Awareness +1 (8)
Demolitions +1 (8)
Repair +1 (8)
Treat Injury +1 (8)		 Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (s)
6 Scout 6 4 points
Awareness +1 (9)
Demolitions +1 (9)
Repair +1 (9)
Treat Injury +1 (9)
7 Scout 7 4 points
Awareness +1 (10)
Demolitions +1 (10)
Repair +1 (10)
Treat Injury +1 (10)		 Improved Flurry (s)
Uncanny Dodge II (g)
8 Guardian 1 STR +1, 18 (+4) 2 points
Persuade +2 (2)		 Jedi Sense (g)
Force Jump (g)
Jedi Defense (g)
Master Two-Weapon Fighting (g)		 Burst of Speed (s)
Cure (s)
9 Guardian 2 2 points
Persuade +2 (4)		 Knight Speed (s)
10 Guardian 3 2 points
Persuade +2 (6)		 Master Flurry (s) Force Valor (s)
11 Guardian 4 2 points
Persuade +2 (8)		 Knight Valor (s)
12 Guardian 5 STR +1, 19 (+4) 2 points
Persuade +2 (10)		 Heal (s)
13 Guardian 6 2 points
Persuade +2 (12)		 Knight Sense (g)
Improved Force Jump (g)
Improved Toughness (s)		 Stun Droid (s)
14 Guardian 7 2 points
Persuade +2 (14)		 Master Toughness (s) Disable Droid (s)
15 Guardian 8 2 points
Persuade +2 (16)		 Master Speed (s)
16 Guardian 9 STR +1, 20 (+5) 2 points
Persuade +2 (18)		 Improved Conditioning (s) Master Valor (s)
17 Guardian 10 2 points
Persuade +1 (19)
Treat Injury +1 (11)		 Destroy Droid (s)
18 Guardian 11 2 points
Treat Injury +2 (13)		 Energy Resistance (s)
19 Guardian 12 2 points
Treat Injury +2 (15)		 Master Sense (g)
Master Force Jump (g)
Master Conditioning (s)		 Improved Energy Resistance (s)
20 Guardian 13 STR +1, 21 (+5) 2 points
Treat Injury +2 (17)		 Weapon Focus (Lightsaber) (s) Throw Lightsaber (s)