Easy 340 Gearing Guide

[Engeopathichero]

Been spending a lot of time on Shae Vizla lately and I've seen a lot of people don't know how to gear quickly, so I wrote this guide. Rest is copy/paste from Reddit where the guide was originally posted and written.

 

Hey all I'm finding a lot of people are gearing the long way (especially on the new server) and I want to help everyone make the gear grind super easy. This is the current fastest way I've found to unlock mods on Hyde and Zeek. I will go over 2 options, starting with the super fast way and then another way if you don't want to run heroics/dailies.

 

Method 1: Get Conquest Commendation Ear and both Relics to 340. You can acquire by buying at the Conquest Gear Vendor, ear and relics of your choice are 10 Conquest Commendations and 16,500 credits. Then go to the vendor next to it and upgrade all three to 340, which takes varying amounts of Conquest Commendations depending what level the gear is currently. I have no idea how many Commendations you need, but it shouldn't take long to get those three to 340. Don't worry that they are green, it won't matter, Item Rating does however.

Once you are at 340 rating Ear and both Relics, run veteran flashpoints until an ear or relic drops. IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE THEY ARE EQUIPPED. It should drop blue quality and 340 if your Ear and both Relics are also 340. Every veteran mode flashpoint boss has a chance to drop a piece of gear that is equal or above your current rating. It is any piece, not just your lowest, I've seen a lot of people who think it only drops for your lowest, that is only true of the weekly box, not the bosses. I have tested this with full bought 324 Noble Decurion gear but 340 ear and relic Noble Decurion and a relic dropped on the first boss of vet Hammer Station (which I solo'd with a level 9 companion set to heals). You probably will need to run a full flashpoint or two for drops. Remember it is specifically boss drops that will drop a blue ear or relic. If you get unlucky with flashpoint drops, use option 2.

 

Method 2: Farm Flashpoints or Operations for one piece to 340. Vulkk has a guide how to do this. You can buy an initial blue at the flashpoint or operation gear vendors for appropriate comms. Upgrade at the vendor next to the vendor you buy them from. I would recommend checking Vulkk's guide for specifics, https://vulkk.com/2023/01/14/swtor-7-2-endgame-gearing-guide/. You can buy blue quality gear from either vendor, Supreme Decurion at the Flashpoint vendor for 60-70 FP-1's or Columi at the Operation vendor for 30-35 OP-1's. The upgrade vendor is next to whatever vendor you buy from.

 

After either method bring your 340 to Hyde and Zeek, make sure to have the mission for 340 Prototype from them, and deconstruct to unlock 340 blue (prototype) mods. It takes about 2.1 million credits to buy a full set of gear (Weapons and Gear). You will be in 340 everything but implants. If you have any trouble finding them check out Swtorista's guide, https://swtorista.com/articles/swtor-how-to-get-the-best-gear-in-the-game-7-4-hyde-zeek-340-and-rakata-344/. Table of contents can bring you right to the map of how to find Hyde and Zeek, 4th option.

 

That's it. All you have to do to get 340 blue gear, which will be enough to clear most if not all content. I highly recommend option 1, it is extremely fast unless you get very unlucky with flashpoint boss drops. Most times it's taken no more than 2-3 runs for me to get them though. I solo ran Hammer Station and got it within 1-8 bosses I think (Hammer Station has 3 bosses). I've used this technique twice now, and one test run which I got really lucky on and a relic dropped first boss. Don't be afraid to group finder if you are new, most players will help you out. Veteran mode Flashpoints are pretty easy. Hope that makes the process for some of you faster and easier!

[Darknessdanielc]

Cheers, good tips

I'm mainly a PVP-er, so does this mean I can still run the Veteran FPs with my custom modded 336 gear but only have equipped the Earpiece (offhand / focus for my Sorc) and 2 Relics to get the other 340 drops? Then equip those one by one so it doesn't duplicate them?

[Darkwhistl]

11 hours ago, Engeopathichero said:

I have no idea how many Commendations you need, but it shouldn't take long to get those three to 340.

 It's 400 CC  per item, so 1200 CC for all three.

[ThanderSnB]

3 hours ago, Darknessdanielc said:

Cheers, good tips

I'm mainly a PVP-er, so does this mean I can still run the Veteran FPs with my custom modded 336 gear but only have equipped the Earpiece (offhand / focus for my Sorc) and 2 Relics to get the other 340 drops? Then equip those one by one so it doesn't duplicate them?

If you have 336 item rating in those slots, you will get 336 item rating drops when those item slots drop. It won't be 340, but it will save time upgrading. 336 to 340 is a lot cheaper than 324 to 340.

[Engeopathichero]

Sorry I updated Reddit and forgot this, I leveled the 3 to see how many CC and credits, 1185 CC and roughly 650k credits.

[ExarSun]

Do you need to have 340 implants for method 1 (conquest 340 3 pieces) to work?

[Drew_Braxton]

On 1/2/2024 at 5:18 AM, Engeopathichero said:

Good post and Hyde and Zeek are definitely the quickest way to 340.  Once you get to 340 I would recommend these:

A. Join groups for nightmare nefra and Dash'roode runs.  As long as you know your class these are pretty painless unless you get a bad group or are a tank that has never done them before.  Some groups are tolerant to helping new tanks get some practice though.  This is the quickest way to get the top gear drop.  Unfortunately, it is random so you will get way more junk drops than the gear piece you are hoping for.  Even if the randomness does not work in your favor, the two pieces that drop are worth 30 OP tokens.  I run these atleast 10 times a week and get mostly earpieces or relics.  Stupid random.  

 

B. Heavily leverage the weekly missions for EV and HP HM.  Completing the weekly gives you 65 op tokens PLUS the tokens you get from disintegrating gear drops.  You can force all rakata drops by inserting a lower level item (I believe 318 or 324 is needed).  Both have 5 bosses and these are the easiest hard mode operations you can run.  

5 bosses @ 15 op tokens per piece = 75

Total = 75 + 65 = 140 op tokens

 

The more alts you have the more you can crank out the op tokens each week.  The only drawback is waiting for one of the two to appear as a weekly.  

If you are looking for 344 gear I would avoid flashpoints and focus on operations.  

C. If you have alts, crank out activities inbetween operations that generate conquest commendations.  You can convert 2,000 of these for 175 op tokens.  That will get you a couple of item upgrades.

Obviously, the above is for a PVE path.  

 

On 1/2/2024 at 5:18 AM, Engeopathichero said:

 

After either method bring your 340 to Hyde and Zeek, make sure to have the mission for 340 Prototype from them, and deconstruct to unlock 340 blue (prototype) mods. It takes about 2.1 million credits to buy a full set of gear (Weapons and Gear). You will be in 340 everything but implants. If you have any trouble finding them check out Swtorista's guide, https://swtorista.com/articles/swtor-how-to-get-the-best-gear-in-the-game-7-4-hyde-zeek-340-and-rakata-344/. Table of contents can bring you right to the map of how to find Hyde and Zeek, 4th option.

 

That's it. All you have to do to get 340 blue gear, which will be enough to clear most if not all content. I highly recommend option 1, it is extremely fast unless you get very unlucky with flashpoint boss drops. Most times it's taken no more than 2-3 runs for me to get them though. I solo ran Hammer Station and got it within 1-8 bosses I think (Hammer Station has 3 bosses). I've used this technique twice now, and one test run which I got really lucky on and a relic dropped first boss. Don't be afraid to group finder if you are new, most players will help you out. Veteran mode Flashpoints are pretty easy. Hope that makes the process for some of you faster and easier!

 

[Engeopathichero]

On 1/3/2024 at 2:23 AM, ExarSun said:

Do you need to have 340 implants for method 1 (conquest 340 3 pieces) to work?

Sorry haven't been keeping up on the thread due to busy schedule, no you do not need implants at 340, only ear and relics. The way gear works with bosses is it will drop a piece equal to the current level of whatever you have equipped. If you have an item below 320 it will always drop that piece or if you have multiple below 320 random between them, otherwise if you have at least 324 in every slot the piece that drops is random. In veteran flashpoints ear and relics drop as a blue piece, so if they are 340 it will drop a 340 blue piece for hyde and zeek. I wouldn't upgrade implants as I would focus getting the gold bonus ones from the implant quest vendor. Upgrading other implants is a waste of coms and credits. You can't get the gold implants from boss drops so better to save resources for those. I tested with a basic set of 324 greens, including implants, aside from ear and relics to make sure when it drops an ear or relic it is 340. First piece that dropped was a blue relic I believe. Rarely will you get that lucky but they seem to have a decent drop chance.

[Tantala]

Thanks for this - it is much simpler and more concise than the various gudes I've been looking at to upgear my lvl 80 Bounty Hunter.  One cheesy little trick if you are solo and cannot complete a veteran flashpoint is simply to stealth up to the first boss then exit area and reset the mode.  Rinse and repeat.  

Edited January 6 by Tantala

[Tantala]

I have now fully regeared my "lead" character (lvl 80 Bounty Hunter) using this guide which is far more understandable than the guides on the fan sites.  There is one minor omission - it is worth picking up the Legendary Implants quest from Lonndar Eadwinn in fleet.  Once completed, this will allow you to buy and upgrade legendary implants.  The nice thing about the quest is that you can ignore the scarey looking list of things to do and you will eventually finish the quest simply by completing conquests.

 

Off now to earn some tech fragments ... never thought I'd be short of those.

Edited January 8 by Tantala

[Goemoe]

Nice, but I sometimes wonder, why I should care? The more I progress in the solo parts of the game, the less mighty I feel with any gear. Fighting in lvl 80 zones sometimes feel as if I have no gear at all. Trash mobs taking loads of time for no real challenge or use. When replaying all classes for the second or third time makes more fun than playing the new stuff, I wonder: do those devs actually play their own game?

But nice guides anyway.

[Tantala]

22 hours ago, Goemoe said:

When replaying all classes for the second or third time makes more fun than playing the new stuff, I wonder: do those devs actually play their own game?

Of course they don't - they are far too busy deciding which bug not to fix next.

[cannibithobbal]

So I have one query in regards to gearing which this very thorough guide (and no others I've found online) does not have an answer for and hopefully someone will know?  That being: anyone know where I can get prototype implants to drop from?  Or do they not drop from anywhere and I just have to spend a fortune buying them from FP gear vendor and upgrading now?

Ears and relics drop like candy (well, comparatively anyway lol) from vet FPs but out of dozens and dozens of runs I've gotten 0 implants, and from some googling and this guide here, it sounds like they must have changed something with the 340 upgrade to make implants not drop from FPs anymore?  Because they definitely used to, I used to gets loads of them running vet FPs, but I only find references to ears and relics dropping from FPs.

 

[Ominovin]

5 minutes ago, cannibithobbal said:

So I have one query in regards to gearing which this very thorough guide (and no others I've found online) does not have an answer for and hopefully someone will know?  That being: anyone know where I can get prototype implants to drop from?  Or do they not drop from anywhere and I just have to spend a fortune buying them from FP gear vendor and upgrading now?

Ears and relics drop like candy (well, comparatively anyway lol) from vet FPs but out of dozens and dozens of runs I've gotten 0 implants, and from some googling and this guide here, it sounds like they must have changed something with the 340 upgrade to make implants not drop from FPs anymore?  Because they definitely used to, I used to gets loads of them running vet FPs, but I only find references to ears and relics dropping from FPs.

 

I believe the implants were removed because players generally use the Legacy implants.

[cannibithobbal]

2 minutes ago, Ominovin said:

I believe the implants were removed because players generally use the Legacy implants.

do you mean bound to legacy implants?  because prototype ones are bound to legacy.  

or do you mean legendary implants?  as in, the ones that cost 2500 tech frags to buy and upgrade each level even after earning the discount?  surely they didn't take away drops for all other implants thinking people ONLY ever wanted those?  one legend implant per character is plenty for 90% of characters lmao

[fabsus]

0.) get the implant quest when u reach level 80
1.) buy conquest gear, so you start with item leve 324. buy 1x accuracy earpiece and 2x accuracy implants.
2.) go to takanna/niktoo and buy an not indentified relict with tech fragments. this comes in item-level 306.

3.) run hammer station solo or in a group. every time a blue relict will drop. you need to keep one, but
deconstruct all others to get fp-1.

4.) increase that relict until you have it upgraded to 340. 

5.) go to hyde & zeek and do the prototyp quest. artefact is not needed.

6.) get (legacy bound) weapons and gear to buy all the inlets, maybe get your mk-11 kits and augments

7.) upgrade your ear and relicts
7.1.) for soloplayers go for blue flashpoint ear and relicts. to force them you need a 306 relict, you already have and a 306 earpiece you need
and get from takanna/niktoo.
7.2.) for ops players, go for rakata ear and relicts to upgrade them to 344

8.) if you run operations in vet, you also can use your 306 relict or earpiece to force a rakata drop, to get 15 op-1 per boss.

9.) once you have enough tech fragments, buy your implants with set bonus. 

 

always keep in mind, that you don't need the gear. if you know how to play the class, you can play every vet operation, except r4 anomaly
with not augmented green 324 with no setbonus.
in operations nowing class and tactics is way more important than gear. 

sm operations are for grinding tech fragments.
vet operations are for grinding op-1.
master operations are for fun.

 

the guide from swtorista says nearly that and when somebody asked me,
i send them to swtorista to increase some ad income for her. 

Edited January 16 by fabsus

[Alarinn]

So I tried the OP's #1 way and it didn't work for me.  I ran vet hammer station solo and 4 green r320 to 324 dropped from all of the bosses.  That included a green r324 ear gear but I'm wearing a green r340 ear and both relics are 340 so I can confirm that a blue doesn't always drop on the ear or relics.  I have run 4 vet flash points so far and no blue pieces at all.  I least I can earn a few CC and FP-1 stabilizers.  I don't have 324 on everything yet.  I need 324 on head, one implant and waist and boot are at 320 but maybe need to be 324.  If I want at least 324 on all gear.  But following the OP's guide for #1 isn't working for me.  Maybe I'm missing how to trigger the FP.  Hammer station is not on my list if I bring up Activities - Solo.  I ran to fleet and went down one of the mission elevators to get to the terminal and ran it from there.  I also tried SF for the first time and it was...interesting.  It was easy enough but at the end I was forced to escape and when I returned I was dead although the winnings were displayed alongside it.  Then I went back to some guy back at the alliance to discuss why I failed and learned about these exarchs and was able to queue it up again and ran through it too.  This time no death but only 1 blue IL320 was in my loot and it wasn't even usable so I disassembled it.  Everything else was green IL320 to 324.  I have tried the Heroic 2+ Vet SF and damn that is hard.  The exarch might be badass but I'll never know because 4 elites enter the room and decorate the area with my body.

Implant quest is 80/100 so not quite done with it.  Did go to Nitoo but the relic is a waste compared to the green 340s I have slotted.  Best keep those for now.  IR is at 326 so a bit better.  Still I have seen 2 blues drop in this SF but both are 320, not the 340 the OP said they should be.  Keep in mind I haven't seen an ear or relic gear yet so maybe that's the issue.  All I know is when and if I ever get a true blue 340, I ain't gonna disassemble it so fast.

[tritiya]

On 1/9/2024 at 11:20 PM, Goemoe said:

Nice, but I sometimes wonder, why I should care? The more I progress in the solo parts of the game, the less mighty I feel with any gear. Fighting in lvl 80 zones sometimes feel as if I have no gear at all. Trash mobs taking loads of time for no real challenge or use. When replaying all classes for the second or third time makes more fun than playing the new stuff, I wonder: do those devs actually play their own game?

But nice guides anyway.

I don't think they (developers) play or even like the game. Seeing how the manage and nerf everything and do things out of place (no requested and loathed changes) I think they may actually try to hire people who don't like the game. Or at least don't care. Less pain for the developers that way. Imagine liking a game so much and having to nerf, cut, edit things in a way you'll know you (and the other players) don't like...

[JakRoanin]

I finally got a 344 earpiece deconstructed it for the Rodians and I only got enhancement mods. I need the rest of the mods too what-the-hay is going on here!😡

[Samcuu]

2 hours ago, JakRoanin said:

I finally got a 344 earpiece deconstructed it for the Rodians and I only got enhancement mods. I need the rest of the mods too what-the-hay is going on here!😡

The purple 340 deconstruction mission is strictly for the enhancements they are the only purple components available. The 340 prototype blue mission is what will unlock the armorings, and mods. They are still 340 but blue instead of purple for whatever reason.

[JakRoanin]

I hate that they scrapped crafting for this!

[eabevella]

They really should make what color is available more clear.

Purple 340 enhancement + blue 340 mod +blue 340 armor = Rakata 340.

IMO the purple 340 enhancement is a waste because the stat difference between blue and purple is small, and the unlock isn't even server-wise.

Rakata 344 is a straight boost and you can swap the gear around.

[JakRoanin]

Seriously, I'm so sick of not being able to craft gear. The stupid changes they made just are frustrating and stressful. It's a game it's supposed to relax me. Not make me stressed.

[eabevella]

7 minutes ago, JakRoanin said:

Seriously, I'm so sick of not being able to craft gear. The stupid changes they made just are frustrating and stressful. It's a game it's supposed to relax me. Not make me stressed.

I open up the guide to craft 300 aug.

I close the guide.

I sell the mats.

[JakRoanin]

I've managed to get them done now, but it was a struggle in the beginning. But ripping away crafted gear and Mods is the single biggest downer for me in this game. Now there are others, don't get me wrong <cough>stupid bad guys and repeating Malgus 10000 times<cough>. But crafting gear for ten toons makes waiting for updates easier too!