Heya guys!! As you begin to make choices in your dialogue cut scenes you will inevitably comes across options with red/black and white/blue icons. These are telling you that whichever choice you are about to make will earn you Light or Dark Side points. This Primer is dedicated to giving you a basic understanding of how that will impact your character.
Note: Post last updated 1/12/2012.
Earning Light/Dark Side Points
BioWare has made this as obvious and as simple as you could possibly imagine. When dialogue options open up for you there will be a coversation wheel with multiple options. Occasionally, usually at a dramatic moment, you will see the red/black or the blue/white icons for Dark or Light Side decisions. Make your choice and you will earn points from that decision.
It shouldn’t be necessary to say this, but for completeness sake I will. Black/red icons = Dark Side. Blue/white icons = Light Side.
Crew Skills
Diplomacy rewards you with Light/Dark Side points, Companion Gifts, and Biochem components. As such, if you are taking Biochem, or just want to added ability to swap/gain Dark/Light Side points faster then this may be a good choice for you.
Alternatively if you are going to nerf your Light/Dark side rewards by leveling mostly through Flashpoints and Warzones, then you can consider taking Diplomacy as well. However you will eventually max out your Light or Dark side, so you don’t need Diplomacy in order to get there.
What’s the point?
Obviously you would have to wonder why this would matter at all of course, so lets’ dive right in.
Character Appearance
By earning ranks (levels) in Dark Side you begin to gain Dark Side Corruption, which if you’ve ever watched the Star Wars movies you know what I’m talking about. Red eyes, messed up lines on skin, etc… You do have the option to turn this visual aspect off however, allowing you to look normal if you so wish.
Item Choices
The first restriction/advantage that you will come across is with Power Crystals. Power Crystals are a Mod (modification) that can be placed in weapons such as Blasters and Lightsabers. They convey a statistical bonus and determine the color of your blaster bolts and lightsaber’s energy blade.
- Dark I or greater: May not use Blue or Green power crystals.
- Light I or greater: May not use Red power crystals.
It should be noted that there is some kind of bug that allows you to equip some looted weapons (and some commendation weapons) with restricted colors. As of 1/12/12 I’ve used both blue and green lightsabers as Dark V.
The second aspect to this is actual gear that you can access in the game. Whether that be a drop/quest reward, or an item that you purchase from a vendor. There are some items in game that have Light/Dark Side restrictions in order for you to equip them.
All of this however is a purely cosmetic application for your character. That said, it is still important to understand that you will dictate, or limit, your item appearance customization options with your Light and Dark side choices made in game.
Companions
What many guides fail to mention is that by following a set “role play” pattern for all of your decisions you can alienate your companions. And unless you like spending a stupid amount of resources on getting companion gifts, here’s a trick to make your life a whole lot easier.
This is relevant for all players as different companions have difference preferences. Some Empire companions hate it when you kill people for example (a Dark side choice).
You can read the Codex entries for your companion to get a rough idea of what they like or hate. Or if that option seems like too much effort to you (seriously?!?) then you can just watch their reactions throughout the game to figure out what behavior they like. From there you can make the mental decision to ignore what you want do for every conversation option, and to instead see every dialogue option as a farming resource.
So lets say you are playing a Dark Side Jedi Knight. If every decision you make is Dark Side (even the ones that don’t give you points) then you may never earn a significant amount of companion affection. However if you only make Dark decisions when you will gain Dark Side points, and then make the companion preferred decisions when it won’t affect your Dark/Light Side points, you maximize your Dark Side Point total and your Companion Affection at the same time.
While I do feel that this takes a certain enjoyment factor away from the game, this is relevant and important information for the min/maxers out there.
Grey Side
Many people probably won’t even know of this concept, but it is in the Star Wars lore. Some Sith and Jedi chose to follow the “Grey Path” which strikes a balance between the Light and the Dark Side. But the fact is that Bioware doesn’t *currently* support this path in game.
To follow the Grey Path balance your decisions to keep your total Dark/Light Side points between -999 to 999. Dark I starts at -1000 and Light I starts at 1000. Currently the only benefit to the Grey Path is that you suffer no Power Crystal restrictions for your weapons. However BioWare has come out to say that they fully intend to put out rewards for the “Grey Jedi” path (as they call it iternally) in upcoming content patches.
I messed up!?
In the middle of a conversation cut scene (before it has ended) you can hit the ESC button to prematurely end the cut scene conversation. So if you accidentally hit the wrong answer and gain the wrong points by accident you can cancel it like it never happened. Just restart the conversation. If the conversation is completed however you must live with your decision.
Summation
- Dark Side characters get Dark Side Corruption on their character’s face, but this option can be turned off.
- Dark/Light Side determines cosmetic gear aspects of your character.
- Diplomacy is the only Crew Skill that offers Light/Dark Side points, making it valuable for people who level up exclusively in Warzones or took Biochem as their crafting skill.
- Dark/Light Side decisions have a graphic to denote that they will affect your total. This allows you to make normal decisions that will raise your companion affection without tanking your Dark/Light Side total.
- Grey Side is not currently worth it when compared to Dark or Light Side options, but BioWare has plans to change this.
If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or track me down through my Contact page.
-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters…
so jedi cant use red lightsaders and siths with green and blue?
That is incorrect. Jedi that go to the Dark Side, (take dark side choices) can use Red/Orange. likewise Sith that make Light choices and follow the light side can use Blue/Green. There are two independent systems at play. Faction just states which side your on, Force Alignment just dictates wether your following the path of Light/Dark.
If we think of it more like D&D of old,
Republic=Lawful
Sith = Chaotic
Light side = Good
Grey = Neutral
Dark = Evil
So you could be a Chaotic Good Sith Warrior (your faction is Sith, but you follow the light path). and likewise you could be a Lawful Evil Jedi (A republic Jedi following the Dark path choices).
Personally I have two characters of every class, not only so I can one of each advance class, but also so I can play the dark and light side of each story in the game (makes it seem like they are different stories, and thus not as tedious).
Hey man.. Great guides, great reading while waiting for early acess..
I have a question tho: do you know what level you can by the first darkside gear? And what Will be needed to buy it?
Cheers
The restrictions on the colors (red, blue, and green) are dictated by whether you choose to go Light Side or Dark Side with your choices in game. You could make a Sith Marauder that made Light Side decisions who can use both green and blue crystals, but never be allowed to use a red crystal for example.
While leveling if you focus on just one path then you can be rank 1 in your path around level 10. When I got to a vendor to purchase Light Side gear for the first time it took me about 1-2 hours more of questing before I could purchase any of those items. The gear has rank requirements (such as Dark Side I, Dark Side III, Dark Side V, etc…) and once you meet that requirement you can buy the gear. It’s just like raising a faction’s reputation in order to access gear.
whats the difference in gear appearence? is it strictly colors? like the jedi light and dark will both be cloaks but one black and one white or brown? or is it more of a difference like dark jedi’s would have marauder looking armor?
it seems like fi u send an active companion on a task before entering a convo they wont be a part of it and wont be affected by your decisions. is this the case? cus i do it alot and unless it is changing their affection without telling me its a viable stratedgy