Hey everyone! Patch 1.2 has finally made a lot of the endgame exotic crafting materials (Alien Data Cube, Biometric Crystal Alloy, Self-Perpetuating Power Cell and Rakata Energy Node) tradeable and also added an entirely new list of crafting materials (Molecular Stabilizer, Synthetic Energy Matrix, Baradium Flux). What is neat is that you can also obtain these materials via methods other than raiding, like doing space missions!

I will give you a little overview of the old and new crafting materials and then jump into ways you can obtain them in 1.2! However, first I want to say thank you to Shoogli on the SWTOR forums who alerted me to this thread on the official forums, which I would have definitely overlooked otherwise and is the inspiration for this article.

Endgame exotic crafting mats and traditional means of acquiring

Grade 7 Crafting Mats (Click on the link to see what each mat makes but keep in mind that not everything listed in the database is craftable)

• Alien Data Cube - Drops from Hardmode/Nightmare Eternity Vault/Karagga's Palace bosses. Used mainly for crafting exotech/columi level stuff (rating 136)
• Rakata Energy Node - Drops from Hardmode/Nightmare Soa/Karagga. Used mainly for crafting exotech/columi stuff along with Alien Data Cube (rating 136).
• Biometric Crystal Alloy - Drops from the last boss of Hardmode Flashpoints (except False Emperor) and normal mode Eternity Vault/Karagga's Palace bosses. Used mainly for crafting Energized/Tionese level stuff (rating 126).
• Self-Perpetuating Power Cell - Drops from the last boss of Hardmode False Emperor and normal mode Eternity Vault/Karagga's Palace bosses. Used mainly for crafting Energized/Tionese level stuff along with Biometric Crystal Alloy.
• Baradium Flux - New crafting mat purchased from PvP vendor for 1k Warzone Commendations or 1 Battlemaster Commendation. Used for crafting expertise crystals for PvP (blue, cyan, purple, yellow)

Grade 8 Crafting Mats

• Molecular Stabilizer - Drops off random trash mobs in storymode Explosive Conflict and also found in chests scattered throughout the instance.
• Synthetic Energy Matrix - Found in chests scattered throughout storymode Explosive Conflict.

You might be wondering what exactly is the use of these Grade 8 crafting mats. There isn't a lot of information on the PTS right now as many people do not have access to the new gear let alone RE them for schematics. Based on some database crawls (which may not be accurate), it appears that the new Campaign/Black Hole PvE gear, if they can be crafted, will utilize these new mats. Here are is an example.

Here is a picture of the chest found in storymode Explosive conflict, which gave us 4 Black Hole Commendations and 1x Molecular Stabilizer + Synthetic Energy Matrix

I do not know what Hardmode Explosive Conflict drops at the moment and therefore cannot comment on it yet. If you have defeated bosses in Hardmode and know what mats/schematics drops, please let me know and I will update it!

Space Missions

This is the big change that will allow even casual players to obtain operation level mats! The fleet commendations vendor (Starship upgrades) in the Galactic Trade Market now sells Grade 6, 7 and 8 crafting boxes for 50, 125 and 200 fleet commendations each! The Grade 7 and 8 boxes will reward you with the Grade 7 and 8 exotic crafting mats I described above! (1 mat per box).

Currently, on the PTS, you can get 100 Fleet Commendations max per day by doing space mission dailies. You can no longer get fleet commendations via repeatedly doing space missions over and over. What this means is that on live servers, you could be grinding those space missions now and stock up on the fleet commendations to buy these crafting boxes when 1.2 hits!

The rewards for the dailies have also being increased slightly to compensate for the removal of fleet commendations from just doing space missions. Here are the new rewards for the dailies!

You are probably wondering which Space Missions to grind before 1.2 arrives to get the most fleet commendations using the least amount of time/effort. I would have to go with either Clouds of Vondoru/ Aeten Defense on the Empire side or Zosha Advance/Kalee Fortification on the Republic side. They are both around 5 minutes and rewards 5 Fleet commendations per run on the live servers right now. If you do them nonstop, you can net 200 fleet commendations in about 3-4 hrs. Once patch 1.2 arrives, you will be able only to get 200 fleet commendations every 2 days.

PvP Crafting

Doing space missions isn't the only way to get crafting mats! PvPers can also purchase Grade 6 Crafting PvP box using either 45 Centurion Commendations, 30 Champion Commendations, 1 Battlemaster Commendation or 1000 Warzone Commendations (note that it is no longer possible to obtain centurion/champion/battlemaster commendations in 1.2).

These boxes will award random Grade 6 crafting mats, expertise color crystal schematics, and/or Mission Discoveries. This is probably more beneficial for the Artificers as they are the first crew skill profession to benefit from PvP Crafting with the expertise crystals. As someone with Biochem as Crew skill, the box I brought gave me 22 Mutagenic Paste, a Grade 6 Biochem mat.

I also want to mention a bit about Baradium Flux, which I mentioned earlier. Crawling through the database, it appears that it is used to craft +31 expertise crystals like this one here, and +41 expertise crystals like this one.

Lastly, all the endgame PvP armor (Battlemaster, Unrated War Hero, and Rated War Hero) can have their shell crafted for appearance and augment slots!

On the Armsmech/Synthweaving PvP vendors there are schematic boxes you can purchase for 50 k credits that give you empty orange shell schematics for the 5 set piece. These schematics don't require any fancy crafting mats and the pieces they crafted are BoE (Bind on Equip, tradeable) but they have certain requirements to wear. Battlemaster crafting pieces require Valor 60 to wear, Unrated War Hero pieces require Valor 70 to wear and Rated War Hero pieces require a certain PvP rating to wear.

All the Armsmech crafted stuff will require Ciridium, Durasteel, Thermoplast Flux, and Zal Alloy (Grade 6 common mats)

All the Synthweaving crafted stuff will require Cortosis Substrate, Nanosilk, Primeval Artifact Fragment, and Upari Crystal.