Makeb GSI Missions Guide

The below guide was originally written by FJ Brodie for his website FibroJedi. After he decided to shut the site down, I decided to reproduce this and his other GSI guides on my blog - with his permission of course. I also made a few small amendments to update them for the current level cap and to add some new information. You can still find an archived version of his original guide here. 

One of my favourite planets in SWTOR is Makeb. It’s sunny, picturesque and the music is relaxing. Although it has a few weekly Heroic Missions, once you’ve done Rise of the Hutt Cartel, there’s little reason to return – except maybe to gather crafting materials. However Makeb GSI Missions are relaxing repeatable daily/weekly missions. They also crop up occasionally in conquest. So here’s my guide, enjoy!

Makeb GSI Missions Locations Map

There are 5 GSI Missions available on Makeb. As with Tatooine, there are 4 ‘standard’ quests and one ‘Heroic’. There's also a weekly that requires you to complete 10 GSI Missions in one week and will get you bonus reputation and rewards.

Here’s the map showing where each mission is:

Quake Engines

This Makeb GSI mission takes place in the Westwater Settlements. If you’ve completed Rise of the Hutt Cartel, then the Hovertanks in this area are ‘Yellow’, meaning they don’t attack on sight. There are small regulator patrols, but you can clear this GSI Mission with minimal (and sometimes no) enemy interaction.

The aim here is to find three Vibration Emitters and dig them up using your Seeker Droid. These look like little black boxes with antenna sticking up. They rarely spawn near each other, so your best bet is to run/ride around looking for them. As with the Tatooine missions, using your eyes will save you a world of pain compared to using the droid and moving a few paces!

Here are a couple of screenshots showing what the vibration emitters look like:

Quake Engines Mission Rewards

• Repair Toolkit: Small Reputation increase with Galactic Solutions Industries
• Credits (at Level 80): 18,630

Origins of the Makrin

Makrin are a tree-like creature native to Makeb. I think they also appear on Odessen in KotFE Chapter 12 – Visions in the Dark. Young Makrin emerge from the ground shedding Proto-Bark Casings in the process. It is these barks that Galactic Solutions Industries need you to dig up.

Finding the Makrin

To find them you’ll need to travel to the Sunken Pool on Frinn Mesa. The Imperial entrance is marked below. Republic characters need to enter the clearing from a narrow gap in the cliffs to the north (around 1210,2110).

For the Imperials at least, once you’ve travelled there once, there is a quick travel point to save the hassle of the long trek. This Sunken Pool is serene and beautiful, but the creatures there aren’t always friendly!

Proto-Bark Casings can be really obvious (looking like a huge branch), but mostly they are small, unassuming shreds of wood. They do trigger a ‘tooltip’ when you hover your cursor over them.

Use your Seeker Droid to dig up three of these Makrin Proto-Bark and the mission will complete automatically once you dig up the third one. Oh and Makrin look pretty, but when you anger them, they are terrifying!

Origins of the Makrin Mission Rewards

• Repair Toolkit: Small Reputation increase with Galactic Solutions Industries
• Credits (at Level 80): 18,630

The Unbreakable Code

This mission takes you deep into Regulator Territory. You will need to defeat a few regulators and trash some droids on this one. Oh, and probably sacrifice a few lizards and Tonitrans (bring me back a steak if you do, okay?). The premise here is quite straightforward. You head to The Sanctuary area of Makeb and are looking for Four Transmission Towers. These are marked clearly on your map, but there are a lot of similar towers in this area! The Unbreakable Code is a Macrobinocular Mission. Get the towers in your sights, scan them, then upload the data to GSI Headquarters using the handy quick button in the mission list. Job done!

Unbreakable Code Mission Rewards

• Repair Toolkit: Small Reputation increase with Galactic Solutions Industries
• Credits (at Level 80): 18,630

Volcanic Metals

Time to head deep underground in the Volcanic Mesa on Makeb. Your mission here is to dig up a sample of Burnished Volcanic Metal in each of the four areas. These are hard to spot (see screenshot below). But again you are better using your eyes than relying on your Seeker Droid.

You will also have to be careful of the creatures here. There are gold- and white-level foes in this area. Even the ‘weak’ enemies have an annoying push-back ability which can send you flying into the lava. So try not to burn up during this mission!

You need four burnished volcanic metals. And you won’t be able to dig up more than one from each of the four zones. Your Seeker Droid will say that it cannot find anything to excavate, even though there are multiple samples in each zone. So be prepared to fight off (or if you have stealth, sneak around) plenty of critters.

Get your four samples and your mission will auto-complete.

Volcanic Metals Mission Rewards

• Repair Toolkit: Small Reputation increase with Galactic Solutions Industries
• Credits (at Level 80): 18,630

Guarded Research [Heroic 2+]

Guarded Research is a two-stage mission, similar to A Droid Defiant on Tatooine. You are after a set of schematics that Galactic Solution Industries wants to get their hands on, held somewhere in the Hutt Strongholds region of Makeb. As the [Heroic] tag implies, this is the hardest of the Makeb GSI Missions. Here we go…

Stage 1: Scan Three Communications Satellites

If you’re playing as an Imperial, two of these are visible from just outside the taxi area. The third you will need to travel on foot or ride around. I advise on foot as there are regulator forces, static and running around. And there are sentry cannons also manned by Regulators. So, unless you have stealth on your side, you’ll have to fight through some. Even if you do have stealth, there are stealth-detection droids scattered throughout this region.

As a Republic player, you'll have to travel a bit further to be able to scan all three targets. Be aware there are a lot of satellite dishes in the Hutt Strongholds, but you need the specific three to triangulate the location of the schematics.

Stage 2: Revealing the Schematics

Once you have all three, the location of the Schematics is revealed. And the hard work starts! I had a lot of trouble as a healer on this mission. Much easier with player DPS and companion heals, though a high influence level companion is advisable here.

Room 1: There is a panel half-hidden behind some crates. Interacting with this will trigger an alarm. Two sentry turrets will spawn and a gold-level NPC runs into the room. Despatch the turrets – they tend to target your companion so take those down as best as you can. Then kill the human. Heal up!

Room 2: There is a similar panel in room 2 as in room 1. This time however, two gold-level droids emerge from the lockers. Just focus on destroying the one with HL in its name first, as it heals the other one. If it gets stuck in its locker and you become unable to target and hit it, try running around an obstacle or a corner to break line of sight and force it to come out.

Room 3: The Rogue Mercenary Captain

Finally you get to your boss. Good time to trigger Heroic Moment. Some of his abilities are quite devastating, but the Rogue Mercenary Captain is not immune to interrupts, so make the most of that fact. Once you’ve dispatched this guy, collect the schematics from the Terminal that was behind him and the mission will complete automatically.

Guarded Research Mission Rewards

• Repair Toolkit: Medium Reputation increase with Galactic Solutions Industries
• Credits (at Level 80): 29,064

TL;DR Makeb GSI Missions

Although they took time to explain, the Makeb GSI Missions are quicker than those on Tatooine as there is less wandering around. The Heroic 2+ is pretty tough, but that balances the more easy-going four other missions. If you’d like more details about how to acquire your Macrobinoculars and Seeker Droid, you can check Swtorista's guide. May the Force Be With You. 

Back in My Day: Conquest

"Back in My Day" is an (extremely) irregular series in which I muse about how certain aspects of SWTOR have changed over time. Today I'd like to talk about Conquest, a system that heavily influences the way I play the game. On any character I'll play in a given week, I try to accumulate at least 100k Conquest points to hit my personal target, and on the flip side, I often see hitting my personal target as a cue to switch to playing a different character. This wasn't always the case, however, and I think it's interesting to think about how this system has evolved over time.

The Early Days: A Different Time

Conquest was added to Star Wars: The Old Republic when it was less than three years old, with patch 2.9 in August 2014. It was part of the Galactic Strongholds update that introduced housing to the game, and to this day I wonder a bit just how these two systems ended up being bundled together, as their connection through the guild flagship - which is both a type of housing and required to take part in guild Conquests - is rather tenuous. I can only guess that the original plan for guild warfare was perhaps a bit more involved than what we ultimately ended up getting.

This original iteration of Conquest was quite different from what we have today, with the most important difference being that there were no guild targets, so the "guild component" of Conquest was entirely a matter of PvP. The guild in first place on the scoreboard would be the official conquerors of the planet, and the other nine on the board would get a consolation prize, but for everyone else there was nothing beyond their personal rewards.

Objectives and scoring were also somewhat different. As you can see in the above screenshot, everything about Conquest was contained in a single window. The personal target score varied from one event to the next from what I remember, with some weeks requiring as little as 20k points, while Total Galactic War required a whopping 50k.

Earning those points was also quite a bit harder due to the dearth of objectives (and completing objectives was the only way to earn points). There were only two types: one-time and endlessly repeatable. "Once per day per legacy" wasn't a thing yet, and the few objectives that existed were very limited in number. Crafting war supplies and running warzones were present pretty much in every event, but aside from that there tended to just be a few items like killing a specific world boss or running low-level heroics (which I thought was very pointless and boring, as this was before level-scaling, so you were literally going back to low-level planets just to farm grey mobs).

The one exception to this state of affairs, which weirdly made hitting your personal target even easier than it would ever be again later on, was crating war supplies, which as mentioned above was one of the endlessly repeatable objectives. So if your character was a crafter and you were interested and/or wealthy enough to accumulate all the right materials, you could basically send all your companions out to craft war supplies, log off for a few hours, and then come back to a completed conquest target.

The invasion bonus you got for invading a planet wasn't a flat percentage but rather a multiplier (usually 2x or 3x) tied to certain objectives. These varied per event and planet and were supposed to be loosely thematic I think, so if the event was "Clash in Hyperspace" there were bigger multipliers on GSF, or if the Nar Shaddaa world boss was a one-time weekly objective, you'd get a bigger multiplier if you'd invaded Nar Shaddaa than if you'd invaded another planet. These connections were fairly tenuous though, and most of them didn't make obvious sense to the same degree as the examples I just cited.

Other differences to today's system were that your stronghold bonus was based on how much furniture you had in your home, leading to people with no interest in decorating to stuff their houses with nothing but chairs or posters just to get the numbers up.

Also, each event only lasted six days, as the scores would lock in on Monday at reset time, followed by 24 hours of "downtime" until the next event.

The initial response to Conquests as far as I could tell was bemusement and slight confusion (my own first post about the subject was called "Conquests - what are they good for?") but the system got its hooks into people pretty quickly. I noted that "one of my guildies commented that he can't remember how he used to spend his time in the game before he started grinding conquest points" and for a while it was pretty exciting, but I think for most people a sort of disillusionment set in after a few months, as - crafting aside - Conquest did not mesh well with other in-game activities. The limited number of objectives meant that you had to play in a pretty repetitive way to earn points, and wanting to do other things like level an alt or play group content with guildies was not supported by the system. Obviously people still took part, but my general observation from the leaderboards at the time was that participation seemed to be decreasing, and my own interest kind of dropped off a cliff when the Shadow of Revan expansion came out (because there basically seemed to be a hundred other things to do than Conquest).

I then basically stopped paying much attention to Conquests for the next two years or so, except when my guild managed to secure a spot on the leaderboard a couple of times a year, but even about that I don't remember that much. The devs made the occasional tweak to the system, but it just wasn't that interesting to me anymore.

The Big Conquest Revamp of 2018

Everything changed in March 2018, when patch 5.8 brought with it a big revamp to the Conquest system that largely made it what it is today (one of the few great things to come out of Knights of the Eternal Throne). Changes included:

• Conquest being split into two windows in the UI, one for objectives and personal progress, and one for the guild invasion
• The introduction of planetary guild targets
• Lots of new objectives, including ones you could complete once per day per legacy
• Invasion bonuses for specific objectives were removed
• Stronghold bonus being based on the stronghold's expansion (how many rooms you'd opened up) instead of decoration percentage 
• Completing Conquest objectives also gave XP and credits
• The endlessly repeatable war supplies objective was no longer there all the time (and had also been nerfed I believe, though I don't recall the exact numbers)

This wasn't without hiccups - going back to what I wrote about it at the time, I'd forgotten that initially the devs had been so conservative with how many points were awarded for the new objectives that during the first couple of weeks of the new system, almost no guilds on the large and medium planets even managed to hit their targets, but this was quickly rectified in subsequent patches.

The following months actually turned into a bit of golden age for my guild in terms of Conquest, as we'd just absorbed members of another guild that were quite interested in Conquest, and our collaborative efforts to pursue the new objectives together were very successful - also largely due to the fact that it turned out that crafting had, in fact, not been nerfed nearly as much as everyone initially believed. Patch 5.10 in December 2018 also added guild perks and guild levelling, which was also based on Conquest point gains and added that extra cherry on top of our successes. 

This was not to last, however. While there hasn't been another change to Conquest as big as the revamp of 2018, some smaller changes that were made further down the line still ended up having a pretty big impact on the experience.

Conquest Points for Everything

Possibly the biggest of these came with patch 5.10.3a in June 2019. (It was actually meant to launch with 5.10.3 a week prior but had basically crashed the servers, so they needed to make some modifications before pushing it live again.) As of this patch, a "percentage of all experience earned [was] converted into Conquest Points". This included Galactic Command experience at the level cap, and kind of made Conquest objectives obsolete overnight, as you'd get more points than you would ever need just by doing dailies or killing random mobs. I was very dismayed by this, as actively being strategic about earning Conquest points no longer mattered - all you had to do was play any way you liked (as an individual) or make sure you were the biggest guild in town (as a guild).

Fortunately Bioware made further adjustments with the launch of Onslaught in October of the same year, not by nerfing anything but by massively increasing the points required to hit your personal target (from something like 15k to 50k) while also boosting the points earned from objectives, in order to put them back on the map as something that was worth pursuing.

Things swung slightly the other way again with patch 6.1.1 in April 2020 when the devs introduced the three different level brackets for Conquest objectives and added a ton of new objectives that were often ridiculously easy to complete. Again, I was personally kind of uncomfortable with this and ended up playing less since Conquest had been a big motivator for me and I could easily reach my personal target just by logging in and pressing a few buttons. My guild also went back to not being competitive outside of Total Galactic War since effortless point gains from just levelling and doing the story were too much to keep up with.

One degenerate practice that developed over the following year was that of "newbie farming" - creating a guild that invited low-level players to generate easy points, and then the GM would boot them again the moment they became inactive. Bioware eventually addressed this by making it so your personal points no longer counted towards the guild target during your first week, as well as changing it so that getting kicked would also remove that person's contribution from the guild total.

Stabilisation in Legacy of the Sith

With Legacy of the Sith, the pendulum swung slightly back the other way one more time as the devs decided to rein Conquest rewards in again ever so slightly:

• Personal Conquest targets were doubled from 50k to 100k, because people were basically overshooting their targets constantly as it was.
• Credit rewards were removed from Conquest objectives as they were apparently a massive contributor to inflation.
• Conquest objectives and completing your personal Conquest also no longer awarded XP. In the previous iteration, it had been possible to get into a loop where you earned XP for completing Conquest objectives, then got more Conquest credit for levelling up, which resulted in yet more Conquest objective completion, and so on and so forth. (One of my own alts made it most of the way to the level cap just by standing in her Coruscant apartment that way.)
• With Season 2, Conquest also became an integral part of Galactic Seasons, with the daily objective requiring you to earn 25k points. (In Season 1, all seasonal objectives had simply required you to complete distinct activities, independent of Conquest.)

And that's more or less where we've been for the last four years. It's honestly been nice to have some stability in that area of the game, and while I still feel wistful for the times when Conquest objectives were more limited and required active pursuing, I can't deny that I've had a lot of fun competing in Total Galactic War for the past few years.

We'll see whether Broadsword will feel the need to tinker with the system again when 8.0 comes around, or even with Galactic Season 10, which is supposed to mix things up in some form as well. 

Hoth GSI Missions Guide

The below guide was originally written by FJ Brodie for his website FibroJedi. After he decided to shut the site down, I decided to reproduce this and his other GSI guides on my blog - with his permission of course. I also made a few small amendments to update them for the current level cap and to add some new information. You can still find an archived version of his original guide here.

Welcome to the back of beyond – also known as Hoth! Even on this snowball, Galactic Solutions Industries has research to do. And, of course, you’ve been coopted to do that research. So here’s my SWTOR Hoth GSI Missions Guide! I’ve included notes, screenshots and a couple of videos to help guide you through the icy wastelands.

Picking up the GSI Missions

Once you arrive on the surface of Hoth from the Space Station, you’ll need to locate the GSI Missions Terminal. In the past you also had to return to this terminal to hand in some mission items, but with patch 7.0, all the GSI dailies on Hoth were changed to auto-complete as soon as you fulfil the last objective.

Imperial: Inside Dorn Base

For the Empire, the GSI Terminal is right near where you properly start the Hoth story arc.

Republic: Exit of Aurek Base

For the Republic faction, the Terminal and dropbox are found right by the TaunTaun vendors.

Quick-slotting the Seeker Droid and Macrobinoculars

If you haven’t completely finished The Shroud and the Dread Seeds questlines, you can find your Seeker Droid and Macrobinoculars in the Quest Items tab of Inventory. You’ll find GSI missions easier if you just quick-slot these, rather than keeping the Inventory UI open.

Missions

Some of the Hoth GSI Missions inter-link. This means you can often progress two of them at the same time. I’ve tried to remember to note down where this is the case to cut down travel time.

Crash Courses (DAILY)

Hoth has, apparently, a particularly strong gravitational pull. This has led to a number of starship wreckages scattered across the planet. For reasons we probably don’t want to know Galactic Solutions Industries want to figure out how to replicate the effect. The mission involves scanning wreckages and downed escape pods so GSI can reverse engineer the effect.

Crash Courses: Notes

Mission: Scan Crashed Ships or Escape Pods × 4
Region: Clabburn Tundra, one in Crescent Canyon

• If you’re playing an Imperial-faction character, the wreck at -3984,540 (Wreck 2 in the video below) is surrounded by Republic soldiers and the occasional Talz. You may need to clear a few out to scan it without being attacked.
• If you’re playing a Republic-faction character, the wreck at -2522,-465 (Wreck 4 in the video below) has Imperial mobs on the approach to it. Because of a dip in the snow you can’t really scan it from afar, so defeating some Imperials will be necessary. But I’m sure you won’t mind: there is a war going on, after all!

Note: this wreck is en route to one of the sites for Picking up the Pieces so it make sense to complete this mission at the same time as Crash Courses.

Mission Rewards (Assumes L80)

• Credits: 18,630
• Reputation: Repair Toolkit (Small Galactic Solutions Industries gain)

Picking Up the Pieces (DAILY)

Despite extensive funds and influence, the White Maw Pirates have made off with research data from GSI’s Superweapons Division. Data breaches are not just our galaxy’s concern! GSI want that data returned.

Thankfully (for GSI at least), the pirates’ ship crashed into Hoth, presumably thanks to the gravitational pull mentioned in Crash Courses.

Mission Summary: Scan and Recover Crashed Ship Parts
Regions: Clabburn Tundra, High Mount Ridge and Glacial Fissure

This is one of the Hoth GSI Missions with a random element in it. There are five possible locations where the research data may have crashed. The mission will not complete until you’ve found the specific crashed ship containing it. But the “correct” ship may differ each time you do Picking Up the Pieces.

Site 1: Crescent Canyon (Clabburn Tundra)

This wreck is near the most Northern point of Crescent Canyon. It is filled with Imperials and the occasional Wampa.

Site 2: Highmount Road (Highmount Ridge) -1635,471

Road! Ha! Please note this coordinate is not in the tunnel-like section lower-down but up on top. If you can see this view, you’re in the wrong area.

Apart from the occasional Ice Cat, nothing should bother you here.

Site 3: Highmount Bluffs (Highmount Ridge) -740,1607

This crash site is South of Leth Outpost (Imperial). The path South is patrolled by White Maw Pirates and their droids. Further South are Ortolans and Talz (Republic allies). Once you’ve passed the Ortolan camp, the path is easy to the next wreck.

Site 4: Eruption Impasse (Glacial Fissure) – 620,386

This crash site is in the same area (and on the same level) as the volcanoes for Forged in Fire. So if you haven’t found the GSI data yet by wreck 4, do Forged in Fire at the same time. 

Site 5: Northern Whitelands (Glacial Fissure) – 900,-862

If you have yet to complete Warped to the Core, then the Ambria’s Fury is just a short distance from Wreck 5. Aside from the occasional Talz (Republic allies) and Ice Cat, you should be fairly safe from interruptions while scanning this wreck.

Picking Up the Pieces Rewards (Assumes L80)

• Credits: 18,630
• Reputation: Repair Toolkit (Small Galactic Solutions Industries gain)

Beneath the Spires (DAILY)

Crashed ships of recent origin are one thing. Ancient starships buried under many centuries of ice and snow is a totally different matter. Galactic Solutions Industries believes unearthing (or un-icing?) these starships would be valuable to their research.

FJ’s Note: despite the Seeker Droid seeming to just scratch the surface when it “digs”, apparently that cable can excavate starship parts from under many layers of snow and ice!

Mission Summary: Dig Up Ship Components Near Ship Debris × 3
Region: Jagged Plains, Clabburn Tundra

Health Warning: World Boss Gargath may be wandering around here. He was there when I was! Aside from that there are plenty of Whitefangs lurking around here too.

All you need to do is locate 3 × Ship Debris (see screenshot below). Then excavate them with your Seeker Droid. You can hover your cursor over scrap metals. The hover text will then confirm if it’s ship debris.

Once you've dug up three pieces of ship debris, the mission completes automatically.

Beneath the Spires Rewards (Assumes L80)

• Credits: 18,630
• Reputation: Repair Toolkit (Small Galactic Solutions Industries gain)

Forged in Fire (DAILY)

If you’ve wandered SWTOR’s rendition of Hoth (on a day you don’t have a headache, or didn’t before you landed on Hoth) you will have noticed some small volcanos. These volcanoes (which are pretty small) yield metallic ores that are instantly cooled by Hoth’s rather cold climate.

GSI have called this “Embersteel” that it believes only occurs near these volcanoes. Your research could assist the Empire (or Republic) with state-of-the-art plasma cannons.

FJ’s Note: Of course, your research will only give you a small discount on such amazing tech. Available exclusively from GSI, naturally!

Mission Summary: Dig Up Embersteel Ores inside Volcanoes x 3
Region: Eruption Impasse (Glacial Fissure)

• If you have not completed Picking up the Pieces, then Wreck 4 is in the same area as the volcanoes.
• The area contains groups of Hailstorm Brotherhood mobs, aggressive to both Republic and Empire factions.
• Use your Seeker Droid on volcanoes to see if any Embersteel is contained inside. I think you need to scan near the top. But you don’t have to be near the top yourself – molten rock will hurt you a bit!
• If your droid returns and you have a red ring about you, pick a volcano a fair way from where you were stood.
• There are a lot of volcanoes in Eruption Impasse/Southern Crevasse, so this mission requires patience!
• The precise point you need to dig on a volcano may take a few attempts. If you get a green circle around you after a failed dig attempt just adjust the area you’re digging slightly. Move in the direction of the solid green segment of the circle.

Eruption Impass from above

Seeker Droid digging into a volcano

Red and green circles after a dig attempt

Forged in Fire Rewards

• Credits: 18,630
• Reputation: Repair Toolkit (Small Galactic Solutions Industries gain)

Warped to the Core (HEROIC 2+)

Health Warning: This Hoth GSI Heroic is by far the hardest of all those available for Galactic Solutions Industries. There are multiple factors at play and it is timed. Timed missions are really bad for my Fibromyalgia, which is one reason I’ve taken so long to psych myself up to write this SWTOR Hoth GSI Guide!

Back Story

GSI are really interested in one particular downed Imperial ship – the Ambria’s Fury. They believe its reactor core has been affecting the ship’s durasteel hull. They intend to use this effect to help build new thermonuclear weaponry.

Yes, you’re going into an enclosed nuclear radiation box! So GSI recommend (!) finding and using any protective gear you find.

Mission Summary: Investigate the Ambria’s Fury

Instead of doing screenshots of the mission, I’ve recorded it below. But these are a few key notes:

• The Ambria’s Fury is surrounded by groups of White Maw Pirates (aggressive to both factions). No doubt they’re hoping to find some components to sell, or to improve their own arsenal.
• Pick up the Protective Headgear! Your first thing is to find and loot the piece of headgear from the highlighted crate. This can be done immediately from entering the phase. Don't forget to also open your inventory and actually equip it. Just taking it out of the crate is not enough.
• The protection lasts 15 minutes maximum. There is no timer in the quest but you can hover your cursor over the buff to see time remaining.
• A couple of doors need clearing by destroying the barrels stacked in front of them.
• Look out for (and avoid!) pools of flowing radioactive liquid.
• You need to make it to the very far end of the Ambria’s Fury, as this is where your Irradiated Durasteel Samples can be found. This area is guarded by a Champion-class Wampa.
• Once you’re done, you can use Quick Travel to exit the phase. If your Quick Travel is still cooling down or you want to save some credits, run out as fast as you can. You will have cleared all mobs so the route out should be straightforward.
• Don't forget to put your normal headgear back on once you've completed the quest! 

Warped to the Core Rewards (Assumes L80)

• Credits: 29,064
• Reputation: Energy Field Monitor (Medium Galactic Solutions Industries gain)

TL;DR The SWTOR Hoth GSI Missions Summary

From data retrieval and digging samples from volcanoes to taking on a radioactive Wampa, the SWTOR Hoth GSI Missions have a wide variety of tasks to undertake. Some can be done without defeating any enemies at all. So dust off that cold-weather gear and go do something more interesting than stringing out a pointless Empire vs Republic battle! 

Out of Bounds, Into the Volcano

Last weekend was another one of those rare occasions when I got to join the New Outriders on Star Forge for some social fun. We killed world bosses, did some dynamic encounters together and generally had a good laugh. However, the most memorable part of the evening (for me at least) was the final activity of the day, which Intisar had advertised as "breaking reality".

To facilitate this, the attendees were whisked away to Ord Mantell, where we assembled at the southern end of Fort Garnik and were instructed to look west. "What do you see?" Int asked, and after various to-be-expected smartarse responses, we were told that the thing to look at was the mountain. We were going to climb the volcano.

Climbing walls you're not meant to climb, in order to discover terrain that players are not normally meant to see, is a time-honoured tradition in many MMOs, SWTOR included, and you can find plenty of YouTube videos out there of players breaking out of the map-imposed boundaries. I think developers are usually not very fond of this, as it can lead to all kinds of exploits, but on its most basic level, players being curious about what's beyond the visible horizon is understandable and not a bad thing.

I've never really been into that particular type of exploration as I'm no good at jumping and climbing walls, but the nice thing about undertaking something like that as a group is that people can help each other out with pulls and summons, so it didn't take us too long to get close to the visible top of the mountain.

We could tell that we were getting into an area we weren't really meant to be in when "reality broke" as Int had promised, which is to say our view of the terrain started to become glitchy, and depending on the direction in which you faced your camera, you either saw the mountain in its normal form, or an alternate reality where it was somewhat smaller, everything was orange, and player characters and mounts started to disappear. This was very disorienting and it became a lot harder to make progress, but someone managed to make it all the way to the lip of the volcano regardless and summoned the rest of us to their position.

Looking into the big... vent/caldera (?) the view was slightly strange, presenting a smooth, mirrored surface that looked almost like some sort of lake. After a bit of dancing and taking screenshots, we decided to finish the evening by hurling ourselves into the volcano.

Surprisingly, not everyone died immediately - instead, we actually found ourselves on some rocks above the separatist base built into the volcano, where troopers and smugglers deal with the final stages of their story missions on Ord Mantell. It was interesting to see that the base could actually be accessed that way, even if it clearly wasn't meant to be and wasn't visible from the top.

Another summon from someone who'd landed in a good spot gave everyone an additional screenshot opportunity with better views and allowed for another round of communal dancing. Then we hurled ourselves to our deaths for good and said our goodbyes.

It was a silly little adventure that didn't achieve anything in terms of in-game progression but provided a great sense of joy and wonder for me personally. I always admire the creative ideas that Intisar & Co. come up with for these social events.

Alderaan GSI Missions Guide

The below guide was originally written by FJ Brodie for his website FibroJedi. After he decided to shut the site down, I decided to reproduce this and his other GSI guides on my blog - with his permission of course. I also made a few small amendments to update them for the current level cap and to add some new information. You can still find an archived version of his original guide here.

Welcome to my guide for the Alderaan GSI Missions in SWTOR! I really enjoy the tasks given to you by Galactic Solutions Industries here, especially digging up and testing ancient Killik weapons. But there’s a bit of everything in just five quests on this planet. There is a fair amount of travel involved, so I would urge you to enjoy the scenery of Alderaan while undertaking jobs for GSI. Relax and enjoy.

Note: Reputation gains are stated before taking any Legacy boosts.

Requirements

The only requirements for being able to pick up these Alderaan GSI Missions, and those on other planets are

• Seeker Droid: Available from Level 52 via quests Master Gend’s Mission (Republic) or An Invitation from Darth Acina (Imperial)
• Macrobinoculars: Obtained via The Shroud’s Gambit (Republic) and Shroud of Ruin (Imperial)

The quest-givers are protocol droids – some are on your faction’s fleet and some are on planets such as: Dromund Kaas, Coruscant, Makeb and Ilum. (More info on Swtorista.)

Where to Pick Up the Alderaan GSI Missions

The GSI Terminals can be found just outside
Rhu Caenus Spaceport - Imperial:

 Pallista Spaceport - Republic:

Antiquity Analysis – Find & Test Ancient Killik Weapons

The culture of the Killiks intrigues Galactic Solutions Industries so they send you to find some relics for study.

Where Are Killik Memorials on Alderaan?

To this end you need to visit one of five Killik Memorials. Choices are

• Kaamos Territory (2309,-1440): This is the closest location for Imperial characters but also requires you to make your way up a long, narrow mountain path and through a cave of Killiks.
• King’s Pass (2302,2313): This is also near a scan site for Big Red.
• The Juran Mountains (2144,-135): Overrun Mining Path, east of House Alde - a decent alternative for Imperial characters.
• Alsakan Lowlands (740,1233): Mensaav Laboratory Grounds, just north of Republic Wardpost Duvaal. And near a tower for Weather Forecast. Ignore the actual map marker here – you can’t actually reach that exact point!
• Alsakan Lowlands (1163,1488): House Teral. This is probably the most convenient location for Republic players, as it's very accessible and has three spawn points that are very close to each other.

Once there, you need to dig up 3 × Ancient Killik Weapons. There is no guesswork involved in finding where your Seeker Droid should dig. Simply look for the piled-up blocks and pottery and dig away. You will have to dispatch some Killiks to complete your excavation.

After you've collected some weapons, the fun part begins – testing them! Near to your faction’s spaceport on Alderaan is a shooting range. Simply target a droid and press the mission item icon in your tracked missions (or from Inventory if you prefer).

Antiquity Analysis auto-completes once you have tested three weapons. Sometimes you destroy a test droid and another one takes its place, sometimes they backfire!

Antiquity Analysis Rewards (Assumes Level 80)

• Credits: 18,630
• GSI Reputation: Repair Toolkit (310 Reputation)

Big Red – Where is the Giant Red Thranta on Alderaan?

In an unusal data-gathering step, GSI has attached technology to a rare Giant Red Thranta. Apparently no one on Alderaan is allowed to kill it because of its rarity. But because it is still a wild Thranta it’s not always easy to predict where it will be.

So that’s your job. On your map you are given areas where the Giant Red Thranta may be found. You will need to travel to those areas and scan it with your Macrobinoculars in order to collect the data.

Possible Locations of the Giant Red Thranta

The coordinates below and the map markers indicate roughly where you should stand and use your macrobinoculars. Not where the Thranta itself may have been spotted.

• King’s Pass: (2055,2275)
• Juuran Mountains: (2181,493) – South and a bit East of House Alde
• Juuran Mountains: (2069,-1047) – North of House Alde
• Glarus Valley: (-187,-610) – West of Wardpost Hurne
• Kaamos Territory: (320,-2780) 

Big Red is large and static, and you'll usually already be able to spot it without your Macrobinoculars. Don't get distracted by other, smaller Thrantas flying around the area; that's not what you're looking for.

Occasional Bug with ‘Big Red’

I, along with other players, have come across an occasional bug where it seems the Thranta does not spawn at all. Unfortunately you won't know that this has happened until you've visited all five map markers and found that Big Red isn't at any of them. This is a bug with the instance (not your mission), so all you can do is open your map and swap to a different instance of Alderaan. Cross your fingers that Big Red will be present in that one and revisit each quest marker again.

Enjoy the Journey

Big Red encourages you to travel around a lot – so enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Most of Alderaan’s GSI Missions are slow and relaxing, so take in the views too.

Big Red Rewards (Assumes Level 80)

• Credits: 18,630
• GSI Reputation: Repair Toolkit (310 Reputation)

Retrieve, Restore, Recycle

The legacy of Czerka Corporation rears its ugly head again. Apparently Czerka illegally dumped radioactive waste on the beautiful planet of Alderaan. Your job is to find 3 × Chemical Barrels because GSI believes they could be turned into fuel. No mention of being eco-friendly here!

Locations of Chemical Dumping Grounds

There are two sites where you can unearth chemical barrels with your Seeker Droid:

• Kings Pass: (1635,1715) – East of Republic Wardpost Luurdes
• Kaamos Territory: (144,-2196) – Just South of a scan location for Big Red.

Dig Up Irradiated Plants

Your world map will show you the region to dig in. Again, though, there is no guess-work because you just have to find irradiated plants. Use your seeker droid to dig where these irradiated plants appear and voilà, you have a Chemical Barrel.

Remember that, even if you’re Level 80 you will have to dispatch nearby mobs (mostly Killiks) to get at the Irradiated Plants.

Deposit Chemical Barrels

In order for Galactic Solutions Industries to see if the chemical waste can make a fuel source, you’ll need to deposit the barrels at the place marked on your map. Then your mission will complete.

Retrieve, Restore, Recycle, Rewards (Assumes Level 80)

• Credits: 18,630
• GSI Reputation: Repair Toolkit (310 Reputation)

Weather Forecast

From the mission log:

"GSI is interested in reverse engineering Alderaan’s famous weather towers in order to develop weather controlling technology."

Your mission then is to locate all four towers and scan them with your Macrobinoculars to send data to GSI on how they work. Here's what the towers look like:

Remember: your Macrobinoculars are super-powerful. If you can see the tower in the distance, it can be scanned. No need to wander too far into enemy territory, for example!

Weather Forecast Tower Locations

• Alsakan Lowlands: (45,1680) – West of Wardpost Duvaal.
• The Juran Mountains: (2125,-1030) – right by a scan location for Big Red.
• King’s Pass: (1990,1200) – North East of Wardpost Luurdes.
• The Glarus Valley: (450,-870) – North of Wardpost Hurne.

Weather Forecast Rewards (Assumes Level 80)

• Credits: 18,630
• GSI Reputation: Repair Toolkit (310 Reputation)

[Heroic 2+] Trade Secrets

A saboteur working for The Shroud is known to be on Alderaan, but more importantly GSI data was stolen in the process! (Sarcasm intended!) They believe the saboteur is about to send the data from one of the major “Great House” locations.

Trade Secrets: Possible Locations

•  The Apalis Coast: House Organa Cantina (Republic Ally): 809, -801
•  The Juran Mountains: House Alde (Republic Ally): 1750, -20
•  The Juran Mountains: House Thul (Imperial Ally): 1167, -1081
•  House Rist (Neutral): 589, 650

Great Houses of Alderaan – some Pointers

• House Alde: if you’re Imperial, House Alde is aligned with the Republic. You can however scan the transmitter from outside the walls (see screenshot below). Naturally if the saboteur is transmitting from inside House Alde, then you’ll have to fight your way through.

Close-up of the sort of transmitter you're looking for when scanning 

Taking on the Industrial Spy

Once you have confirmation of the Industrial Spy’s location, you’ll have to neutralise them. The boss is a Champion-grade foe with two normal-strength bodyguards. Take these out first – no more are spawned during the encounter. Then just bash the Spy into dust.

Trade Secrets Rewards (Assumes Level 80)

You have to complete at least one Heroic 2+ mission to fulfil the [Weekly] GSI Valued Partner Initiative. As this is a Heroic, the credit reward is much higher, as is the reputation gain.

• Credits: 29,064
• GSI Reputation: Energy Field Monitor (724 Reputation)

 Alderaan GSI Missions – Relax and Enjoy!

Seriously, if fast credits are your motivation, then you’re not going to do GSI Missions. By choosing to undertake them, you’re putting aside time to relax and smell the roses for a bit. The Alderaan GSI tasks are varied, interesting and enjoyable. I hope this guide has helped you out. Do let me know if anything needs to be changed or updated! Take care!