Lessons Learned from Training Bessi

As of about a week ago, I'm the proud owner of a permanent basilisk droid companion! Like I said in my last post about B3-S1, I was actually surprised by how enjoyable I ended up finding the process, when I was originally very much against the idea of being given a reason to do the same old daily zones yet again for the umpteenth time.

However, there are definitely a few things I learned along the way that I kind of wish I had known sooner. Heck, this one sentence from my previous post contains two misconceptions in one: "[T]here are four different currencies involved and so far I've always reached the weekly cap for all of them within only two hours of gameplay, at which point it's back to the stable for Bessi as she can't make any more progress until the next week." Since I want other people to be able to avoid the mistakes I made, let me break it down for you:

1. Bessi's time is not precious

In that previous post, I made it sound like it was really easy to hit the weekly cap on all the Bessi-related currencies within only two hours, but that was on a stealther and knowing my way around. I almost took a certain pride in making efficient use of my "Bessi-time" because I figured it was the most precious resource in the whole endeavour. Can't make any progress with Bessi if you're not allowed to have her out, can you?

This turned out to be very wrong for two reasons: First off, the memory chips you need to spend to activate Bessi for an hour are extremely easy to get. You get several for free from the terminal in Lane's lab every week, and the collected research containers also have a random chance of containing extra memory chips. So I soon found myself bumping up against the real limiting factors: training modules and prototype data.

The latter isn't that hard to get but is required in higher and higher numbers as you go up in levels, and also serves as currency for buying training modules for specific planets from the vendor. Training modules aren't exactly rare per se either, but since it's random what modules you'll get granted for free and they can send you to 14 different planets, it's possible for module RNG a.k.a. "just not getting enough of the one you actually need" to be a real blocker.

Oh, and guess what gives you two free training modules every time? Feeding Bessi a memory chip! So I went from trying to be super efficient with her time in the early levels and treating memory chips as extremely precious, to actively feeding her the things all day without even using Bessi for anything (you can use up more memory chips before the timer for the last one has actually run out by dismissing Bessi in Lane's Lab and then initiating the "conversation" with her while she's lying in her dedicated spot).

2. You don't have to stop after you've maxed out your currencies for the week

The other misconception I expressed in that earlier quote was that maxing out my Bessi-related currencies for the week meant that I was done and that there was nothing else left to do. In reality, you can keep doing training modules for as long as you have any. The collected research you get as a reward is a container, so you can simply stash those in your cargo bay to immediately have a leg up on your weekly progress for the next reset. You don't have to worry about accidentally wasting them either, as the game won't even let you open them if you're already maxed out on all the currencies contained within.

Do take care though with which training modules you use up every week, because...

3. It pays off to know which training modules are used at which level

I'm usually someone who prefers exploring things for myself, only resorting to guides when I get stuck, but with Bessi, having at least a little bit of knowledge in advance definitely pays off. Specifically, what you should know is that at the higher levels, you'll have to complete training modules in specific daily areas to progress. These are:

Level 5: Black Hole, CZ-198, Iokath
Level 6: Onderon, Oricon, Ruhnuk
Level 8: Kessan's Landing, Ossus, Yavin IV
Level 9: Makeb, Manaan, Section X

Mek-Sha and Rishi are not required for any specific levels.

What this means is that when you pick which training modules to do in a given week, keep in mind what's coming up next and don't use up the ones you're about to need at the next level! I don't remember the exact details, but I think I did a bunch of Black Hole and CZ-198 modules at level four because hey! They are really easy daily areas! And then I levelled up and groaned when I saw that I'd just used up what was required for the next level, when I could have done level four with any old module.

4. You don't get credit for everything you should get credit for

Maybe that'll be fixed one day, but as it stands, there are some slight bugs with the training module missions. That you need to actually have Bessi out and in the role she's training for when you complete a mission is logical enough, but other restrictions... not so much. For example I was initially under the impression that the bonus missions that ask you to do a heroic don't give you anything, because they only seem to grant you your reward if the heroic is completed before the main mission (as opposed to at the same time). So if your main objective says to complete two missions, and you do a normal daily first and a heroic second, the heroic doesn't count for the bonus in my experience, meaning you need to make sure to always do any heroics first if you want to get credit for the bonus. The collected research you get from these bonus missions is actually quite good as it contains lots of prototype data plus a little bit of several of the other types.

Oh, and Makeb heroics are just totally screwed up in terms of credit. I found this forum post helpful for pointing out several of the missions from the terminal that don't count towards training Bessi. GSI missions don't work either in case you're wondering.

5. Bonus tip:

Not something "I wish I'd known" because I did find out about it in time, but at level 10 you're asked to have Bessi use her abilities in every role 500 times. That is a lot. By the time I had done everything else required at that level, I still needed about 300 more ability uses in each role. Fortunately, for tank and dps, you can just sic Bessi on a training dummy and go AFK for a while. For her to practice healing, I opted to engage a champion mob on Nar Shaddaa and let him punch me in the face for a while. This requires a little bit of attention, but not that much and at least it's kind of amusing (even if I had to do it several times over, because even with me practically doing no dps to him, Bessi's piddly heal-dps would eventually kill him).