Tatooine 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 You can still find an archived version of his original guide here.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 the ways I have created variation in my gaming has been to mix up story content with other styles of missions. One of these is the Seeker Droid and Macrobinoculars Missions for Galactic Solution Industries (GSI). Often revolving around research, GSI Missions are less about combat and more about exploration and discovery. In this blog post, the first in a new mini-series I will cover the overview of the Tatooine GSI Missions in SWTOR.

Gaining Reputation with GSI

It’s a simple model really: Complete GSI Missions and be awarded a range of reputation points. However, there are bonuses: Complete any Heroic 2+ for a medium amount of reputation. And there is also a weekly GSI Valued Partner Initiative. This requires you to complete 10 GSI Missions for a large amount of Reputation.

At level 80, GSI Missions pay around 18,600 Credits for normal missions and 33,500 Credits for the (Heroic 2+).

For more information about the GSI Reputation, Seeker Droids and Macrobinoculars in general, you can refer to Swtorista's guide here. 

Tatooine GSI Missions

Let’s zero in on the specific missions for Tatooine. They are all identical for Imperial and Republic characters, apart from the first mission.

A Droid Defiant: Heroic 2+

If you’re playing an Imperial character, then A Droid Defiant takes place in Mos Ila. If it’s a Republic character then this mission takes place in Anchorhead. The aim of this GSI Mission is to find and dig up (using your Seeker Droid) – scrambler transmitters around the town.

The map markers show approximate areas and do not indicate the actual positions of the transmitters. Your Macrobinoculars will not pick them up, so you need to use your eyes. The transmitters are located up on walls or on the edges of roofs. The spawn locations do change but not radically and with enough repetition you can speed up the process of finding them. Just direct your Seeker Droid to dig roughly under their location; you don't need to place the dig circle up on whatever building they sit on. Oh, and trust me: jump on your favourite vehicle or creature and use your eyes. It’s more forgiving than using the Seeker Droid and moving a few paces!

Once you have found three transmitters, the rogue droid is triangulated. It’s an Elite Droid, but as it’s H2, you can defeat it with just a companion. The results will be delivered to the GSI Dropbox automatically and you’re well on your way on your Tatooine missions!

Watch out: One of the spawn locations in Mos Ila (around X 880, Y 3190) has been bugged for years, and if a scrambler transmitter is located there, you'll be unable to dig it up (even though you can see that it's there), no matter how precise you try to be while targeting it with your Seeker Droid. Unfortunately all you can do if this happens is change instance to see if it's in a different location there, or else come back another day.

The offending location in Mos Ila 

Tatooine GSI Maps

The next four missions come with clearer maps, so here they all are. Click to enlarge them or feel free to download them later for reference!

Above the Fray

Above the Fray sees you trekking across the Desert Dustball looking for Moisture Vaporators, the back bone of farming on Tatooine. If you’re running this as an Imperial, it’s much easier as one of the vaporators is actually above an Imperial outpost (the most Southern marker). Thankfully your Macrobinoculars are really powerful, so you can get close to the Outpost as a Republic player and still see the Vaporator to catch it.

This mission is called Above the Fray because your targets are above eye level, so you’re looking up the cliff faces.

To show just how powerful the Macrobinoculars are, here’s an example of reaching one of the Moisture Vaporators.

Scanning the Depths

This mission sees you looking down…a lot. You’re looking for Meteorite Fragments in the valleys around The Wound. The map markers are very vague! And you’ll have to fight some Sand People away from the cliff edges to get the angles right. Although you need to look down, the meteorite fragments are not really deep. And you can see them with your eyes – they are a bluey-green hue, which is a stark contrast to the red and brown tinge of the cliffs. Once you know what you're looking for, you may find it easier to search with your eyes first before trying to scan, as scanning down into the ravine often ends up limiting your field of view.

You’ll spend most of this mission traipsing around The Wound. And the exact spawn points of the fragments do change slightly. Once you’ve found a fragment, scan it with your Macrobinoculars, breathe a sigh of relief and move on.

If you’re also doing The Shroud Story Arc, you can couple finding various items from the Tatooine GSI Missions with locating the Shroud’s Encrypted Transmitters. One of them is right next to a Meteorite Fragment for Scanning the Depths!

Buried in Time

Time to head out to the Krayt Dragon Graveyard for a much simpler GSI Mission. This time you will need your Seeker Droid, but you don’t need it for searching – only digging. You’re looking for small Fossilized Eggs near Larvae Clusters. These are bright yellow and are visible to the naked eye. Each Krayt Dragon skeleton tends to have 2-3 clusters spawning near it. So if you find another player digging these up there are plenty to go around! You’ll know if you have found one by hovering your cursor over the clusters before using your Seeker Droid to dig them up.

If you're still having trouble finding these after cruising around for several minutes, your camera settings might have something to do with it! Shintar has a whole post about this particular problem here, which also contains screenshots and exact coordinates for a bunch of different Fossilized Egg spawn locations.

Once you have excavated 3 batches of fossilized eggs, they will automatically be returned to the GSI Dropbox in Mos Ila or Anchorhead.

Looking for Droids

Warning: This is a Random Number Generation Mission. Galactic Solution Industries report some missing droids – probably the thieving Jawas again! You are to scan Jawa Sandcrawlers to find out which one contains the droids. It’s based on random numbers because it may be a different crawler each time.

To remind you again, your Macrobinoculars are really powerful, which matters especially in the Dune Sea! As soon as even the smallest tip of a Sandcrawler is visible on your screen, use your Macrobinoculars to scan them. No point wandering all the desert when your technology can do the trick!

Tip: If you're feeling cheeky and don't fancy moving around too much, the correct Sandcrawler for the mission is re-randomised every time you reset the mission. So you can start by scanning the one near your faction's outpost and if the droids are not there, just reset the quest in your log and try again until the mission completes. Note that Broadsword has added a 2-minute cooldown to the reset button to prevent people from going too crazy with this.

TL;DR The Tatooine GSI Missions

I’m enjoying the Tatooine GSI Missions, not because of the Reputation, but because of its gameplay style. It’s investigative, not based on your killing prowess. Scanning the Depths can be frustrating, but for a gaming session, they are really relaxing!