gamebunny zzyxx's corner 5

"You Half-witted, Scruffy-Looking, Nerf Herder"
I must admit, when I first started playing SWG, I had no intention on becoming a Smuggler. I figured this would be another wasted profession, like Image Designer or Squad Leader. But let me tell you, there is a strong sense of pride when you become a Master Smuggler. Within this article, I’ll give you some strategies on becoming a smuggler, what skills to pursue first, and some of the benefits of being a scruffy looking nerf herder.

When I began SWG, I had my sights set on becoming the greatest weaponsmith in the galaxy. But as I ground away the hours, I got more and more frustrated. The damage my weapons did were not very impressive. What was the solution to this dilemma? Use better resources? Get enhancements like Krayt tissues? No. I decided to pursue the Smuggling profession to slice some kick butt weapons. Slicing is probably the chief reason players become smugglers. Lets face it, slicing could increase damage or attack speed in the 30-35% range. However, there are many other reasons to become a smuggler other than the slicing ability. Before we get to that, lets talk about becoming a smuggler, first.

For some odd reason, I was drawn to pistols from the outset of the game. Maybe because my bruising mentality led me to get as close as I could to enemies. Regardless, I quickly completed the pistol column in the Marksman profession. The Pistol Marksman column is the first step I recommend taking to attain Novice Smuggler. Get used to using your blaster, you’ll need a LOT of pistol experience to get Master Smuggler.

Once I completed the pistol requirements (including the initial amount needed for Novice Smuggler), I tackled the Unarmed column of Brawler. All I’ll say is this, once you finish Unarmed IV, you’ll never have to fight unarmed again (unless you decide to be masochistic and go for TKA). I found unarmed combat exceedingly boring. Probably because the strongest enemy I could defeat at first was a bloated gubbur (oh the embarrassment). Some friends of mine were very powerful bounty hunters and commandos and let me tag along on their hunting expeditions (thank you K-Pax!). I highly recommend this strategy. This way, you can attack stronger enemies, yet have the heavy firepower to help weaken the critter for you. Either way, I highly recommend you get buffed before journeying out (both mind and health buffs).

At this point, you have Unarmed IV and Marksman Pistol IV. In addition, you’ll need 50k pistol xp to get Novice Smuggler. My advice for your next step is to start slicing. Slicing xp is agonizingly slow at first. At Novice Smuggler, you gain the ability to make Precision Knives. These are the tools of the trade, so to speak. To gain slicing xp, you will require two Precision Knives (two charges).

At the Novice level, you gain the ability to slice containers. You will get very frustrated trying to get locked containers to slice. There are four tactics to getting locked containers. First, is to buy them. Bazaars are rife with locked containers (which are the SWG equivalent to a grab bag). Unfortunately, most locked containers go for 3k – 6k credits per container. This option gets VERY expensive VERY fast. The second tactic is to join a large Player Association (PA) and get the word out to members to slice their containers. This was a major source of my slicing xp. Within my PA, Elite Rebel Squad (ERS), word quickly spread that I was the “go-to guy” for opening containers. The third tactic is to camp outside your favorite town and blow away as many thugs and ruffians as you can. These guys sometime have locked containers among their loot. This can be very time consuming, but has the added benefit of giving you pistol experience. You’ll need a lot of pistol xp to move up in two of the four skill trees, so you’ll be killing two birds with one stone using this tactic. The final tactic is to go to a very large city and beg for containers to open. I personally never used this tactic, nor do I espouse it. Don’t be a spammer!! I chose to use a blend of the first three tactics to get Slicing II.

A quick note on Slicing I; you gain the ability to slicing terminals. This offers you the ability to gain very few xp and very little in return (a modest gain in mission payouts). The other disadvantage is you can only slice a terminal every couple of minutes or so. My advice is to not waste your time slicing terminals.

This is a good opportunity to explain how the slicing process works. Select the slicing target and choose slice from the radial menu. Once you start the slicing process, a selection box pops up. It will ask you if to: cut the red wire, cut the blue wire, use a Flow Analyzer Node (FAN), or use a molecular clamp. Basically, slicing is like every bad movie cliché on diffusing a bomb. Do you cut the red or the blue wire? Slicing is the method of bypassing (or hacking) the system to unlock a container; let a weapon fire faster or do higher damage; or make armor more effective or lighter. How you can slice an axe for better damage is beyond me, but for the sake of argument, we’ll give SOE the benefit of the doubt (BTW any weapon can be sliced). To slice, you need two precision knives and a lot of luck. Hey, you have a 50-50 chance to guess at cutting the red or blue wire. Unfortunately, if you choose poorly, the item will never be sliceable again. So if you fail on a locked container, it shall forever be locked (this really sucks if you paid 6000 credits for it). In order to increase your chances of successfully slicing an item, SOE created the FAN and Molecular Clamp. The FAN will give you a greater than 50% chance of guessing the correct wire (don’t use this, it’s a waste). The Molecular Clamp will tell you with 100% accuracy which wire to cut. The problem with the clamps is, you can’t make them till you attain Slicing IV, and once you do, it takes 80 units of copper to make one clamp. My advice, seek out a slicing merchant and buy enough crates of clamps and precision knives to get you through Slicing IV. It cost me a bundle to do that, but it was so worth it, since you don’t get partial xp for unsuccessful slices. Once you select the correct wire, you’ll lose a charge on your precision knife. You then select the other wire to complete the slice and lose a second knife charge.