More than twenty years after Rage of the Wookiees first opened Kashyyyk to players, Restoration is returning to one of the most ambitious —and in some ways unusual— expansions in Star Wars Galaxies.
Kashyyyk represented one of several major shifts in the history of Star Wars Galaxies. Its villages, hunting grounds, storylines, and instanced adventures offered something more structured than the largely player-driven experience of the original planets. It was also one of the game’s earliest attempts to balance authored content with the sandbox freedom that made Galaxies distinctive.
Much of that content, however, was designed to be completed once and then left behind.
With A New Dawn, we are giving players a reason to return. Six major Kashyyyk encounters have been rebuilt or expanded as repeatable instances with difficulty modes, new rewards, updated mechanics, and daily lockouts. Some remain close to their original designs. Others have been substantially reworked or built completely fresh.
A Theme Park Planet
There was never a more hectic one-year period in the history of Star Wars Galaxies than the year surrounding the Rage of the Wookiees expansion. Not only did the game itself undergo multiple transformations, but the MMO genre in general was in the midst of changing forever.
- Jump to Lightspeed - November 2004
- World of Warcraft - November 2004
- The Combat Upgrade - April 2005
- Rage of the Wookiees - May 2005
- Trials of Obi-Wan - August 2005
- NGE Era - November 2005
Reviews at the time praised the expansion’s structured missions while also noting that Kashyyyk was far more constrained than the open worlds that came before it. In many ways, it was Star Wars Galaxies’ first serious experiment with what would later be called a theme park.
That tension between sandbox and authored content remains relevant to Restoration. The sandbox is what gives Star Wars Galaxies its identity, but carefully designed adventures can give that sandbox destinations, challenges, and reasons for players to come together.
A main focus of Restoration design is in sandbox, open world, and emergent play: systems that allow players to create stories, shape the world, and find their own reasons to participate. However, in an effort to finally “complete” the implementation and restoration of instanced content, we wanted to revisit this classic content and put a proper cap on this chapter following Mustafar, Heroics, and Echo Base.
Wookiees Remastered
Kashyyyk already contains some of the most atmospheric environments, memorable characters, and unique encounter spaces in Star Wars Galaxies. The problem was not a lack of distinct content. It was that most of it stopped mattering once its quests, badges, and rewards were complete. With this update, we attempt to change that without sanding away what made the planet special.
All six featured instances will be repeatable, with daily lockouts, multiple difficulty modes, and loot designed for continued play. Players will be able to check their instance availability through /showinstance, bringing Kashyyyk into the same repeatable endgame loop as Restoration’s newer PvE content.
We have taken a different approach with each encounter. Some needed only mechanical refinement. Others had strong locations and stories but lacked the structure to support repeated group play. A few were never really instances at all, but provided such strong foundations that we decided to build something new around them. We did our best to identify the best parts of Kashyyyk and give them enough depth, challenge, and longevity to stand alongside Restoration’s existing instanced content.
The Classics
NK Necrosis
Myyydril Caverns and NK Necrosis already had one of Kashyyyk’s strongest premises. But unlike other instances, anyone could just walk up and enter the instance. To be more fitting with all other instances, players must now complete the Myyydril Trust and Mother Queen quest lines before gaining access, preserving the connection between the instance and the surrounding Myyydril Village story.Inside, the encounter has been rebuilt around two stages involving the machinery that keeps the facility operational. The defending droids rely on Power Cells to maintain their shields, while NK Necrosis uses the Machine for protection during the final encounter. NK Necrosis also gets new help from Myyydril creatures that have joined the instance…
Hracca Glade
Hracca Glade did not need to become something entirely different. The environment and Kkorrwrot encounter remain recognizable, but the area now supports repeated group play. This is preservation rather than reinvention: the same memorable location, with enough mechanical life to make returning worthwhile.Chiss Poacher Reavers have been added to the Glade, while Kkorrwrot has gained additional noxious spawn mechanics that place greater pressure on positioning and awareness. After the encounter, players can use a radio near the center of the Glade to call for extraction instead of traveling all of the way back to the beginning.
Trandoshan Slaver Camp
The Trandoshan Slaver Camp always felt as though it should have been a larger assault. The new version treats it like one. Selindrolich and Keeper Grigova defend the outer gates, while Ysskir protects the inner gates of the camp. These encounters create progressive stages that require the group to fight to gain access to the camp headquarters.The result is still recognizably the original Slaver Camp, but advancing through it should now feel like an assault on a fortified compound rather than a rush to the center of the compound. And watch out for those mines...
Avatar Platform
Avatar combines a long quest chain, space travel, and one of Kashyyyk’s most distinctive locations. It is also content that many players experience once and then rarely revisit. Not every classic encounter needs to be rebuilt. Sometimes the right answer is to preserve what works, improve its place in the progression loop, and give players a reason to return.The primary Assault on Avatar quest will now be repeatable through Hssissk Bloodscale and incorporated into Kashyyyk’s daily instance structure. Of the featured encounters, Avatar is one where we have been most conservative. But of course we have added lots of new loot.
New Adventures
Kashyyyk also contains several quest lines that seem to stop just as they are ready to become something larger. For two of them, we asked a simple question: What if the original adventure continued?
Sordaan’s Trophy Hunt
The Etyyy Hunting Grounds already revolve around tracking increasingly dangerous creatures for Sordaan’s wagers. The new Trophy Hunt makes that conclusion feel like an actual hunt. After completing Sordaan’s four Hunting Wagers, players can access the Trophy Hunt encounter through the Bocctyyy shuttle. Three trophy creatures are hidden in the hunting grounds.Players must search for very subtle environmental clues and use Detect Camo to expose the Trophy creatures. When used near a hidden Trophy without being close enough to reveal it, the ability produces a small dust cloud, offering another clue about where to look next. This encounter is intentionally less about executing a standard boss rotation and more about tracking, searching, and discovering. Kashyyyk provides the perfect environment for that kind of adventure.
Kerritamba Ritual
Kerritamba Village has two story arcs and one of the planet’s most distinctive Wookiee settlements, but completing those stories historically left no reason to return. This is where revisiting Kashyyyk expands beyond the original storyline. The location, characters, and themes were already there. We are simply taking them further.With A New Dawn, players will be able to reset the quest lines through Chief Kerritamba and complete both story arcs and their associated badges. Completing the Challenge Wirartu Arena quest also unlocks a new encounter within the Great Tree: the Kerritamba Ritual.
The Ritual consists of four challenges representing Water, Storm, Shadows, and Life. Players activate the trials through Totems within the arena, and each challenge is built around a different environmental mechanic. Stay sharp in the shadows…
Returning to Kashyyyk
Long-running games often treat old content as disposable. A new expansion arrives, players move forward, and years of worlds and encounters become museums that players pass through once before heading somewhere newer. Star Wars Galaxies Restoration has much more of a horizontal progression system and doesn’t work that way. We aren’t beholden to the treadmill that often underlies modern gaming and are grateful to have that freedom.With that in mind, we wanted to give Kashyyyk’s existing instance content the attention it deserved—and bring a close to restoring the instanced content in the game. Rage of the Wookiees was created during one of the most complicated moments in Star Wars Galaxies history. It was imperfect, but it was also ambitious, atmospheric, and full of ideas that shaped the game’s future. Twenty years later, our goal is not to rewrite that history - but rather to take the best parts of Kashyyyk and give them another chance to matter in the end game.
This time, the Wookiees get their revenge.
May the Force be with you,
Fuego and the SWG Restoration Development Team
Last edited: