Efficient Character Building

Even on the hardest difficulty, it is not necessary to build a strong meta character to enjoy the game, but you might need to grind a lot if you don't exploit the trainers. Some fights, like the last fight in the Tatooine arena or fighting the high-level droid zone in the Tatooine desert, can become very challenging.

A lot of the basic principles from Morrowind apply to this game as well. Efficient leveling strategies are important, and the most crucial aspects include:

1. Getting 10 skill increases in two or three skills that govern a certain attribute before leveling up. This gives you a +5 modifier for that attribute once you level up. Careful planning, use of trainers, and skill selection is necessary if you want to max out all attributes to 100 in the endgame. This kind of min-maxing might not be enjoyable for everyone, but it can be satisfying to have a character with maxed-out attributes and skills. If you prefer a more relaxed approach, simply level skills as you go and don't worry too much about the increases. As long as you choose the right attributes and level up your most important skills, your character will still be viable for all challenges in the game.
2. If you want to be as tanky as possible in the late game, focus on getting Constitution to 100 as fast as possible, as this will increase your health pool once you are at max level.

In general, for an efficient character build, you will need to:

A. Have at least one skill to deal damage to your enemies, such as marksman, long blade, lightsabers, dark force powers, engineering, etc.

B. Have at least one defensive skill to survive better, such as light armor, medium armor, unarmored, or heavy armor. Keep in mind that some armor types are better suited for certain builds due to the bonuses they provide. For example, unarmored or light armor is better for force users. If you are focused on melee combat, it is advisable to also focus on blocking, while ranged characters should prioritize increasing their speed attribute early for kiting purposes.

C. Raise the associated attribute for that skill to deal more damage. For example, strength improves damage from both melee and marksman weapons, while intelligence lets you increase your force pool for more droid summons or damaging force powers.

D. It is generally advisable to have a second way to deal damage. For instance, your marksman skill becomes useless once your blaster bolts run out, so having a backup vibroblade might come in handy, sme goes for force users that run out of force points for their powers.

E. Acquire good equipment. A significant portion of your power comes from your choice of weapons and spells, so always keep an eye out for loot and upgrades.

Optional but strongly recommended:

* Get slicing, as it comes in handy in many quests.
* Get mechanics, as your weapons will deteriorate quickly and will only do a fraction of the damage once you've killed a few enemies with them. Without this skill, you will need to carry extra weapons around once your best ones break down during a fight.
* Get modification and/or bartending; both skills are just as broken as they were in Morrowind.
* Mercantile is valuable to pick up, as you will need lots of credits, and it drastically reduces the costs of trainers and equipment.

Example character builds that have flavor but are still very effective:

1. Mandalorian Fighter: Major Skills: Long Blade, Marksman, Heavy Armor, Mechanics, Blocking Minor Skills and Misc Skills: Any, recommended mercantile, modification, and bartending Attributes first to max: Constitution and Strength Equipment: Obtain the Ordos Repeating Blaster and Mandalorian armor from the Mandalorian boss in the camp during the Gray Jedi questline on Taris. Additionally, you can acquire the Mandalorian mask from a guy in the cantina on Manaan. Also, get the Matrix Shield from the main questline.
2. Republic Commando: Major Skills: Short Blade, Marksman, Medium Armor, Mechanics, Slicing Minor Skills and Misc Skills: Any, recommended mercantile, modification, and bartending Attributes first to max: Constitution and Strength Equipment: Obtain Ordos Repeating Blaster from the Gray Jedi questline and Republic armor from the Republic questline on Manaan, then complete the main questline to acquire the Matrix Shield and the rakghoul short blade.
3. Sith Inquisitor: Major Skills: Dark Force Powers, Unarmored, Lightsaber, Mechanics, Slicing Minor Skills and Misc Skills: Any, recommended mercantile, modification, and bartending Attributes first to max: Constitution and Intelligence/Will Equipment: Unfortunately, Force Powers as a damage type may seem a little underpowered compared to melee and blasters. However, following the Gray Jedi questline early on grants you access to a variety of Force Powers. Defeating the terentatek also opens up the opportunity to create your own spells. For example, you can design a powerful Lightning spell with a magnitude of 30, duration of 2 or 3, and an area of 50. This spell can be devastating, obliterating dozens of enemies clustered together in a single cast. The drawback is that even with the Chosen One trait, as a Miraluka with Chosen One, you'll only be able to cast it around 3 or 4 times. As a result, it's advisable to have lightsaber skills as a backup. This ensures you have another means of dealing damage when you run out of Force Powers. To overcome the limited casting of powerful Force Powers, you can create a cheesy workaround using the Modification skill. Train Modification up to 100 and loot one of the 120 enchanting value rings from Flint's corpse on Manaan. Then, venture to the cave at the bottom of the Manaan ocean and trap the souls of the squid creatures there. Use the trapped souls to enchant the ring with a very strong lightning spell. By doing so, you'll be able to cast it repeatedly and with a quick recharge rate. This trick isn't exclusive to the Sith Inquisitor build; it can be a potent damage source for various other character builds as well, although it particularly complements the Sith Inquisitor's playstyle because of the theme and to balance out the relative weakness of force power costs.
4. Jedi Guardian: Major Skills: Lightsaber, Unarmored or Medium Armor, Slicing, Light Force Powers, Mechanics Minor Skills and Misc Skills: Any, recommended mercantile, modification, and bartending Attributes first to max: Constitution and Strength Equipment: Obtain a lightsaber early, most likely through the Gray Jedi questline, although you'll need to bring either intelligence or will to 60 to start the quest. It's best to focus on strength first.
5. Coruscanti Engineer: Major Skills: Engineering, Marksman, Medium Armor, Mechanics, Slicing Minor Skills and Misc Skills: Any, recommended mercantile, modification, and bartending Attributes first to max: Constitution and Intelligence Equipment: Obtain various summon droid spells early, like from the droid shop in Sandriver. Later get a nice blaster like the Ordos Repeating Blaster. Combining a fast-shooting blaster rifle with the damage from your summons for maximum efficiency. Your droids damage will fall of significantly at later stages of the game, but theyll retain their usefullness as tanks and additional damage to your other sources.

Remember that these are just examples, and you can customize your character to fit your preferred playstyle. Experiment with different skills and equipment to find what works best for you in your journey through the game.