How to Start Out or Transfer a Character on a New SWTOR Server (2024)

This guide will teach you all the basics you need to know about starting out on a new server in Star Wars: The Old Republic

Whether you’re new to the game and need help navigating, or a veteran looking to transfer your SWTOR character to another server, this guide will explain the What, the How, and the Why.

Choosing a Server in SWTOR

When you first start up SWTOR, you may be placed into a server by default. You might end up starting out on the Character Creation Screen and not start out with the option to choose your server. If this happens, you can click the white “Exit” button on the lower left to find the Server List.

If you already have a character made in SWTOR, you’ll need to click the Server Selection Button on the Character Selection screen. This is right above the “Quit” button on the lower left corner.

Once you do either of these options, you should reach the Server Selection menu. You’ll have access to the six different servers as seen in the image below.

These are the following servers available in SWTOR:

You may have a few options when creating a new character in SWTOR. Depending on your current subscriber status and other perks and benefits you may have gained over the years as a player or through the Cartel Market, you may be eligible to start from a certain point in the middle of the story.

For new players, we strongly recommend starting at Level 1 and playing through the entire game to properly experience the leveling and learn your class and chosen spec.

Our comprehensive guide on how to create an original and unique outfit in SWTOR may also be of great help to you. Some of the recommendations explained in it may not be suitable for brand-new players as they may be out of the scope of what a new player has access to in the game. But you can decide what you can achieve and strive for it from the very beginning.

SWTOR Server Language

The language will often be the defining choice for a player’s server. For the North American servers, there is no “East Coast” or “West Coast” server due to both of these servers being stationed in Virginia. As for the European servers, they are all stationed in Ireland.

The new Shae Vizla APAC server is stationed in Sydney, Australia. This server was introduced in November 2023!

Pick a server whose primary language matches your own or one you can speak well, and hit the “Select” button to create a new character!

Peak Time Active Hours

You should also keep in mind the physical location of the server and the time-zones it attempts to serve. You will want your friends and guildmates to be awake and playing at the same time as you are.

Peak time for player activity will be different for each server, if you aren’t on during peak time for your region, you may find it worth it to pick a different region even if the ping is worse.

SWTOR Server Latency

When choosing a server, you’ll want to pick a server that is closer to your region in the world to get less server lag. Obviously, if you’re in North America, you’ll want to go with an NA server instead of a European server and vice versa.

While you can join any server you want, you’ll want one with less lag if you’re looking to do end-game content seriously such as PvE or PvP.

SWTOR Transfer Limitations and Restrictions

Before you decide to transfer to another server, you’ll need to get your character in order otherwise you might lose things you didn’t intend to. Here are a couple of lists that show what does and does not come with your character during the transfer process:

What DOES come with your Transferred Character

• All items in your inventory
• All currently equipped items
• Items stored in your Personal Cargo Hold (the green one)
• Ability placement in your Quickbars.
• Legacy unlocks and achievements
• All strongholds purchased with Cartel Coins. If you purchased them with credits, you’ll need to repurchase them in your new server.
• Any doors you unlocked in your strongholds will remain unlocked once you regain access to them in the new server.
• Your unlocked decorations will be transferred
• Your active loadout and saved loadouts will be transferred.

What DOES NOT come with your Transferred Character

• Any items or credits stored in your Legacy Cargo Hold (the yellow one)
• Additional Legacy Stronghold Storage Bays that were purchased with credits will not transfer.
• Any items, credits, or mail in your selected character’s mailbox.
• Any listings on sale in the Galactic Trade Network. Remove any listings and store your items in your personal cargo hold or inventory prior to transfer.
• Friends and Ignore lists will be reset.
• All outfits in the Outfitter Tab will be reset.
• Legacy Currency (Tech Fragments, WZ-1 Accelerants, OP-1 Catalysts, etc) will not be transferred.
• Stronghold decorations will be reset. If your decorations are not available when you log into your new server, log out and log back into that server. This can bring back the missing decorations.
• Any achievements or legacy unlocks you gain on your old server will not be reflected in your new server. This works in reverse in that any achievements or legacy unlocks in your new server will not be reflected in your old server.
• If your character’s name is already taken in the new server, you will have to rename your character.
• If your character’s Legacy name is already taken in the new server, you will have to rename your Legacy.
• A guild cannot transfer servers, thus a guild character cannot be a guild leader and transfer. By extension, guild cargo will not transfer due to this limitation.
• Your progress with Galactic Seasons does not transfer.
• The contents of your Materials tab in your Inventory does not transfer. If you want to bring any materials with you, take them out of the tab and into your inventory or Personal Cargo Hold.

How transferring affects your Legacy

As mentioned earlier, your Legacy achievements and unlocks will be transferred along with your character. To be more specific, they are copied onto the new server.

If you already have an established Legacy on your destination server, the higher level Legacy will take over and become your new Legacy. Your Legacy from your Source Server will not be deleted.

For example:
You want to move from Star Forge to Satele Shan. You have the “Skywalker” Legacy on Star Forge and the “Kenobi” Legacy on Satele Shan. Skywalker is Legacy Level 32 while Kenobi is Legacy Level 50. Kenobi will be your Legacy name for your character upon transfer.

Any unlocks achieved on either server will combine when a character is transferred. If you had the “Implant Destiny: 334” achievement on the “Skywalker” Legacy but not the “Kenobi” Legacy, the “Kenobi” Legacy will have Implant Destiny: 334 unlocked after the transfer.

SWTOR Server Status

If you ever need to see the current status of any of the SWTOR servers, check out SWTOR’s Server Status page. You can also find a link there for the System Alerts page that updates players on any issues that might be present.

Starting on a New Server as a Veteran Player

If you are rooted on a server and have expanded your Legacy, it will be a start difference and a very weird experience starting fresh on another server.

The leveling process may not be that different. Especially if you are an active subscriber. There is little to no challenge while you are playing on the low level planets and going through the early Flashpoints and even lowbie PvP.

You will not have your army of alts, your wealth and rich supplies of crafting materials. You will not have Legacy unlocks to help you move faster through the Galaxy. You will not even have a Stronghold to call a home (at first).

What you will have is, the experience of playing the same way you played when you first started this game, but with all of the knowledge you have accumulated over the months or years.

Sometimes it is hard to appreciate the value of a side quest or even a planetary story arc when you arrive on the planet five, ten, or twenty levels higher than the recommended level for it, thanks to your XP stims, pre-purchased Legacy upgrades, mods and other gear.

Starting on a New Server as a Brand-New Player

If you have never played SWTOR, or even never played a Massively-Multiplayer Online role-playing game (MMORPG), you will meet a lot of new and weird mechanics that are not present in other games.

While SWTOR strives to be an MMO, it also fights hard (often with itself) to keep the story at the front end for all players. The first group content, The Esseles Flashpoint for Republics and The Black Talon Flashpoint for Empire players, will attempt to bridge the gap between group play and solo story experience.

You can go through the entire story of your character and all planetary story arcs alone and play SWTOR as a solo RPG. The first time you will be introduced to playing in a group will be the Flashpoints that are not part of the main story path as well as the PvE endgame Operations and PvP Warzones and Arenas.

A great place to start would be any of our Beginner Guides. A few of them are highlighted in the SWTOR Guides Master List.

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide for SWTOR 7.0 is quite long, but it will also give you a great perspective of what to do not only during and immediately after you create your character, but how to play and develop it.

If you want to role-play, we have a number of Role-Playing Build Guides where we show you how to play as an iconic Star Wars character in SWTOR.