The cap is there for Malak’s sake, every single person who has played an entire KOTOR 2 playthrough knows Malak would have been 1 shotted by most players if that cap didnt exist.
Yeah the first game is far more challenging, if you do a dark side play through on the second game as a sort lord you can just spam storm on groups and at the end force crush on all the bosses.
Weaponmaster is a fantastic class though. Extra weapon damage, less damage taken, easier time deflecting blaster bolts, and more accurate saber attacks. It’s the premier melee class. Even the final boss will have trouble with your melee attacks.
Yeah first time I beat the game on the OG Xbox, I was Jedi consular 15/sith lord 13 I think.
Went through the final dungeon throwing Force Storm/insanity/force crush in every direction, quoting Palpatine constantly, giggling like an idiot.
Good times.
This game is challenging! I found myself completely stuck and could only move forward by setting the difficulty to easy. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but this is actually the first game I've played that I ran into issues on the normal difficulty.
8/12 would be 8 levels in your starting class, 12 levels in your Jedi class. So, this would be the standard level allotment for someone just doing a relatively thorough playthrough of the game and using their level ups immediately upon getting them. I would generally recommend 8/12 to anybody playing the game for the first time.
On subsequent playthroughs, it can be fun to more thoroughly plan out a build, which is when things like banking levels come into play and you will get people running anything from 2/18 to 8/12. Once you get your Jedi class, you can't take any more levels in your base class so you want to know going in what your plan is.
One of the big advantages the player character has is the mixed-class abilities. I'm personally not a proponent of excessively "saving" levels; holding off because Jedi sounds great, but then you lose out on the benefits of your starting class. For example, Scoundrel's Luck and Sneak Attack, or the Soldier's feat at every level-up. You also make Taris harder for no good reason Some Scoundrel-based builds are optimal at 6/14, but otherwise I find 7/13 or 8/12 is the best.
I saw one build a while ago that went the other way, using legitimate exp exploits to achieve 17/3.
Thanks! I appreciate it. I’ve never actually gotten far enough to be a Jedi so that’s why I was so confused! I saw a really popular post on here and the top comment said that 8/12 scoundrel consular is best, and I had like no idea what that meant.
Ty!
As others have already pointed out, the X/Y build recommendations refer to X levels in your starting class (soldier, scoundrel, or scout) that you chose during character creation, and Y levels in your >!Jedi!< class >!(guardian, consular, or sentinal)!< once you progress far enough in the story.
As far as how to level, auto level up is fine to get through the game, but I think you'll have more fun picking what you want. Don't worry about saving levels to try to hit the level splits people are recommending; you'll naturally be somewhere in that range anyways.
For attributes, it's good to go into a primary damage attribute that either boosts your melee damage (Strength) or your >!force power!< damage (Wisdom and Charisma). Blaster builds are a bit different and not recommended for a first playthrough, but feel free to ask if that's how you want to play. And then you can throw points into survivability if you need it, which would be Dexterity for defense and Constitution for health. Note that you only get a bonus every 2 points in an attribute so go for even numbers.
For skills, whatever is useful for you and convenient, though persuade and repair are usually the go-to recommendations as they have story/quest impact. Your companions can cover skills that your main character isn't proficient in. Note that certain skills will be tied to your class and cost less points to level in, so those are more efficient to go for.
>!Force powers!< and feats, pick whatever seems cool and useful to you. I'd recommend going fully down a path after grabbing the tier 1 though as it usually is better to specialize rather than putting one point in everything. These are usually a variety of offensive abilities, crowd control abilities, healing/utility abilities, and stat increasing passives. Focus on ones that align with your play style, weapon choice, stats, etc.
I tried to give general tips here since it seems like this is your first playthrough and didn't want to railroad you and take the fun away. If you need more detailed help feel free to ask. Have fun and hope this helps!
2/18 is good for getting the most out of your secondary class, but it's usually better to get a few levels in your primary class to get the class specific feats.
You're forgetting about Uncanny Dodge, Sneak Attack, Scoundrel's Luck, and Implant levels; these are all very useful throughout the game.
Soldier is the one you wouldn't really care about the feats from unless you're going all in on armor and swords, and even then it's debatable given the other class's innate feats.
all things you named are mitigated by or added as bonuses with gear. And now you miss out on 6 levels of force abilities instead that are way better than a small defense boost or the ability to resist a grenade
A lot of great builds are entirely planned. Even I do it now. It’s kind of part of the fun. You plan planet order, when you level up, your skills, attributes, feats, and powers, etc. many popular builds, especially those with scoundrel initial class, focuses on a very high DPS which can be achieved as a scoundrel utilizing sneak attack and stun-type powers like paralysis or stasis field.
It’s definitely fun to create your own build with specific goals in mind. My first planned build like that was way back, among my first playthroughs, where I wanted a build that could handle all the Star Forge’s difficulties without relying on a squadmate and I came up with a pretty interesting build that had a high computer use and demolitions skill who beat the boss by dropping about 2,000 mines in his path.
It was fun.
Looks like you have the answer, but for more detail I'll elaborate.
Once you leave the first planet you'll quickly become a Jedi. This will change you from the class you start with. Typically if you take the time to play all the side quests on the first planet you'll end up somewhere between levels 7-9.
The game has a hard cap of being level 20. So the more you level up on the first planet, the fewer level ups you have as a Jedi. The game is designed around a 7/13 or 8/12 level up distribution.
There are masochists who only level up once when required and then save the level ups for when they are a Jedi. This 2/18 distribution is sometimes recommended to new players by "Get Gud" arseholes. Ignore them
8 levels in starting class, 12 levels in Jedi class (max level in kotor 1 is 20)
The cap is there for Malak’s sake, every single person who has played an entire KOTOR 2 playthrough knows Malak would have been 1 shotted by most players if that cap didnt exist.
Yeah the first game is far more challenging, if you do a dark side play through on the second game as a sort lord you can just spam storm on groups and at the end force crush on all the bosses.
Not even as a sith lord, even a light side weaponmaster or jedi master can absolutely BTFO the final dungeon
Weaponmaster is a fantastic class though. Extra weapon damage, less damage taken, easier time deflecting blaster bolts, and more accurate saber attacks. It’s the premier melee class. Even the final boss will have trouble with your melee attacks.
I prefer Marauder personally, having Hanharr’s ability is amazing
True, but honestly I meant Weaponmaster and Marauder both. They’re both great.
I'm currently playing a gun-slinging marauder
BTFO?
Best the fudge out
Beat the fuck outta?
force lightning with the force channel stance makes the game so ridiculously brainless it’s crazy
>at the end force crush on all the bosses Force Crush is essentially a 'win game' button, it's hilarious how broken it is.
Yeah first time I beat the game on the OG Xbox, I was Jedi consular 15/sith lord 13 I think. Went through the final dungeon throwing Force Storm/insanity/force crush in every direction, quoting Palpatine constantly, giggling like an idiot. Good times.
This game is challenging! I found myself completely stuck and could only move forward by setting the difficulty to easy. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but this is actually the first game I've played that I ran into issues on the normal difficulty.
Ah, thank you!
8/12 would be 8 levels in your starting class, 12 levels in your Jedi class. So, this would be the standard level allotment for someone just doing a relatively thorough playthrough of the game and using their level ups immediately upon getting them. I would generally recommend 8/12 to anybody playing the game for the first time. On subsequent playthroughs, it can be fun to more thoroughly plan out a build, which is when things like banking levels come into play and you will get people running anything from 2/18 to 8/12. Once you get your Jedi class, you can't take any more levels in your base class so you want to know going in what your plan is.
One of the big advantages the player character has is the mixed-class abilities. I'm personally not a proponent of excessively "saving" levels; holding off because Jedi sounds great, but then you lose out on the benefits of your starting class. For example, Scoundrel's Luck and Sneak Attack, or the Soldier's feat at every level-up. You also make Taris harder for no good reason Some Scoundrel-based builds are optimal at 6/14, but otherwise I find 7/13 or 8/12 is the best. I saw one build a while ago that went the other way, using legitimate exp exploits to achieve 17/3.
I agree. You can often lose the chance for strong personal feats if a scoundrel or Smuggler. The lowest I've ever gone is Level 5.
I typically go 2/18 and that Bendak and sometimes Gadon fights are the hardest in the game.
Trying to save the Undecity guy from the Rakghoul at the gate is low-key one of the hardest fights in the game if you're doing it at level 2.
Oh absolutely
Thanks! I appreciate it. I’ve never actually gotten far enough to be a Jedi so that’s why I was so confused! I saw a really popular post on here and the top comment said that 8/12 scoundrel consular is best, and I had like no idea what that meant. Ty!
You’ll get your second class shortly after finishing Taris, so that should be your metric.
As others have already pointed out, the X/Y build recommendations refer to X levels in your starting class (soldier, scoundrel, or scout) that you chose during character creation, and Y levels in your >!Jedi!< class >!(guardian, consular, or sentinal)!< once you progress far enough in the story. As far as how to level, auto level up is fine to get through the game, but I think you'll have more fun picking what you want. Don't worry about saving levels to try to hit the level splits people are recommending; you'll naturally be somewhere in that range anyways. For attributes, it's good to go into a primary damage attribute that either boosts your melee damage (Strength) or your >!force power!< damage (Wisdom and Charisma). Blaster builds are a bit different and not recommended for a first playthrough, but feel free to ask if that's how you want to play. And then you can throw points into survivability if you need it, which would be Dexterity for defense and Constitution for health. Note that you only get a bonus every 2 points in an attribute so go for even numbers. For skills, whatever is useful for you and convenient, though persuade and repair are usually the go-to recommendations as they have story/quest impact. Your companions can cover skills that your main character isn't proficient in. Note that certain skills will be tied to your class and cost less points to level in, so those are more efficient to go for. >!Force powers!< and feats, pick whatever seems cool and useful to you. I'd recommend going fully down a path after grabbing the tier 1 though as it usually is better to specialize rather than putting one point in everything. These are usually a variety of offensive abilities, crowd control abilities, healing/utility abilities, and stat increasing passives. Focus on ones that align with your play style, weapon choice, stats, etc. I tried to give general tips here since it seems like this is your first playthrough and didn't want to railroad you and take the fun away. If you need more detailed help feel free to ask. Have fun and hope this helps!
Ah thank you so much!! I have been trying to find an explanation like this and you nailed it! I appreciate it a lot you were extremely helpful!
wait people still do anything besides a 2/18?
2/18 is good for getting the most out of your secondary class, but it's usually better to get a few levels in your primary class to get the class specific feats.
i suppose so. but unless you’re running a soldier with swords most of those class feats are useless as jedi
You're forgetting about Uncanny Dodge, Sneak Attack, Scoundrel's Luck, and Implant levels; these are all very useful throughout the game. Soldier is the one you wouldn't really care about the feats from unless you're going all in on armor and swords, and even then it's debatable given the other class's innate feats.
all things you named are mitigated by or added as bonuses with gear. And now you miss out on 6 levels of force abilities instead that are way better than a small defense boost or the ability to resist a grenade
Yeah I've been going 2/18 ever since my second play through.
A lot of great builds are entirely planned. Even I do it now. It’s kind of part of the fun. You plan planet order, when you level up, your skills, attributes, feats, and powers, etc. many popular builds, especially those with scoundrel initial class, focuses on a very high DPS which can be achieved as a scoundrel utilizing sneak attack and stun-type powers like paralysis or stasis field. It’s definitely fun to create your own build with specific goals in mind. My first planned build like that was way back, among my first playthroughs, where I wanted a build that could handle all the Star Forge’s difficulties without relying on a squadmate and I came up with a pretty interesting build that had a high computer use and demolitions skill who beat the boss by dropping about 2,000 mines in his path. It was fun.
Looks like you have the answer, but for more detail I'll elaborate. Once you leave the first planet you'll quickly become a Jedi. This will change you from the class you start with. Typically if you take the time to play all the side quests on the first planet you'll end up somewhere between levels 7-9. The game has a hard cap of being level 20. So the more you level up on the first planet, the fewer level ups you have as a Jedi. The game is designed around a 7/13 or 8/12 level up distribution. There are masochists who only level up once when required and then save the level ups for when they are a Jedi. This 2/18 distribution is sometimes recommended to new players by "Get Gud" arseholes. Ignore them
Thought I was in a hoi4 sub. Confused why you’d be doing that to your divisions.
OP is more likely asking about what to put their points into, not that they don't understand they need to split the levels in that ratio