Beast Master Expertise is an exciting new feature coming to Star Wars Galaxies in Chapter 6. These are new creature-centric abilities available to all players, regardless of profession or level, through a third expertise tree.
Choosing these new expertise abilities will open up brand new game play features that include several phases of creature crafting and several mini-games. Initially, players will have to spend an expertise point on the "Incubation" skill which will give them the ability to set up an Incubator unit in their home or player structure to create creatures.
After the Incubator unit has been crafted, players can head out into the wild, find a creature, and extract a sample of its DNA core. Once a player has this DNA core material and loads it into their Incubator, they can begin the process of creating their unique pet. By fiddling with the incubator's settings over the course of three sessions, players can customize the color, skills, damage abilities, defensive abilities and the skill attributes of the creature. Once the final session is complete, players can trade, sell or hatch the egg.
Once a creature has hatched, it will go through various growth stages as it gains experience with the player. During each growth stage, the creature will grow and learn more abilities. Through adventuring, players will learn new abilities from wild creatures that they can then teach to their pet, for example, a Dune Kimogilas nasty special attack. Players will, however, need to ensure their pet stays happy, or it may start being disobedient or wander off. Based on the pet type, it may have a favorite toy, favorite food or a favorite planet.
It all begins by creating the creature egg in an incubator.
A Beast Master's incubator has quite a few controls and a wide variety of components to experiment with to create a creature. Here are some technical specs on how to operate an incubator.
The Incubator
Incubators can be crafted by any structures trader.
An incubator's key attributes are "Quality" and "Functionality."
Quality affects the chances to cause a creature mutation.
Functionality affects the amount of time it takes for an incubator to complete a session.
Incubators can only be powered by geothermal energy.
Once an incubator has been crafted, it may be placed on the commodities market for sale to other players.
Once an incubator has been activated with the radial menu, the incubator becomes owned by the character that activated the device until it has been "cleansed." The owner of the structure where the incubator has been placed can cleanse the incubator at any time.
Getting Started
Open the incubator with the radial menu.
Use the radial menu to access the incubator management menu.
Select "Open Incubator."
Place the creature DNA into the incubator window.
Deposit geothermal power into the incubator.
Use the radial menu to start your incubator session (if you dont have enough power, the incubator will display a message).
Creature Window and Temperature Gauge Highlighted below in red
The creature window displays an image of what the creature inside currently looks like. As you experiment and make changes during each of the three incubator sessions, you can peek in to see how your creature is developing.
If a creature mutates while it's in the incubator you'll be able to see what it looks like in the creature window.
Underneath the creature window is a temperature gauge. You can control the temperature inside the incubator by pressing the plus sign (+) to increase the temperature and the minus sign (-) to lower the temperature.
As you raise and lower the temperature, it will affect the color of your creature's hide.
Nutrient Gauge and Hydrolases Enzymes
The Nutrient Gauge can be found to the right of the temperature gauge. Nutrients are placed into an incubator by dragging and dropping Hydrolases Enzymes from the inventory window into the Hydrolases Enzyme slot.
Once nutrients have been added to the incubator, the nutrient level can be adjusted by pressing the plus sign (+) and minus sign (-) to change the settings. Changing the nutrient settings will adjust the point distribution allotted for the creature's skills.
The amount of points provided by the hydrolases enzymes is affected by the enzyme's "Purity Value" attribute.
You can acquire hydrolases enzymes by extracting them from dead creatures. Munitions traders will be able to craft and sell (or use) the extraction tool.
Isomerases Enzyme Slots
Incubator slots one and three are dedicated to Isomerases Enzymes (and only slots one and three). Isomerases enzymes can be found throughout the galaxy by looting creatures. Isomerases enzymes are placed into the incubator by dragging and dropping them from the inventory window. Slots one and three must have an isomerases enzyme in each of the slots.
"Quality" is the key attribute for isomerases enzymes. The quality of an isomerases enzyme determines the amount of potential attribute bonuses the creature will have when it is finally hatched. Expertise abilities will also affect the total number of possible points you need to have to play with on the nutrient gauge.
By adjusting the incubator's temperature control for the isomerases enzymes, you can affect a creature's damage and armor potential.
Isomerases Enzyme slot 1 works with the temperature gauge to determine your bonus points for damage and armor.
Lyases Enzymes and Isomerases Enzymes
Slot two is dedicated to Lyases Enzymes. Lyases enzymes have statistics associated with them and you can find out what they are by examining the item. Lyases enzymes can be found throughout the galaxy by foraging. Also placed into the appropriate slot by dragging and dropping them from the inventory window, lyases enzymes affect your creature's attribute bonuses.
Slot three, as noted above, is dedicated to Isomerases Enzymes. Found throughout the galaxy as loot, these enzymes affect how many total bonus points will be available. Creatures can have up to 12 attributes and up to 11 of them can be altered per session. The quality (resource attribute) of the isomerases enzyme affects how many bonus points can be applied in relation to the attribute bonuses associated with the lyases enzymes placed in slot 2.
The attributes of these two enzymes and how they are mixed will determine your creature's final attributes and attribute bonuses. The final results will be available once the session is complete.
Slots 2 (Lyases Enzymes) and 3 (Isomerases Enzymes) work together to determine your creature's attributes and bonuses.
Inventory Filter
An incubator's inventory filter works the same way a crafting window filter works. Simply check the "Filter" box and the window will display only enzymes that are in your inventory. You can find it on the right side of the incubator window at the top.
Enzyme Examine Window
Clicking on an enzyme in the inventory window will display the enzyme's key information. You can also find this information by examining the enzyme.
Power Gauge
Incubators run on geothermal power. Geothermal power is the only type of energy source that will run the device. You can place power into the incubator by selecting the "Deposit Power" option on the radial menu.
The power gauge will display how much power is in the incubator.
Additional Info: Incubator Sessions
Creating a creature with the incubator happens in three experimentation sessions.
You can adjust all of the controls during each of the three sessions.
Between each session, you can examine the incubator to find out:
The type of creature that is in the incubator.
The amount of skill points the creature has and how they are currently distributed.
Current attribute bonuses.
The amount of remaining time until the next experimentation session.
Creature Skills
Creatures each have 6 skills. The skills are displayed on the incubator controls and may be adjusted during each of the three experimentation sessions.
Survival and Bestial Resilience (green) represent a creature's defensive skills.
Cunning and Intelligence (yellow) represent a creature's intellectual skills.
Aggression and Hunter's Instinct (orange) represent a creature's aggressive skills.
Creature Eggs
When the last experimentation session has completed, check the incubator with the radial menu. If the creature is ready, use the radial menu again and select "Convert to Egg."
After the creature egg has been created, you can open the incubator using the radial menu, remove the egg and place it in your inventory.
Once the creature egg has been created and placed in your inventory, you can:
Hatch the egg which will create the creature. The creature will be owned by whichever character hatched the egg.
Sell the egg on the commodities market.
Creature Mounts
Certain creatures can also be mounts. These are: Bantha, Bols, Brackasets, Carrion Spats, Dewbacks, Falumpasets, and Kaadus.
Creature mounts must be sold and purchased as an egg. After purchasing an egg, use the radial menu and select, "Convert Egg into Mount" to create the mount.
the Beast Handler expertise will take up to 45 points from your expertise. There wont be any more points available so you will be sacrificing your main proffession expertise points for it.
There are 2 trees, one will be about breeding and developing your pets, the other will be about combat abilities and stuff.
WarCry Q&A: Beast Master Interview Answers by Jake"jneri" Neri (Producer, LucasArts) Questions by Robert "Sabrehawk" Cox
WarCry: Beast Master ranks up there as quite possibly the most-wanted feature by the community since the NGE left hordes of Creature Handlers with full datapads and empty hearts. How intense was the pressure to get it right? How do you think you did?
Jake Neri: There was definite pressure to get the Beast Master system right, as we had heard time and time again from players that they loved the old Creature Handler profession. The team took the overall idea of the Creature Handler profession, with all its high expectations, and made it far deeper and way cooler. I think now we see that Beast Master is exactly that: much more compelling than any similar features previously in the game, and also much more accessible to all players.
WarCry: In the old days, Creature Handler was seen by some as just an online version of Pokemon. How has the team dealt with that view? Was there an effort made to make Beast Master a serious, viable sideline career as well as a hobby?
Jake Neri: We weren't really concerned with how the Creature Handler profession was perceived when it was in the game more than a year ago, as the current Beast Master system is very different and far more robust. What we did focus on was how much our players enjoyed collecting their creatures and ultimately interacting with them, so that was the basis of the new Beast Master system. Because the system is contained within a profession expertise tree, we fully expect players to spend their talent points in it to grow and progress their characters' careers, while also using the resulting Creatures to adventure, explore and engage in combat.
Of course, there will naturally be a "hobby" element to the system as well. We've found that many of our players are collectors of all types of things in the game, from the items they put in their house, to their speeders and mounts. We anticipate that many players will spend a good amount of time harvesting and trading pets to grow their collections. I think the incubation process, with its ability to create unique, mutated creatures will definitely keep people engaged in the system from start to finish.
WarCry: It's been pointed out that players can spend all 45 of their expertise points in Beast Master expertise. Is it meaty enough to make that worthwhile?
Jake Neri: Yes, the system is definitely robust enough to make it worthwhile for a player to spend all his or her talent points in the Beast Master tree. However, it all depends on what the player wants to get out of the Beast Master system. If the player wants the most effective pet possible, he or she will need to spend all 45 points there. However, the player is more interested in creating Beasts, and not necessarily their combat abilities after they hatch, they won't need to spend all of their points in the tree. The point of the Profession Expertise System as a whole (including the Beast Master tree) is that players need to really think about what type of character they want to create and what kinds of activities they want to engage in. The whole thing is a series of trade-offs that ultimately create a galaxy full of incredibly unique characters.
WarCry: What's the one feature that you wanted for Beast Master that just wouldn't work out?
Jake Neri: Funny enough, when I read this question I actually had to get on the phone with the game's lead designer, Thomas Blair, because I honestly couldn't think of anything that we wanted to get in the system that didn't make it. Thomas confirmed my suspicions: we managed to get all the features in that we wanted to. In fact, we ultimately delayed the release of Chapter 6 by two weeks to make the system as complete as possible. Of course, as with any of our new features and systems, we will be carefully watching how players interact with it, and make any adjustments or improvements that we deem necessary in the future.
WarCry: In the long run, how will Beast Master affect combat, both PvE and PvP? Will there be a difference? How will a fully-expertised combat character stack up with a full-on Beast Master counterpart?
Jake Neri: Overall, the Beast Master system should have a positive effect on all combat as it provides new levels of intensity and challenge to the experience. Players who specialize in the Beast Master tree will definitely be an asset to any group and will also be very handy in combat situations. Certainly some classes will stack up better against a Beast Master than others, but that's the point of the Profession Expertise System as a whole.
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