KOTOR: Tips and Tricks

This guide is specifically for those who are new to KOTOR, but is also aimed at those of whom that have played the game previously. In this guide, I will be showing you tips as you play through the game, a couple of helpful tricks along the road, and, if you are having issues, I can either help you or refer to another guide that shows you how to fix the problem.

Introduction

Hi! I'm Ultima, and I will be showing you some tips and tricks about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. Let me start off by saying this game is definitely my favorite Star Wars game of all time, even above the "Star Wars: Jedi Knight" series. It has every element I like: interesting real-time battles, funny characters with nice actors, amazing story, and gripping action.
Although some favor the first in the series, Knights of the Old Republic, I still prefer the second one, even though the release of the second game was a bit rushed and thus lacked a few key features.

Let's get onto those tips, shall we?

Tips and Tricks

The juicy part that you wanted to hear, here are the tips and tricks you should follow:

First off, never underestimate your shields and medkits. They are by far one of your most important assets, besides of course your skills, feats, and your companions. They easily turn the tide of the battle if timed correctly.

If you missed the voice vocabulator on Peragus make sure to check every droid vendor you come accross. All the parts have a guaranteed drop location, but if you miss one or more the parts have random spawn chances on HK-50 drops and randomly appear in Droid part vendor inventories. Credit for this tip to Cynnewulf!

Don't level up your Awareness skill often. It is useful, sure, but those points are better spent on Computer Use, Treat Injury, Persuasion, Demolitions, etc.

KOTOR 2 has something KOTOR doesn't: the ability to switch between weapons during battle at the click of a button. The weapon you switch to is determined by you in the window where you put on armor and weapons. My suggestion is that you have one set of weapons to be ranged (preferably a two-handed weapon instead of 2 blaster pistols, but that is your choice) and another set to be melee. Here, I suggest you have 2 melee weapons so you can use Flurry and destroy your opponents. However, Flurry seems to be much more effective against weaker opponents than enemies like, say, the Jedi-killers on Nar Shaddaa. Critical Strike is very effective against stronger opponents, and giving Mira this feat when you play as her will help the fight. Thanks for the tip Blitz!

If you see an enemy mine, RECOVER IT. Disabling it is pointless. Recovering the mine not only disables it but also gives it back to you and you can use it again or you can sell it for good money.

Determine early in the game if you would like to be a Jedi or a Sith. Unlike one of Bioware's more recent MMORPGs, Star Wars: The Old Republic, the dialog does not tell you if it gives you light-side points or dark-side points. Because of this, you must figure out on your own what dialog gives you dark-side points and what dialog gives you light-side points.

WARNING: The following trick is said to cause a glitch that may mess up your savegame. I haven't experienced this personally, but be wary using this going forward, as you should with all tricks and exploits of this nature. Thanks Seven for letting me know about this, hopefully no one else has lost savedata over this!
When you get the Handmaiden as your companion, spar with her. After you have sparred with Handmaiden, she will be wearing only underwear. When you talk her into putting something on, she uses her mother's robes. Whenever you leave the Ebon hawk with her, take the robes off and leave her without clothes. Return to the Ebon Hawk and talk her into wearing the robes again. When you leave the Hawk one more time, remove the robes again. You will see that there are two in your inventory list instead of one. You can do this as many times as you want. They can sell for 1800 credits each and break down for 200 parts when creating other items.
As another note with the Handmaiden (provided by Blitz), you can stay in the ship and cycle to the Handmaiden in the gear menu and take off her robes there. Talking to her again will trigger the same conversation, thus being quicker than leaving the ship.


Don't let the plasma torch at the beginning of the game go to waste as a component or lie at the bottom of your weapon list. Equip it as your alternate weapon and use it to open doors by bashing. This is especially useful in Peragus Station since your strength and demolitions and security skills will be at their lowest. For some reason, the plasma torch hits much more than a regular weapon on doors, usually after one or two tries.

If you have old and unneeded datapads, like the ones on Peragus, go to a workbench and break them down to get 1 Component. Although it's not much at all, it clears up your inventory while providing a small profit.

Upon the invasion/defense of Onderon Palace, you will find a terminal with 3 riddles which only have a one shot chance. You fail, it is locked permanently. The codes are first 66, then 45, then 39. The locked room will then be opened, revealing a rare item called the Ultima Pearl. It is a lightsaber crystal that provides +2 Damage, +3 Attack, and Mass Criticals 1-6.

Use the following steps to make HK-47 functional again. On Peragus, get the Voice Vocabulator from the wrecked HK-50 droid. On Nar Shaddaa, after you defeat three HK-50 droids with T3-M4, pick up the remains. On Dantooine, get parts from the salvager by the Jedi Enclave. Also, try to pick up all the remains that the HK-50 droids leave. Then you can rebuild HK-47 and use him as your companion.

[Ultima]

That's a good add Cynnewulf, I never knew that! Adding it now so it doesn't get lost in the comments; thanks for the heads-up.

[Cynnewulf]

If you missed the voice vocabulator on Peragus make sure to check every droid vendor you come accross. All the parts have a guaranteed drop location, but if you miss one or more the parts have random spawn chances on HK-50 drops and randomly appear in Droid part vendor inventories.

[princam]

Is there any other way to get the voice vocabulator after I've left peragus?

[Loyalist77]

Awareness is important for dialogue and dialogue is why you play KOTOR II. 0/10

Well actually other than that the guide is pretty good.

[erisenigma]

this was very helpful thank you <3

[#KNIGHT#]

im having some control issues. my mouse doesnt work to click anything, it just doesnt interact with stuff/characters. help would be more than welcome

[Veuhs]

You can also glitch through doors. I used the door glitch to get to both Dxun caches.

[Ultima]

Hi Seven, I'll promptly update the guide noting the glitch is possible, although I will say I haven't experienced it in any of my runs. Still, it sounds like it's worth noting, and it's better safe than sorry. Thank you for the comment, and happy gaming!

[Elaenor]

Lovely tip with the robes for someone who has played through the game 10 times already. However, dueling the maiden is said to give some kind of glitch. A glitch I experienced on my playthrough. Didn't touch the game since because I would likely lose hours of progress.

So that is a bit tricky then isn't it? :D

[Blitz]

Hi Ultima, No problem. That's really cool too, Thanks.