Jedi by Knight

Check out the first post in this series here: Revisiting KOTOR II: (#1) A Fresh Start.

Last time we waved good-bye to Telos and set off for Nar Shaddaa to begin our quest of finding allies in the fight against Sith galactic domination.  The completionist in my head is screaming because I still have some unfinished side quests from Telos.  I thought I explored everything pretty well, so it may be I’m just waiting for some further trigger in the story to be able to complete them.

Also, a few of them I just gave up on, like getting this guy to follow me out of the hanger on the planet surface.  His AI just was not having any of it.  I left him.

In any case, I may be able to go back later and finish some up.  Or I may never be able to finish the quests at all now. That’s just how it goes in KOTOR.

To sum up Nar Shaddaa, the story was very interesting, and the combat was torturous.  I died. A lot.

I hoped going to Nar Shaddaa first would give me a little insight into Atton’s character, because I knew he’d spent some time there in the past.  I got enough influence with him to get him to reveal some of his backstory (I am guessing that this is at least part of what Kreia mined from his brain in the last edition).  We discover that he is Force-sensitive, and my character helps him take his first steps on the path to becoming a Jedi.  This is excellent news, because now I can give him Force healing powers and won’t have to waste medpacs on him anymore.

If the theme of my first few sessions was finding my ship, the theme of my ones on Nar Shaddaa was people/droids sneaking onto my ship.  Visas Marr was probably the most annoying.  No matter which dialogue option you choose (and I tried all of them), it leads straight into combat with her.  I died three times before I thought to try running away.

No matter what you say here…

…this is the result.

Unfortunately, you can’t leave the ship, but she stops attacking once you break line of sight.  I wandered around until I found HK-47, then got him up and running and sent him after her.  It’s hardly a fair fight when she has a lightsaber and I don’t.  I eventually defeated her after I switched from using melee shields to using energy shields.

Around this point, I discovered the secret to combat in KOTOR II: use your shields.  Let me repeat, SHIELDS ARE THE KEY TO ALL COMBAT.  They are easy to get from drops, or you can make them at workbenches or even have Bao-Dur make basic ones for you.  Once I started using them effectively, I stopped dying all the time.  There are many times during the on Nar Shaddaa where you only have a single character in your party, or are limited in which characters you may use, which can throw off your combat strategies.  Stay on your toes, upgrade your equipment, and use your shields.

Unfortunately, I was not allowed to kill Visas after that battle; instead she joins your party (over the objections of Kreia; Kreia objects to literally everything you do).  Also joining my party on Nar Shaddaa is Mira, a cool red-headed Scout; we are also introduced to her enemy, the Wookiee Hanharr (whom I would have gotten instead if I’d been darkside).

But I really wanted to kill her.

Visas is useful because she can use Burst of Speed to run around faster, and is slightly less annoying than Kreia.

Eventually, I have to face the Exchange boss that’s put a bounty on my character’s head.  I chose to take Atton and T3 with me to Goto’s yacht; Atton is useful because he is ranged, now has Force healing powers, and has a special feat called Fighting Spirit that gives him a chance to get back up if he’s downed while there’s still another party member alive.  Therefore, I spend 90% of the time playing as T3, who has unlimited shields, and his droid shock arm is boss.

I actually did the yacht the hard way because I didn’t find all the defense shutdown codes until I’d killed all the droids, etc. anyways.  But I don’t think I died even once, and I got to recover a ton of mines, which can be used/sold/broken down for parts.

After I blew up his ship, Goto saddled me with G0-T0, a droid that looks like a torture device that has (yes!) sneaked onto my ship .  I remember this droid being fairly useless, but I’ll try to keep an open mind during this replay…

Now I’m gonna head back to the surface to finish up all the side quests that I ignored in my haste to go deeper into the main storyline.  I’m at 20 hrs 8 min of play time.  See you next time back in the Refugee Sector!

Continue on the 4th part of the series here: Revisiting KOTOR II: (#4) Why is my lightsaber red?