





In the mobile game Star Wars: Uprising, launched earlier this fall, players battle against the omnipresent Empire in the Outer Rim as one of five factions — working together to discover the truth about the fall of Emperor Palpatine after Return of the Jedi. Like any MMO, Uprising is always evolving. From regular events to massive new additions to the game’s story, the team at Kabam and Lucasfilm are working tirelessly to bring the best experience they can to their players. To learn a bit more about some of the new changes arriving today — you can download the game here — StarWars.com recently sat down with Orion Kellogg and Derek Williams, two members of the Lucasfilm Games production team.

To start, we discussed the main goal behind the new content the team’s been working on. “I think a lot of it is substantial UI tweaks that will really improve the user experience now that we’ve had a chance to see feedback from users,” says Williams. “We’re implementing improvements to many of the existing systems to make them more accessible and improve flow.” Looking over the list of what’s changing, that certainly seems the case. A host of alterations to the user interface are coming, touching everything from the Crew Runs system to the Supplies system. To Williams this is important, not only because it shows that Kabam “is very active in reading what the community has to say and is listening to them,” but because, “it benefits the new user as well.”

Outside of the quality-of-life changes to the user interface, Uprising is also seeing major changes to the content and how players engage with it. Sector Battles, Uprising’s major game events where players can work together to unlock new story content, is getting an overhaul as to how players get loot and make their mark on the galaxy. For instance, players will now be able to participate in daily missions and have their work converted over to Battle Plans for the next sector event. This doesn’t mean players won’t have to fight during the event. “Sector Battles is still something you want to participate in during the window,” says Kellogg. “But the overall goal was to bring all elements of Uprising together so that you’re always contributing to the fight against the Empire.”

One of the elements they wanted to bring to the forefront of Sector Battles was the Cartel system, a group not unlike guilds seen in other games of the genre. Cartels work together in Sector Battles to earn rewards — only now those rewards will escalate as the Cartels reach new milestones. Additionally, Cartels that are higher on the leaderboard will be rewarded for their efforts. “The top-placed Cartel will get credit after the Sector Battle and actually receive benefits for the next Sector Battle,” says Williams, “so they might receive bonuses when they run missions in that sector.” On top of that, Uprising will also list that Cartel as controller of that system until its next Sector Battle.

Participating in Sector Battles will continue to be important in Uprising whether you’re in the top Cartel or the bottom, as this will still be the way you’ll unlock new story missions — story missions that bring everyone a step closer to understanding the post-Return of the Jedi universe. “What’s super important to all of Star Wars is that it’s one universe and all of the storytelling is connected,” says Kellogg. “The game has and will continue to have connection points.”

If this isn’t enough, there’s even more content and surprises coming in the next couple of months. So what are you waiting for — you don’t want those bits of lore to be locked away forever, do you? Get out there, find a Cartel, and start fighting the Empire to get back your characters’ freedom…and acquire hoards of loot along the way.

Anthony Gallegos is a freelance writer who loves Star Wars and video games. He’s written for publications like IGN, GameSpy, 1UP, EGM, and Games for Windows: The Official Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter at @chufmoney.