Do you own a smartphone? If so, have you ever had one of those nights where you can’t sleep and just spend hours thumb-tapping and scrolling away your life? I had one of those moments recently, and on this ride it took me through the iOS App Store browsing for SWTOR applications. The free ones of course. I’m one of those guys that believes anything can be learned on the internet for free, so why pay money to learn? Also, I’m cheap.

This series of posts are going to review the few free SWTOR applications on the iOS App Store. I’ve sat down and ram sacked every screen, every piece of text, analyzing and compiling data. Below you will find my intricate and nitpicked (I wish, I apologize now) review of the first of four applications. I’m reviewing these applications on a jailbroken iPhone 4, iOS 7.0.1. (Once again, apologies.) Please read and comment, on the article, on your thoughts on the wall of text, anything. I greatly appreciate constructive criticism, feedback, tips, and/or tricks.

Crew Helper – a SWTOR Companion App

In my last post, I reviewed practically a completely useless application. Crew Helper in my opinion is a much more useful application (compared to the last one). It is an application that provides a full overview on each companion for each class, for each faction. The developers of this app also ensured to note the companion’s differences based on the toon’s Light/Dark force alignment.

The user is able to quickly look up companion information in regards to:

Best role

Primary stat

Best weapon types

Best conversation choices

Romancable or not (Perfect for me, my toons love gettin’ some)

Crew skill bonuses

But, not only is there a full list of companions and the data incorporated with them, there is also an entire list of Companion Gifts. After selecting a gift, it displays which companion likes the gift, and the amount of love for that gift the companion has. What I would have liked to see with this feature is screenshots of the Companion Gift icons.

With this application, there isn’t a need to figure out what the companion likes/dislikes due to random conversation selections. Yes I understand it’s not to hard to figure out what a companion likes/dislikes, but this application breaks it down for the user. Ever had one of those moments where ESC was pressed quickly to avoid a companion disliking the selection made? This application can prevent that I suppose. With this application, I can go into Story Line/Side Story questing without worrying if my decisions are going to please my companion. Personally, I aim for highest companion affection in every conversation. I have deep issues with being liked and if these animated characters in-game like me, life is good. Just jokes, but not really, but just jokes.

Graphically, it’s a very simple layout. Starry background, portraits of the companions. The application serves it’s purpose well so there really isn’t a need to be graphically appealing.

My biggest concern would be … updates. When information changes as patches and expansions come along, are the developers of these applications staying on top of it by updating with latest amount of information? In regards to Crew Helper, the application was last updated 10/14, and prior to that was 3/13, and prior to that was 5/12. It is possible to send in corrections in case there is an error, but looking at that time line, when will the devs of the app get to it? I believe keeping it up-to-date should the biggest priority of any data app, especially the creators want it to streamline.

Overall, I give it a 8 out of 10. It is data-heavy covering multiple aspects of all companions. Timely updates though is a huge concern. I don’t want to be on an application a year later that is not up to date with the software I’m using it for. Great job to those who created it.

Stay tuned the next few days for the next in this series. Are there any applications, iOS and/or Android you use for convenient SWTOR play? Leave your thoughts below after the screenshots.