In Part II of our Smooth Operations guide, we go in-depth on the final step you need to take to get into SWTOR's endgame operations.

The False Emperor: The False Emperor is another long and easy flashpoint, except that good strategy is what makes this flashpoint a smooth run. The first mini-boss, Tregg the Destroyer, will kill anyone near him when he's spinning, and he can knock players over the ledge if they're not careful. Jindo Krey requires a coordinated team to fire the missiles at his ship while others keep him locked down (and it's possible for the ship to get stuck, making it hard to know when to fire the missiles). The other bosses require little to no strategy, so there's not much to add. 

For Darth Malgus, the first 90% of the fight is very easy (please be sure to interrupt his channeling power ability, or he will instantly wipe your group), but once you get him to 10%, he begins to channel lightning at you and is immune to damage. At this point you need to lure him to the ledge (as a Bounty Hunter, I simply grappled him over), and then throw a grenade or use a knockback skill to push him into the pit. It's possible to mess this up and make Malgus immune to knockbacks, so be careful (and please don't root him like my Sith Marauder did).

Drops: Columi Chest, Tionese Gloves, Tionese Mainhand Weapon.

Battle for Ilum: If you're running with two stealth characters (Assassins / Shadows or Operatives / Scoundrels), it's actually possible to skip about 80% of this flashpoint, including a boss or two. Keep an eye out for opportunities to sneak by, and do so. Most of Battle of Ilum is fairly easy, except for one boss in the middle, Krel Thak. While you can skip this boss with a very good assassin or operative (it involves some close timing), beating Krel Thak requires your tank to be smart in grabbing the additional mobs that spawn and making sure that your melee players don't hit the boss when he has a proximity mine up. This is easier said than done, which is why I would rank Battle for Ilum harder than The False Emperor. Once you get the hang of this flashpoint, however, it's definitely a quick run. My personal best time - with an Operative and Assassin - is around 15 minutes with only 10 fights (including bosses) total.

Drops: Columi Offhand Weapon.

Boarding Party: Boarding Party is another flashpoint where a lot of fights (in the latter half when the Jedi start to appear) can be skipped with a good operative / assassin running ahead and disabling key enemies. In reality, the difficult part of Boarding Party is only the final boss group: Commander Jorland, Security Chief Massey, and Medical Officer Alon. In fact, if it were not for this final boss fight, I think Boarding Party would rank somewhere among the easiest flashpoints to run. 

The best way to tackle this fight is to have your tank to "pull" Jorland into the previous room while the rest of your group pounces on Alon in the main bridge. It's very easy to solo kite Jorland around the generators, as he often stands still in the middle of the room. Simply stay out of his line of sight by jumping around generators, and you'll do fine. Meanwhile, your team needs to kill Medical Officer Alon before moving on to Security Chief Massey, who will be wandering back and forth between rooms. Once Massey is down, your team can focus on Jorland. During the early days, when my group was really under geared, Jorland would enrage around this point and his ammo salvoes would deal immense amounts of damage. Just remember that if you die, immediately respawn and run back in. As long as one person is still alive (and you get revert to kiting Jorland around the room if need be), the fight will continue and players can keep running into the flashpoint. I suspect this will be fixed soon, but it's not, so take advantage.

Drops: Columi Gloves.

Directive 7: Directive 7 is an extremely long instance with a very difficult boss in the form of Bulwark and a semi-difficult final boss with Mentor. There are a lot of trash mobs in Directive 7 that can be skipped with careful movement (operatives and assassins do nothing here, as the enemies are droids). Bulwark is simply a big damage and healing race, although you need to make sure your DPS destroys the panels in time and consistently prevents the little repair droids from fixing them back up. Aside from that, damage is key in this fight, so make sure your team is on top of their game.

For Mentor, the mobs themselves aren't too difficult, but it really comes down to strategy and execution. I won't detail the full strategy, but it's basically about blowing up turrets, generators, and guardian droids. The key is to make sure your teammates are ready to blow up the generators the moment you kill the turrets or the guardian droid, as you can artificially extend the length of this fight by missing an overheated generator. On paper, it sounds rather simple, and once you do it a few times, it really is, but less experienced groups will definitely find this challenging if they can't adapt quickly enough.

Drops: Columi Pants, Tionese Bracers.

Siege of Kaon: Kaon has, by far, the most difficult trash mobs of any hard mode flashpoint, and this is thanks to its Left 4 Dead inspired zombie packs. In Kaon, there are special zombies that will wipe out an unprepared group, no matter how well equipped they are. Specifically, there is the Zombie Mercenary that grapples players permanently if not interrupted or killed; the Bloated Zombie that explodes on death, dealing AoE damage and knocking players back; the Infected Screamer that deals immense single-target damage while knocking players very far back; and, finally, the Zombie Hunter that randomly pounces on players, dealing very high damage. About 2/3rds of the way through this flashpoint, you'll fight these zombies in concentrated groups, so it's best to understand how to counter them early on.

Prior to Patch 1.13, Kaon was the best hard mode flashpoint to farm for endgame raiders because the bonus boss, KR-82 Expulser and the final boss of the instance both dropped a Columi helmet token. In other words, Kaon was the only flashpoint that dropped two pieces of Columi gear rather than one. These days, KR-82 Expulser is no longer worth pursuing (he now drops a belt), but the mid-boss of Kaon, the Rakghoul Behemoth, still offers a great opportunity for players looking to get the best color crystal in the game. 

Most players believe that the best crystal available outside of endgame content is the +33 stat Magenta Crystal, but it requires a lot of time and effort to get, so many forgo it for a standard crafted crystal. More savvy players, however, have been stripping the color crystals out of the weapons dropped by the Rakghoul Behemoth. While these crystals are, unfortunately, a generic blue (Republic) or yellow (Empire) color, they do offer a whopping +41 power / crit / endurance, which puts them on par with Rakata level weapons (the best weapons currently in the game) and the new high-level black-yellow color crystals.

All in all, if you're able to do all of the above hard mode flashpoints consistently, then I'd say you're more than qualified to try out a normal mode Eternity Vault operation. The final boss of Eternity Vault, Soa, might be difficult for less coordinated groups, but experiencing the first four bosses (and they really are easy for normal mode operations) is something I suggest all players try at least once.

So to tie all of this in with the first half of my Smooth Operations guide, the order of operations goes as such:

1. Get a crew skill to 400 (Biochem or Armormech / Synthweaving are the best by far).
2. Get started on your daily quests.
3. Do some light PvPing for Champion level gear.
4. Start getting into hard mode flashpoints, beginning with The Black Talon, and working your way all the way to Siege of Kaon.

As a final tip, remember that even if you've gotten your Columi token from a specific hard mode flash point, you can still keep running that flashpoint for more of the same piece of gear to strip out mods for your other pieces of gear. Top level raiders customize their modifications by doing this, so find out what stats are important to you, and focus on getting those level 56 mods!

And that's really all you need to do to get into SWTOR's endgame content! If you follow my previous guide, Smooth Operations Part I and transition over to this guide, I can guarantee that you'll be able to jump into an endgame operation in no time. Good luck!

Chris "Pwyff" Tom, Editor-in-Chief