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Low-levelĪs a low level character, a majority of the free-to-play and or preferred restrictions you face will be convenience-based. If you’re currently a preferred player, and are unable to progress all the way to level 75, you will need to subscribe to unlock the most recent expansion. If you subscribed in the past, you’ll keep any expansions you had before, but won’t be able to play any newly released ones until you subscribe again. Most preferred players are players that subscribed in the past, but are not currently subscribing.
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Preferred players have a few less restrictions than free-to-play-players, and you can become a preferred player by spending at least $5 on the game either by subscribing for at least one month or by buying some cartel coins. There’s also an in-between state called preferred. When you subscribe, you unlock all the current expansions and can play them forever, even if you choose to unsubscribe the next month. Subscribing gives you access to 100% of the game’s content, including all of the expansions and no restrictions. Subscribing is when you pay monthly for the game, at about $15 a month. Some of the biggest drawbacks of being a free-to-play player is that there won’t be a lot for you to do once you complete you class storyline and the first two expansions and reach the free-to-play maximum of level 60. The drawback to playing free is that there are lots of small annoying restrictions like only being allowed to hold so many credits, not getting the best armor, and being locked out of some of the endgame high-level activities, but as far as things go, SWTOR has one of the best free demos out there.
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You can access so much of the game while playing for free, including all eight of the original class stories, and the first two expansions are now also free. That means you haven’t invested any money into the game, and are trying it out as a demo to see if you like it. When you first download the game, you start off as a free to play player. Here’s a quick over view of the different ways to play.
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