Mods: Some Basics

Hi, everyone. In this post, I'll outline the basics of Mods, not only how to acquire them, but also how to use them effectively. I was recently lucky enough to finally unlock Commander Luke Skywalker, and as I leveled, geared, and modded him I realized that Mods are one aspect of SWGoH that I've taken for granted. Mods are easy to understand and use, right?! Not in my experience. It took me quite some time to really understand the potential that Mods offer and what a significant impact excellent Mods can make. So, I thought to offer some thoughts. Some time ago, I posted about modding Fulcrum, which you may also find useful to read, but today I'll talk about Poe, since I'm not only working on his development currently, but he's also one of this month's login characters. First, I'll give you an overview of Mods, then talk about acquiring them, then about choosing and upgrading them.

I. Mod Overview

Mods are easily the most complex aspect of SWGoH. Every Mod boosts different stats of a given character, which gives you the ability to develop characters as you see fit, customizing them. Moreover, you can equip any character in the game with Mods once they've reached Lvl 50.

There are 8 different Mod Types: Health, Defense, Critical Damage, Critical Chance, Tenacity, Offense, Potency, and Speed. Combing Mods will give you Set Bonuses, which max at 10% per set. Offense and Critical Damage require 4 mods to complete a set, whereas all the other types only require 2. What's more, Mods themselves are tiered by their max power, from Mk1 (1 Dot) to Mk5 (5 Dots). You can also upgrade Mods to Max Lvl 15. Whew. Are you dizzy yet? Wait, there's more!

Worth noting are the names to those 6 differently shaped Mod slots: Transmitter (Square), Receiver (Arrow), Holo-Array (Triangle), Processor (Diamond), Data-Bus (Circle), and Multiplexer (Cross). At the lower levels, you're required to fight your way through Mod Battles, which will eventually unlock Mod Challenges. These Challenges are the best way to earn excellent mods, but more on that later. Suffice it to say, Mod Challenges require fairly powerful squads: Health (All), Defense (Jedi), Critical Damage (Jawas), Critical Chance (Scoundrels), Tenacity (Rebels), Offense (First Order), Potency (Empire), and Speed (Resistance). As with all things SWGoH, the Challenges are tiered. The higher the tier, the better the Mods that drop.

II. Mod Acquisition

There are a number of ways to acquire Mods in SWGoH. We'll cover the basics. First, Mod Battles will yield Mk1-2 Mods, which are obviously the weakest in the game. More importantly, Mod Battles will unlock Mod Challenges, which gives you access to the most powerful Mods in the game:

I suggest you invest your resources in unlocking Mod Challenges as soon as possible. Most players in the Lvl 70 range should have one squad of 5* characters to unlock the Tier III Health Mod Challenge, which yields Mk5 Mods. You can use any combination of characters to earn Health Mods, which is one of the reasons why I suggest you go after these Mods first. Another important reason is that characters at lower star and gear levels really need to boost their survivability, which Mk5 Health Mods famously do:

Now, there are additional ways to acquire powerful Mods. There is, of course, the Mod Store:

You'll note that purchase of these Mods in the store requires either credits, or crystals. I personally don't suggest this option, if only because the RNG is very touch and go, not to mention that they're very expensive. If you want to spend crystals on Mods, you can find full packs for sale under the Resources tab in the game's main Store for 999 crystals per pack of 6:

If you are a FtP player, it's possible to save up enough crystals and purchase one of these packs. It will just take some patience on your part to do so! I've never actually purchased one of these packs, but eventually I will. When compared to the time and resources it takes to unlock, level, gear, and mod a squad of Jawas to earn Critical Damage Mods, for instance, 999 crystals looks cheap.

III. Choosing and Upgrading Mods

Okay, so you're probably asking why you should bother with high powered Mods in the first place. In this final section, I'll show you how I've customized Poe and how eye-poppingly effective powerful Mods can prove. Let's go step by step.

So, here's my Favorites page at the moment:

I use this Favorites Tab to instantly see all the characters I'm actively developing, as a kind of staging area. Basically, I'm working on First Order, Resistance, and Pilots. Sith Assassin and Baze are flagged because I want the former for my Sith Squad and the latter for my second Rebel squad. But, we're here to talk about P Diddy:

Take note of his General Stats, as well as the very important Physical Damage stat under Physical Offense. Without Mods, Poe is very squishy, which isn't good (and is quite unconventional) for a Tank who will Taunt and, in turn, get absolutely hammered by enemies. With that mind, I'll look to increase his Health, Protection, and Defense. On the Offensive side of things, Poe's Basic and Special both inflict negative status effects, such as Offense Down. The higher his Potency, the more effective he'll be. Out of the box, his Potency is only at 10% at Lvl 85 7*, which is horrifyingly bad news. Suffice it to say, he could use Mods that make him potent, specifically Potency Mods:

At this point, I've chosen a Potency Mod set and a Health Mod set. Notice how his Health, Protection, Speed, and Potency have increased. His Physical Damage is also boosted. Now, keep in mind, these are Mk5 Mods at Max Lvl 15, which, I should note, cost a ton of credits to upgrade. Which brings me to my next point. Once you've decided which Mod Types you want to use, how do you choose which specific Mods of each type to use? You'll need to pay close attention to both the Primary Stat and Secondary Stats of each Mod you acquire.

Let's take Health mods, for example. Here's a Mk 5 Lvl 1 Health Mod that's collecting dust in my Mod Inventory:

Note that every Mod has a Primary Stat and a series of Secondary Stats. The percentage of a Primary Stat will increase as the Mod's level increases with upgrades. However, every Mod also gives 4 Secondary Stats, all of which differ from Mod to Mod. Rather than spend a TON of credits to level up every Mod just to see what stats it will offer through upgrades, I usually just take a peek. For most Mods, a new stat will appear at Lvl 3, 6, 9, and 12. The higher the level, the more the cost to upgrade, so I usually opt to only level up a Mod to 9, which gives me a pretty good idea of what that particular Mod has to offer:

Aaaaaand after the upgrade we find:

Not bad. But, as a general rule, I usually look for Base Increases rather than Percentage Increases. What's the what now, you ask? Well, take a look:

So, let's compare the Mk V-B Health Processor to the Mk V-A Processor that I equipped, located on the far right of the screen. When maxed, that V-B will give the same Primary Stat boost as the V-A. The Secondary Stats, though, tell a different story. The V-A Processor that Poe has equipped gives him 3/4 Base Increases. That +1873 Protection is a very much needed Base Increase. When possible, look for these kinds of major Base Increases, rather than the usually lower Percentage Increases.

What's more, since I wanted to increase Poe's Potency significantly, I chose to complete the Health Mod set with one that gave him a Primary Stat increase in Potency. Yes, Primary Stats aren't always the same from Mod to Mod, so do pay attention to them. The Health Multiplexer (Cross) with which I've equipped him yields +24% Potency (Primary Stats are all percent increases), and the Secondary Stats yielded 3/4 Base Increases to Health, Offense, and Speed.

As for my choice in Tenacity Mods, which occupy the Transmitter (Square) and Data-Bus (Circle) positions, I chose a combo that would not only give Poe the 10% Tenacity increase from a max level set, but also importantly give him +23.5% Protection (Data-Bus Primary Stat) and +594 Protection (Transmitter Secondary Stat). You'll do well to equip most characters with Mods that give them a Primary Stat Protection bonus, as well as Secondary Stat Protection bonuses, no matter what Mod Type--be it Health, Potency, Defense, etc.--you choose to use.

To give you a different example, my Chirrut Imwe has 6 Mk5 Health Mods equipped, 3 of which give +23.5% Protection as their Primary Stat. All 6 Mods, moreover, give Base Increases to Protection as Secondary Stats: +2101, +508, +652, +659, +1310, +819. While Poe's Protection is 11,487 (see below), Chirrut's is 32,579! Granted, Chirrut is at a higher gear level, which increases this number, but the Mods do make a sizable difference.

Speaking of Poe, let's get back to him. Now that I've raised Poe's Potency, Health, and Protection significantly, I'll need to boost his Defense. He is a Tank, after all, and Tanks are the premier Defensive Characters in the game:

Now that's what I like to see. Lots of GREEN. And the Defensive Mods that I chose weren't yet upgraded to max level:

Compared to his pre-Modded version, this Poe is looking viable now. His General Stats have increased significantly, which, at bottom, increases his survivability and offensive effectiveness. The next stage is to increase his Gear Level from G8 to G9, which will boost these numbers even more.

At the end of the day, you can Mod your characters any way that you wish. If I'd wanted, I could have Modded Poe for Speed, so that he would be the first character to take a turn in most encounters and, in turn, would immediately Taunt, thereby absorbing initial rounds of damage to keep the rest of my squad alive. So, when choosing Mods to use, take note of a character's Offensive and Defensive capabilities and ask yourself which kinds of Mods would increase their effectiveness.

As we've seen with Poe, Potency increases the effectiveness of negative status effects, such as Offense Down. On the flip side, for instance, Tenacity Mods will increase a given character's ability to resist negative status effects. You can find a comprehensive list of Buffs and Debuffs that includes their descriptions here. When modding, also consider how the character will function in a squad. Are they a Tank and prone to take a lot of damage? Well, they'll need Health and Protection. Or, are they an Attacker, who could use a bump to their Offense? At the end of the day, my advice is to choose Mods based on a given character's Base Stats, Abilities, and their role in a squad.

All this said, there are general ways in which players have already modded characters to make them more effective. Gaming-Fans and Crouching Rancor have great suggestions for modding your characters, and I definitely suggest you give them a read, too. And, as always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Good hunting, everyone.