Note to Moderators: Can you sticky this thread?

Your Holocron has told you to become a Master Commando First of all, you’re very lucky.  It could have been Image Designer.  You are also the envy of many commandos in SWG.  Second off all, this thread will tell you everything you need to know about grinding the Commando profession.

Since you're just marching through on your way to Jedi, here are the answers you’re looking for.  Please don't post questions/suggestions on our forum unless you discover you enjoy what you're doing and want to contribute meaningfully to the forum.

The standard rant Frankly, we don't care if you're unhappy during your stay in our profession, so skip boring us with posts saying you don’t understand why Commandos have to learn Unarmed IV and how you think the weapons for Commando need to be reworked.  Many of us have beeing setting things on fire before you knew what a Holocron was. 

What are the pre-requisites for Commando?

• Master Marksman
• Unarmed IV

Why do I need Unarmed IV?  I don’t do any unarmed fighting as a Commando. It’s very simple.  The Commando profession uses a ton of weapons that are not used by any other profession.  No modifiers can be found for Commando weapons except in the Commando tree (save the Launcher Pistol).

So what kind of a person picks up a flamethrower having never used a pistol, a rifle, or even thrown a punch in their life?  I don’t know, but I’d stay at least 50 meters away from them.  Commandos need to learn Pistols IV, Rifles IV, Carbines IV, and Unarmed IV so they can get ready to handle the biggest, baddest weapons in the game: Flamethrowers, Heavy Acid Rifles, Rocket Launchers, grenades, etc.

If you want to complain about Unarmed IV using the argument that Commandos don’t do any unarmed fighting, ask yourself why Commandos don’t use Carbines or Rifles either.

Also, the rest of the Master Commandos and I had a talk and we decided that you can't get your Flamethrower certification until you can take out a bocatt with your bare hands.

It has been this way since the summer.  Many Commandos have accepted it and/or like it.  It’s not going to change.  So don’t start complaining like Luke Skywalker on our message boards.

How do I get Unarmed IV? There are several tricks you’ll need to use throughout the Unarmed tree:

• Get yourself a par of Vibroknucklers.  Even though you’re not qualified for them, they will cause you to hit faster than you would without them.  Find ones with a speed of 2.2 or less.
• Get yourself a pet or a droid and group with it.  Have it sit in a city somewhere.  It will give you about 10-20% more xp per kill.  The difference adds up.  Killing a Gorg by myself, I get 76 Unarmed XP.  Killing a Gorg while being group with a pet that doesn't attack, I get 98 Unarmed XP.
• Use spice.
• Use food.  Flameout gives you about +1000 Health.
• Use Doctor buffs.  A doctor can buff your Health and Action stats for about 1500-2800 points each.  They last for about two hours.

First step: Beat stuff up.  Start with small critters outside of Mos Espa or somewhere similar.

Once you hit Unarmed III, you can try some bigger creatures.  Getting Unarmed IV is a hard one, but can be done.

When fighting a creature, hit it with Unarmedblind1 and Unarmedstun1.  Once those stick, go Beserk and you’ll hit for twice as many points while the creature is stunned that it can’t see anything.

Here are some other tips:

• Use healthsot1 with your pistol before going unarmed with a creature.  This will cause them to bleed while you’re punching the crap out of them.  If you only use healthshot1, you won’t get any pistol xp.
• Have a high-level player stand behind you and help you if you get in trouble.  A squill will give about 2500 xp, but at Unarmed III, you’re not dealing that much damage.  So you’ll need a Doctor’s buff, food, and spice to keep you alive.  A high-level player can heal you as you fight and kill any other animals in the area.
• Avoid creatures that deathblow.  It get's annoying.

How do I get combat xp? Kill stuff.  The more you kill, the more xp you get.  The bigger the animal, the more xp you get.

I’m Novice Commando.  Now what? Don’t run out and grab a Flamethrower.  Instead, get a Launcher Pistol (also know as the Lag Pistol).  Use it to acquire Heavy Weapons xp until you hit Flame III.  Then get a Flamethrower and use that.  Before Flame III, you’ll be very slow and very inaccurate.  The average speed on a Flamethrower is 4.5.  You can get a 33% speed slice to get it down to 3.0.

Flame specials stack.  So at Flame 4, you can hit a creature with flameSingle1, flameSingle2, and flameCone2.  It will burn down pretty quick.

The trees should be mastered in this order: Flamethrower Specialization, Heavy Weapons Support, and then Acid Rifle.  Field Tactics uses Combat xp and will come as you move up the other trees.

And what is the quickest way to get the xp?  Kill stuff.  Lot’s of stuff.  There are no tricks here other than what I’ve mentioned.  You just have to set things on fire as much as possible.  The bigger the animal, the bigger the xp.

Final thoughts That’s it.  There are more weapons other than the Flamethrower and Launcher Pistol, but if you’re here merely for an xp grind, you won’t care about those.

If you want to know about the Commando profession, check out Ivoni’s Commando Guide.  It’s the most extensive thing you’ll see.

HMPH!  Heretic!  Betrayer!  Fiend!

Let the grinders bitch and moan!  Let them suffer in the holoprofession of their own non-choosing!  We lose enough of our bretheren Commandos to holos without making it easy on them. 

*sighs*  It used to be Master Commandos would only train people in non-flame trees to cut down on the dabblers...  Now, we must face the possibilty that the Novice Commando Academy is turning out people with the intention of not actually being Commandos. 

Ah, well... I still say we are so strong that one in ten Jedi obsessed fanboys will choose Commando when they 'grind' their way up. 

Lynch, Master Commando of Flurry

Force Unsensitives - You changed jobs because a little blue box told you?  Wow, can you roll over and play dead too?

Combat Xp can be gained using C12 grenades as well.

Use Health shot to stick a bleed on something. Throw a grenade at it, then peace and run away. Keep health shotting it until it dies of the bleed and you'll get pure combat xp for killing it.

I am a TKM and I play the game trying to Master Professions to see what the perks the have while keeping TKM as best as I can.  I have used Holos to just randomly select the next profession for me to try, so what.  I recently achieved Master Armorsmith, next day I dropped it.  Now I am working on Commando. Oh what do you know, it's what my Holo said.

To all you guys who Complain about Hologrinders, quit crying!  If you think about it, the Hologrinders help out many players in the game.  Example: Let's say the Holo Crafters(since I just completed one), they go out buy resources like crazy spend alot of cash.  Medical side, they heal as much people as they can.

So to Good Luck to all you Hologrinders!