LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga beginner’s guide

There are dozens of LEGO titles out there now. From brand new IP to retelling the most popular stories of film history, these little brick people have been giving us a new, lighthearted, and fun way to experience these classic franchises all over again. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga isn’t just the latest LEGO game on the market, but it’s also the biggest and most ambitious one the developers have ever made. This single game encompasses all the mainline films in the titular franchise, starting with Episode 1 and going all the way to the conclusion of Episode 9, with nothing cut or missing in between. That is a lot of game, as you might imagine, which can feel incredibly intimidating to jump into when you look at all there is to do — and especially to collect.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga follows the general LEGO game formula, but also revamps a lot of things in new and exciting ways. You will still be doing some combat, light puzzle solving, lots of collectible hunting, and the unlocking of hundreds of characters, but many of these elements are changed up for this entry. For a game targeting audiences of all ages, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga does do a decent job at making the core experience easy enough to jump in and start having fun, but for anyone who wants a little more than that, there is some hidden depth and tricks that can give you a much more enjoyable experience reliving the entire Star Wars saga. Whether you’re a fresh Padawan or an experienced Jedi Knight, here is a complete beginner’s guide for LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.

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Learn the new combat system

Combat systems in all the prior LEGO games have always been very basic. You generally had little more than a single attack button you could mindlessly mash through most, if not all, enemy encounters for the most part. That all changes when you get into LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Now, you can feel more like a real Jedi with a completely overhauled melee combat system.

Right off the bat, you won’t be able to rely on hitting a single attack button anymore. Your basic attack will eventually start to get blocked if you spam it too much. To avoid this, learn to combo with your three main attacks: Light, heavy, and ranged attacks. You should also be ready to dodge and block more often. If you’re really fancy, you can even extend your combos into the air to do air combos and juggles. The combat system is very open, so the more creative you are with your combos and abilities — depending on your character — the further you can push it.

It might sound a little, well, Sith-like to say, but if you want to practice some combos, the best way to do so is to find any youngling in Free Play and attack them. Unlike in the films, you can’t kill the younglings (even as Anakin), but you can still hit and combo them. Use them to figure out some moves that string together well without them running out of health or attacking back.

Just as important as melee combat, the third-person shooting aspects LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga are just as refined. It controls much smoother, and you can now even target specific enemy body parts for different effects. Headshots will deal the most damage, as you can expect, but there are reasons to aim for a hand or foot too.

In the end, combat is much more satisfying once you learn the intricacies of it, which you will appreciate over the course of such a long game. If,x at the start, however, it is a bit of a struggle, not to worry. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is quite forgiving with checkpoints if you happen to fall in combat.

Go through the story missions first

When you look at the number of collectibles and percentages of all the levels, something in your brain might urge you to not move on until you’ve fully completed one area before moving on to the next. This is a trap (insert meme here). LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has 45 main story missions across the three trilogies, and you would do well to simply focus on going through all of these, collecting what you come across naturally, before going out hunting for the extras.

Before getting into the details, we need to address your first real choice in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga: Which trilogy you will start with. The game allows you to start at either Episode 1, Episode 4, or Episode 7, the respective first films of the prequel, original, and sequel trilogies. By default, you’ll be highlighting Episode 4 to start, and for most fans out there, this is where you would probably be most interested in starting. However, we recommend actually beginning at the, well, beginning, with Episode 1. This isn’t for any preference for that trilogy, though LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga does make these bad movies a lot more enjoyable and funny, but because of the progression of characters you unlock.

Also, note that you have to start with the first episode of each trilogy no matter what. By that, we mean you can’t start the prequels and jump from Episode 1 to 3 without completing 2 in between.

Each story mission you beat not only opens up that level for more leisurely exploration in Free Play, but it also unlocks a bunch of characters automatically. Each character has a class that has their own abilities or equipment that are required to find certain collectibles. Also, beating story missions unlocks more planets in the galaxy map to visit, and there are a ton of planets in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. If there was a planet named in any film, odds are you can go to it in this game.

Rather than beat a level, immediately return to it only to find you can only get 75% of the collectibles, and then have to leave and come back later, just do a full run through the entire story, get all the major character classes, planets, and gadgets unlocked, and then go back to fully sweep the map if you so desire.

Buy Stud multipliers first

Studs are back with a vengeance in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. These represent the currency of all LEGO games, and are needed for purchasing extras and characters, but they also impact your ranking. If you want to hit max rank, True Jedi, you’ll need an almost unreal number of Studs on each level. You pick them up by breaking anything and everything, but the quantities might will be relatively low at first. Because you’ll never be at a point where you’re not hurting for Studs for one reason or another, getting the Stud multipliers as early as possible will drastically cut down on how much Stud farming you will have to do later on.

There are five Stud multipliers to buy: X2, x4, x6, x8, and the final one at x10 Studs. Once you hit the max multiplier, you will easily be getting over a billion Studs in no time. To get these multipliers, you need to open your Extras menu and scroll down to the Studs section. These cost two things: Studs, obviously, but also Datacards. Datacards are special collectibles that only appear in specific locations. Use the first ones you find on getting as many Stud multiplier levels as fast as possible, though you don’t have to get the maximum level right away. If you get to at least x6 early enough, the rest of your time with LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will be a much less grindy experience.

Then buy the Collectible Detector

After you’ve gotten a few Stud multipliers under your belt, the next item you should be saving for has to be the Collectible Detector. In total, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has nearly 2,000 collectibles across all the planets, and while you certainly don’t need to get them all, plenty of them are useful, like the previously mentioned Datacards or upgrades. The Collectible Detector will make hunting down these collectibles way easier.

This upgrade, found in the Upgrades menu, first highlights areas on your screen where collectibles are. At first, it will only detect specific collectibles, like Minikits and ships, but can be upgraded to also show you Kyber Bricks and Datacards. While most of the collectibles, especially the higher value ones, are locked behind solving puzzles, at least knowing where to find those puzzles will help cut down on your backtracking and exploring a great deal.

When you do go back to hunt collectibles, make sure to do it in Free Play mode. If not, you’ll be locked into only playing as the characters usable in the story missions, while Free Play lets you use any and all characters you’ve unlocked. Tons of collectibles won’t be obtainable as the main story characters, so having access to your entire roster is completely necessary to make sure you have all the tools you’ll need to overcome any obstacle and solve any puzzle.

Get as many characters as possible

With those important purchases out of the way, your next investment should be holding onto your Studs for the hundreds of characters you need to buy in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Aside from the roster you are given for completing the main story missions, almost every other character in the game has a price associated with them. Some you even need to do a side quest for and then pay more Studs to unlock.

Not only is being able to play as the most obscure, forgettable, and background character you could imagine fun, but they all have utility thanks to the new class system. Every character will fall into one of nine new classes:

Jedi Class – You know who these guys are. They swing lightsabers, use the force, and are the iconic heroes of the series. They can use Mind Master, Trick Time, Jedi Reflexes, and Force Flinger.

Hero Class – Slightly different from the Jedi class, these are your heroes that happen to not be in touch with the force. Think of Poe Dameron, Finn, and even Padme. They have access to Armored Disguise, Improved Shield Generator, Rebel Heart, and Hero Terminal Expert.

Scavenger Class – Here we have the more rough and tough sort of the Star Wars universe. These characters are focused on movement and puzzle-solving, but not so much combat. Their abilities are Advanced Gliding, Expert Climber, Better Breaker Blaster, and Crafty.

Scoundrel Class – Let’s be honest, there’s only one character that comes to mind when you hear the word scoundrel, right? And you’d be exactly right. Han, Chewbacca, Lando, and the like are all part of the scoundrel class that is decent in a fight and as support. They can use Piercing Rounds, Charged Shot, Combat Slide, and Business Opportunist.

Bounty Hunter Class – These are your guns for hire. Bounty hunters tend to end up against the heroes, but in principle, they’re all about getting paid. They’re great at subduing foes, which makes sense if they’re after a bounty. They consist of classic characters like Jango Fett, Greedo, and IG-88. Bounty hunters can use Shock Grenade, Hidden Bounties, Scattershot, and Enemy Detector.

Villain Class – The dark side of the Hero class, villains are your evil, but not Sith, characters. They’re one of the most combat-focused classes in the game and are comprised of the likes of Stormtroopers, Captain Phasma, and Battle Droids. Their abilities are Defense Droid, Villain Terminal Expert, Extra Ammo, and Demolitions Expert.

Dark Side Class – Now we come to the biggest and baddest foes of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. These are your Sith, such as Snoke, Palpatine, and both Darth Maul and Vader. Their powers are different from the force powers the Jedi get in that they have Power Push, Force Crush, Dark Rise, and Fear the Dark Side.

Astromech Droid Class – Droids can’t be overlooked just because they’re mass-produced robots. These are your support-style droids, like R2-D2, BB-8, and R5-D4 (no, we didn’t just make that one up). Astromech Droids can use Super-charged, Droid Barage, Astromech Socket Expert, and Distraction.

Protocol Droid Class – Just because they know all about etiquette doesn’t mean they can’t help you out in some tricky situations and puzzles — just don’t bring them into a fight expecting much. This class is best represented, of course, by C-3PO, but also TA-7 and H1-NT. This class of droid can use Turret Tune-up, Paid Translator, Polished Plating, and Destructive Disassembly.

Each class is required for different things, such as quests, puzzles, navigation, or accessing different areas. At the bare minimum, you should aim to get your hands on at least one character from each class as soon as possible to begin leveling that class up so they’re more useful when the time comes to bring them out.

Find every Kyber Brick you can

And speaking up leveling up characters, that’s where the Kyber Bricks come into play. These are one of the most numerous collectibles in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and are perhaps the most important as well. These are what you will need to upgrade all kinds of things, such as character skills, unlock extras, or even unlock different modifiers. Some of the best uses for these early on are to spend them on the upgrades that affect all your characters, such as Attract Studs, which will increase the distance Studs automatically get sucked into your character so you don’t have to waste time hoovering them up yourself or even risk missing some before the blink out of existence.

The one big tip regarding Kyber Bricks is that you can always count on finding five of them in every planet’s “local space” area. Somewhere in each of these zones is a Kyber Comet you can find. Blast it apart and you will get five Kyber Bricks just like that, which is conveniently enough to get the first level of any ability.

Talk to anyone with an exclamation mark

As jam-packed with main story missions LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is, that didn’t stop them from tossing in a huge number of side missions as well. Any time you’re going through an area and spot an NPC with an exclamation mark symbol above their head, take a detour to speak to them. They will offer you one of two things: Either a rumor that acts as hints for things like how to solve puzzles, how to complete story mission challenges, where new characters are, or the location of side missions. These will cost you Studs, though, so think about whether or not the information will be valuable to you or not at that moment. The other is, well, just a straight-up side mission. These aren’t required, obviously, but do offer a lot of great rewards, including new characters, most notably. There are even a few multi-part-long side quests that generally have the best rewards.

Keep in mind that some NPCs will only talk to certain classes of characters, such as droids or empire soldiers only talking to characters of their own alliance. Again, this makes it much more convenient to circle back and do these after getting through the main story first and getting a roster of every class in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.

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