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Modifying Gear
Modification is the process of installing components into items to customize the stats on that item, typically with the goal of improving the stats on the item or altering the stats on the item to serve a different purpose. There are three kinds of modification currently in SWTOR - base item modification, augmentation, and cosmetic customization through color crystals (weapons) or dyes (armor). This chart shows the various slots that can be modified for gear. While the off-hand slot may be a different base item for your class, it would have the same type and number of slots as shown here.

Base Item Modification consists of installing components on a custom (orange) or adaptive (purple) weapon, off-hand item, or any armor slot item on your character (head, chest, wrists, hands, waist, legs, feet). It is easy to modify an custom or adaptive item's base slots. Simply use Ctrl + Right-click on an item to open its modification panel. You do not need a workbench table to do this. You can then right-click any current component in the item to remove it (with a cost that will be shown before accepting). Removing an old component is only necessary if you want to transfer that component to a different piece of gear. To install a component in a slot on an open item, right-click the component from your inventory. Be warned that the component will overwrite whatever is in the matching slot on the current item, whether that slot is blank or currently contains a different component. You will be prompted with a warning before installing a new component over an old one.

Weapons and Off-Hand items have a slot for a barrel or hilt, a slot for a mod, and a slot for an enhancement. Most armor pieces are similar except the barrel or hilt slot is replaced with an armor plating component slot. The only armor pieces that are different are for the wrists or waist, which only have slots for an armor plating component and a mod component. Armor plating, barrels, or hilts, typically have your main stat and endurance in varying amounts. Mod components will have your main stat, some endurance, and a secondary stat. Enhancement components will have endurance and two secondary stats.

All armor, hilt, barrel, mod, and enhancement components can be obtained from purchasing them from various commendations vendors, crafting, buying crafted ones off the GTN, or uninstalling them from randomly dropped or token-redeemed custom/adaptive gear.

Augmenting an item consists of using a workbench to add another component slot to ANY type of item (including relics, implants, and earpieces) using an Augmentation Kit. This additional component slot, called an Augment Slot, can then be used to further upgrade your gear by installing an Augment.

Augmentation Kits are created by reversing engineering crafted gear to get special materials to make the kits. The materials are in turn used to craft an Augmentation Kit. Augments are also created through crafting, and generally require base materials typical to the given crafting profession plus additional materials from the Slicing crew skill. Thus, augmenting typically requires two characters to be completely self sufficient, unless you are willing to buy the expensive input materials off the GTN instead.

The only difference from Base Item Modification is that a workbench is required to install an Augmentation KIT on any item, but once that Augment slot exists on an item, actually installing/uninstalling Augment components is the same.

Cosmetic Customization consists of using a color crystal in a weapon to change the weapon's color animations (such as lightsaber blade or blaster bolt colors) or using a dye module to change the color of a piece of armor. Installing a crystal or dye module works the same as Base Item Modification and no table is required, except you must install the desired component in a special slot for the cyrstal or the dye.

There are three kinds of dyes. First there are dual-channel dyes which consist of a single dye module that changes the primary and secondary colors of an item. Next there are primary channel dyes that will only change the primary color of an item. Lastly there are secondary channel dyes that will only change the secondary color of an item. Any given item has only one slot for a dye module so you cannot combine a primary and secondary dye on a single item, but instead would need to obtain the dual-channel version of that dye combination. Dyes cannot be mixed to create new colors.

Crystals or dyes are obtained from crafting, purchasing off the GTN, reputation track vendors, or as random drops from Cartel Packs. Crystals can also be uninstalled from existing items, but dyes cannot be obtained in this manner.

Crystals also have a small boost in stats, but dyes do not. A crystal will have only one stat, either endurance, power, crit, or expertise.