Challenge Run Guide

I suppose, like all guides, I should start with a little introduction. I absolutely love KOTOR. I think it is one of the greatest Star Wars games ever made and, in my opinion, probably one of the best, if not the best, plot twists in all of Star Wars.

I have been playing this game since its first release on the Xbox all those years ago (yes, kiddos, I am an old gamer man now, from the bygone era when Numa Numa was one of the original internet memes).

My favourite way to play the game in modern times is with a “challenge run” (I'll explain these in more detail later), so I have decided to dedicate this guide to tackling various challenge runs. That said, I've structured it so the information, tips, and tricks can be applied to any playthrough.

My main reason for making this guide is that many other guides I have seen on Steam or YouTube are either 1. Give limiting advice (such as you must make your attribute distribution like x to make the playthrough easier) or 2. Contain bad information.

So, whether you are a new player trying to figure out how to make it easier or a seasoned player looking for a new way to play the game, there should be something in this guide for you.

***NOTE****
There may be spoilers ahead.
This whole guide assumes playing on the vanilla version (more on this)
The only mod I have installed is the Impossible Mod, which I use for the impossible run challenge. It does not add items or change any mechanics other than to make enemies do more damage if I choose to increase the difficulty beyond the vanilla difficulty.
There are some background mechanics of the game that I have deliberately chosen not to discuss to keep the guide from getting too complex, and because I feel that, in the context of playing the game, knowing the mechanics at a deeper level adds no further value to playstyles.

Please bare in mind this is the first Steam guide I have ever written so forgive me if the formatting needs improvement (I will edit and add to it over time)

Before we go any further, it's worth mentioning that there are slightly different versions of KOTOR.

The original Xbox version does not have alignment masteries. Yavin Station was a DLC released later, so you would need to double-check whether you have access to it.
The PC version (as purchased from Steam) includes alignment masteries and the Yavin DLC by default. This is the version the guide is based on.
Mobile and Switch ports are the same as the PC version.

The mechanics behind KOTOR are built on the classic Dungeons and Dragons system, except you do not see the dice being rolled. Before you dive into the game and pick a build strategy, it's worth understanding the following aspects.

For any character (player or NPC) to land an attack, a 20-sided die (1d20) is rolled. If the number rolled (plus any bonuses or penalties) is higher than the opponents defense, it lands a hit (more on this later)

There are 2 exceptions to this roll
A roll of 1 is an automatic fail/miss, regardless
A roll of 20 is an automatic success/hit and performs a critical hit (more on critical hits later)

The damage incurred on a successful hit varies from weapon to weapon; for example, a Lightsaber has a base damage of 2-16. This means 2 dice are rolled, where their total value can add up to a total of 16 (so 2 8-sided dice)

This means that if you have a choice between two weapons, Weapon A has 1-12 and Weapon B has 3-10. Weapon A has the opportunity to deal more damage (12 is higher than 10); however, because Weapon B rolls more dice, it will, on average, over many attacks, do consistently higher damage output. In my opinion, there is no right or wrong answer on which to choose; it depends entirely on your playstyle and whether you want reliability or higher potential damage. The choice is yours, but as you will see from this guide, some playstyles prefer one choice, while others prefer the other option.

Vanilla difficulty has three options: Easy, Normal, and Hardcore. In a nutshell, the difficulty only adjusts how much damage the player character and their party take from enemies, grenades, mines, etc. It does not change the odds of getting hit. This last bit is crucial, as you will see later on with glass cannon archetypes. I often recommend taking advantage of the defence stat so that the odds of actually being hit by an enemy drop to 5% (which is impossible to lower further due to automatic fail/success rolls).
Easy: 50% Damage dealt to player and party
Normal: 100% Damage dealt to player and party
Difficult: 150% Damage dealt to player and party.

What you will find is that once you are familiar with the different playstyles and how to utilise their pros and cons effectively in a practical playthrough sense, difficulty will no longer seem any different from playing through on easy mode. That's when challenge runs enter the fray, making the game much more dynamic.

Attributes are the backbone of character creation, and will affect everything from combat to skill checks. The roll modifier is based on the attribute score (attribute score -10/2), rounded down, so a score of 8 gives -1 while 16 gives +3. 9 would also give -1, while 17 would also give +3. The modifier is capped at +20, so while it is possible to attain scores above +20 with the use of items, in short, it becomes pointless.

Often considered one of the meta attributes. Strength affects;
Attack chance and damage with any melee weapon
Attack chance of lightsabers (when higher than dexterity modifier)
Damage modifier with lightsaber
Odds of Critical Strike causing a stun Some of my most fun runs are dexterity-based rather than strength-based. It completely changes the way you play and gives a much bigger appreciation for the mechanics.
Dexterity affects;
-Attack chance with any ranged weapon. (Blaster pistol, Blaster rifle, heavy weapon)
-Attack chance with lightsabers (when higher than strength)
-Defence stat (odds of getting hit)

It also affects the reflex save and the stealth bonus, but I honestly don't think it is worth worrying about these two.

You may notice that dexterity does not increase the damage of weapons like strength does. However, in practice, you will find it is easier to play glass cannon types with dexterity than with strength.

Hopefully, this one speaks for itself. The higher this one is, the more vitality points (health) you get.

Increasing your Constitution modifier midgame will add vitality points retroactively. Meaning using a battle stimulant at level 20 will grant more vitality points than at level 5

Constitution can also affect fortitude saves, but as with reflex saves. I don't believe it is worth worrying about this in practice.

Primarily, intelligence affects how many skill points you get. The higher it is, the more you get.
One little-known aspect is that it also affects the odds of stunning targets when you use the sniper shot feat. But only worthwhile for Mission (party member) or when you are doing a blaster run and not getting targeted (will explain more later)

Intelligence also affects the bonus to the skills computer use, demolitions and repair.

Wisdom affects the number of force points you get. It also affects force power difficulty class (so odds of force stun actually stunning the opponent)
Wisdom also affects how much healing you get from medpacks and force cure/heal.
Finally, it also gives a bonus to awareness, security and treat injury. Most obviously, it affects the likelihood of being persuasive. A high charisma means you can be like Obi-Wan Kenobi during the Clone Wars (how do you think he got his negotiator reputation), or you can have low charisma and instead go the Anakin Skywalker route with "aggressive negotiations”

Charisma, just like wisdom, will also affect Force points gain and Force power difficulty class. Also, vitality recovered from Force cure/heal.

Got a skill issue?

I am not going through every single skill as I did with attributes because the skill names are self-explanatory (I hope). It is also possible, with some playthroughs, for your main character to not invest in a single skill.

Highlights worth knowing:

-Persuade: I probably max out more times than any other skill simply because it speeds up and simplifies many sections of the game
-Demolitions are useful to gather mines to either sell for money, or if your playthrough allows and you want to cheese the game on a particularly hard boss, you can always plant 20 mines in one spot, then kite the boss over it for an instant kill.
-Awareness, once you have played enough times that you have the mine locations memorised, this becomes the most useless skill in the game. I have not invested in this skill for over 10 years.

There are many more challenge runs; I have organised them by playstyle, with the runs that suit each. The first challenge run listed in each playstyle will be the most restrictive/challenging, with those below it less restrictive.

All challenge runs assume the difficulty is set to difficult unless otherwise stated.

I will repeat this one last time. If you do not want to do a challenge run but want to try a playstyle, simply apply the strategy, tips, and tricks without imposing all the restrictions.

I’m also assuming no one is using a save game editor (trying to keep this guide as accessible to as many people as possible)

Final caveat: when the restriction says "no force powers," it refers to force powers you can select and activate (force heal, force storm, force aura, force slow, force speed, etc.). Passive powers such as Jedi Defence or Force Leap are not counted in the restriction, as the game will automatically apply them.

The same goes for solo runs: we will not use part members by choice, but there are some sections of the game where we are forced to use them. This does not break the solo run challenge.

-Single sword, no lightsaber, no dual-wielding, no ranged, no grenades, no mines, no force powers, solo.

If you have never done a challenge run before (or attempted difficult level), this is the one I recommend. There is a really simple, beginner-friendly way to play that introduces you to this new way of thinking and playing; then there is a slightly more in-depth way that makes you an absolute beast.

The simple:

You start by picking the Soldier; when you become a Jedi, you pick Jedi Guardian. Dump all your attribute points first into Strength, then the rest into Constitution. Increase the Strength stat at every opportunity. (I recommend keeping Soldier levels as low as possible, but just make sure you do not go above level 8, as you will need at least 12 levels in Jedi Guardian for Master Leap)

Going lightsided will grant an alignment mastery of +3 strength.

In terms of Feats, as we are not allowed to dual-wield with this challenge run, we want to make sure we get the Duelling feat (then improved and Master Duelling Feat)

Implants will help a lot, particularly by the time we get to the endgame, especially the Cardio Power system (get it on Manaan in the East Central from Roland Wann; it's 5000 creds cheaper than on Korriban), as this will increase your Constitution by +3. Another good option is the Sith Regenerator with 2 regeneration (Czaerka store on Korriban)

And of course, Melee weapon Focus will increase damage output.

You can run the whole game on this setup without ever needing to use Critical Strike, Flurry, or power attack. But if you do want to pick one, then I would go with power attack for this particular setup (flurry reduces attack, thus the odds of landing a hit, which is why I prefer power attack when using a single melee weapon)

Skills: treat injury for the healing source, then the ones mentioned in the above skill section.

But the real key to any Strength build with no force powers is Cassus Fett’s body armour found from Adum Larp in the Dantooine Courtyard (just before you come across the Kath hounds), sold for 15000 creds. My advice is to make sure you have looted everything you can so far. You should be able to sell all your blasters, mines, grenades, and armour you no longer need, and you should easily be able to afford them. Make sure you keep at least 1 Armor reinforcement and mesh underlay to upgrade it straight away. Combine with Brejik’s armband and Brejik’s belt to mitigate a lot of damage sources (you should have picked these up when rescuing Bastila before talking to Bastila for the first time).

Once you have Cassus Fett’s armor and assuming you have the creds, one of the best swords in the game to get can also be found on Dantooine near the Ebon Hawk; Sanasiki’s blade from Crattis Yurkal for 7000 creds will see you through a lot of the game (no harm in coming back for it if you need to). But if you have access to the Yavin station (I recommend visiting there after every star map), then after unlocking the third star map, you will get access to purchase the Baragwin Assault blade for 9000 creds (prioritise the Baragwin Assault blade over Sanasiki’s if you don't have the creds), upgrade straight away, and thank me later.

The beast:
Instead of picking Soldier, go for Scoundrel instead. Still, put all your attributes into Strength and Endurance; however, we must get the Scoundrel to level 7 for two reasons. (still going to pick Jedi Guardian)

First, we want to get improved Scoundrel's Luck for a +4 defence bonus. Combined with the +6 defence bonus from Master Jedi Sense we get at level 12 Jedi Guardian and the Upgraded Cassus Fett’s armor this gives us an incredible 24 defence (a hell of a lot for no investment in dexterity).

Defence determines how often enemies will land a hit on us; the higher the number, the fewer times we will get hit (remember, there will always be a minimum 5% chance of getting hit).
Earlier, I recommended going for the power strike feat. By getting this extra defence, we can instead go for a critical strike.

Critical strike will reduce your defence by 5 for a round after use (that's a lot), but luckily for us, that has been mostly mitigated by the improved Scoundrel's Luck. Combined with Sanasiki’s blade or the Baragwin Assault blade, when using Master Critical Strike, we should be landing critical attacks 50% of the time. (adds up to a whole lot of damage) But I would not even consider using Critical Strike without these two blades (they already have a high critical range). I would not bother with critical strike as the defence drop is not worth the odds of the increased damage output (it is worth it if you have party members acting as meat shields, but we do not in solo runs)

Second level 7 scoundrel grants sneak attack level 4, which grants 4-24 points of damage (average 14) to any attack from a stealth, stunned or immobilised target. Critical strike has a chance to stun a target based on your level + strength modifier (funnily, we have made strength very high), which means if we stun a target, not only can they not hit back, but the next attack also has a 4-24 damage increase and a 50% chance to critical (due to Sanasiki’s blade/Baragwin Assault blade’s critical range being amplified by critical strike). All of the damage suddenly stacks very high, and this can be achieved very early in the game.

-Dual swords, no lightsaber, no ranged, no grenades, no mines, no force powers, solo.

Same as above, but this time instead of picking duel feat, pick Two-weapon handling feat. Bear in mind, it's not worth using two weapons until you have at least improved two weapons before you stop missing attacks. I highly recommend running Sanasiki’s Blade and Baragwin Assault Blade together. (or if you have the creds, by the end run two Baragwin Assault Blades.)
Using two weapons, the Flurry feats are much more worthwhile, and I would actually choose it over Power Strike, as the number of strikes done with Flurry will outperform Power Strike on average (even with the slight drop in attack).
Master Flurry will not reduce defence as much as a critical strike, so I leave it up to you which to use, depending on how you would like to play. Flurry will deal consistent damage. Critical strike, however, will deal out massive damage.

-Melee weapon until Lightsaber unlocked, no grenades, no mines, no force powers, solo.

I recommend following the Lone Sword Master run and going for Two-weapon with this setup, but instead of using swords, we are going to use two lightsabers (lightsaber + a short lightsaber until master two-weapon fighting is unlocked)

At least one lightsaber: we want to combine the Nextor crystal with the Opila crystal. This will result in more critical hits and much higher damage output. It is possible to get two of each of these to run both lightsabers, but another combo I like to run is the Bondar crystal with the Solari crystal. All four of these crystals can be found on Korriban in the tomb of Naga Sadow and the Tomb of Tulak Hord, so it's well worth an early trip.

Bondar crystal has a chance to stun an enemy, which will trigger the sneak attack damage bonus. Towards the end of the game, acquiring Heart of the Guardian will improve the Bondar crystal’s chance of stunning, while the Mantle of the Force changes it to paralysis.

Most enemies at this point in the game have a higher reflex than will stat, so you will stun more enemies using the Heart of the Guardian than the Mantle of the Force. However, the damage output from Solari is better with Mantle of the Force than with Heart of the Guardian. There is no right or wrong decision here. In practical terms, it's just a case of being aware that one option you may notice slightly higher consistent damage (especially against Sith), while the other will stun enemies more. Personally, I prefer to go for Mantle of the Force because when you get to Malak, you won't be able to stun anyway, so having the higher damage vs the Dark Side with the Mantle of Force is a big help.

Now that we are using Lightsabers, Jedi Leap will start working. Master Leap gives a +4 to attack and damage. What most don't realise is that this also counts as a sneak attack. (Another reason why the Scoundrel/Jedi Guardian combo is the goat.)

You may have noticed I have not mentioned using two single Lightsabers. But the game has three options: lightsabers, short lightsabers and double-bladed lightsabers. (I’m not counting Sith lightsabers because they are not upgradeable)

Lightsabers vs Short lightsabers: Short lightsabers are balanced but deal less damage, so if you find yourself missing a lot, use a Short Lightsaber in your off-hand. Once your strength stat is high enough, in combination with Master Two-weapon fighting, you will be able to use two Lightsabers without issue.

Two Lightsabers v Double-Bladed: Essentially this comes down to how much micromanaging you want to do. Attacking with a double-bladed Lightsaber with Bondar, Solari, and Mantle of the Force crystals is equivalent to attacking with two lightsabers containing Bondar, Solari, and Mantle of the Force crystals. However, there is only 1 Solari and 1 Mantle of the Force in the game, which is why double-bladed lightsabers can deal more damage than two Lightsabers against SPECIFIC opponents.
In practice, I like to run most of the game with two lightsabers for the versatility until I have 3 double-bladed lightsabers. I'll set one up for combating dark-sided enemies (Solari crystal found on Korriban with Phond/Eralam/Sapith depending on where I am in game), one for against droids (Luxum crystal found on Manaan and Firkrann crystal found on Korriban) and a “general use one” either aimed at criticals (Nextor and Opilia) or Blaster bolt deflection (Jenraux with anything else I'm feeling at the time)

-Melee weapon until Lightsaber unlocked, no grenades, no mines, solo.

Same as above, but now we are allowed to use Force powers. We will not rely heavily on them but will instead use them strategically to quickly cut down enemies.
Cassus Fett’s armor is going to restrict the use of a lot of Force powers, so this is the first big change. We will use Jedi robes, particularly on Korriban in the Shyrack Caves. We want to get our hands on Qel-Droma Robes (we won't be using any other robes until we get the Star Forge robes). The Qel-Droma Robes are best in-game until you get to the Star Forge.

For force powers, we want speed as soon as possible, and we want to proc this before jumping into any battle. I also recommend Force Aura/Shield/Armor to increase defence, and finally Force Valour to increase attributes (attack + damage output)

Alternative way to play: Go Darkside; you lose +3 strength alignment mastery, but get +5 strength when you get Revan’s robes on Star Forge. Guardian Darkside alignment does 1-8 physical damage on all attacks. The downside is that until you reach the Star Forge, you will not be able to equip Qel-Droma Robes or use the Solari crystal (unless combined with the Mantle of the Force). Nearly the whole game, your overall damage output will be less due to the lower strength attribute, but you will do more damage against Malak at the end.

-Ranged weapon until Lightsaber unlocked, no grenades, no mines, no force powers, solo.

Crazy to think the first challenge run in the dexterity build play style is going to be a melee build, but as mentioned previously, the lightsaber’s attack will be improved with high dexterity. However, the damage of the lightsaber is not increased with dexterity. So the whole strategy around the melee dexterity build is not about high damage but about survivability.

“Best defence is no be there” - Mr Miyagi.

When it comes to survivability, I firmly believe that not getting hit trumps having a high vitality and damage mitigation. Which is why, instead of going for Soldier, once again I am recommending going with Scoundrel at least to level 6 to get the +4 defence bonus from Improved Scoundrel’s Luck, but I recommend level 7 for sneak attack IV that will at least result in the first attack doing more damage (from the force leap); of course, combo this with Jedi Guardian.

I recommend going darkside for this build, as the Lightside +3 strength bonus won't be noticeable. This does mean Jedi Master/ Dark Jedi Master robes are the best we are going to be able to wear for nearly the whole game, but I would still recommend getting Revan’s robes on the Star Forge for the higher defence bonus and health regeneration. That said, damage isn't the key to this build, so going lightside won't make much difference.

In terms of Attribute distribution, max that dexterity, then put the rest into Constitution. This will ensure that you are unlikely to get hit, but when you do, it will take a lot of hits to kill you.

Feat selection: Duelling is the key one, as this will again improve your defence (sorry, only a single lightsaber for this build). For implants, I recommend getting the Sith Regenerator from the Czerka store on Korriban for when you get the level 3 implant feat. Some level 3 implants give +5 dexterity or +4 dexterity, but considering the cost in creds against how much you need to save for the mantle of the force or heart of the guardian by endgame, I am not convinced it's worth saving for them—instead, the Sith Regenerator also combos nicely with this build.

As we do not want to reduce our defence and are only using Robes and a single lightsaber, we can ignore the armor, critical strike and (arguably) flurry feats. Personally, I prefer to do this whole run using only basic attacks, but if you really do want to up the damage, my preference for this build is power attacks, but I wouldn’t lose sleep over choosing flurry. You will, however, definitely notice getting hit a lot more if you use critical strike for a negligible payout.

Skills: treat injury for the healing source, then the ones mentioned in the above skill section.

Lightsaber: I like to go with the Bondar crystal for the stun chance and the Jenruax crystal for the energy damage increase, plus plaster blot deflection (you get shot at a lot in this game). Until we get our hands on Heart of the Guardian at Yavin station, I like the Bondar with the Solari or Upari crystal.

While on Taris, it is possible to equip armor as the max dexterity cap shouldn’t be less

-Ranged weapon until Lightsaber unlocked, no grenades, no mines, solo.

Same as above, but now we can use Force powers. Unlike the strength build version, we won't be using armour, so Force Speed and heal become very useful here.
Due to the use of Force Speed, I highly recommend comboing with the flurry feat (the defence increase from Force Speed counters the defence drop at master flurry).

-Single Blaster Pistol, no lightsaber, no dual-wielding, no melee, no grenades, no mines, no force powers, solo.

This is probably one of my most favourite runs to do.

I am going to start this one with a little disclaimer. You have the weapon called the blaster pistol; you also have weapons that require the blaster pistol proficiency feat to use. This particular challenge run can be interpreted either way, but the playstyle and build are the same, except for the weapon of choice. So, this challenge run from here on out is referring to blaster pistol restriction as a weapon with the blaster proficiency feat simply so I don't have to make a challenge run title with the description being comprised entirely of “same as above but get weapon x”

Blasters (and other ranged weapons) have a set damage, so the build focuses on maximising the damage with feats.

For this reason, as with previous builds, we are gonna go with the Scoundrel and get to level 7 for the potential sneak attack lv4 for 4-24 damage and Improved Scoundrel's luck for a +6 defence bonus. Then I recommend going Darkside Jedi Guardian for the Darkside mastery of a damage bonus of 1-6 to all attacks.

Dexterity: We want to maximise this. If you have read the previous runs, you know it increases our defence stat and our blaster pistol attack.

Next, I recommend increasing Constitution, but the extent of the increase depends on how you prefer to play. To use Sniper Shot or not? A sniper shot decreases defence by 5, which is a considerable amount.
If not using Sniper Shot, I recommend putting Constitution as high as possible (which should be 16 if Dex is at 18)
Suppose you do prefer to use Sniper Shot. Then I recommend reducing Constitution at character creation and investing attribute points into Intelligence instead. Just like Critical Strike, Sniper Shot has a chance to stun a target, but for Sniper Shot, a higher Intelligence increases the odds the target gets stunned (the target has to do a Fortitude DC save against your level + Intelligence modifier).

A simpler way to think this through
High Dex + High Constitution = more of a tank build (don't use Sniper Shot)
High Dex + high Intelligence = more glass cannon (Use Sniper Shot)

Personally, for this particular challenge run, since you don't have party members, all enemies will be attacking you. Therefore, I find going for High Dex and High Constitution and not using Sniper Shot to be more reliable/less deaths.

If playing through a version of this with a Party, I highly recommend trying High Dex + High Intelligence. (There are very few playstyles that support investment into intelligence, so this playthrough becomes a bit unique in that sense)

Feat-wise, Duelling feat for increased attack and defence. Blaster pistol proficiency, Implants.
I don’t recommend going for armor, because we can get higher defence with Jedi Robes. However, in the early game, while the dexterity bonus is lower than the dex cap on the armor, it is better to wear the armor.
Toughness can be selected to increase vitality if you feel you need the extra hit points.

Skills: treat injury for heals; otherwise, I leave it up to you. Refer to the skills section earlier for considerations.

While on Taris, you will find Carth’s Blaster is the best blaster for the job, especially if you upgrade it. However, as soon as you have done the star map on Dantooine and the Jedi Council has given you the mission. I highly recommend going and getting arguably the best blaster in the game from B’ree on Korriban, Cassus Fett’s Heavy Pistol. It will set you back 10000 creds, so I recommend dropping by Yavin Station to sell all the swords, grenades, mines, lightsaber crystals, and armor you won't use. (You get the most bang for your buck from Yavin Station)

Once upgraded, it has a chance to stun enemies and a 10% chance to crit. Combined with a +5 attack modifier, you will be landing a lot of shots.

-Double Blaster Pistols, no lightsaber, no melee, no grenades, no mines, no force powers, solo.

Essentially the same as above, but now we are gonna duel-wield blasters. Suppose running Cassus Fett’s Heavy pistol in the main hand. We have multiple options for the off-hand, so I like to switch it around to suit the situation.

-Bendak’s blaster (if you kill Bendak) is fantastic for pure damage, but not easy to get, so I tend not to rely on this one
-Zabrak Blaster Pistol can be found in Tomb of Naga Sadow on Korriban and has a chance to stun
-Sith Assassin pistol is my preferred option, slightly less base damage than Zabrak blaster pistol, but I prefer to run this as it still has a chance to stun, a +2 attack modifier (which helps land those shots), it has a 10% chance to crit and does +1-10 damage vs droids. Admiral Karath drops a better version of this on the Leviathan. I highly recommend picking it up and using it.
Ion blaster, useful against droids and enemies with energy shields while on Taris, but not needed once you get the Sith assassin pistol.

The only feat change I recommend is to replace duelling with Two-weapon fighting.

-Single Blaster Pistol, no lightsaber, no dual-wielding, no melee, no grenades, no mines, solo.

Same as the Single Blaster Pistol run; however, we can now use SOME force powers.
The Teepo Paladins were Lightsided Jedi who chose to use a blaster instead of a Lightsaber. Their philosophy is that every shot should be controlled. So, for this challenge run, we cannot use rapid shot, power blast, or any dark side Force power.

As before, I recommend taking advantage of the Scoundrel's unique feats at level 7 with the Scoundrel's Luck and sneak attack; however, two Jedi class options work with this playthrough.

Jedi Guardian, as this will give you more vitality and thus increase passive survivability.
Alternatively, Jedi Consular for high force points, which will allow force points to be used more often and increase active survivability.

What I mean by active survivability is that I recommend using force armor, force aura, and force speed to increase our defence further.

-Blaster rifle/Heavy Weapon, no lightsaber, no dual-wielding, no melee, no grenades, no mines, no force powers, solo

Technically, these are two different challenge runs, but there are only two minor differences, so I decided to put them under one heading.

They are essentially the same strategy as the single-blaster run, but the blaster rifle/Weapon uses both hands, so the duelling feat is replaced with two-weapon fighting.

When you are doing a blaster rifle run, we will want to increase blaster rifle proficiency at some point. Naturally, you will start with a blaster rifle (there is a variation of the run where you only use the weapon named blaster rifle). Feel free to try it with the same strat. But as mentioned before, this is referring to any weapon that requires the blaster rifle feat to use.)
Zalbaar’s bowcaster is a really good early game, especially if upgraded; with a crit range of 17-20x2, it will crit more than any other blaster rifle (if choosing to play with a party, then combo an upgraded Zalbaar’s bowcaster with sniper shot for a crit chance of 50%). Still, I prefer to sell all my swords, grenades, etc. at Yavin Station before dropping by the Docking Bay in Tatooine to pick up Jamoh Hogra’s carbine for 9000 creds. When fully upgraded, it is arguably one of the best blaster rifles in the game.
If you keep dropping by Yavin station after the star maps and manage to progress the Yavin story, then after the 5th map, you can pick up the Baragawin disruptor-X, which is a better rifle (when upgraded) but comes with a price tag of 16000.

When doing the Heavy Weapon run variation. The earliest point we can get a heavy weapon is from Larrim, as soon as we leave the apartment in Taris, the Light repeating Balster for 550 creds. You will have to sell some grenades to afford this, and it will be the first of three weapons we will be restricted to/use throughout the whole game.

Once Canderous joins your party, equip Ordo’s Repeating Blaster for yourself and upgrade it as early as possible. When fully upgraded, it is the second-best heavy weapon in the game, with the best being the Baragwin Heavy Repeating Blaster that can be purchased at Yavin Station for 19000 creds after the 5th Star map.

If you have read everything in this guide in order, then you may have noticed that up to this point, I have avoided diving into the number of feats. There is a level 3 Implant called the Advanced Combat Implant, which grants the wearer the feats: Weapon Proficiency, Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialisation for all weapon types except Lightsabers.

Weapon Proficiency allows the use of those types of weapons, Weapon Focus gives +1 to attack for said weapon, and Weapon Specialisation grants +2 damage to the weapon type.

If you go the Scoundrel lv7/Jedi Guardian lv13 route, you will get a total of 10 feats. 3 from Scoundrel, 7 from Jedi Guardian. If 3 feats are spent on implants and 3 on Two-weapon fighting, that leaves 4 feats to play with, depending on how you choose to play. But if you want the damage from Weapon Specialisation, then the only way to unlock it is with the implant. This will potentially free up a feat from blaster focus to spend elsewhere. Just bear in mind that if doing the Heavy Weapons run, you will have to spend 1 feat on the Heavy Weapons proficiency before getting to Taris to use them. The drawback to using the implant is that the slot is then taken up for a different implant that could boost dexterity, Constitution, or regeneration (depending on what you feel you need at the time). Personally, I have completed this challenge run using both methods; it's just a matter of being more mindful about how you spend your feats before getting the implant.

Alternatively, you could choose Soldier; you will lose Scoundrel's Luck and sneak attack. But with a Jedi Soldier Lv4/ Jedi Guardian Lv 16 combo, you will get a total of 12 feats: 4 from Soldier and 8 from Jedi Guardian. The Soldier also starts with Heavy Weapons already unlocked (thus saving a feat). Once they reach level 4, you open the option to pick Weapon Specialisation feats, so they no longer need the implant. Without the implant, my personal choice is to go 3 feats into Two-weapon fighting, 3 into implants, 2 into Weapon Specialisation, 3 into toughness. The reason I like to put toughness is to boost vitality and offset the lower defence I will have, so I get hit more. (Get an implant with high dexterity, and the difference compared to a scoundrel with the combat implant will narrow)

As a little tip, I highly recommend keeping your medpacs around 30, your advanced medpac above 5, and at least 6 energy shields while running through Taris, especially when you get to the black vulkar base.

-Blaster pistol until Jedi, no lightsaber, no dual-wielding, no melee, no grenades, no mines, force powers only once Jedi, solo

This is the one I have been dreading because, out of all the different runs, it probably has the most variations in how it can be done.

Personally, if I am running this with a party, I prefer to put all my attributes into Wisdom and Charisma to maximise the effectiveness of force powers. However, when running solo, everyone is attacking you, so if you have invested everything in Wisdom and Charisma, you will essentially be starting the game as a glass cannon without the cannon.

To get around this, invest in Dexterity to boost defence. Ideally, we want to do so as minimally as possible to keep Wisdom and Charisma as high as possible, but it is possible to get 16 in Dexterity, 16 in Wisdom and 16 in Charisma, which gives a very respectable +3 bonus in each. To help with this, we want to ensure we pick up and upgrade the Echani Fibre Armor in a Security crate in the Lower City apartments (East), aka the ones across from you when you first enter the Lower City. It gives you a defence bonus of +7. All characters start with a base 10, so I would at minimum ensure dexterity has an attribute bonus that is not negative. Later on in the game, we can use items to boost it. Essentially, the higher you set dexterity at character creation, the easier Taris will be to progress through, but it reduces force power effectiveness later on.

When selecting character classes, it is worth thinking about how to utilise force powers. Scoundrel level 7 means you can get away with a lower Dex investment due to Scoundrel’s luck. But to take advantage of a sneak attack, we need to stun with Force Stun, stun droid, fear, push, then follow up with damage-dealing force powers. But something to bear in mind is that stunning opponents is not always going to work, and I would argue the damage you can get from powers such as Force Storm outweighs the sneak attack strategy in real terms.

This is why my preferred way to play this is to instead go for soldier and keep the number of levels in soldier to a minimum, only levelling up if I feel I absolutely have to, before going Jedi consular. Doesn’t matter too much if you go lightside or darkside; lightside will give you an alignment bonus of +3 charisma. Darkside gives +50 force points (which is a lot when spamming Force Storm and Death Field). Still, I prefer Lightside for the +2 wisdom from Qel-droma robes (+5 when we get Star Forge robes at game end), +5 wisdom from Circlet of Saresh (found on Kashyyk and restricted to Lightside). The +3 charisma alignment bonus gives a total of 23 wisdom, resulting in +6 and 19 charisma, resulting in +4 (assuming 16 in both at character creation and we haven't assigned any attribute points to either, which you should do at least 1 in each to make it +7 and +5!).

For force power choices for this run, we need to be able to deal damage as soon as we can, so the first ability you MUST get for this run is Force Shock. It can be used against all enemies and deals damage. This will lead on to Force Lightning and finally Force Storm.
Force Storm is the undisputed most OP force ability in the game because of the amount of damage it can deal to multiple enemies at once. Regardless of whether you are lightsided or darksided, this ability makes the game so much easier. (In fact, there are plenty of times when I am not doing a challenge run and I won’t pick this ability because I know that if I do, then I won't use anything else the whole game)

For the rest of the Force powers, it depends on whether you are light- or dark-sided and how you want to play, but below are a couple of things worth knowing when picking.

Force push/Force Whirlwind/ Force Wave - As you progress up this force power tree, the damage inflicted is increased, as is the duration of the stun incurred (when it does stun). However, when facing off against Malak in the final battle, Malak is immune to stun from Force Wave but not Force Whirlwind (I know, very strange)

Stun/Stasis/Stasis field - Stuns enemies except droids; Stasis and Stasis field can stun Malak in the final battle.

Wound/Choke/kill - damages enemies and can stun them. Can also stun Malak in the final battle

Slow/Affliction/Plague - Plague is an underused S-tier power in my opinion, especially when up against “boss” enemies. The effects and durations of the power are inaccurate in the description. It will do -1 attribute every 6 seconds for 72 seconds, which means it's going to reduce an enemy by 12 attribute points (that is HUGE!!!). But if you are worried about the Plague effect not triggering, don’t be. Some dev had the bright idea of giving it a DC 100, meaning unless you are against a droid, it is going to take effect EVERY SINGLE TIME!

If you decide to run a version of this with a lightsaber, I recommend going for a single lightsaber and getting the duelling feat, and after the 5th Star map drop by Yavin station for the Mantle of the Force with Rubat and Damind crystal for a +5 force regeneration points.

-Impossible difficulty (enemies do 500% more damage)

So, no restrictions on anything here; it's just difficult mode on steroids. You are going to die a lot, so save after every single fight, after every loading screen and before opening every single door. This is the only challenge run where I came close to quitting (and on some builds uninstalling the game). Just remember it can be done!

To do this challenge run, you have to download this mod:
https://www.nexusmods.com/kotor/mods/1454
(There may be other sources, but download at your own risk!)

Initially, when I was first going to write this section out, I started by talking about the maths behind damage and explaining how that relates to vitality; however, it was all getting very technical, so I decided to simplify it all to the following.

Constitution/Vitality is less useful at this difficulty than in the vanilla difficult setting. In fact, the only two builds I have managed to complete this run on so far with reasonable success are the Lone Sabre run build (from this point in this challenge run referred to as the Strength build) and the Force Warrior Build (but obviously without any restriction on what you can use and with party members)

There are some pros and cons to either build at this difficulty.
Early on, you will die more with the Strength build because until you reach level 5, all enemies will do enough damage to kill you in 1 or 2 hits; however once you start getting various items that mitigate damage such as Cassus Fett’s armour, Brejk’s arm band ect (full list of items below) this damage mitigation is applied before the difficulty damage multiplier is applied. Which means the tank build will work, but you have to micromanage your gear and really know your enemies' damage type (energy, slashing, physical, heat, cold, etc.)

The Force Warrior build requires less micromanagement, especially once you start getting Force powers (in my latest run, I got to Dantooine as a level 3 soldier, so when I unlocked Jedi Consular, I was able to jump straight up to level 6 Consular). Force Lightning/Force Storm is the key to this, as you will be dealing serious damage to multiple enemies consistently. The downside is that when you do get hit, you get hit hard; it is very much a glass cannon build at this difficulty.

I can only re-emphasise saving often, but be careful not to save after encountering an enemy, as due to the way the game loads in a few seconds before the image appears from a blank screen, it can result in getting saved and locked into instant death (I may have accidentally made this mistake and lost a whole run because of it).

Regardless of which you choose, to make Taris easier, I highly recommend giving Carth Improved blaster shot as soon as possible. He will carry you through a lot of encounters. Zalbaar is too squishy until he gets to level 5 then he starts to become more dominating again (on easier difficulties, Zalbaar can carry you through nearly the whole game by dual-wielding two melee weapons)

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