The Beast Master Expertise System is an exciting feature new to Star Wars Galaxies in Chapter 6: Masters of the Wild. These are creature-centric abilities available to all players, regardless of profession or level, through a third expertise tree.

Beast Masters can choose to focus on growing and incubating custom creatures, training their creature and using them to aid in combat, or both. No matter which path the beginning Beast Master chooses, the first step is always the same: the Incubation expertise.

Walk on the Wild Side

Any player who wishes to have a new beast pet must spend a point to learn the Incubation expertise. The Beast Master can’t hatch an egg or call a beast without knowing this basic skill. Open the Expertise window by pressing U on the keyboard, select the Beast Mastery tab, and choose the Incubation expertise at the top to begin wrangling wild beasts.

Next, the fledgling Beast Master can use the Extract DNA skill to harvest DNA cores from creatures. This DNA, combined with enzymes, is grown in an incubator to create an egg.

This is the only time a beast can be given to a new master, so keep the baby creature safe in its egg until it reaches its new owner! The creature inside the egg can be developed into a mount, or hatched to begin its life at the Beast Master’s side.

Once the beast has hatched, the datapad shows information about the beast that can be used to monitor its happiness, skills, bonuses, and more.

The datapad also shows the amount of available skill points for training new skills, how many points can be used per skill, and how many have already been spent.

Let’s take a look at the different ways to explore the Beast Master Expertise System to develop the incubation process as well as your newly hatched creature.

Beast Raising and Engineering Skills

The right side of the Beast Mastery Expertise tree focuses on raising and engineering new beasts.

These skills allow the Beast Master to keep their pet happy, teach the beast tricks, create a mount, and also affect the incubation period.

Incubation: This is your first step in starting your journey as a Beast Master! This ability allows you to use an Incubator to bio-engineer new beasts. You will also receive the “Extract DNA” and “Revive Beast” commands when you learn this skill.

Beast Combat Skills

The left side of the Beast Mastery Expertise tree focuses on beast combat. With these skills, your beast can open new slots for additional skills, increase their attack skills or defensive skills, and more.

Beast Masters focusing on combat will also find it useful to train in Beast Empathy on the right side of the tree to keep their beast happy.

Attack!: You can command a beast under your control to attack anything you are able to attack yourself. Choosing this skill automatically adds the Attack button to the Pet Toolbar.