Building your reputation with Star Wars Outlaws' various Syndicates is important if you want to maintain good relations with each of the criminal factions and so gain access to their districts, outposts, and vendors. If a Syndicate likes you, there'll be more work you can undertake for them, and if they really like you, there are special rewards such as a unique outfit and blaster paint job.
It's not the easiest task, though, especially when various jobs see you acting against one Syndicate or another, and they might not look too kindly on that. Still, there are plenty of ways to boost your reputation and to maintain it at a decent level by not doing anything too drastic or dumb like walking into their base and blasting them all. Here's how to raise your reputation and some details about what you should avoid if you don't want to lose it unduly.
How to raise Syndicate reputation
There are a few specific ways to gain Syndicate reputation in Star Wars Outlaws. These are:
- Make quest choices: Early on you'll have to choose to give some information to either the Pykes or Crimson Dawn, and as the game progresses you'll get more of these choices via quests. Generally, they give a big bump to whichever faction you choose to favour and a decline in rep for whichever faction you act against.
- Complete contracts: Once you finish enough quests you'll unlock contracts, which are jobs you can undertake for credits and rep gain. You can accept and manage these at a contract broker or cantina terminal, though you can only accept three overall at a time. These are one the best ways to gain reputation, since they often don't result in losing rep with another faction.
- Give Syndicate Data to associated vendors: You can generally find Syndicate data inside either Syndicate or Imperial bases. These items grant you some bonus reputation if you give them to a vendor associated with that Syndicate—their affiliation is labelled if you hover over them on the map. If you're looking for a couple to grab early on, there's one in the vault of the Imperial Forward Base in the Southern Falls region, and another inside the shuttle in the Crimson Dawn Hideout directly south of Mirogana.
- Random events: While exploring the world you might find Syndicate members in trouble, like a Crimson Dawn enforcer trapped in a shack because there's a bounty hunter droid outside, or some Pykes that need help clearing a pirate camp. Give them a hand and you'll get a little bump to your rep.
- Winning Kessel Sabacc: Though it's just a little bonus, if you win in the Kessel Sabacc cardroom in a Syndicate district, it'll give you some rep with that faction. As far as I can tell this is only a one-off boost, though.
When you raise Syndicate rep to each new threshold from good upwards, you'll get a reward you can claim using the Delivery Crate in the cargo hold of your ship.
What lowers Syndicate reputation?
Maintaining good Syndicate rep is important if you want access to their vendors, districts, and outposts, so you should try not to lose rep doing anything that's avoidable, unless you want everyone to be your enemy that is. You can lose rep by:
- Stealing in plain sight from a Syndicate in their district or territory. This doesn't mean you can't steal, just make sure you do it sneakily, or better yet, send Nix to grab the item so you can take it from him.
- Killing Syndicate members openly. This one is pretty obvious, but you should avoid publicly gunning down Syndicate members or getting into blaster fights with them. This doesn't mean you can't incapacitate Syndicate guards by stunning them or punching them, but you need to make sure you aren't discovered or the blame gets pinned on you.
- Trespassing in restricted areas. If you get discovered in a restricted area you'll most likely end up in a gunfight and that'll lower rep with that particular faction. Again, you can trespass in restricted areas, but do it sneakily and don't let the alarm be raised.
If you want to maintain good rep then a sneaky playstyle is very important, as you steal gear and treasure from Syndicate outposts and districts quietly with them none-the-wiser. Being sneaky will help you mitigate or even completely avoid any rep loss when acting against a Syndicate because they won't know it was you.