During my time at Gaming-fans.com I started the “best mods” series of articles which turned out to be what put the site on the radar of the community and with EA Capital Games. While I enjoyed our brief time with a communicative Capital Games consistently working with myself and the other SWGoH GameChangers, there was an inability to support that level of community engagement from within CG, so I became just another member of the community, only with a bit more of a public voice. Now that my days with Gaming-fans.com are behind me, I am working to keep the same kind of content going as I resume with the best SWGoH mods of 2024 series today with a much more recent version of the Best Mods for Darth Sidious.
While Darth Sidious was pretty awesome in the early days of SWGoH, he has had a rather kiddie-coaster ride since then. While different updates to the Sith has seen him used here and there over the past 5 years or so, Darth Sidious’ best days have been clearly behind him – at least until the addition of Datacrons. While Datacrons in the game have made characters uniquely relevant and sometimes OP for a few months at a time, as I mentioned in the recent best mods for Kit Fisto article, the early 2024 Darth Sidious Datacron helped him slip down the Jedi with ease, just like in Revenge of the Sith. That Datacron, which returns to SWGoH in April 2025, grants Darth Sidious +200% Defense, Health Steal, Max Health and Max Protection, 100% Counter Chance, +100% Critical Chance and +100 Speed – but only if he is a loner and has no allies with him in battle. As if that was not enough, he is immune to Daze and Stun, he resets his own cooldowns and dispels all debuffs on himself each turn, he applies a Damage Over Time with each use of his Basic, and when an enemy reaches 5 DoTs they are instantly defeated on their turn.
So this leads us to modding – do we mod Darth Sidious differently now with this crazy OP Datacron?
Main Mod Stats to focus on…
Speed is the necessary evil of Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes, and while Darth Sidious used to be one of the game’s fastest characters which was really awesome before mods (yeah, there was a time…), his base Speed of 181 is still quite fast by today’s standards. However the Datacron in April 2024 really allows some flexible modding for Darth Sidious. Because his +200% Defense, Health Steal, Max Health and Max Protection, survivability stats can be ignored. And because of his +100 Speed and +100% Counter Chance, a Speed set is not required. Thus, I am recommending you go all-in on Potency, at least during the life of this Datacron and any future instruction dances where it is active. This will allow you to have a better chance to regularly land those all-important debuffs and achieve the result you want. As for normal modding for Darth Sidious, I suggest a set of four Speed mods and a single set of Potency mods. Here is how I break it down for the best mods for Darth Sidious with or without his OP Datacron.
Which Mod Sets to use & Dev Recommendations for Darth Sidious
The developers did not give mod recommendations until the game was several years old, then they went through their entire lineup of 150+ characters and made mod recommendations. When that happened, due to the mass number of characters they had to review, they got sloppy (in my opinion). I will follow that by saying I think almost every new character added in SWGoH since that time has been much, much better and I rarely disagree with the mod recommendations now, due in large part to the fact that they can give these new characters individualized attention.
For Darth Sidious, the dev recommendations are Speed and Potency, and I applaud them on this. While Darth Sidious benefits from higher critical hits and added Health, his Speed and ability to land debuffs is what makes him most effective, especially when no Datacron is in play. As a result, here is what I am recommending for the best mods for Darth Sidious, Sith Lord:
- Transmitter (Square) – The Transmitter mod always has a primary focus on offense. For Darth Sidious, you want to normally use a SPEED mod here and be sure to closely look at the secondary stats to ensure that you get a heavy secondary focus on speed, health, potency and offense or critical chance. While his Datacron is in-play I recommend a POTENCY mod with the same primary and secondary stats.
- Receiver (Arrow) – The Receiver mod can have a primary focus on several stats including speed, critical avoidance, accuracy, health, protection, defense and offense. For Darth Sidious, you want to use a POTENCY mod here with a primary focus on speed and a secondary focus on potency, health, offense and critical chance.
- Processor (Diamond) – The Processor is always going to have a primary focus on defense. For Darth Sidious, you want to use a SPEED mod here with a secondary focus on speed, health, potency and offense or critical chance. While his Datacron is in-play I recommend a POTENCY mod with the same primary and secondary stats.
- Holo-Array (Triangle) – The Holo-Array is a very specialized mod that can have a primary focus on critical chance, critical damage, health, protection, offense and defense. For Darth Sidious, you want to use a SPEED mod here with a primary focus on critical damage and a secondary focus on speed, potency, health and offense or critical chance. While his Datacron is in-play I recommend a POTENCY mod with the same primary and secondary stats.
- Data-Bus (Circle) – The Data-bus mod always has a primary focus on either health or protection, and Darth Sidious benefits more from a high Health stat, so use a POTENCY mod with a Health primary. The secondary focus stats should be speed, health, potency and offense or critical chance.
- Multiplexer (Plus) – The Multiplexer (plus or cross) mod can have a primary focus on potency, tenacity, health, protection, defense offense. For Darth Sidious, you want to use a SPEED mod here with a Potency focus, making sure to have your mod sets complete. For the secondary stats, look to add speed, health, potency and offense or critical chance. While his Datacron is in-play I recommend a POTENCY mod with the same primary and secondary stats.
Darth Sidious Mods TL;DR
- Square – Speed mod with speed & offense
- Arrow – Potency mod, Speed focus with potency, CC & offense
- Diamond – Speed mod with speed & offense
- Triangle – Speed mod, Critical Damage focus with speed & offense
- Circle – Potency mod, Health focus with speed, CC & offense
- Plus – Speed mod, Offense focus with speed & offense