The Cartel Market is the virtual in-game market where exclusive items, unlocks and more in-game content is available for purchase. The Cartel Market can be accessed from clicking on the Cartel Market icon (left) on your status screen in SWTOR, where you can browse through the ever-expanding list of items the BioWare has for sale through the Market.
Cartel Market Interface
The Cartel Market interface consists of nine separate tabs on the left side of the UI, each designed to promote a specific type of product that is available for purchase on the Cartel Market. Each item will be accompanied by a price tag indicating how many Cartel Coins will be required to make a given purchase:
Featured - This tab will display some of the newest or most popular items available on the Cartel Market at a given time. Typically speaking, items displayed here will be the keynote item from most (if not all) of the other tabs in the Cartel Market interface.
Newly Added - This tab will display all of the most current additions to the Cartel Market. Items that are found here will be denoted with a green triangle/icon in the top right corner of the item's picture.
Starfighter - This tab will display items that can be purchased for Space PvP activities. This can include new ships to use, parts and upgrades for existing ships and consumables for players to gain experience faster.
Packs - This tab will display Bounty and Cartel packs that are currently for sale. Cartel packs can be sold in either individual packs or as hypercrates, in which each hypercrate is comprised of 24 packs.
Bundles - This tab will display pre-assembled groups of items dedicated to providing boosts to one specific gameplay element or demographic, such as levelling, PvP, free-to-play and/or preferred players, etc.
Cosmetic - This tab will display items that can either affect a character's appearance or any displayable items that players can show to each other. Examples of this include specific vehicle mounts, dye modules, character customization packages, emotes and viewable items.
Unlocks - This tab will display items that provideor grant access to additional features to a character or player account. This can include granting additional inventory storage, allowing access to specific tiers of gear or new character species, etc.
Equipment - This tab will display items that directly impact a character's armor or armaments, including special weapons, item modifications, armor pieces and sets, etc.
Consumables - This tab will display items that players can use which will provide them with a one-time boost or change to a specific character aspect, such as experience boosts, renames and weekly passes to participate in specific game content.
Cartel Coins
Cartel Coins are the main method of purchasing from the Market, as all items are listed with amounts relating to Coins, not in-game credits. Cartel Coins can sometimes be earned through in-game achievement earnings while playing with different characters. All subscribers get a monthly grant of 500 complementary Cartel Coins, which are added to the player's account at the end of each month. If a security key is purchased from www.swtor.com, 100 complimentary coins are added, regardless of what type of account the player has.