This week’s episode of The Mandalorian takes us on an inconsequential tangent eerily reminiscent of watching somebody else play a video game. Specifically, a paint-by-numbers side quest placed 70 hours into an over-bloated role-playing game. In the spirit of that, we’re embracing the show’s detour into RPG territory and doing something a little different with the recap walkthrough this week.
[The following contains spoilers for the latest episode of The Mandalorian. Read at your own risk.]
So you’re stuck on the side quest to save the Sorgan village in The Mandalorian? Worry not — the tips and tricks in this walkthrough will get you through in no time.
First, please note that this quest is entirely optional. The credit reward is outrageously low, there are no collectable armor upgrades and the main plot will not be advanced at all. Feel free to skip it unless you really want Cara Dune (Gina Carano) to join your party later in the game.
Don’t sweat about the initial conversation with Baby Yoda; your dialogue choices don’t matter. Even if you tell him to stay in the ship, he’ll end up following you anyway. At any point you can return to the Razor Crest where an animated loop of Baby Yoda flipping various switches off and on will repeat to humorous effect.
Don’t Worry, You’ll Soon Be Able to Buy Baby Yoda Merchandise
While the mission objective states that you should find a place to lay low to avoid the bounty hunters that are tracking Baby Yoda, you should ignore this. Instead, head straight to the Cantina. There you will find a litany of non-player characters of a variety of races, standard to pubs in this game. The only one you can interact with is the waiter.
Don’t worry about unsheathing your blaster, none of these NPCs will aggro you; this is the kind of family-friendly Cantina that has high seats for babies already at the tables. Quick tip: make sure to hold R1 to keep Baby Yoda close, the Cantina does allow pets and if he gets too close to a Loth-cat it can scare him into a flee state.
You will immediately notice ex-mercenary Cara Dune sitting alone at a table. You can bribe the waiter for information about her, but it’s a waste of credits because she’ll tell you everything herself later anyway. (The waiter will throw in a flagon of spotchka with your meal but you can’t drink it because, remember, you never take your helmet off).
Order a porringer of bone broth for Baby Yoda to keep his hunger stat down — that will tide him over until you start collecting frogs and shrimp. Eating frogs will replenish Baby Yoda’s health and force powers, but he will lose standing with the locals. Stick to the brightly colored shrimp (they glow so they are easy to find). These don’t restore as much health as the frogs, but they won’t impact his standing with the locals.
It might seem counter to your objectives to ditch your highly valuable child at the bar, but you can pay the bartender a small fee to watch Baby Yoda for you. However, if you engage in any mission advancing objectives, he’ll miraculously appear at your side again.
Next, step outside and press L1 to turn on scanning view. You’ll see a distinct pair of pink footprints leading into the forest. Follow the footprints to trigger the fight cutscene with Cara. Don’t worry, she immediately turns out to be friendly and you won’t lose any HP. At this point, Cara will force you to return to the Razor Crest. As is typical of Star Wars games, the developers chose to only develop a small portion of this planet and it’s not big enough to support two mercenaries.
Soon two farmers will come to you with a Yojimbo-like task to defend the village against some Klatooinian Raiders. They whine that they have “no protection” and live “in the middle of nowhere.” They will offer a tiny amount of credits (all the money they have) but here’s a tip: if you first turn down the quest, they will immediately ask again offering a larger reward. This time accept the job.
Track down Cara again and talk to her. Hire her for the mission, but keep some of that extra money you may have earned for yourself — she doesn’t need to know you gouged those desperate villagers. Rest in the cart to fast-travel to the village. And yes, because this is a video game, your character never takes off his helmet, even to sleep.
Well, never say never. Mandalorians have to keep their hunger stat down after all. It turns out Mandalorians just can’t take their helmets off in front of other people. Since you aren’t able to dine publicly, your hunger will be getting pretty high. Luckily a villager named Omera (Julia Jones) will notice and leave free food. Take off your helmet and eat while no one is looking. (The devs locked the camera to avoid having to animate Mando’s [Pedro Pascal‘s] face yet.)
Don’t shoot Omera’s daughter.
You can talk to Omera again for dialogue about how your parents were killed when you were a child and the Mandalorians took you in. (“This is the way,” you will say, like that’s a normal thing people say.) You can go ahead and skip this whole conversation because you already figured this entire backstory out in the last level because you’re not stupid.
Go to the woods, press L1 again to turn on scanning mode, and go through the detective sequence. First, spot the Klatooinian footprints on the ground and then look up. There you’ll find a series of ambiguous broken branches which your character will identify as confirmation of the presence of an AT-ST. This will trigger the discovery of a previously invisible walker footprint.
The Mandalorian Composer Shares His Unexpected Inspiration for The Star Wars Series’ Score
The game will then automatically shift away from its standard third-person action focus to a turn-based strategy format for the first time. This brief tutorial starts by asking you to send three of your peasants to dig a deeper pond and the rest to gather wood. Use the wood to build barricades along the edges. As soon as those are done, equip half of your villagers with guns and the other half with sharp sticks. Once you upgrade them with one level of training the game will switch back to third-person action.
For the next part, an infiltration sequence of the Klatooinian camp, be sure not to bring Baby Yoda! His AI was not programmed for stealth, so he doesn’t even try to keep hidden. Any attempts to stealth with Baby Yoda as your companion will immediately fail the mission.
Go to the Klatooinian camp and stealth takedown the first two guards. Sneak into the tent with the glowing booze kegs, plant one detonator on the middle column, and get ready for a quick fist fight. If you’ve timed it right, as soon as the two gunners come into the tent, jump out the back just before the whole joint explodes.
Lure the AT-ST mini-boss that dramatically appears to chase you back to the village. Here’s a tip, you can avoid all his attacks by running in a straight line. It hits a leash at the pond so you can cheese shots from the water without taking any damage.
At this point the game reverts back to its turn-based strategy mode. You’ll want to hold your twenty peasants back, hiding behind the barricades until the right time. The AT-ST will have a clear shot at several of your peasants, but the best strategy is, for some reason, to leave them directly in the line of fire of the walker. Several of the villagers can hide under baskets floating in the water if your barricades are destroyed.
After a few moments, the AT-ST will unleash a series of blasts on the village. Ignore him for the moment and target your villagers on the low-level Klatooinians rushing towards them. Despite their gruff, battle-weary appearance, your villagers with sticks should make quick work of this dog-like threat, especially since they left their blasters back at their camp.
Switch to Cara and equip the pulse rifle. You’ll need to advance through the water, where the AT-ST will enter into a hold state as it waits for you to hit the red glowing spots. One shot to this weak point will make it stumble, leaving it vulnerable. Switch back to Mando and toss a detonator in through the other eye — it’s toast.
This will trigger an unskippable cutscene for which the developers clearly didn’t bother to motion capture actors. This is important: when Omera tries to remove your helmet, make sure to hit X rapidly during the quick-time-event to stop her. Allowing her to remove your helmet will irreversibly terminate your allegiance to the Mandalorian faction and cancel the questline. Trust us, the game will not be fun anymore if you settle down and marry her.
You will also be offered the choice to resolve the quest by departing with or without Baby Yoda. Don’t worry, both options resolve the same way. One important note: Although this entire game up to now has trained you to stay vigilant to protect Baby Yoda from bounty hunters, you can essentially ignore him the entire mission. Cara will automatically one-hit-kill any bounty hunters that show up.
Return to the ship.
Previously on The Mandalorian…
“Chapter 1” Recap / “Chapter 2” Recap / “Chapter 3” Recap
New episodes of The Mandalorian are available Fridays on Disney+.