Starfield Guide: Essential Tips & Tricks Guide to Master the Stars

Chapter 1: Your First Steps into the Starfield

Your journey begins not with a single step, but with a series of choices. Who were you before you touched the stars? These initial decisions will shape the first crucial hours of your Starfield expedition, giving you a vital head start on the path you wish to walk.

Choosing Your Background: More Than Just a Backstory

In the world of Starfield, your Background is your starting point, the single most important choice you will make for shaping your early-game experience. It is a strategic decision that provides you with three starting skills, the equivalent of three free level-ups before you even begin.

1. Understand the Value. Choosing a Background is not just a role-playing decision; it is about selecting an “early-game accelerant.” Certain skills, like Piloting or Targeting Control Systems, are required to access more advanced Starfield systems. By choosing a Background that includes them, you are essentially deciding which part of the Starfield experience you want to unlock first, letting you engage with ship commandeering or heavy-cargo hauling hours earlier than others.
2. Prioritize Utility. While any Background can lead to success, some offer a distinct advantage by providing skills that are universally useful. Consider these top-tier options:
   • Bounty Hunter: Starts with Piloting, Targeting Control Systems, and Boost Pack Training. This is arguably the strongest start for anyone wanting to excel in space combat, as it immediately provides the skills needed to fly better ships and target their individual systems for boarding.
   • Homesteader: Grants Geology, Surveying, and Weightlifting. An ideal choice for the dedicated explorer, this Background makes resource gathering and planet-scanning far more efficient from the outset.
   • Space Scoundrel: Comes with Pistol Certification, Piloting, and Persuasion. A fantastic all-around choice that gives you an edge in ship control, on-foot combat, and, most importantly, dialogue, allowing you to talk your way out of—or into—trouble.
3. Don’t Stress Perfection. While your Background is a powerful head start, remember that any skill can be learned by any character over time. Your choice is not a permanent restriction but a launching pad for your Starfield adventure.

Selecting Your Traits: Adding Flavor and Function

Traits are optional characteristics that add unique positive and negative effects to your character. You can select up to three, and they are best understood by categorizing them into three distinct types: Role-playing, Gameplay Modifiers, and Faction Allegiances.

4. Embrace Role-Playing Traits. Traits like “Kid Stuff,” which gives you living parents you can visit (and who occasionally give you gifts), or “Hero Worshipped,” which saddles you with an “Adoring Fan” companion, add unique narrative flavor to your Starfield playthrough.
5. Leverage Gameplay Modifiers. Some traits provide direct statistical advantages. “Terra Firma” increases your health and oxygen on the surface of planets, where you’ll spend most of your time. “Extrovert” reduces oxygen consumption when traveling with a companion, which you will be doing often.
6. Use the “Removable Trait” Strategy. One of the most powerful advanced tactics in character creation involves selecting a trait you have no intention of keeping long-term.
   • The “Alien DNA” trait, for instance, grants a large starting bonus to your Health and Oxygen in exchange for making healing items less effective.
   • This is a massive advantage in the early game when your health is low and every point matters.
   • Later in your Starfield journey, when you have better gear and more health, the healing penalty becomes more of a nuisance. At this point, you can visit a doctor at any Enhance! clinic and pay a fee to have the trait permanently removed.
   • This allows you to “front-load” your character’s power, reaping the early benefits of a powerful trait with a drawback that you can simply erase when it’s no longer convenient.
7. Get Rid of Annoying Traits. Just as you can remove “Alien DNA,” other traits can also be removed through specific actions. If the Adoring Fan becomes too much, you can dismiss him or even attack him to remove the trait. If you no longer want to send credits to your parents from the “Kid Stuff” trait, you can tell them you can no longer afford it.

Recommended Starter Builds

To help synthesize these choices, here are several effective archetypes to kickstart your Starfield career.

Build Archetype	Recommended Background	Key Starting Skills	Suggested Traits	Playstyle Focus
The Space Scoundrel	Space Scoundrel / Bounty Hunter	Piloting, Persuasion, Targeting	Wanted, Spaced	Piracy, smuggling, ship combat, dialogue challenges.
The Planet Surveyor	Homesteader / Long Hauler	Surveying, Weightlifting, Geology	Terra Firma, Alien DNA	Exploration, resource gathering, outpost building.
The Ground Soldier	Soldier / Combat Medic	Ballistics, Wellness, Boost Pack	Extrovert, Terra Firma	On-foot combat, mission running, faction quests.
The Stealth Operative	Cyber Runner / Ronin	Stealth, Security, Theft	Introvert, Alien DNA	Sneaking, lockpicking, thievery, silent takedowns.

Chapter 2: The Explorer’s Toolkit: Mastering Starfield’s Core Mechanics

Every explorer, regardless of their background, relies on a standard set of tools and protocols. Mastering these core Starfield mechanics is essential for efficient and effective operation in the Settled Systems.

The Hand Scanner: Your Most Important Tool

Forget your sidearm; the hand scanner is the most critical piece of equipment in your arsenal. It is not merely a tool for cataloging flora and fauna; it is a “universal remote” for interacting with the world of Starfield, designed to minimize your time in menus and maximize your time exploring.

8. Navigate with Ease. When you are lost or unsure how to reach your next objective, simply pull up your scanner. Blue arrows will appear on the ground, guiding you directly to your destination.
9. Identify POIs from a Distance. As you explore a planet’s surface, you will see unknown location markers on your compass. Instead of running blindly toward them, aim your scanner at the icon. It will identify the location as a “Structure,” “Cave,” or “Natural Feature,” allowing you to prioritize your exploration and save countless hours of travel time.
10. Land Directly from Orbit. When in orbit around a planet, open your ship’s scanner. You can highlight points of interest directly on the planet’s surface and use the “Land” prompt to travel there instantly, bypassing the need to open the starmap.
11. Master the Efficient Exploration Loop. To dramatically improve your gameplay flow, integrate the scanner into every step of your planetary exploration:
    • Step 1: Upon landing, immediately open your scanner to survey the immediate area for resources.
    • Step 2: Scan distant, unknown POI markers to identify what they are before you commit to traveling.
    • Step 3: Once you’ve chosen a destination, follow the scanner’s navigational arrows on the ground to get there.
    • Step 4: After clearing the location, instead of running back to your ship, simply open your scanner, aim at your ship’s icon, and fast travel back instantly.

Inventory & Encumbrance: The Eternal Struggle

Like all great expeditions, your journey through Starfield will be defined by what you can carry. Managing your inventory is a constant challenge, but with the right strategy, it becomes a simple logistical exercise.

12. Use Your Companions as Pack Mules. Your active companion has their own inventory. Regularly transfer heavy resources and excess gear to them to keep your own pack light.
13. Utilize Your Ship’s Cargo. Your ship’s cargo hold is your primary storage depot. Don’t forget to offload resources and items you don’t need to carry on your person.
14. Exploit the “250m Cargo Bubble.” You can transfer items from your personal inventory to your ship’s cargo hold from the main menu, as long as you are within 250 meters of your ship. This is a tactical tool, not just a convenience. When clearing a large enemy base, you don’t need to make a long, slow, over-encumbered trek back to your ship. Instead, you can periodically run to the edge of the facility, enter your menu, and instantly offload your loot from a distance before returning to the action. This creates a “looting bubble” around your landing site that dramatically increases your looting efficiency.
15. Find the Infinite Storage at The Lodge. In the basement of The Lodge, the Constellation headquarters in New Atlantis, there is a storage box next to the research station. This container has unlimited storage capacity, making it the perfect place to hoard all your crafting resources. Note that items stored here are not accessible from workbenches, but there is another unlimited storage safe in your assigned room upstairs.
16. Sprint While Over-Encumbered. Getting over-encumbered will drain your oxygen and cause your health to drop as CO2 builds up. However, it will never kill you; your health will stop decreasing at around 5%. You can continue to sprint and jetpack in short bursts to get back to your ship faster than walking.
17. Invest in Weightlifting. The Weightlifting skill in the Physical tree is one of the most valuable skills in Starfield, as each rank significantly increases your personal carrying capacity.

Persuasion, Security, and Other Essential Skills

Some skills in Starfield don’t just give you a percentage-based bonus; they unlock entire gameplay systems. Prioritizing these “gameplay gate” skills is the fastest way to experience the full breadth of what Starfield has to offer.

18. Unlock Boost Pack Training Immediately. The ability to use a boost pack is not available by default. You must put one skill point into Boost Pack Training in the Tech tree to activate it. This should be one of the very first skills you unlock, as it is essential for traversal and combat.
19. Invest in Piloting and Targeting. To fly the best ships (Class B and C) and to target specific enemy ship systems for boarding, you must invest in the Piloting and Targeting Control Systems skills, respectively. These are “gameplay gates” that lock you out of some of Starfield‘s most exciting content until you unlock them.
20. Prioritize the Persuasion Skill. Many quests and encounters in Starfield can be resolved through dialogue. The Persuasion skill in the Social tree gives you a higher chance of success in these speech challenges, often allowing you to bypass difficult combat encounters or earn better rewards.
21. Don’t Neglect Security. The Security skill in the Tech tree allows you to attempt to pick digital locks, or “digipick.” Many of the best rewards, from high-end gear in locked cases to large caches of credits, are hidden behind these locks. Always buy Digipicks when you see them for sale at vendors.

Chapter 3: On-Foot Operations: A Starfield Ground Combat & Survival Guide

While your starship is your home, the real work of an explorer happens on the ground. This section serves as your standard-issue manual for surviving hostile encounters on planetary surfaces.

Weapon Modding: Your Path to Power

The weapons you find are merely a starting point. Through research and crafting, you can transform a standard-issue firearm into a high-performance instrument of destruction.

22. Understand the “Advanced Base” Philosophy. In Starfield, weapons have two key identifiers: Tier and Rarity.
    • Tier (e.g., Calibrated, Refined, Advanced) determines the weapon’s base damage.
    • Rarity (e.g., Rare, Epic, Legendary) determines how many bonus perks it has.
    • A weapon’s Tier is far more important for its overall damage output. An “Advanced” non-legendary rifle will significantly outperform a standard-tier “Legendary” rifle. Therefore, your primary goal for gearing should be to find a weapon with the “Advanced” prefix. This becomes your “base” for modification. Do not waste rare resources modding low-tier weapons, as you will quickly replace them.
23. Research Unlocks Mods. Before you can craft a mod, you must first unlock it at a Research Lab. You’ll find a full suite of research and crafting stations in the Lodge basement.
24. Mods are Permanent. Unlike in some other games, weapon mods in Starfield are crafted and permanently installed. They cannot be removed and transferred to another weapon. This reinforces the importance of the “Advanced Base” philosophy—only invest heavily in a weapon you plan to keep.
25. Buy Crafting Resources. Don’t feel like you need to personally mine every last piece of aluminum and titanium. Most common and uncommon resources needed for weapon mods can be purchased cheaply from vendors in major cities.

Stealth & Subterfuge in Starfield

For those who prefer a quieter approach, Starfield offers a robust stealth system.

26. Ditch the Spacesuit. Your spacesuit is heavy and noisy, making it nearly impossible to sneak effectively. When you plan to use stealth, unequip your spacesuit, helmet, and pack. Lighter apparel, like the Operator Suit obtained from the Ryujin Industries questline, is ideal.
27. Peek from Cover. When crouched behind a wall or crate, aiming your weapon will cause your character to lean out from cover to take a shot, minimizing your exposure to enemy fire.
28. Use Suppressors. The most important mod for any stealth build is a suppressor. This will allow you to take out enemies without alerting everyone in the vicinity.
29. Invest in Stealth Skills. The Stealth skill in the Physical tree adds a stealth meter and makes you harder to detect. The Concealment skill in the same tree is even more powerful, granting a natural chameleon-like invisibility when you stand still and dramatically increasing sneak attack damage.

Powers & Special Abilities

Your journey through the main quest of Starfield will unlock extraordinary abilities known as Powers.

30. Use Personal Atmosphere for Hauling. This power temporarily grants you unlimited oxygen, allowing you to sprint indefinitely even when massively over-encumbered. It is an essential tool for any serious looter.
31. Control the Battlefield with Anti-Gravity Field. This power creates a field of low gravity, causing enemies caught within it to float helplessly in the air, making them easy targets.
32. Bend Time and Space. Other powers allow you to slow down time, making combat trivial, or even turn yourself invisible to slip past enemies undetected.

Health, Afflictions, and Aid

Surviving in the harsh environments of Starfield requires diligent management of your health and well-being.

33. Let Doctors Cure Afflictions. When exploring, you will inevitably contract afflictions like Lung Damage or Burns. While these will eventually heal on their own, it is far more efficient to visit a doctor in any major city. For a small fee, they will instantly cure all your afflictions at once.
34. Stockpile Med Packs. You will be using Med Packs constantly. Buy them from every vendor you visit. Trauma Packs and Emergency Kits are rarer but heal much faster, making them invaluable in tough fights.
35. Sleep for an XP Boost. Sleeping in any bed for just one hour will grant you the “Well-Rested” status, which provides a 10% bonus to all experience gained for 24 minutes. If you are married and sleep with your partner, this bonus increases to 15%. Make it a habit to sleep in your ship’s bed before heading out on a mission.
36. Holster Your Weapon. To appear less threatening in cities and settlements, you can holster your weapon by holding down the reload button.
37. Use Wine for Persuasion. The alcoholic beverage Wine provides a temporary boost to your persuasion chances, which can be the difference-maker in a difficult speech check.
38. Equip Your Companions. Your companions are not just pack mules; they are capable combatants. Give them your second-best weapons and armor to increase their effectiveness. Make sure to give them at least one round of ammunition for the weapon you want them to use.
39. Turn Your Companion into a Grenadier. If you give a companion a single grenade, they will have an infinite supply of them. Be careful, as they are not always precise with their throws.
40. Find a Lost Companion. If you tell a companion to wait somewhere and forget where you left them, you can easily retrieve them. Simply go to your ship menu, select the “Crew” tab, and reassign them to your ship. They will reappear the next time you fast travel.

Chapter 4: The Final Frontier: Starfield Space Combat & Piloting Mastery

Your starship is your lifeline, your weapon, and your home. This chapter serves as the flight manual and tactical doctrine for all Constellation pilots, ensuring you can navigate the dangers of deep space.

Power Management: The Core of Combat

How you allocate your ship’s limited reactor power is the single most important factor in winning a space battle.

41. Use the Standard Combat Loadout. A simple and highly effective power allocation for most fights is to put maximum power into your shields (SHD), four pips of power into your engines (ENG), and then split the remaining power evenly between your primary weapon systems.
42. Drain Your Grav Drive. Your Grav Drive (GRV) is only used for jumping between star systems. During combat, it is completely useless. Always take all power out of your Grav Drive and reallocate it to your shields or weapons.
43. Power Boosts Fire Rate. The more power you allocate to a weapon system, the faster it will fire and recharge. If a fight is going poorly, consider shifting more power to your most effective weapon to burn down enemies faster.
44. Use Targeting Mode for Tactical Power Shifting. The Targeting Control Systems skill allows you to enter a targeting mode that slows down time. This is not just for aiming; it is a tactical pause that allows you to safely manage your ship’s power. A powerful advanced tactic involves:
    • Engaging an enemy with full power to your energy weapons to strip their shields.
    • Once their shields are down, activate targeting mode to slow time.
    • During this slowed period, safely shift all power from your energy weapons to your ballistic weapons to quickly destroy their hull.

Advanced Maneuvering in Starfield

Winning a dogfight is about more than just firepower; it’s about outflying your opponent.

45. Find the Sweet Spot for Turning. To execute a sharp turn, you must reduce your speed. On your speed indicator, there is a blue section in the middle. Keeping your speed within this “sweet spot” will give you the tightest possible turning radius, allowing you to get behind enemy ships.
46. Boost to Break Missile Lock. When you hear the “incoming missile” warning, immediately activate your ship’s boost. This will break the enemy’s lock-on and cause the missiles to miss. Use short, controlled boosts to conserve your boost meter.
47. Unlock Thrusters for Drifting. The first rank of the Piloting skill unlocks the use of ship thrusters. This allows you to rotate your ship in any direction while continuing to move along your original trajectory, effectively “drifting” in space. This is a critical skill for keeping your guns trained on an enemy while simultaneously evading their fire.
48. Fight in Third-Person View. While the first-person cockpit view is immersive, the third-person camera provides far greater situational awareness in a chaotic dogfight, allowing you to track multiple enemies more easily.

Targeting, Boarding, and Piracy in Starfield

Why destroy a ship when you can make it your own? Commandeering enemy vessels is one of the most rewarding activities in Starfield.

49. Target Engines to Disable Ships. To board an enemy vessel, you must first disable it. Using the Targeting Control Systems skill, lock onto the enemy ship and specifically target its engines (ENG). Once the engine health is depleted, the ship will be dead in the water.
50. Dock and Board. Once a ship’s engines are disabled, fly within 500 meters of it. You will receive a prompt to dock. This will initiate a short cutscene, after which you can board the enemy ship.
51. Clear the Crew and Claim Your Prize. After boarding, you will need to fight your way through the ship and eliminate the enemy crew. Once they are all defeated, you can sit in the pilot’s seat to claim the ship as your own.
52. Loot Everything. Before you take the pilot’s seat, be sure to thoroughly loot the ship. Check the captain’s locker and the cargo hold for valuable items and resources. Enemy ships often contain contraband.
53. Steal Ships to Fly Them, Not to Sell Them. While it may seem like a great way to make money, capturing and selling ships is generally not profitable. To sell a ship, you must first pay a registration fee that is often nearly as much as the ship’s sale price. The true value of piracy in Starfield is as a ship acquisition strategy. You can capture a powerful Class B or C ship long before you could ever afford to buy one. Your goal should be to find a “keeper” to add to your fleet.
54. Register Ships from the Menu. If you do decide to sell a captured ship, register it from your ship menu rather than at a ship services technician. For some reason, the fee is significantly lower when done this way.
55. Repair in Combat with Ship Parts. Your ship’s hull does not regenerate. To repair it during a fight, you must use Ship Parts, which are a consumable item. Always keep a healthy supply of Ship Parts in your ship’s cargo hold.

Chapter 5: Charting the Cosmos: A Starfield Guide to Exploration & Surveying

As a member of Constellation, your primary directive is to explore. This section contains the official protocols for cataloging the planets of the Settled Systems and turning your discoveries into profit.

The Surveying Process from Start to Finish

Achieving 100% survey completion on a planet can be a daunting task, but a systematic approach makes it manageable.

56. Start with an Orbital Scan. Before landing, scan the planet from orbit. This will reveal its primary resources, the number of planetary traits, and the number of flora and fauna species present. It will also highlight resource deposits on the planet map, allowing you to choose a strategic landing zone.
57. Land in Different Biomes. To find all of a planet’s lifeforms, you must land in each of its distinct biomes (e.g., mountains, forests, swamps). When you open your scanner on the surface, the left side of the UI will show your survey progress for the current biome. Once it reads “Biome Complete,” it’s time to return to orbit and land in a different one.
58. Check the Coastlines. If you are struggling to find the last few species of fauna, there’s a high probability they are located in the water. Land in a biome that borders an ocean to find these coastal or aquatic creatures.
59. Look for Traits at “Natural” POIs. To discover a planet’s unique traits, open your scanner and look for unknown points of interest. Scan them to identify them, and then travel to any marked as “Natural” or “Geophysical.” These locations are where you will find the scannable anomalies that complete the trait section of your survey.
60. Fully Scan Each Specimen. To complete the survey for a single species of plant or animal, you must scan multiple individual examples of it. The required number is shown on the scanner UI.

Monetizing Your Data in Starfield

Exploration is not just for the thrill of discovery; it’s a lucrative business.

61. Sell Survey Data to Vladimir Sall. While any general vendor will buy your completed planetary survey data, you should always sell it to Vladimir Sall. He can be found at The Eye, the Constellation space station orbiting Jemison. He pays a significantly higher price for survey data than anyone else in the settled systems.
62. Use the “Gas Giant Loop” for Effortless Early Credits. Surveying a terrestrial planet is a time-consuming process. However, gas giants and ice giants can be fully surveyed with a single scan from orbit, which instantly grants you a survey data slate. This creates one of the safest and most efficient early-game credit farms in Starfield:
    • Step 1: Enter a star system.
    • Step 2: From the comfort of your cockpit, scan every gas giant and ice giant in the system.
    • Step 3: Continue jumping from system to system, accumulating a large number of these data slates.
    • Step 4: Periodically travel to The Eye and sell your entire collection to Vladimir for tens of thousands of credits. This requires no combat and minimal time investment, making it the perfect way to fund your first ship upgrades.
63. Scan from Your Ship. While in your ship’s scanner mode, you can scan other ships to see their level, faction, and cargo. This is useful for identifying threats or potential piracy targets.
64. Know Your Star Systems. On the starmap, star systems you have already visited will have a faint glow around them. Systems you can jump to but have not yet visited are white, and systems that are beyond your current jump range are red.

Chapter 6: Making a Fortune in Starfield: Economy, Crafting, & Contraband

Credits make the galaxy go ’round. This chapter is your guide to the galactic economy, from legitimate industry to the shadowy world of smuggling.

The Best Ways to Earn Credits in Starfield

While there are many ways to make money in Starfield, some are far more efficient than others.

65. Complete Faction Quests. The main questlines for the major factions (United Colonies, Freestar Collective, Ryujin Industries, and especially the Crimson Fleet) are the single most lucrative source of credits in the game, often rewarding you with tens of thousands of credits upon completion of a single mission.
66. Use the Mission Boards. Every major city and space station has mission board kiosks that offer an endless supply of randomly generated “radiant” quests. These are a reliable and repeatable source of income.
67. Loot Everything (and Invest in Commerce). The foundational principle of any Bethesda RPG economy is to pick up anything that isn’t nailed down and sell it. To maximize your profits, invest in the Commerce skill in the Social tree, which allows you to sell items for up to 25% more credits.
68. Sell Your Unused Ammo. Ammunition has no weight and can be surprisingly valuable. As you specialize in certain weapon types, you will accumulate large stockpiles of ammo you will never use. Sell it off for a quick and easy infusion of cash.
69. Ignore “Activities.” Your mission log will quickly fill up with “Activities,” which are minor tasks picked up by overhearing conversations. For the most part, these can be ignored, as they offer minimal rewards and serve mostly as flavor.

Research & Crafting for Profit and Power

A robust industrial base is the key to self-sufficiency.

70. Use the Lodge Basement. The basement of the Constellation Lodge in New Atlantis contains one of every type of crafting and research station in the game. It is the most convenient location for all your industrial needs.
71. Track Your Recipes. When you are at a research lab or crafting workbench, you can “track” a project or recipe that you lack the resources for. This will place a small magnifying glass icon next to any required resources you find in the world, making it easier to gather what you need.
72. Craft Adaptive Frames for XP. A popular method for “power-leveling” in the early game is to set up a simple outpost that mines Iron and Aluminum. You can then use an Industrial Workbench to craft these resources into Adaptive Frames, which grants a small amount of XP for each one crafted. By sleeping in a bed to pass time and replenish the resource extractors, you can repeat this process indefinitely.

A Smuggler’s Guide to Contraband in Starfield

For those willing to bend the law, the contraband trade offers immense profits.

73. Identify Contraband. Contraband items are marked with a yellow icon in your inventory. These are highly illegal goods that will be detected by security scans when you enter the orbit of a planet controlled by a major faction.
74. Get Shielded Cargo. To have any chance of sneaking past a security scan, your ship must be equipped with a Shielded Cargo module. These can be purchased from Lon Anderssen at the Red Mile on the planet Porima III.
75. Sell at The Den. The absolute safest place to sell your contraband is at the Trade Authority vendor located in The Den, a space station in the Wolf system. The Wolf system is uncontrolled space, so you will not be scanned upon arrival.
76. Join the Crimson Fleet. If you join the Crimson Fleet faction, you will gain access to their headquarters, The Key, in the Kryx system. This is another location with no security scans and multiple vendors who will happily buy your illegal goods.
77. Jettison Contraband if Caught. If you are about to be scanned and don’t think you’ll pass, you can jettison your contraband from your ship’s cargo hold. It will be lost, but it’s better than getting arrested and having your entire ship impounded.

Contraband Smuggler’s Ledger

This quick-reference table covers the entire smuggling loop in Starfield.

Task	Location / Method	Key Information
Finding Contraband	Spacer/Pirate bases, Captain’s Lockers on boarded ships.	Often found in locked chests or on tables in enemy strongholds.
Acquiring Shielded Cargo	Red Mile vendor (Lon) on Porima III.	Essential for hiding contraband from planetary scans.
Selling (Safest Method)	The Den (Trade Authority) in the Wolf System.	This station does not perform security scans upon approach.
Selling (Faction Method)	The Key (Crimson Fleet Base) in the Kryx System.	Requires joining the Crimson Fleet, but offers multiple vendors and no scans.

Chapter 7: Advanced Systems: A Starfield Guide to Ship & Outpost Building

For the engineers and architects of Constellation, this chapter covers the art of creation, from custom starships to sprawling industrial outposts.

Ship Building 101 in Starfield

The ship builder is one of the most complex and rewarding systems in Starfield.

78. Visit Manufacturer Headquarters for Unique Parts. While most ship services technicians offer a decent selection of parts, each major ship manufacturer has a headquarters or staryard where you can find their complete, exclusive line of modules. For example, the unique two-story Nova Galactic cockpit can only be found on Titan, Saturn’s moon.
79. Build an Outpost Landing Pad. The easiest way to access a wide variety of common ship parts from multiple manufacturers in one place is to build a Large Landing Pad at one of your outposts.
80. Pay Attention to Landing Gear Thrust. When building a large, heavy cargo ship, one of the most important but easily overlooked stats is the “Thrust” provided by your landing gear. If your ship is too heavy for your gear’s thrust rating, you will get an error and be unable to finalize your build.
81. Respect the 12-Power Limit. You can only allocate a maximum of 12 pips of power to any single weapon system. This means that equipping more weapons than you can power is a waste of mass and money. A common strategy is to use weapons that have a low “Max Power” requirement, allowing you to mount more of them in a single group. The Vanguard Obliterator particle beams, for example, only require 2 power each, meaning you can mount six of them and still only need 12 power to run them at maximum efficiency.
82. You Can Rename Your Ship. In the ship builder menu, there is a “Flight Check” screen where you can rename your vessel.

Advanced Ship Building & Glitch Techniques

To build truly unique, aesthetically pleasing ships, you may need to employ some “unconventional field modifications.”

83. Clip Parts Together. The ship builder has built-in collision detection that prevents parts from overlapping. However, you can bypass this using a simple trick. Place the two parts you want to merge anywhere on the build grid. Then, select one part, duplicate it, and as the duplicate is flickering, you can often place it in an “illegal” position, clipping it into the other part.
84. Use Placeholders to Mount Weapons. If you want to mount a weapon in a spot where it doesn’t quite fit, you can use a smaller weapon as a placeholder. Mount the small weapon, save the build, then go to the “Upgrade Ship” menu (not the builder). From here, you can upgrade the placeholder weapon to the larger one you actually want, and the game will not check for collisions.

Outpost Fundamentals & Optimization in Starfield

Outposts are your industrial engine, allowing you to passively generate vast quantities of resources.

85. Find the “Holy Trinity” of Resources. A perfect planet for a starter outpost will have deposits of Iron, Aluminum, and Helium-3. Iron and Aluminum are the most commonly used building materials, and Helium-3 is required to power Inter-System Cargo Links.
86. Build on Biome Borders. To maximize the number of different resources you can extract from a single outpost, try to place your outpost beacon on the border between two or more different planetary biomes. This will often allow you to access the resource pools of all adjacent biomes from one location.
87. Experiment Freely. When you delete any structure you have built in an outpost, 100% of the resources used to build it are refunded to you. This means you can experiment with different layouts and designs without any penalty.
88. Link Your Outposts with Cargo Links. To create a true industrial network, you must connect your outposts with Cargo Links. The standard Cargo Link can transfer resources between any two outposts in the same star system. The Inter-System Cargo Link can connect outposts across the galaxy but requires a constant supply of Helium-3 to operate.
89. Assign Crew to Boost Production. Building a Crew Station at an outpost allows you to assign companions or hired crew members to work there. Their skills can provide bonuses to the outpost’s production and defense.

Chapter 8: Beyond the Horizon: Advanced Starfield Tactics & Secrets

This final chapter contains classified information for veteran explorers, covering Starfield‘s deepest secrets and end-game systems.

New Game Plus (NG+) Explained

Upon completing the main story of Starfield, your journey is far from over.

90. Enter a New Universe. After the final mission, you will be given the option to begin a new journey in a parallel universe. This is Starfield‘s version of New Game Plus.
91. What Carries Over. You will lose all of your items, ships, and outposts. However, you will retain your character level, skills, and any powers you have unlocked.
92. Get Stronger with Each Cycle. Each time you enter New Game Plus (up to 10 times), you will be rewarded with a new, progressively more powerful spacesuit and starship. You will also have the opportunity to re-acquire and upgrade your powers, making them significantly stronger with each new universe you visit.

Hidden & Hard-to-Find Quests in Starfield

Some of the best stories in Starfield are hidden off the beaten path.

93. Hunt for the Mantis. Early in your journey, you may loot a data slate from a fallen Spacer titled “Secret Outpost!” Reading this slate will begin the “Mantis” quest, a treasure hunt that leads to a secret lair filled with puzzles, a compelling story, and, most importantly, a free legendary starship and a full set of legendary spacesuit armor. This is one of the best rewards in the early game and should be completed as soon as you find the slate.
94. Visit Charybdis III for Operation Starseed. Upon entering the orbit of Charybdis III, you will receive a distress call that leads to one of the most unique and bizarre quests in Starfield, involving clones of famous historical figures from Earth.
95. Make First Contact on Porrima II. Travel to the Porrima system and you will find a mysterious, unidentified ship in orbit around Porrima II. This kicks off the “First Contact” quest, in which you must decide the fate of a colony ship from Old Earth that has been traveling for centuries and has finally arrived at its destination, only to find it already occupied.
96. Run the Red Mile. On Porrima III, you will find the Red Mile, a dangerous gauntlet that you can attempt to run for a cash prize and a unique weapon.
97. Help the Settlers in Groundpounder. Travel to the Altair system and you will pick up a distress call from a research outpost under attack, beginning the “Groundpounder” quest, a lengthy combat mission that sees you fighting alongside both UC and Freestar Collective marines.

Locations of Unique Weapons & Armor in Starfield

While the best gear is often randomly generated, there are numerous unique, hand-placed items with special names and properties scattered throughout the galaxy.

98. Get the Mark I Spacesuit for Free. In the basement of the Lodge, a full set of the Mark I spacesuit is locked in a Master-level display case. However, you can easily acquire it without any lockpicking skill. Simply position your character so that your reticle is aimed at the tiny gap on the side of the display case door. If you get the angle just right, the prompt to “Open” the case will appear, allowing you to bypass the lock and take the suit.
99. Complete Faction Quests for Top-Tier Gear. The final missions of the United Colonies, Freestar Collective, and Crimson Fleet questlines all reward you with a powerful, unique starship. The Freestar Collective questline, in particular, rewards the Star Eagle, one of the best all-around ships in the game.
100. Check Specialized Vendors. Many unique weapons can only be purchased from specific vendors, such as Laredo Firearms in Akila City or Kore Kinetics in Neon. It pays to browse the inventory of every new weapon shop you encounter.
101. Explore Every Nook and Cranny. Many unique items are simply hidden in the world, waiting to be found. Jake’s bar in the Well of New Atlantis has a unique particle beam shotgun behind the counter. Vladimir Sall’s villa on a remote moon contains his unique pistol, The Mutineer. Curiosity is always rewarded.

Bonus Tips for the Veteran Explorer

102. Use the Cutter’s Power Attack. Your mining cutter has an alternate fire mode. By holding the aim button, the targeting lasers will converge. Firing when they are focused will deliver a more powerful beam that breaks resource deposits much faster.
103. Break Asteroids for Resources. You can shoot the asteroids floating in space to break them apart and collect the resources within.
104. Take Photos for Your Loading Screens. Any pictures you take using Starfield‘s photo mode will be added to the rotation of images that appear on your loading screens.
105. Change Your Appearance. You can change your character’s appearance at any time by visiting an Enhance! clinic, found in all major cities.
106. Avoid Jail Time. If you are arrested and choose to go to jail, you will lose a significant amount of XP. It is almost always better to pay the fine or try to escape.
107. Increase Your Difficulty for Better Loot. The “Very Hard” difficulty setting increases the spawn rate of high-level, “Legendary” enemies. These enemies have a much higher chance of dropping Rare, Epic, and Legendary gear. You can increase the difficulty to find these enemies and then lower it again for the actual fight to make it easier.

Conclusion: Your Starfield Journey Has Just Begun

This guide has provided you with the foundational knowledge to not only survive but thrive in the Settled Systems. You have the tools, the tactics, and the secrets to build your legacy among the stars.

But the map is not the territory. There are still hundreds of star systems to visit, quests to uncover, and stories to experience. Your Starfield journey is your own to define. Whether you become a feared pirate, a renowned explorer, a captain of industry, or something else entirely is up to you.

The stars are calling. Go answer them.

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan work, all trademarks and copyrights for Starfield belong to the developer Bethesda Game Studios.

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