Everything you need to know about Starfield
Starfield is Bethesda's open-world space RPG, and the sheer volume of systems packed into it can feel overwhelming fast. There are 21 main quests, over 100 side quests, 5 joinable factions, 24 Starborn Powers, dozens of ship parts to mix and match, and a full outpost-building system sitting underneath all of it. This guide organizes everything so you know where to start, what to prioritize, and where to go when you want to go deeper.
Starfield main menu overview
What should you do first in Starfield?
The opening quest, One Small Step, drops you into Constellation and sets the main story in motion. From there, the game opens up fast. Before you get lost in side content, there are a few things worth doing early:
- Unlock your first companion. Sarah Morgan joins after The Old Neighborhood, Sam Coe after The Empty Nest, and Barrett after Back to Vectera. Each brings different crew skills, so grabbing one early helps with ship stats.
- Pick up Anti-Gravity Field by completing Into the Unknown (quest 5). It unlocks as a Starborn Power and is one of the more useful early abilities.
- Check the Mission Board in major cities for repeatable bounty contracts. These are fast credits and XP while you're still leveling.
For a full breakdown of all the systems introduced in the opening hours, the Starfield Wiki's basic game mechanics page covers stats, oxygen, encumbrance, and combat fundamentals in detail.
info
The game has no hard level cap. Skills require challenge completions to rank up, not just skill points, so start working toward rank challenges early by mixing up your combat style.
Main quest walkthrough overview
The main story runs 21 quests from One Small Step through Among the Stars and Foreknowledge. Completing One Giant Leap (quest 19) unlocks New Game Plus, which carries over your Starborn Powers and lets you accumulate them across multiple runs.
The main quest is worth finishing before going too deep into faction content, mostly because New Game Plus changes how you experience the game significantly. That said, faction quests don't lock you out of anything permanently until specific points of no return.
Which faction should you join?
Starfield has 5 joinable factions: UC Vanguard, Freestar Collective, Ryujin Industries, Crimson Fleet, and Constellation. You can join multiple simultaneously, but some have consequences that affect others.
The Crimson Fleet questline puts you in a position where you have to choose between siding with UC SysDef or the Fleet at the end, so that's the one choice with the most lasting consequence. Every other faction can be completed without burning bridges.
Faction reputation tracking
How do builds work in Starfield?
Your Background determines your 3 starting skills. There are 21 backgrounds, each tied to a specific skill combination. The Homesteader background is currently the most-viewed build on Game8's wiki, suggesting a lot of players are leaning into outpost and resource systems.
Skills are split across 5 trees:
- Physical (health, carrying capacity, mobility)
- Social (persuasion, commerce, companion affinity)
- Combat (weapon proficiencies, targeting)
- Science (research, medicine, outpost tech)
- Tech (ship systems, engineering, security)
Each skill has 4 ranks, and ranking up requires completing in-game challenges, not just spending points. Rank 4 of most skills requires you to have already done the activity hundreds of times, so plan ahead.
Popular specialized builds documented in the source material include Stealth Sniper, Space Pirate, Space Cowboy, Unarmed, and Pacifist. The Cyber Runner background works well for stealth builds since it starts with Stealth, Security, and Theft.
danger
You cannot respec skills after character creation without console commands on PC. Choose your background carefully, or plan to use New Game Plus runs to try different setups.
What are the best weapons in Starfield?
Weapons fall into several damage categories: ballistic, laser, particle beam, electromagnetic (EM), and melee. Weapon rarity runs from standard through epic to legendary, with legendary weapons carrying unique modifiers.
The game has a full weapon mod system with 9 mod slot types: barrels, covers, grips and stocks, internals, lasers, magazines and batteries, muzzles, optics, and receivers. Mods require research project completion before you can craft them at a weapon workbench.
For the Shattered Space DLC, six new Va'ruun weapons were added: the Va'ruun Starstorm, Va'ruun Penumbra, Va'ruun Quickstrike, Va'ruun Schimaz, Va'ruun Starlash, and Va'ruun Longfang.
Weapon mod crafting bench
How does ship building work?
Ship customization is one of Starfield's deepest systems. Ships are built from modular parts across 14 categories: cockpits, habs, cargo holds, reactors, engines, grav drives, fuel tanks, shield generators, landing gear, landing bays, dockers, cowlings, weapons, and equipment.
Ship classes run from A through C, with Class C requiring higher pilot skill ranks to fly. Parts are manufacturer-locked in some cases, meaning certain aesthetics require sourcing from specific vendors like Taiyo Astroneering, Deimos, Nova Galactic, or Stroud-Eklund.
The REV-8 land vehicle, added alongside the Shattered Space DLC, gives you ground mobility on planets. It has its own upgrade and customization system separate from ships.
warning
Unattached ship modules cause errors when trying to take off. If your ship won't launch, check for modules that aren't connected to the main structure in the ship builder.
For a full list of recent changes to ship systems and balance, the Starfield patch notes wiki tracks all updates including performance fixes and feature additions.
What does the Shattered Space DLC add?
Shattered Space, released in 2024, adds a full story DLC set on Va'ruun'kai, the homeworld of House Va'ruun. It includes:
- A new main questline with 8 story missions
- 12+ side quests
- 6 new Va'ruun weapons
- New armor and apparel sets
- Vortex Grenades in 5 variants: Binding, Charged, Lure, Phasing, and Unstable
- New items including Vortex Shards, Vortex Cysts, Dark Vortex Cysts, and Glowing Vortex Cysts
- The Dazra City location with its own interactive map
- New faction content for House Va'ruun (also joinable as a religion)
The DLC has 4 key choice moments: whether to kill Vaeric, whether to kill Sahima, the Phantom pod decision, and the ending choice. None of the earlier choices in the base game lock you out of starting Shattered Space.
Terran Armada and Free Lanes, announced as the second story DLC and a new space travel DLC respectively, launched on April 7, 2026, alongside Starfield's PlayStation 5 release, according to Game8's wiki.
How do outposts work?
Outposts are player-built bases you can place on habitable planets. The system uses modular construction with extractors, power sources, storage, crafting stations, defenses, and habitat structures.
The best planets for outpost building, according to the source wiki, include Altair II, Cassiopeia I, Charybdis III, Procyon III-a, and Schrodinger III. Planet selection matters because different planets have different resource deposits, and outposts need power generation matched to their extractor load.
Outposts can house crew members who contribute passive bonuses based on their skills. Fauna can be domesticated and Flora can be raised on-site with the right modules, enabling passive resource generation without manual mining.
For more guides covering Starfield and other games, browse the full guides library at GAMES.GG to find builds, walkthroughs, and tips across the biggest titles.