Starfield Crafting and Research Guide: Master Every Workbench

Starfield's crafting system is one of those things that looks simple on the surface and then quietly becomes the backbone of your entire build. You need it for weapon mods, spacesuit upgrades, outpost equipment, food, medicine — basically everything that makes your character feel genuinely powerful rather than just leveled up. The catch is that crafting is gated behind a research system that most players stumble through without fully understanding. This guide breaks down exactly how both systems work, where to find every workbench, and which skills you actually need to invest in.

How does Starfield research work?

Research is the prerequisite layer sitting beneath all crafting. Before you can make most useful items, you need to complete research projects at a Research Lab, which unlocks the recipes you then execute at the relevant workbench. Think of it as the unlock tree, and the workbenches as where you spend those unlocks.

Research is split across five distinct categories:

Each category contains multiple individual projects. To complete a project, you deposit the required materials at a Research Lab. One thing that trips up new players: you don't have to deposit everything at once. Materials can be added incrementally as you collect them across different planets and moons, so there's no pressure to grind everything before starting.

Research lab project overview

Completing one project often unlocks additional projects within the same category, so the tree expands the further you push into it. Some higher-tier projects are locked behind both earlier research completions and specific skill requirements.

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Which skills matter for research and crafting?

Not all research is available from the start. Starfield's skill system governs access to higher-level content across most systems, and crafting is no exception.

Two skills are worth prioritizing early:

• Chemistry (Science tree): Required to access advanced Pharmacology research projects. Without it, your medicine and chem crafting stays at the most basic tier.
• Research Methods (Science tree): Reduces the material requirements for completing research projects. At its highest rank, it also increases the chance of "sudden developments," which grant bonus project materials for free.

Other crafting categories have their own gating skills, so check the requirements on any locked project before assuming you need more materials. Sometimes the blocker is a skill rank, not resources.

How does Starfield crafting work?

Once you've completed the relevant research project, crafting happens at a specific workbench. Each workbench type handles a different category of items, and you need to bring the right raw resources to execute the recipe. Here's what each station does:

• Cooking Stations: Food and drink aid items.
• Industrial Workbenches: Outpost components and industrial parts, including upgraded extractors.
• Pharmaceutical Labs: Chems, healing items, and consumable aid.
• Spacesuit Workbenches: Mods that add stat boosts and perks to helmets, spacesuits, and packs.
• Weapon Workbenches: Attachments and mods for your weapons, affecting accuracy, weight, damage output, and more.
• Research Labs: The starting point for all of the above, where you deposit materials to complete projects.

Weapon workbench mod screen

The easiest place to access all of these is the basement of the Lodge in New Atlantis, which has every workbench type in one location. You'll also find workbenches scattered across other locations in the Settled Systems, and you can add them to your ship using the right ship modules.

What can you actually craft?

The range of craftable items is wider than most players realize. Crafting covers:

• Medicine and aid items: Treatments for Starfield afflictions, standard healing, and performance-enhancing chems.
• Food and drink: Consumables that provide stat buffs and healing.
• Outpost equipment: Industrial fabricators, storage solutions, and decorative components for player-built outposts.
• Spacesuit mods: Stat upgrades and new perks applied directly to your helmet, suit, and pack.
• Weapon mods: New barrels, optics, and other attachments that change how a weapon handles, altering accuracy, weight, and performance.

The Research Lab specifically expands your crafting capabilities, which in turn expands what your character can do across health, combat, and base building.

Spacesuit mod upgrade menu

The practical upshot: a fully researched character can self-sustain through difficult encounters with crafted medicine, run a productive resource-generating outpost, and field weapons tuned to their exact playstyle. Players who skip research end up relying entirely on vendor stock and random loot, which is a noticeable disadvantage on higher difficulties.

How to get the most out of the system

A few habits make the research and crafting loop much less frustrating:

• Prioritize Research Methods early. The material cost reductions apply to everything, and the sudden development bonus is effectively free crafting progress.
• Track multiple recipes at once, but be selective. The ingredient marking system flags all required materials regardless of what you already have, so tracking too many recipes creates visual noise and encourages hoarding past the encumbrance limit.
• Use the Lodge basement as your home base. Having every workbench in one location saves significant travel time early in the game.
• Don't ignore Outpost Development. Upgraded extractors and fabricators generate resources passively, which feeds back into your crafting pipeline over time.
• Check skill requirements before farming materials. Some projects are locked by skill rank, not resource availability. Farming materials for a project you can't unlock yet is wasted effort.

For players who want to go deeper into the systems connecting crafting to the rest of the game, browse more Starfield guides at games.gg/guides/ to find breakdowns on skills, outposts, and more.