Bethesda Softworks, through the saga of The Elder Scrolls, has always accustomed its audience to expect to encounter in the virtual world a series of factions that bring adventures and missions to the table that have nothing to envy of the protagonist's main journey, each equipped with unique rewards, well-characterized characters, as well as willing to raise the curtain on some of the most well-thought-out segments of all. Not only is Starfield no exception, but it features some of the best-written and most successful factions in the studio's history.
In Starfield there are four major factions of which it is possible to become part: one in particular is the subject of the only impactful choice encountered within the confines of the adventure. Initially these missions are presented as simple entries in the "Activities" table of your diary, but as soon as you get in touch with your recruiter these tasks will move directly to the specific section dedicated to the factions and will immediately be marked by the unique icon that characterizes them. In this guide we will explain everything there is to know about the Starfield factions: how many there are, where they are located, what rewards they offer and what the consequences of the main choices are.
Main Faction: Constellation
Constellation is the organization protagonist of the main Starfield mission and counts as a faction in all respects: during the missions, you may happen to use specific dialogue options linked to Constellation to obtain unique information and exploit this influence with your interlocutors . The tasks offered by Constellation sit at the center of the adventure: basically it involves searching for artefacts scattered almost everywhere in the Colonized Systems. Furthermore, in the cellar of the Lodge, there is first of all a mission terminal that can be used to obtain "radiant quests" - i.e. missions that are repeated infinitely - linked to planetary exploration, and also a safe locker in your room located on the second floor.
Constellation gives you access to the main Starfield companions, each of them with a dedicated mission and above all open to the possibility of starting a love relationship. If you want to know more we recommend you consult the guide to companions and romances, in any case these are Sarah, Barrett, Andreja and Sam. Each of these, once you have increased the level of relationship by taking them with you on a mission and talking to them when necessary, will reveal background information about their past until they open up to the [Flirt] command, which allows you to approach them on a romantic level. It will only be at this point that they will be willing to raise the curtain on their exclusive missions, which are very important to fully understand the game world. We especially recommend Andreja's unique mission. Before continuing, we warn you that the next paragraphs contain spoilers tied to the main Starfield storyline, so proceed with caution.
Last warning, There are spoilers below.
The main reward of Constellation - in addition to the continuation of the plot - lies in obtaining the powers linked to the artifacts, shown by Bethesda during the presentation before the launch. At a certain point in the main mission you will in fact be offered the possibility of using the Eye - a space station - to locate the structures in which to obtain particular abilities very similar to the typical Screams of Skyrim. Furthermore, there is one very important thing to keep in mind: depending on the characters with whom you have formed the strongest relationship, the main plot of Starfield will undergo changes: the first and second Constellation companions with whom you have the bond level higher, they will be protagonists of a fundamental choice during the adventure.
Vanguard UC
L'Vanguard of the United Colonies is a group of spaceship captains who choose to voluntarily enlist to defend the institution's borders and above all help people in difficulty. The headquarters is located in the huge building of Tasm, in the center of New Atlantis, and is enough to complete the recruitment process talk to Commander Tuala which is located right in the reception of the building. After a training course inside the Colonial War museum, you will have to pass a short flight simulation, after which you will be assigned a test assignment to see how you fare in the field.
Obviously things will not go as planned and in a very short time what appears to be the UC Vanguard will raise the curtain on the true nature of the faction: none other than the defense forces of the United Colonies. The very long Vanguard mission rewards you with a ultra-luxury penthouse in the tallest building in New Atlantis, obviously also guaranteeing you the status of honorary citizen. Below we will talk about the main choices that can be made during the mission, therefore we advise you to proceed with caution as there will be some inevitable spoilers.
The UC Vanguard's mission has to do with the return of the Terrormorphs, terrible alien creatures that led to the total collapse of the city of Londinium. In the first part of this campaign you will have to rebuild the Red Devils, a group of UC soldiers specialized in the use of Xenoweapons during the Colonial War; at a certain point, however, the character of Vae Victis will come into play, which it is better not to talk about in detail to preserve your experience. In any case, he will be the central element of the great choice at the center of this faction. Below we will talk in great detail about the consequences of the final decisions, so we advise you to continue only if you are willing to get a nice spoiler.
Throughout the entire mission, Vae Victis will attempt to use you to eliminate what he believes pose threats to the United Colonies. It's up to you to decide how to behave, keeping in mind that the person you are talking to is a skilled strategist. You are completely free to choose to mention the existence of Vae Victis to his "daughter", or to inform the Vanguard Council that Vae Victis is using you to eliminate certain targets, and each of these decisions could give you some small advantage when it comes to truth. In fact, the only truly decisive choice occurs after having completed the Londinium mission, when you return to New Atlantis to report on what happened to the Terrormorphs.
You have two fundamental options:
- You can side with Vae Victis and embrace his plan: his "daughter" will become a heroine, no one will ever find out what he did, and furthermore Vae Victis will gain great power within the council to "protect" the Colonies. With this choice, you will be able to reach Vae Victis whenever you want to get very well-paid elimination missions, also as heroes you will obtain the status of Honorary Citizen and a penthouse in the center of New Atlantis.
- You can report Vae Victis, but it will be very difficult to provide evidence if you have not informed the Council of the missions he was secretly assigning you. In this case the outcome of the mission remains the same, with the important difference that the Vae Victis character will no longer have to deal with you and your adventure companion will be at least shocked by the news.
Ultimately, the best choice is to support Vae Victis: you will get the penthouse, you will put 100.000 credits in your pocket, everyone will be happy and you will also have access to extra missions. If you are a spy, the only tangible difference will be the lack of access to the extra missions in Vae Victis, because everything else will go exactly the same. On the other hand, the way in which choose to get rid of the Terrormorphs it only has effects in the relationship with your companions: by giving up the virus you will prove that you don't believe in science, which will bother Sarah, for example, a lot, but fundamentally there won't be any big differences.
Ranger Freestar
Run into the Ranger Freestar it's practically mandatory. During the main mission of Constellation, the time will come to follow Sam Coe towards Akila City, and as soon as you set foot in the capital of the Collective you will find the sheriff waiting for you, who is having some problems with the management of a robbery at the GalBank headquarters. At this juncture, it doesn't matter how you choose to handle the matter: you can kill everyone, use diplomacy, deception or whatever else pops into your head. Once the impasse has been resolved, the sheriff will invite you to join one of his subordinates to propose your candidacy as a Freestar Ranger: that's right, these are interstellar detectives in the Walker Texas Ranger style who investigate the small and large problems of the population of Freestar space. We'll tell you right away, in case this inspiration doesn't particularly tickle your fancy: this faction delivers as a reward one of the best ships which can be obtained in the entire journey in Starfield, so it might be a good idea for new players to pay attention to this faction.
This is undoubtedly the "most standard" faction among those created by Bethesda: it is sufficient to follow the investigations to take a journey through the entire Colonized Systems, with the ultimate aim of defeating the plan of the First Freestar Cavalry. In this case, therefore, it is a mission that does not present great choices: you can simply choose whether to be a more or less ruthless ranger, and this characteristic of yours will be fully evaluated only towards the end of the adventure. There is only one choice that is really important, but given that contains spoilers we will deal with it in the next paragraph.
Having reached the end of the investigation, you will find yourself faced with a great moral dilemma: understand the reasons of Hope, who did what she did to protect the Freestar Collective and support many families - but also for personal interest - or apply a sort of absolute justice, a decision that will inevitably lead to his demise. Unfortunately, this choice does not bring serious consequences in the game world.
Regardless of what you do, you will be fully hired as a Freestar Ranger and will immediately receive the Star Eagle spaceship, an extraordinary warship. Furthermore, from this moment on you will be able to access the faction bulletin board to obtain radiant missions that repeat identically infinitely.
Ryujin Industries
In the heart of Neon stands the headquarters of one of the most important megacorporations of the colonized systems: the Ryujin Industries It has stakes in virtually every profitable sector in the galaxy, and is known for being willing to do anything to achieve its goals. To join the faction, simply interact with any Ryujin terminal present in Neon, submitting a virtual application that summarizes your experience with a view to an informative interview. Once you have filled out the form, you will have to reach the Ryujin operational plan and discuss it with your contact person, Imogene. Imogene will introduce you to the mechanisms of society, assigning you a very simple task that... obviously ends in tragedy. From that moment on, if you behave properly, a climb will begin that can take you all the way to the board of directors of Ryujin.
As the company's operating agent, you will be responsible for the interventions of industrial espionage: it is therefore a mission strongly oriented towards the stealth element, persuasion, lies, in short, any tool that can help you achieve ambitious objectives without anyone realizing you are passing by. Initially you will have to carry out small tasks on behalf of Imogene, but as soon as you have made a name for yourself you will work directly under the orders of Ularu, who is managing the company on behalf of the owner Masako. The missions assigned by Ularu are decidedly more risky and rewarding, and it will be while you are tackling them that the different options that characterize the Ryujin faction will begin to come into play.
It all begins when you have to infiltrate Ryujin on the orders of the head of security, in order to examine Ularu's computer and identify the spy's identity. At this point, all the clues seem to lead to Imogene, who, aware of this fact, hid in the clan's refuge under the protection of Benjamin Bayu. What you will do from this moment on will influence the progress of the Ryujin affair, so we leave you as usual thespoiler alert before moving on to the next section.
Once you find Imogene, she will swear to you that she is innocent, stating that everything she did was on Ularu's orders. At this point you will have several options: first of all you can decide to condemn Imogene despite being innocent, even though you won't get much in return; otherwise you can go to the head of security Blake and reveal to him everything you have discovered, starting the investigations on Ularu which will continue in the most advanced phases of the mission; at the same time, you are free to head straight towards Ularu to directly ask the woman for explanations. What you will do in this case is very important: If you go to Ularu, the woman will make you a very generous offer, promising to shower you with gold if you help her take control of the Ryujin council by supporting her plan to wipe out Masako. But you have to be very careful: If you go to Ularu, confront her, and choose to decline her offer, she will know everything you have discovered, and will know how to defend herself if she receives an accusation. In short words, if you want to join Ularu you better face her and accept her offer, while if you want to join Masako it is better not to argue with Ularu and handle the matter silently with the security chief alone, so that the woman makes a mistake unaware of the information you have stolen.
In fact, during the subsequent missions, you will be guided directly by Masako, the owner of the Ryujin, who will give you her most important prototype, namely the Domain project. This advanced manipulation chip allows you to mentally control any human being and make them perform any kind of task you want; it will be an indispensable weapon to make your way through Ryujin's latest missions, all extremely complex and featuring multiple approaches. Always choose the approach you prefer and give yourself to crazy joy, since what you do in these circumstances does not bring great consequences, other than a slight change in the monetary reward: if you don't get caught, you will get a strong bonus of Credits.
It makes all the difference final mission and above all your relationship with Masako. If you plotted with Masako to frame Ularu by having her security check her datapad, Ularu will be kicked out of her. On the other hand, if you allied with Ularu, Masako will be publicly humiliated and forced to abandon her company. Not only this decision, but the fate of the entire Ryujin is in your hands: you will have to choose whether or not to continue work on the Dominion project and above all whether or not to acquire the rival company. Keep in mind that since you have Domination installed in your brain, you can influence all council members to do what you want, effectively rigging the vote to your liking.
The different outcomes of this mission can particularly affect your companions, who may hate or appreciate what you do. Beyond the Masako-Ularu issue, however, the epilogue of the Ryujin mission does not offer much and it does not result in powerful impactful choices. With the Dominion chip in your brain and your pockets full of credits no matter who you help, you'll have access to an office in the company headquarters and can use the bulletin board to complete radiant missions dedicated to industrial espionage.
DefSis / Crimson Fleet
And here we are at the one that represents, or rather, those that represent the more complex factions on paper than Starfield. On the one hand we have DifSis, the secret defense service of the United Colonies which operates separately and independently from any authority, while on the other we find the Crimson Fleet, the most violent and feared group of pirates in the Colonized Systems, none other than the force that attacked you at the very beginning of the adventure, in an attempt to get their hands on the Frontier. These two factions are the protagonists of a vast mission that will lead you to act under cover for a long time, and the way in which you get to know them may vary from one player to another.
If you are part of the UC Vanguard or if you are carrying out the missions for the Security of New Atlantis, at some point your presence will be requested by DifSis. Otherwise, the easiest way to get recruited is to smuggle contraband into Jemison's orbit and get caught: if, while you are being scanned before landing in New Atlantis, a Colony ship detects some contraband cargo, it is very likely that it will inform you that it has received special orders, and it will then take you before the head of DifSis, the commander Ikande.
Ikande has a mission for you, an easy one: you must infiltrate the Crimson Fleet and slowly climb the ranks until you gain the trust of the older members, and then impress the very dangerous Delgado, a pirate who sits in command of the Key. During the entire mission, you will only be able to rely on yourself: no one will know that you are working undercover, you will often have to get your hands dirty, you could be arrested, and whatever happens, the very existence of DifSis must remain a secret that you will carry with you in the tomb. However, keep in mind that DifSis will often be aware of your actions, so lying to Commander Ikande is not a very wise option.
Obviously, at the basis of this mission there is a great choice: you can choose whether to remain faithful to DifSis and complete your spy work, or whether to join the space pirates and take Ikande by the nose, with the aim of transforming yourself into one of the richest and most wanted criminals of the Colonized Systems. You will have to make the actual choice only after completing the entire chain of missions, but we assure you that - even if your character is of a good nature - it is very difficult not to become attached to the companions you will meet on board the Key, and especially to the unique services they offer.
The mission of the Crimson Fleet revolves around finding the great treasure pursued all his life by the founder of the pirate group, a task for which Delgado and his companions have been preparing for years. As soon as you join the fleet you will automatically get access to the Key, a lawless space station that's home to tons of unique characters and shops, a dedicated spaceport, and tons of amenities you can't find anywhere else in the galaxy. Your contacts with DifSis will be reduced to a minimum: after every certain number of missions carried out for the Fleet, you will have to reach the US Constitution to report to Ikande, and it is only up to you to decide whether or not to tell him everything that needs to be reported.
The first choice - unfortunately a "fake" choice - concerns whether or not to ally with Mathis while carrying out the prison mission on behalf of Delgado. Your companion and rival will in fact ask you to betray the leader in order to take his place, but what you answer will not matter at all, because his mutiny plan will end very soon. The noteworthy decision occurs only at the end of the mission: if you keep Mathis's secret, he will become a companion that you can recruit whenever you want and even assign it to your crew.
At this point you just have to continue until the end of the Crimson Fleet missions, reaching the precise moment in which you will have to make the definitive choice: when Ikande chooses to launch his attack on the Key. You will have to decide, definitively, whether to defend the Crimson Fleet station from Constitution or whether to attack it together with DifSis. Let's see in detail what we get in one or the other case.
- By joining DifSis you will defeat the Crimson Fleet, defeat Delgado and his men, get a reward of 250.000 credits and have access to the DifSis bounty hunter missions.
- By siding with the Crimson Fleet, all Starfleet pirates in the galaxy will become your allies, you will have unlimited access to the Key and its unique shops and items, you will be able to undertake extra pirate missions, you will have access to a series of additional missions dedicated to certain Starfleet members, and you will be free to recruit Mathis. Furthermore, as a reward for recovering the treasure, you will receive 500.000 credits.
It's pretty clear that joining the Crimson Fleet pays off, but what is the price to pay? Very simple: your Constellation companions they won't like it at all your decision, regardless of the degree of relationship you have with them. Well, nothing a little chat and a bit of running around can't fix, right? This undoubtedly represents the most impactful choice in the entire Starfield, so we suggest you think about it carefully.
Other minor factions
In addition to the factions linked to long side missions, Starfield is also home to several smaller groups with which it is possible to come into contact but which have failed to carve out a space of prominence on the stage. Let's briefly analyze the most important ones to understand who they are and above all what they offer.
- Il Holy Universe it is the evolution of the classic monotheistic faiths. Those who follow the path of the Universal believe in a single creator god of the universe, the entity who guided humanity's path across the stars with the aim of being found. The main headquarters of the creed is located in the TASM neighborhood of New Atlantis, just across the street from the Constellation Lodge.
- - Illuminati they are a group of organized atheists who are concerned with providing sustenance to the needy in pursuit of the common good. Their role in the narrative, however, is much more limited than you might think. If you want to know more, you can find an Illuminati headquarters in the Well of New Atlantis or in the Accommodation Section of Cydonia.
- La House Va'ruun it is a religious force that abandoned the Colonized Systems to pursue the prophecies of the Great Serpent, a god in whose name a terrible crusade was perpetrated against the United Colonies. This is undoubtedly the most present religious faction in the world of Starfield, yet it is little explored: we are quite convinced that it will be the great protagonist of the first Starfield DLC, given that the work is full of information regarding this cult and the exiles who they created a new community somewhere in space. If you want to know more, we recommend tackling Andreja's Bond Mission.
- They are not real factions, but in the Porrima system, around the planet Porrima III, you will meet Paradise and a ship adrift. Paradise is a luxury planetary resort, while the stranded ship... well, we don't want to spoil the surprise for you. This little scene stages a very nice mission in which you will have to decide the fate of a group of star castaways.
- Il Crucible is a small "faction" that you can find by visiting the Charybis system. Charybdis is a very, very distant system, so we recommend that you first get a ship with a large jump distance. Once there, you will discover a secret government experiment in which... no, I don't feel like spoiling it for you. This is one of those little Bethesda gems that you have to discover on your own. I'll just give you a little preview: if you want to get, I don't know, a Genghis Khan dress, you absolutely have to visit this place.
- If the pirates of the Crimson Fleet can become your allies, Spacers e mercenari Ecliptic they will always represent the main threat you will encounter in Colonized Systems. By cleaning up the structures they have occupied, it is possible to recover a series of datapads that recall some directives, useful for understanding their way of thinking. Even in this case, however, these are minor factions that only raise the curtain on one or a maximum of two dedicated missions; to find these missions you just need to read the datapads that you occasionally find on their lifeless bodies.
- La Gal-Bank It has offices in several cities and ships carrying tons of credits. If you want to indulge in piracy, well, these are the targets you are looking for: each armored car carries a minimum of 30.000 credits.
- L'Commercial Authority It has a location at every major spaceport, offers merchant quests via a message board, and is a great place to get rid of hot goods.
- Finally there is the Stroud-Eklund, the company owned by Walter, which despite not being a real faction is equipped with a board of missions dedicated to the spaceship game segment, furthermore, at the invitation of the owner of Constellation, it offers you the possibility of developing a new line from scratch of spaceships, of which you will obviously become test pilots.
