After almost ten years of active development, Starfield has finally presented itself to the public by offering an extraordinary amount of mechanics and content compared to any other title published by Bethesda Softworks. The Colonized Systems, this is the name of the fraction of the Milky Way in which the story takes place, are in fact a labyrinth of stars, planets and cities decidedly larger than those encountered in the past, among whose arteries one continually stumbles upon missions and activities of all kinds.
The great advantage of this structure lies in the fact that it has never been so easy to pour hundreds of hours into the virtual world, but at the same time it is very easy to lose not only missions along the way, but also fundamental explanations to make the interstellar journey more pleasant as possible. For this reason we have chosen to create a collection of tricks and tips to start your Starfield adventure in the best possible way, so that we can give you some suggestions that we would have liked to have received and maybe some advice on what is worth doing from the beginning. Make yourself comfortable, fasten your seat belts, and prepare for an odyssey among the stars.
Background and character traits
As per tradition, in Starfield it is possible to customize down to the smallest detail each aesthetic characteristic of the protagonist you wish to embody. In case you were wondering, we'll tell you right away: you can change the appearance of your hero even after the start of the adventure, but this mechanic is integrated into the game world. This means that in order to change your appearance you will have to reach one of the offices of Meta Human, a company that deals with genetic manipulation, and pay a fair price for the service; the easiest to reach is undoubtedly the one on the main street of Neon.
Creating the character, however, doesn't just mean deciding on his features: you will also have to select a background, which affects your starting skills, but above all a maximum of three different ones whether. The traits should absolutely not be underestimated: not only do they integrate a series of bonuses and penalties into the gaming experience, but they are also reflected in the dialogue options that you have at your disposal and could even raise the curtain on entire additional missions. By selecting Wanted, for example, not only will you inflict more damage with low health and be attacked by groups of mercenaries, but you will be able to access a very long series of additional dialogue options that will allow you to change the outcome of quests.
Even more important are the traits related to yours possible origins, or the city of Neon, that of Akila or New Atlantis; these work exactly like the Cyberpunk 2077 backgrounds, but have much greater weight during the mission phase. If, for example, you have selected Neon Rat, when you move around that particular city you will have access to various extra contents that other characters will not be able to experience in any way. Keep in mind that this applies to any type of trait you choose, not just those related to your origins, so you never know when your characteristics might come into play.
The last thing worth mentioning is that there is the option to get rid of some features even once you have selected them. The Adoring Fan, to name one, can be "removed" simply by... sending it to the creator. But this applies to all traits: through a conversation in a bar with a derelict who has managed to leave the city behind, you might be given the choice to abandon your Neon Rat past, and in that case the decision would be only yours. Our advice, in any case, is to absolutely choose three different traits, no matter which ones, to fully experience what Starfield has to offer.
Do the main mission
In Bethesda video games, it's always good not to get too caught up in the setting and dedicate yourself at least a little to the main mission. In Skyrim, for example, if you don't proceed towards the city of Whiterun and then in the direction of the Greybeards, you run the risk of experiencing a large part of the adventure without releasing the Dragons into the world and therefore losing access to the entire dragon mechanics. You scream. Without giving spoilers, we advise you to do the same thing in Starfield, because before approaching Constellation you will not have access to several essential components of the work.
Our advice is to do at least four or five main missions, in order to get to know all the members of Constellation and follow them to the main settlements, places from which you can later give vent to your imagination. Bethesda studied Starfield's main campaign to guide you to the discovery of the Colonized Systems, before rewarding you with a reward that we couldn't even talk about during the review phase. Don't ignore Constellation's mission!
The TASM museum
In the city of New Atlantis there is the TASM neighborhood, a subsection of the capital of the United Colonies which also houses the Lodge, or Constellation's headquarters. In this big building, where all the flags are located, there is also the United Colonies Museum, in the orientation section of the UC vanguard: by talking to the officer at the entrance, you can proceed into the building's elevator and reach it very easily.
In this place of New Atlantis it is told the entire "lore" of Starfield, that is, everything that happened from the founding of the United Colonies until the armistice that marked peace with the Freestar Collective and House Va'ruun. We recommend that you visit the museum as soon as possible to learn everything you need to know about the Colonized Systems directly within the game, through a story full of twists and turns. This segment also raises the curtain on the first major faction that can be encountered in Starfield, namely the Vanguard of the United Colonies.
The construction of ships
La construction of spacecraft it is an essential element of Starfield, not only because it allows you to build the spaceship of your dreams, customizing its weapons and interior architecture, but above all because it improves your ability to explore the Colonized Systems. Some stars, in fact, are quite isolated, and to be able to reach them it is absolutely necessary to upgrade your jump engines. This is an operation that is basically extremely simple: in fact, it is enough to open the menu of naval managers, always close to the city landing platforms, and use the editor to directly upgrade the modules without having to start construction; this segment of the game, however, is actually much more complex.
The construction of the ship passes first of all from a reactor: this is where energy is produced, so you can never, ever go beyond its limit through i secondary modules that you will install. The secondary modules are the weapons, thrusters, shield and jump engine, so at the beginning of the adventure it will be very difficult for you to assemble an effective vehicle. Furthermore, we must not forget that mass - and therefore weight - has effects on performance, especially on the distance of gravitational jumps and the power of the engines.
The last thing to keep in mind is that many pieces are exclusive to those who have chosen the perks dedicated to Naval Design, which allow you to greatly improve the effectiveness of the spacecraft, and the piloting skill, necessary to drive certain vehicles. A good way to create an effective warship early in the game is to equip only one type of weapon: a shuttle with five machine guns is often more effective than one with several artillery pieces.
Cargo, inventory and secure lockers
As per tradition, Starfield is literally flooded with objects and materials of all kinds to be stowed in the protagonist's pockets, but it is very easy to run out of space quickly; when this happens, the ability to take advantage of fast travel will be precluded and you will begin to use up your oxygen reserves simply by walking. The most universally widespread method among historical Bethesda players is that of bring a companion with you to be used as a "mule": by accessing his inventory you can in fact stow kilos and kilos of rubbish in his pockets in order to multiply the space available. However, there is a big novelty in the Colonized Systems, namely your ship: the cargo is accessible from a small blue screen always positioned next to the cockpit, and is very useful for managing tons of materials.
Furthermore, by accessing any research or creation station, you will be able to use not only what you are carrying with you, but everything you have stored inside the ship selected as your home. This also applies to sellers: by pressing the LB button on the Xbox pad, you can access the ship's inventory to directly sell everything you have to the merchant on duty and empty the deposits.
If, however, you want to keep the most precious loot safe, the only solution lies in the so-called secure lockers, a real rarity in the Starfield universe. The safest - in the sense that it never resets - is the one contained in your staff room inside the Constellation Lodge, after which you can only unlock others within the confines of the houses you can purchase. The houses, however, are rewards for completing chains of missions and can only be furnished manually, a factor that makes them an option only viable once the adventure is well advanced.
The factions
Even if Starfield features a substantial main mission even accompanied by a New Game+ mode, Bethesda's video games are known for keeping the best portions of the adventure beyond the gates of the side missions, and in this case the factions. If you have played Skyrim you will undoubtedly remember groups like the Companions, or the Thieves' Guild: well, long missions of this kind also exist in Colonized Systems, and the studio has raised the bar very much in terms of narration and choices, offering dozens of hours of top-notch entertainment.
In total in Starfield there are five main factions - six also counting Constellation - linked to four large chains of missions that will keep you busy for a very long time. To avoid spoilers, we avoid telling you right away which factions we are talking about, but know that there are some one in each main settlement, namely New Atlantis, Akila City and Neon, in addition to two others that are decidedly more hidden, a bit like what traditionally happens with the Dark Brotherhood in the confines of The Elder Scrolls saga. The factions do not immediately present themselves as such: their recruitment missions are often indicated in the "activity" item of your diary, we therefore advise you to pay close attention to this menu. In fact, initially you might think that the activities are the classic "various missions", i.e. the less complex ones, but in reality they hide some of the most interesting portions of the adventure.
Traveling in space
Starfield does not integrate any form of interplanetary space navigation: this means that to land, to take off, to move between one planet and another, and obviously to make a gravitational jump, you have to go through the fast travel system, always inexorably accompanied by a loading and a dedicated movie. You can use the star map to select the destination, or rely on the scanner, exactly as happens on the mainland of the planets, to start the relevant fast travel sequence and the corresponding cutscene. The only time you actually pilot the spacecraft it is therefore immediately after take-off, before landing or in the process of reaching a planet, a moon or an orbital station.
In these segments Bethesda has integrated its classic system casual encounters, introducing pirates, merchants and colorful characters who will come to visit you, raising the curtain on space battles and some sequences that act as "follow ups" to the missions you have completed. You will, again at this juncture, be able to dock at space stations and other ships, and in the event of a successful boarding you will also be able to steal any ship whose engines you have destroyed, effectively becoming its owners. Furthermore, if you don't leave witnesses, no one will be able to tell what you did in the middle of the asteroid fields...
Planetary exploration and outposts
As explained in our review, theplanetary exploration of Starfield limits itself to staging suggestive procedural landscapes in which plants, animals and structures erected by Bethesda are randomly generated. This means that there is a lot to see on the surface, but there isn't much to discover: when exploring the patches of procedural land you happen to come across buildings that tend to repeat themselves as they are endlessly, maintaining the same map and same positioning of the objects. In essence, these are places where it is possible to "farm" weapons, equipment, medicines and materials, leaving no room for the telling of a story, the discovery of a mission or something unique.
I exploration data of the planet, on the other hand, have a lot of value and can be sold: simply scan all the resources on the planet, as well as all the plants and animals if there are any, and then bring them back to any data trader, like Chloe at Constellation headquarters.
Furthermore, on every planet it is possible build Outposts, with a single ironclad condition: you need specific perks to be able to create a base on a planet with extreme physical characteristics; at the beginning, therefore, you will only be able to build them on planets equipped with atmosphere and magnetosphere, a quality that you can verify by selecting the planet from the star map and reading the entries on the left side of the interface. To actually create the outpost, simply activate your scanner and select the Outpost command, with which you can place a beacon. The lighthouse delimits the area in which you can place any object you want via construction mode - exactly as happened in Fallout 76 - giving complete vent to your imagination. Remember, however, that building outposts is avery expensive and demanding operation: You need raw materials and unique materials that you will have to constantly collect during your travels.
Companions, crew and romance
In Starfield it is possible to have someone follow you partner: these are characters created specifically by Bethesda to accompany you on your journey and fight alongside you. Initially, the only companions available will be those from Constellation: Sarah Morgan, Sam Coe, Barrett and Andreja; By thoroughly exploring the game world you will be able to find other unique companions, some of which are very well characterized, but in most cases you will have to have made very specific choices to be able to recruit them. You can customize their equipment in detail, pass them objects and above all add the effectiveness of their skills to yours; Andreja for example has the Stealth skill enhanced to maximum level, so she is the perfect sidekick to carry out infiltration missions.
Furthermore, these so-called "appointed" companions constantly react to your choices: depending on the decisions you make, they could to appreciate or not what you have done - just look at the prompt that appears in the top right corner of the interface - raising the curtain on a rather simple affinity system. By increasing your relationship with a partner - that is, by doing things that he likes - he will open up to you more and more, revealing secrets from his past and starting exclusive missions that can only be activated in this way. Furthermore, once you cross a certain threshold, you will gain access to the [Flirt] command, which allows you to try to form a loving relationship with your companions.
Yours crew, on the other hand, is a group of people - including companions - who you can assign to the ship or to one of your outposts, directly purchasing their skills in the field. If, therefore, a companion with the astrodynamic ability is assigned to the ship, it will instantly increase its jump distance; Likewise, some outpost facilities need to be manned by personnel, such as trading posts, so you will need to select the most suitable minds for such tasks.
In addition to the companions, in fact, the game world is full of characters you can recruit upon payment to become part of your crew: just visit any bar in the main planetary settlements to come across several laborers who can't wait to put themselves at your service to earn some credits. The crew menu can be called up at any time by accessing the "Ship" section of the main menu and then pressing Y on the Xbox controller: this will open a management curtain useful for locating and above all assigning tasks to your colleagues.
The fundamental perks
L'skill tree of Starfield allows you to embroider the fantasy you prefer on your character, rewarding stealth incursions and unarmed combat, effectiveness with sniper rifles and space pilot skills. However, a series of perks that are, to say the least, indispensable in which any player should invest regardless of the gameplay style adopted have survived. The fundamental example is the Boostpack Training, which allows you to use the jetpack integrated into most of the backpacks available, allowing you to reach any position in a decidedly easier way and above all to easily navigate the surface of the planets.
Likewise, Security allows you to use digipicks to hack locks and computers, giving you the opportunity to reach lots of inaccessible areas and, above all, complete some missions in a matter of seconds; Missions that require stealth usually only use Beginner-level locks, but Security is a perk that everyone should unlock. The Astrodynamics skill is a great way to increase the ship's jump distance without having to invest too much in upgrading the engines, while Theft opens up the entire pickpocketing system, which unlike Bethesda's past works is not even available to those who have not invested the necessary points.
On a side note, there are several perks that are to say the least indispensabili for anyone who wanted to dedicate themselves to certain areas of the adventure: without Naval Design, for example, you cannot access the best parts for your ship; Likewise, Piloting is mandatory to maneuver the more challenging variants. The same goes for the crafting system and the construction of outposts, which without the respective skills in the Science tree will never be able to express themselves to their full potential; just think of the simple fact that, without Weapons Engineering, it is not even allowed to mount a silencer on a rifle.
The skills of grade four offered by each tree open up completely new nuances of the gameplay, but to reach them it will be necessary to spend many points and above all spend several hours completing the necessary challenges. The Social tree, for example, ends with the ability to mind control enemies and tame alien creatures, allowing you to do whatever you want with them: an expert manipulator can even order a controlled enemy to interact with a specific computer, in order to open a door in complete safety. In short, Starfield offers dozens of options, and it's only up to you to decide the type of space explorer you want to be.
