To claim all of the achievements in Starfield, we only need to do a single playthrough, which, depending on how slow you take things and how many additional things you do, could take you between 50-200 hours. This game is giant, with over 1,000 individual planets, 5 questlines, a plethora of miscellaneous missions, activities and random things for you to enjoy. If this is your first time playing Starfield, honestly I would just simply play the game. There are no missable achievements, meaning you can do everything in theoretically any order you want to.
Starfield is a massive game, and as such, if you try to do everything at once, it can easily overwhelm you and make you lose interest or just not enjoy it as much. As such, I will have two "guides" within this guide. What I mean by that is that on the next page, I will have a full 100% playthrough, which will be for the people who have either played before, don't care as much about the stories or plotlines and characters, or just want to get through it quicker. On this page I will do a mixed playthrough, doing multiple questlines and things at the same time, in an efficient manner, so be warned, you may get overwhelmed. Every page past that will be a less detailed guide of the necessary things we need to complete, in more of a loose guide, aimed at having you find things out for yourself. I would recommend using the less detailed guide if you want to be hand-held, and the combined guide if you want to be more efficient and quicker.
I'll now take you through some of the important details regarding Starfield.
Ship Building
Starfield boasts an insane amount of customisation for your ships. There is only 1 achievement tied to the customisation of your ships, so as such, I won't be covering ship building basically at all in this walkthrough. I'm also a complete novice at it and I think it would be wildly better for you to look at videos on YouTube or Reddit if you would like to partake and learn. That being said, I will try my best to layout the basics for you.
To customise or build a ship, you'll need to find a ship technician. These people can be found in the ports of most populated areas. The technicians can repair your ship, let you view and modify your ships, as well as buy and sell parts. The key component of a starship is the Reactor. Reactors come in 3 tiers, A, B, and C. The higher the reactor's tier, the better parts you can put alongside it. You cannot put high-tier parts on a low-tier reactor. To gain access to higher-tier reactors, you must take the Starship Design skill, which itself is a tier-3 skill. More on skills later.
Each reactor will come with its own amount of power, which will then be shared amongst up to 6 categories:
- LAS - Laser weapon damage
- BAL - Ballistic weapon damage
- MSL - Missile weapon damage
- ENG - Flight speed
- SHD - Shield strength and protection
- GRV - Grav Jump charge speed
You can use the D-Pad to allocate power between these 6 categories, with the more power in them, the higher the stat goes. I would recommend always having the SHD maxed out so you don't get quickly killed by a surprise attack, especially on higher difficulties.
Here is a list of all modules and components that can be, or must be, on your starship:
- Cockpit - The front of the ship, where you pilot and access the ship's inventory.
- Engine - The movement of the ship, the more engines equipped, the faster your ship will go.
- Grav Drive - The core of interstellar travel. The Grav Drive allows you to jump between systems and access new planets.
- Dockers - The hatch which allows the safe traversal between your ship and another ship you've docked alongside.
- Landing Bay - The ramp and door and the base of the ship which allows you to enter and exit the ship.
- Cargo Hold - Additional storage for your ship.
- Shielded Cargo Hold - Additional storage for your ship, which will be smaller than the Cargo Hold, and also have a % chance to shield contraband from the authorities.
- Fuel Tanks - The storage of Helium-3, the fuel source which allows your ship to run.
- Habitat Modules - Additional rooms for your ship. May add things such as workstations, control rooms or bunk beds.
- Landing Gear - The legs your ship will stand on whilst it is on the ground.
- Structural - Miscelleanous modules mostly cosmetic but can be used to connect certain parts of the ship together.
- Shields - The main defence system. Provides the ship with a bubble of regenerating energy to protect the ship when being fired upon.
- Ballistic Weapons - The weapon that shoots solid projectiles, such as bullets or rockets. More effective against the hull than the shields.
- Energy Weapons - The weapon that shoots lasers and suppressors. More effective against the shields than the hull.
- Missile Weapons - The weapon most used to destroy specific sections of the enemy ship.
- Reactor - The centrepoint of the ship, providing the power needed to power all the ships systems.
Factions
There are 5 main factions in Starfield which you can join, and 10 lesser factions, none of which you can join.
Constellation
Constellation are a faction of space explorers, always on the lookout for new and exciting things to find and learn about in the depths of space. They are joined automatically on playing through Starfield's main questline. Constellation have their headquarters at The Lodge, located in New Atlantis on Jemison, in the Alpha Centauri system.
Crimson Fleet
The Crimson Fleet are a faction of space pirates, whose goals are to be a nuisance to the UC Vanguard, Freestar Rangers and everyone else in the Settled Systems. They can be joined by being caught hiding contraband. The Crimson Fleet have their headquarters at The Key, which orbits the planet Suvorov in the Kryx system.
Freestar Rangers
The Freestar Rangers are a faction of sheriffs, maintaining a loose hold over the Freestar Collective, a series of systems. They can be joined by visiting Akila City, and stopping a bank-robbery-in-progress. The Freestar Rangers have their headquarters at The Rock, located in Akila City on Akila, in the Cheyenne system.
Ryujin Industries
Ryujin Industries is a corporate faction, which controls various industries and a few large cities. They can be joined by filling out a job application at a Ryujin Industries kiosk. Ryujin Industries have their headquarters at Ryujin Tower, located in Neon on Volii Alpha, in the Volii system.
United Colonies Vanguard
The United Colonies (UC) Vanguard are a faction of military civilians, maintaining a firm grip over the UC controlled systems. They can be joined by speaking to Tuala at MAST. The UC Vanguard have their headquarters at MAST, located in New Atlantis on Jemison, in the Alpha Centauri system.
Argos Extractors
Argos Extractors are a faction of miners. You start out the game as a member of this faction, before leaving shortly into the game. They cannot be re-joined.
Ecliptic Mercenaries
The Ecliptic are a faction of mercenaries, sold out to the highest bidder. Most likely, the Ecliptic will be hostile towards you when you come across them. They cannot be joined.
Enlightened
The Enlightened are a faction of atheists that teach humanist values. They cannot be joined.
House Va'ruun
House Va'ruun are a religious faction which worships the Great Serpent. They will be hostile towards you unless on special occasions. They cannot be joined.
The Red Mile
The Red Mile is a faction of elite runners who run The Red Mile, a one-mile uphill course on high gravity with loads of strong creatures attacking you. They can be joined for single runs at a time, but not permanently.
Spacers
Spacers are a faction of individualists, who don't fit in anywhere else. They are essentially the Bandits of Skyrim, or the Raiders of Fallout 4. They cannot be joined.
Sanctum Universum
The Sanctum Universum is a religious faction who worships God. They cannot be joined.
Terran Preservation Authority
The Terran Preservation Authority (TPA) are a faction dedicated to the preservation and study of Terran culture. They cannot be joined.
UC SysDef
The UC SysDef are an elite faction of the UC, dedicated to defence and taking down The Crimson Fleet. They are kinda joined? It's a weird one, but technically I'd say they aren't joined.
Xenofresh Corporation
Xenofresh Corporation is a faction that creates and distributes the illegal drug Aurora. They cannot be joined.
Research and Crafting
The Research Lab is where you can research different categories of upgrades, to further your character, and the things you can create. It has 5 sub-sections:
- Pharmacology
- Food and Drink
- Outpost Development
- Equipment
- Weaponry.
Each research task requires certain materials to be put in before the upgrades are complete.
There are 4 types of workbenches used to craft items and upgrades:
- Industrial Workbench - Used to craft items which are then used to craft other items
- Weapon Workbench - Used to craft upgrades and add-ons to your weapons
- Spacesuit Workbench - Used to craft upgrades and add-ons to your spacesuits
- Pharmaceutical Lab - Used to craft medicines.
Controls
= Primary Attack
= Secondary Attack
= Melee
= Throw Grenade
= Activate
= Reload/Sheathe Weapon (Hold)
+
= Power
= Hand Scanner/Flashlight(Hold)
= Open Data Menu
= Toggle POV
= Jump
= Sprint
= Sneak
= Quick-Key Up
= Quick-Key Down
= Quick-Key Left
= Quick-Key Right
Photo Mode
Starfield's photo mode isn't much different to your usual photo mode nowadays; however, the big bonus for it is that any photo you take will be added to your Photo Gallery. Any photos in the Photo Gallery have a chance to randomly become one of the loading screens, meaning you can stumble across some gorgeous photos you've taken quite randomly.
Skills
Starfield have 5 separate skill trees:
- Physical
- Social
- Combat
- Science
- Tech.
Every time you level up, you will gain a skill point. As in every game, some skills are better than others. There are 82 skills in total, so I won't list them all, but I will list some of the essential early-game skills.
Physical
- Boxing - Increase unarmed attack damage (unarmed character style)
- Stealth - Adds the stealth meter
- Weight Lifting - Increase total carrying capacity.
Social
- Persuasion - Increase persuasion chance
- Theft - Unlock the ability to pickpocket.
Combat
Two of these (depends on your playstyle. Includes boxing from above.)
- Ballistics - Increase ballistic weapon attack damage
- Dueling - Increase melee attack damage
- Lasers - Increase laser weapon attack damage
- Pistol Certification - Increase pistol attack damage
- Shotgun Certification - Increase shotgun attack damage.
Science
- Astrodynamics - Increase grav jump range and reduce fuel cost
- Surveying - Adds zoom to the hand scanner and scan distance increase.
Tech
- Boost Pack Training - Can now use boost packs
- Piloting - Can now use ship thrusters
- Targeting Control Systems - Unlocks ship targeting functionality.
In the full page walkthrough, I will pretty much tell you which skills to take, as I will be writing as if you took them as well, but for the multi-page less detailed walkthrough I will suggest a couple to take instead.
Each skill can be levelled up to level 4, with the benefits of the skills becoming better and better as you level them up. After unlocking a skill, a certain task will be required from you before you can level it up again. For example, if I wanted to level up my Theft from level 1 to 2, I would need to successfully pickpocket 5 times. Once that's done, I can now level it up, where the amount of times I need to pickpocket with go up exponentially until it is maxed out at level 4.
The skill trees themselves have 4 tiers as well, with each section being unlocked after spending a certain amount of skill points in their respective trees. All the above skills are Tier 1 skills. You need to put 4 skill points in a tree to unlock Tier 2, then 4 more to unlock Tier 3, then finally 4 more to unlock Tier 4 skills.
Achievements
The final section before we get started are the things we're here for. The achievements and the gamerscore!
The Crimson Fleet
There are 3 achievements tied to the Crimson Fleet questline:
Freestar Rangers
There are 3 achievements tied to the Freestar Rangers questline:
Main Questline
There are 9 achievements tied to the Main Questline:
Ryujin Industries
There are 3 achievements tied to the Ryujin Industries questline:
UC Vanguard
There are 3 achievements tied to the UC Vanguard questline:
Traversal
There are 3 achievements tied to traversing the Settled Systems:
Quests
There are 2 achievements tied to completing side quests and activities:
Collection
There are 5 achievements tied to collecting different items:
Companions
There are 2 achievements tied to companions:
Levelling
There are 5 achievements tied to reaching certain levels:
Modifications and Crafting
There are 3 achievements tied to modifying or crafting items:
Combat
There are 2 achievements tied to killing enemies:
Outposts
There are 3 achievements tied to outposts:
Miscellaneous
There are 4 achievements which are unique enough to not fit in other categories:
That is all of the necessary knowledge you should need up to this point. Remember, if you want a more concise and efficient walkthrough, move on to the next page. If you want a less detailed, more free-flowing, one-storyline-at-a-time guide, skip the next page and move on to page 4.
Without further ado, fasten your seatbelts and welcome to the Starfield walkthrough!
3. Complete Playthrough1. Walkthrough OverviewFind anything you think is wrong with this walkthrough? Help us fix it by posting in its Walkthrough Thread.This walkthrough is the property of TrueAchievements.com. This walkthrough and any content included may not be reproduced without written permission. TrueAchievements.com and its users have no affiliation with any of this game's creators or copyright holders and any trademarks used herein belong to their respective owners.
