Starfield is a sci-fi sandbox game that lets you explore the galaxy, build your own spaceship, and customize your character. One of the most important aspects of character customization is the talent system, which allows you to enhance your skills and abilities in various fields. In this guide, I will share with you my personal experience and recommendations on how to allocate your talent points in Starfield, based on my third playthrough of the game. Of course, there is no one definitive way to build your character, and different playstyles may require different choices. Therefore, feel free to disagree with me and experiment with your own preferences.
Basic Talents
Let’s start with the first layer of basic talents. These are the talents that you can unlock from the beginning of the game, and they have a significant impact on your gameplay. Here is my conclusion and analysis, ranked by priority: Security, Jetpack, Target Control System, Persuasion, Stealing, Strength, Ballistics, Stealth, Driving.
First of all, you need to invest in the Technical category, specifically Security and Jetpack. Security is the ability to unlock chests, safes, doors, computers, and other devices. There are many things that you need to unlock in the game, and some of them may contain valuable rewards or shortcuts. Besides, some quests and puzzles can also be solved by unlocking certain devices. The lockpick consumption is very low in this game, and you only need one lockpick per attempt. However, every time you choose the wrong pattern and need to withdraw, you will consume one lockpick as well. Therefore, make sure to replenish your lockpicks whenever you encounter a merchant.
Jetpack unlocks the ability to use jet propulsion after jumping. This allows you to reach some high places and travel faster. For example, in the Red Carp Race quest, you can drink a potion that increases your speed and then bounce all the way to the finish line. If you level up this talent enough, you can also achieve unlimited flight on some low-gravity planets. This is also very useful in small-scale combat situations, as you can switch your ammo while flying in the air.
Next is the Target Control System talent, which unlocks the aiming ability for your spaceship. When you engage in space combat, you can wait until the target is locked and then press R to enter bullet time mode. This allows you to precisely attack the enemy’s specific parts. As long as you destroy their engine, you can approach them and press R again to board their ship. You can then loot their resources or even take their ship for yourself. This is a must-have skill for space combat.
The remaining Driving skill is not very useful in the early stages of the game. It is essentially a spaceship license that allows you to pilot different classes of ships. However, if you are interested in building and upgrading your own spaceship, you need to unlock this skill as soon as possible to complete the challenges. Otherwise, you will only be able to watch the good ships but not drive them. However, I suggest that you focus on upgrading your weapon system first before investing in this skill.
Moving on to the Science category, most of the skills here are related to resource extraction and crafting. I didn’t start exploring these mechanisms until my third playthrough of the game, so they are not very helpful for quests in the early stages of the game. You can skip them for now unless you are very interested in base building and planet resource exploration. The only skill that you need to invest in is Medical Science, which enhances your healing ability. This is very important for survival in hostile environments.
Astrodynamics seems like a useful skill that increases your warp range. However, most of the quests in the early stages of the game are not that far away from each other. Even if you need to warp over long distances occasionally, you can always find some intermediate planets to stop by along the way. Besides, one of your early companions Sara has this skill by default, so you can just assign her as a crew member on your ship.
Then we have Combat Talents. Unless you have a specific preference for a certain combat style, there is no need to invest too much in these skills either. I often run out of ammo for my firearms, so I usually carry six or seven different types of guns with me. I switch them whenever I run out of ammo for one type. Therefore, it is very difficult for me to specialize in one type of firearm. The only skill that I invested in was Ballistics Hole, which increases the damage of solid projectiles. This is very useful because most of the weapons that you can find in the game are solid projectile weapons, so they can all benefit from this skill.
The Social category has Persuasion, which can save you a lot of trouble in some quests. If you want to avoid running errands or fighting, this is a must-have skill. However, if you prefer to fight your way through everything, you can skip this skill as well. Stealing is not very necessary either, as there is nothing that you must steal to make things easier. You can invest in this skill if you like, but it is not a priority.
The Physical category has Strength, which increases your carrying capacity. This is a very important skill, especially if you don’t want to use console commands to change your weight limit. You will find a lot of items and resources in the game, and you don’t want to miss any of them because of your limited inventory space. Endurance is another essential skill that increases your stamina limit. You don’t have any vehicles in this game, so you have to run everywhere. Therefore, you need to have enough stamina to move around quickly and efficiently. However, be careful with the upgrade condition for this skill, which requires you to deplete all your available oxygen. This means that you have to run out of both the blue and red bars on your oxygen meter.
Advanced Talents
These are the talents that you can unlock after leveling up your basic talents. These are more specific and tailored to different playstyles, so I will not give a comprehensive recommendation for them. Instead, I will just mention a few of the most powerful ones that I found. You can decide for yourself which ones suit your preferences best.
In the Technical category, we have Shield System and New Construction. These are both very useful for dealing with some difficult space station battles later in the game. You need to have a strong shield to withstand the high firepower of the enemies, and you also need to repair your ship quickly and reduce the damage taken. These are essential skills for high-pressure combat situations.
New Construction is also the core skill for building and upgrading your own spaceship. You can unlock advanced components with this skill and customize your ship according to your needs. However, this is more of a side activity that is not directly related to the main quests.
In the Science category, all the skills are related to gathering and researching resources. This is more of a freeform playstyle that is outside of the main questline. The most useful skill here is Weapon Engineering, which allows you to modify your weapons. As I mentioned before, I often run out of ammo in this game, so I need to increase my damage output to reduce my ammo consumption. With Weapon Engineering, I can customize my weapons according to my preferences and enhance their performance.
The rest of the skills depend on whether you like less combat and more resource collection. You can choose them according to your own playstyle.
In the Combat category, again, it depends on your preferred weapon type and combat style. The only skills that I recommend are Explosives and Fast Reload. Explosives shows you the trajectory of your grenades and increases the damage of explosive weapons. This is very helpful for using heavy weapons like grenade launchers, which are very effective against groups of enemies or armored targets.
Fast Reload reduces the reload time of your weapons, which is very important for maintaining a high fire rate and avoiding being overwhelmed by enemies. This skill works well with any type of weapon and can make a big difference in combat situations.
In the Social category, you can choose between Negotiation and Threaten, depending on whether you want to be more diplomatic or aggressive in your interactions with other characters. Lone Wolf is a good choice for solo players who don’t want to rely on companions. Fencing is a good choice for melee players who want to increase their damage output and defense.
Leadership and Management are skills that enhance your crew members’ abilities and loyalty. However, these are not very necessary unless you really care about your crew members’ performance and happiness.
Manipulation is a skill that unlocks some special options in certain quests involving the Dragon God Corporation faction. However, you can also get this skill for free as a reward from one of their quests.
Finally, in the Physical category, Gymnastics is surprisingly useful. It reduces the fall damage that you take and increases your movement speed on low-gravity planets. This can make traveling much easier and faster.
If you want to become a fist fighter, you need to invest in Boxing, Martial Arts, Bone Breaking, and all the related skills along that line. These skills will increase your unarmed damage and give you some special moves that can stun or cripple your enemies.
Stealth and Invisibility are skills that depend on whether you like stealth gameplay or not. These skills are very hard to train and have a poor experience in the early stages of the game. Therefore, I suggest that you only invest in them if you really enjoy stealth gameplay.
That’s all for my guide on how to build a stellar character in Starfield. I hope you found it helpful and interesting. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you.
