The fact that Bethesda’s latest release is a real role-playing game can already be seen in the large selection of skills. In our Starfield Skills Guide, we’ll help you keep track of them all, explain which ones are the most important, and what to look out for.
Table of Contents
1) Best skills to start with
Especially at the beginning, the number of choices can seem overwhelming. 82 skills spread across five trees. Some of the most useful skills are available right from the start. We recommend spending a skill point on Piloting as early as possible in the game. The first rank activates your ship’s thrusters, and the second increases your turning rate and maneuverability. Levels 3 and 4 unlock class B and C ships.
Also important for the start is your jetpack. This is only available once you’ve reached rank 1 in Boost Pack Training. The higher the rank, the lower the fuel consumption (level 2) and the higher the refill speed (level 3). The final rank doubles both of these bonuses.
The skill that will save you the most frustration is Weight Lifting. There are countless items in every place that you can put in your inventory. Unfortunately, the capacity is very limited, and you’ll often get the message that you’ve overloaded yourself. Weight Lifting can alleviate this problem to some extent.
Depending on your play style, Diplomacy can also be useful. It enhances your persuasiveness and conversational skills, allowing you to solve quests through dialog rather than force of arms. Not only that. If you hijack ships, you may be able to get their cargo without fighting.
2) What are the most important skills?
Physical skills
Your spacesuit is heavy and the world of Starfield is large. Physical skills are essential to move quickly, purposefully, and without restriction. These are the three most important:
- Weight Lifting (increases your carrying capacity and is essential if you like to loot).
- Stealth (only really becomes active at rank 1 and is necessary for infiltrations, silent quests and raids)
- Fitness (improves oxygen supply so you can run longer)
Science skill tree
The research skill tree becomes relevant to you when it comes to crafting. Here you can improve your equipment and your outposts, and learn to craft items, mods, and components. Whether you choose to craft or not, the following skills will serve you well:
- Surveying (increases the range of your scanner)
- Astrodynamics (allows you to travel greater distances with your ship)
- Weapon Engineering (gives you the ability to create mods for weapons)
Combat Skills
Space is a dangerous place and enemies like the Spacers are lurking everywhere. Ammunition is also a scarce commodity. So it can’t hurt to know how to use different types of weapons. These are the skills you should unlock:
- Dueling (lets you keep fighting even if you run out of ammo)
- Ballistics (the category with the largest selection of ranged weapons)
- Rapid Reloading (especially useful when facing large numbers of enemies)
Social skill tree
With good social skills, you can better interact with NPCs, get more dialog options, and solve quests in an elegant and diplomatic way. The following three skills should be on your radar:
- Diplomacy (opens up additional dialog options in quests)
- Persuasion (to get NPCs to agree with you)
- Deception (important for piracy and smuggling)
Tech skills
It goes without saying that technology is an important aspect of a sci-fi roleplaying game. In this regard, the following three perks are the best recommendations within our Starfield Skills Guide:
- Boost Pack Training (activates and improves your jetpack)
- Security (required for lockpicking)
- Piloting (optimizes your starship systems)
3) Starfield Skills Guide: Other practical skills
Especially for beginners, we would like to recommend a few more skills. Thanks to the Targeting Control Systems, you can target individual parts of a ship. This makes capturing ships easier, as you can explicitly focus on the propulsion system in space combat.
Scavenging increases the number of credits you find. It also ensures that you get more valuable loot. This includes better medipacks. If you have upgraded the skill to the highest level, the resources you’re looking for will also be highlighted. This will save you a lot of time in the long run.
4) You need this skill to pick locks
The Security skill and a good supply of daggers are essential for picking chests, doors, and other locks in Starfield. After activating the first rank of Security, you must successfully use the perk at least five times before you can level up to rank 2. This has the benefit of showing you the blue rings.
A blue ring indicates that the selected key will fit. If no ring is displayed, you can ignore the key. From rank 4, you can even eliminate unnecessary keys.
5) Some skills are hard to level up
To increase a skill in Starfield, you must complete challenges. For example, the Pistol certificate requires you to shoot a level-up number of enemies with a pistol. To advance in Boost Pack Training, the game requires you to use your jetpack in combat situations, and for a Weight Lifting upgrade, you’ll need to sprint far enough with minimum weight.
While some of these goals are easy to achieve, others are very situational. For example, if you want to improve Persuasion or Diplomacy, you need to have enough NPCs to use that skill. So think carefully about which skills you want to invest your time and activities in.
Customize your Starfield skills with PLITCH!
Our Starfield Skills Guide gives you a good overview of what to look for in each skill tree. PLITCH’s Starfield Cheats will help you level up more easily. Give your character extra skill points at the touch of a button or increase your experience multiplier to level up faster.
Infinite boost pack will make your jetpack a perennial favorite, and perfect pickpocketing will help you pull off any heist. Customize your space adventure to your liking with our trainer.
To learn more about PLITCH and our Starfield mods, check out this blog and our Let’s Play on YouTube!
Happy Gaming!