Starfield A Complete Guide For Early Gameplay

Starfield a complete guide for early gameplay

Alright, space explorers! You’ve just jumped into the massive world of Starfield, and it might feel a little overwhelming at first. Don’t worry, this guide is here to help you get a great start. We’ll go over everything you need to know to make the most of your early hours in the game, from understanding the basics to tackling your first missions and beyond. Let’s get started!

Understanding the Basics

Before you even think about boarding a spaceship, let’s cover some important things about how Starfield works.

Character Creation

Your journey begins by creating your own unique space adventurer. Here are a few things to consider:

• Background: This is your character’s history and gives you three starting skills. Think about the skills you like and pick a background that matches. For example, a “Bounty Hunter” starts with skills in Piloting, Targeting, and Scavenging, which could be useful early on.
• Traits: These are optional, and they give you both positive and negative effects. Some traits are like having a pet alien, others might make you want to make a deal with a certain group, or get a discount in certain shops, or cause some troubles. Think hard before choosing these.
• Appearance: You can customize how your character looks, from their face to their hair and body type. This is all up to you, so have fun with it!

Navigating the User Interface (UI)

The UI is how you interact with the game. It might seem busy at first, but it will become second nature quickly. Key parts to know are:

• Inventory: This is where you’ll keep all your collected goodies. Learn how to sort and manage it to stay organized.
• Skills Menu: This is how you spend skill points to make your character better at things. We will talk more about this.
• Map: This helps you travel between places, planets, and star systems.
• Mission Log: Here you can track your story and side missions.

Getting Started with Missions

Alright, let’s talk about missions! Missions are the bread and butter of Starfield. They help you explore the universe, meet new characters, and earn rewards. Here’s how to get going:

The Main Story

The first few missions introduce you to the Constellation group, a group of explorers looking for the secrets of the universe. It’s essential to follow this main storyline, at least in the beginning, as it teaches you the basic gameplay mechanics. Be sure to pay attention to what the characters are saying, as they often give tips and hints.

Side Missions

These are missions that aren’t part of the main story but offer great ways to gain experience, items, and learn about the various factions in Starfield. Always keep an eye out for NPCs with an exclamation point over their head – these are usually good for some side quests.

Tips for Missions

• Read the mission logs carefully. They will tell you where to go and what to do.
• Pay attention to your markers. These will point you in the right direction.
• Don’t be afraid to explore. Sometimes the best loot is off the beaten path.

Understanding Skills and Progression

Starfield allows you to grow your character based on your choices, and skills are a big part of that. This is how you get better at different parts of the game.

How Skill Points Work

As you play, you will gain experience and level up. When you level up, you’ll get a skill point to spend in the skills menu. There are five main categories: Physical, Social, Combat, Science and Tech. Each category has many skills that improve different aspects of your character.

Picking Your First Skills

Early game, its better to pick skills that match the play style you want, or skills that provide utility. For example, the following are good to consider.

• Piloting: This allows you to fly better ships and eventually use their special abilities. If you want to be a space pilot, take this first.
• Boost Pack Training: Helps you use your boost pack better, essential for exploration and combat.
• Persuasion: Useful for getting your way in conversations and avoiding fights. This can be a lot of fun.
• Security: This allows you to pick locks. Very useful for getting around or getting secret loot.
• Medicine: If you plan on exploring harsh and dangerous areas then having some points in medicine to increase the effect of healing items is very useful.

How Skills Improve

You level up skills by actually doing the thing the skill helps with. For example, if you want to get better at shooting, do more shooting, if you want to pilot better ships then do more ship battles and fly around, etc.

Ship Basics

Your ship is your home, your ride, and your weapon. Let’s learn about ships in Starfield.

Your First Ship

Early in the game you will get a starter ship. This ship will take you everywhere in space. You can do everything with this ship. This ship can be upgraded later on, and you will find many more better ships later as you play through Starfield.

Ship Controls

It might take a while, but you will get used to ship controls. Here are the basics:

• Throttle: This controls your speed.
• Flight stick: This controls your ship’s direction.
• Targeting: This is used for targeting enemies, and also helpful for scanning objects.
• Shield and Weapon system: This is used for managing your ship’s weapons and shields.

Ship Upgrades

You can customize and upgrade your ship to make it better. This can give you better guns, stronger shields, and faster speed. Later on, as you play more you will find out more about the ship upgrading system.

Exploration and Resource Gathering

Starfield is a game all about exploration. Let’s see how you can get the best out of it.

Scanning Planets

When you are in a system, you can use your ship to scan planets. Scanning a planet will show you the resources you can find there, points of interest, and more.

Landing and Exploration

Once you have scanned a planet, you can choose a spot to land on. The game will load a location and you can then explore it on foot. There is always something to see and find on a planet.

Resource Gathering

There are many resources to find throughout planets in the game. These resources are used to create things such as medicine, ammo, or upgrading weapons, ships or outpost. Here are the basics.

• Mining: You can use your cutter tool to mine minerals from resource nodes.
• Flora and Fauna: You can scan plants and animals for resources too.
• Looting: There is tons of loot to find in containers, or on enemies that you defeat.

Tips for Exploration

• Always scan things. Scanning gives you experience and helps you discover more.
• Watch your environment. There are often secrets hidden just out of sight.
• Be careful. Not every planet is friendly, and some are dangerous.

Combat Basics

Combat is part of the game, here is a basic understanding of it.

Weapon Types

There are many weapons, each good for different situations. Here are a few:

• Pistols: Good for short range and quick shooting.
• Rifles: Good for medium range and more accurate.
• Shotguns: Good for close range and very powerful.
• Melee Weapons: Good for close quarters combat with a different feel.

Combat Tips

• Use cover. This will help you avoid getting hurt.
• Aim for the head. Headshots do more damage.
• Use your boost pack. It will help you move in combat.
• Don’t be afraid to run. Sometimes its best to retreat and regroup.

Healing

Always remember to have some health items, as they are very important for staying alive. When you get hit you can use the healing items to heal up.

Outposts

You can build outposts on any planet in Starfield, here is the basic understanding.

Building Basics

Outposts are like bases that you build yourself. They help you get resources without needing to manually find and loot them.

• Find a good spot. Look for a place with resources you need.
• Use the builder tool. Select it and start putting stuff down.
• Start with basic things. Some things to start with are: Habitation modules, work benches, and resource extractors.

Outpost Management

After you build, you’ll need to keep an eye on your outpost. Things like:

• Power: Your outpost needs power to work.
• Storage: Make sure you have enough storage for all of the resources you get.
• Crew: You can hire crew members to help your outpost.

Outposts can be a useful addition when you want to keep resources and have a base of operations.

Saving and Loading

It is important to understand saving and loading in Starfield, here is the basics of it.

Quick Saves

It is very important to use quick saves. These saves can help you a lot if you make any mistake, you can load to your recent save and change the outcome.

Auto Saves

The game will save automatically from time to time. So you will have a fallback from these save points too. But, always keep doing manual saves.

Manual Saves

It is a very good idea to do manual saves as often as you can. This will keep you safe in case of any trouble.

Making Money (Credits)

You need money in Starfield, so here are ways to make it.

Selling Loot

The first and easiest way is to sell loot you pick up to vendors. You can also sell weapons, armor, or other items you don’t need.

Missions

Many side missions offer good payments, and also help you level up. So always do side missions.

Trading

You can buy and sell resources and items between vendors, and make profits from it. It will take some time and practice, but it’s another way to make some extra money.

Important Things to Remember Early On

Here are a few last things to help you when you first start playing Starfield:

• Don’t rush. Take your time to explore, talk to people, and really see what the game offers.
• Experiment. Try out different weapons, ships, and skills to see what you like.
• Be patient. The game has a lot of things to do and learn. Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything right away.
• Most importantly, have fun. Starfield is a game all about space exploration and enjoying your adventure.

With these tips, you’re well on your way to becoming a real space explorer in Starfield. The early hours can seem like a lot, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be flying across the stars and doing all kinds of great things. Remember to explore, do missions, upgrade your skills and ship, and most importantly, have a lot of fun. Happy travels, explorer!