Starfield How To Optimize Early Game Builds

Early game optimization in Starfield involves focusing on skills like piloting, weight lifting, and a weapon skill, alongside carefully selecting background traits.

Starting a new game in Starfield can feel overwhelming, but setting yourself up properly early on makes a big difference. Focusing on the right skills at the beginning will help you navigate the vast universe with more ease. The key to success is understanding which abilities provide the most significant benefits right from the start.

Therefore, knowing how to optimize early game builds in Starfield is vital. Picking a suitable background and choosing the correct traits is just as crucial as your initial skill selection. Making smart choices will give you a distinct advantage in your early explorations.

Starfield: How to Optimize Early Game Builds

Getting started in Starfield can feel like stepping into a huge playground with tons of cool toys. But, like any good playground, you need a plan to make the most of it! Your character build is the foundation of your entire Starfield experience, and making smart choices early on will make the rest of your journey much smoother. This guide will break down the best ways to build your character at the beginning of the game so you’ll be prepared for anything the vast universe throws at you. We will be discussing skills, traits, backgrounds, and strategies to make your character the best version possible in the early hours of Starfield.

Understanding the Basics: Traits, Backgrounds, and Skills

Before we get into the specifics, let’s understand the building blocks of your character in Starfield: Traits, Backgrounds, and Skills.

Traits: Adding Flavor to Your Character

Traits are like personality quirks that give your character some benefits, but also some drawbacks. You can pick up to three traits during character creation, and they impact your gameplay in different ways. It’s important to understand that these are permanent, so choose wisely! Here are some things to think about when picking traits:

Consider your play style: Do you plan on being a smooth-talking negotiator, a sneaky thief, or a powerful space warrior? Some traits will help you more than others, depending on how you plan to play the game.
Think about the long-term effects: While some traits might seem cool at the start, some of them can cause problems later in the game. Always consider all possible outcomes of a trait.
Don’t overcommit to negatives: It can be tempting to choose the traits with the best-sounding bonuses, but make sure you’re willing to deal with the downsides. A great bonus with a bad side effect can hinder your game experience.

Here are few example traits, and what they do:

Extrovert: You gain a benefit when you travel with a companion, but you’ll suffer a penalty when you travel alone.
Taskmaster: You do more damage when your crew is happy, but you get penalties when they are not.
Wanted: You get extra damage, but factions might seek you out.

Experiment with the combinations, you might find a good fit that matches with your play style.

Backgrounds: Your Character’s Past Life

Backgrounds are like your character’s backstory. Each one gives you three starting skills, which can have a big impact on how you start your adventure. This is another place where you should consider how you want to play the game. Here are a few things you should keep in mind:

Look at the skills: When choosing a background, think about how useful the skills are. Some backgrounds give you skills that you might not be interested in.
Consider your early game priorities: What kind of actions are you planning to take in the early game? For example, if you want to do lots of combat, a background that boosts your combat skills is the way to go.
Don’t be afraid to mix and match: You can use your background as a starting point and expand it. Don’t think you are stuck with the three skills you chose at the start.

Here are a few background examples and the skills they give:

Bouncer: Boxing, Security, and Athletics
Diplomat: Persuasion, Commerce, and Wellness
Explorer: Surveying, Astrodynamics, and Geology

Again, there are a lot of choices, explore them and see what works best with your character build.

Skills: Leveling Up Your Abilities

Skills are the things you get better at as you play Starfield. As you level up, you earn skill points that you can use to improve your skills, making your character stronger and more capable in different areas. There are five different types of skills in Starfield:

Physical: This category of skills focuses on improving your health, physical strength, and agility.
Social: This focuses on improving your skills in conversation, persuasion, and commerce.
Combat: This category boosts your effectiveness with weapons, including range, damage, and accuracy.
Science: This area has skills focused on research, crafting, and the use of advanced tech.
Tech: This category has skills that focus on improving your use of tech, hacking, and spaceship capabilities.

Each category has different skills, making your character very unique. Skills have four ranks, and the higher the rank, the stronger the skill becomes.

Early Game Optimization: Skills, Perks and Playstyle

Optimizing your character in the early hours of Starfield means making smart choices about what skills you level up first and how those choices fit your playstyle. Here are some tips and tricks to get you started:

Prioritizing Early Skills

Here are a few skills that are very useful in the early game of Starfield. Choose the one that matches best with the play style you are planning for your character:

Persuasion (Social): Persuasion is one of the most important skills for dialogue. You can avoid fights, get better prices at vendors, and make friends with people with this skill. Investing early in Persuasion will make it easier to get through many of the main and side quests.
Security (Tech): In Starfield, there are locked containers and doors, which can hold valuable items. Security will let you bypass those locks, giving you access to more loot and faster advancement.
Ballistics/Laser (Combat): Combat will happen a lot in the early game, so it’s a good idea to improve it as soon as you can. Ballistics will increase your effectiveness with conventional weapons, and Lasers with energy-based weapons.
Wellness (Physical): Health is one of the most important things in the game. Increasing your wellness will help you take more damage before being defeated in combat.
Boost Pack Training (Tech): Boost packs are key for travel and exploration in Starfield, and leveling up this skill will help you navigate the maps more efficiently.

Skill Progression: A Strategic Approach

When leveling up, try to not just level up skills at random. Here are a few tips for leveling up your skills:

Invest in one tree at a time: It is always a good idea to focus on a single skill tree, at least at the start. This will let you get to the more powerful and valuable abilities more quickly.
Don’t neglect the first level: Many skills give a benefit at their first rank. Be sure to unlock the first level in all the useful skills before going further in each skill.
Look for skill magazines: In the world of Starfield, you can find skill magazines, which give you a permanent level up in skills. Always explore all of the environments, you might find some useful items.

Following these tips will give you a more steady progression in your character’s skills.

Playstyle: What Kind of Starfarer Are You?

Your playstyle should guide how you level your character in the early hours of Starfield. Here are a few play styles and how you could develop your character for each of them:

The Combat Focused Character

If you are planning on a more action-oriented playthrough, you should focus on the combat-related skills.

Combat Skills: Focus on skills like Ballistics, Lasers, and Shotgun to increase your weapon proficiency.
Physical Skills: Invest in Wellness and Fitness to increase your overall health and damage resistance.
Tech Skills: Boost Pack Training will help you move around during combat, so it is important to upgrade it.

The Stealthy Explorer Character

If you prefer exploration and using stealth in your gameplay, you can start by investing in the following skills:

Physical Skills: Invest in Stealth and Fitness to remain hidden, and move around more effectively
Tech Skills: Security is a must for sneaky characters, since many valuable items are locked behind doors.
Science Skills: Surveying, Geology and Botany skills will let you explore the worlds more thoroughly.

The Diplomat Character

If you are planning a playthrough where you try to solve most of your problems by talking, here is the best way to develop your character:

Social Skills: Persuasion and Negotiation are the key skills here. Focus all your points into those trees.
Tech Skills: A bit of Security can be useful if you want to get around without confrontations.
Science Skills: Some Science skills will let you research and develop useful tools.

Crew Members and Companions

In Starfield, you can get crew members and companions to join you on your journey. These members can help you out by providing bonuses to your skills, and helping you out in combat. Here are a few tips for using crew members:

Recruit early: Crew members have their own unique skills. Find as many members as you can, and use them to fill the gaps in your build.
Assign them to your ship: Crew members can be assigned to your ship, giving you permanent bonuses on things like ship repair, weapon damage, or cargo capacity.
Use them as partners: Companions can also be used as partners during your missions, helping you in combat or using their unique skills to assist you in quests.

Early Game Strategies: Tips and Tricks

Beyond skills and traits, here are some additional tips and tricks to help you optimize your early game experience in Starfield:

Resource Gathering and Crafting

Resource gathering is a vital part of Starfield, as you’ll need materials to craft new equipment and upgrade your gear. Here are few things to keep in mind:

Scan everything: Use your scanner to identify resources on planets. Planets have different types of resources, so be sure to visit many of them.
Mine strategically: Use your mining tool to harvest materials. Don’t overdo it, as there are storage limits.
Craft as needed: Instead of crafting randomly, craft only the necessary items, like healing items, and resources.

Exploring and Questing

Exploration is a key part of Starfield, so here are few important tips to get the best out of it:

Don’t rush the main quest: While it is important to progress the main story, you should explore and do side quests in the early game. These will provide useful weapons, armor, and skill points.
Talk to everyone: You never know where you’ll find the next quest, talking to people is very important in Starfield.
Explore varied environments: Make sure you explore different environments. Every environment has their own resources, quests, and points of interest.

Ship Management

Your ship is your home in Starfield, so here are few tricks to get the best out of it:

Upgrade your ship: As soon as you can, upgrade your ship with better engines, shields, and weapons.
Increase cargo capacity: There are lots of items to collect and carry, make sure you have enough space for it.
Customize your ship: Customization of your ship is not only for looks, you can also build new modules to enhance your ship’s effectiveness.

Inventory Management

A good way to stay organized, and keep only useful items:

Sell unnecessary items: If you find many useless items, sell them at the vendors as soon as you can.
Store things on your ship: If you are not using it right now, store items in your ship’s cargo, so you can use them later.
Use containers: Store your things in different containers to make sure you remember where you have each type of item.

Following these tips and tricks will ensure that you have a well-optimized character that is ready for everything that the galaxy throws at you in Starfield.

The early game in Starfield is all about establishing a solid base. By carefully selecting your traits, background, and initial skills, you set the stage for your character’s journey. Remember to explore, experiment, and adapt to the challenges you encounter. The galaxy is vast, and there is no single correct way to play, but with a well-optimized start, you’ll be prepared to shape your unique story in the world of Starfield.

You Let That One Star Wars Fan Build The Home Base! No Man's Sky #shorts

Final Thoughts

Focusing on specific skills early, like weapon or persuasion, gives a definite edge. Choose perks that complement your preferred combat style. Prioritize character stats based on how you like to play Starfield.

Investing skill points wisely at the start dramatically impacts your initial hours. Remember, you can respec later, but a focused start improves your early game. Starfield how to optimize early game builds revolves around deliberate choices.