Just like any other Bethesda Game Studios game, Starfield locks a lot of features behind its upgrade system and in its latest entry, which takes the form of Skills. When creating your character in Starfield you have the option to pick three skills to start you off on your journey through the Settled Systems. Regardless of what you pick, there are five that stand out among the most essential that you should get right away after your first couple of levels. Here are those five Starfield skills and why you shouldn’t skip them in your playthrough.
Stealth
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No, Starfield isn’t locking crouch-behind skills. Instead, they hid the stealth meter behind the stealth skill. Even if you’re not one to sneak through levels, the stealth meter is invaluable when you’re trying to steal objects. This is how you’re going to easily tell if you’re being seen or not by a nosy shopkeeper or guard. It’s also a great way to tell if you’re out of combat, too.
Persuasion
Starfield feels like it has a much bigger emphasis on the persuasion option compared to past games. It’s your go-to way to talk your way through higher-tense situations. But you don’t even get the option to go down that path unless you unlock the persuasion skill. Plus, it’s more of a minigame now. You play a game of chance with easy, medium, or hard options that fill up a persuasion bar. Depending on your persuasion chance, your chances of filling the bar faster, or even at all, vary depending on the situation. There are also some great moments hidden behind this conversation option.
Astrodynamics
You will be jumping through space a lot from system to system. But this feature can get annoying really quickly when you start to get objectives that end up being 2, 3, or 4+ systems away. System jumping is fuel and distance-based. To save money from adding even more fuel tanks to your ship, unlock the Astrodynamics skill. This reduces the cost of jumping significantly with each jump as well as increases the range you can jump between systems.
Security
Similar to persuasion, the ability to hack into locked computers, rooms, safes, anything is hidden behind the security skill. Security lets you use digipicks and hack into the easier skilled locks. There are no other forms of lockpicking or hacking, unlike past entries. It’s all just hacking in the 24th century. This is one skill you shouldn’t just unlock right away but rank up at least to the third rank so you can hack into any skill level lock. Plus, in my opinion, hacking is one of the best iterations of lockpicking in a Bethesda game to-date.
Targeting Control Systems
Space combat is a lot of fun. But it could be and is better with the targeting control system skill. At the start, your ship can lock onto other ships. This skill lets you lock onto specific systems on the ship that dares to cross you. This is the most guaranteed way to strand ships so you can board them and become the space pirate of your dreams. Or, it’s a way to ensure your survival by quickly taking down their guns. Without this, you’re just doing general damage to a ship’s shields and hull integrity.
These five skills not only make Starfield more enjoyable. They open just about any and every opportunity to you early into the game. The many other options are good to define who your character is, but make sure you don’t skip a thing, from good loot to great moments.
Starfield is available on September 1st for early access and September 5th for full release on Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
