Starfield beginner tips

If this is your first time playing a Bethesda title, you might be wondering what the best Starfield builds, best weapons, and best skills are. Fortunately for new and returning players, we’ve got a number of Starfield beginner tips to get you started.

There are a few new mechanics introduced to Starfield, so we’ve gone over all the pitfalls you should avoid, and all the habits you should get into. Also, before we get into our tips and tricks, you should check out our guide to Starfield maps. The in-game maps leave a little to be desired, so we’ve put together interactive versions of the New Atlantis Map, Akila City Map, and Neon map, with more on the way.

Plan your first skills carefully

Unlike previous Bethesda games, numerous game mechanics in Starfield are locked behind Starfield skill requirements. As an example, you can’t use the Starfield boost pack until you have the Starfield Boost Pack Training skill.

For all the best Starfield skills, check out our full guide which explains how you can unlock every basic game mechanic.

Pickup every resource you find

You won’t get far crafting Starfield weapon mods and armor mods to empower your equipment without a substantial amount of Starfield resources. Similarly, base building in Starfield is hugely resource intensive, and anything less than a ship’s filled cargo hold won’t get you very far.

Using the Cutter tool, you can mine resource nodes that you find scattered across a planet’s surface, and you should take the Geology skill as early as possible to boost the amount of resources you get.

However, the best method of gathering resources is to build up some Credits, and head over to Midtown Minerals, the Mining League, or a similar resource shop where you can bulk purchase the resources you need.

Check out the main menu

You’re going to spend more time than you might think in the Starfield menu, which houses your inventory, your quest log, ship information, skills menu, and provides access to the Starfield planetary map.

The more time you spend navigating the menus, the more intuitive they will become. You’ll quickly realise that you can fast travel to a mission objective simply by going to the quest log, which is easily one of the best features in Starfield’s UI.

Upgrade your ship as soon as you can

Building a ship from scratch is a very expensive undertaking. However, adding additional cargo capacity or jump distance with one or two Starfield ship components will only cost you a few thousand Credits, and you can easily earn that many Credits in a single Starfield mission.

Upgrading your Starfield ship can also give you additional health to survive combat encounters in space, hoard more Starfield resources for base building, and bring weapon and armor upgrade stations aboard your ship.

Don’t build your first outpost just anywhere

As mentioned, outpost building is a very resource-intensive process. Rather than try to build your dream base from the get-go, you’ll want to build up some feeder bases first.

Find planets that are rich in resources and choose a landing site where one or more resources border one another. If you can build an outpost with multiple resource patches in range, you can build extractors on them and then ship those resources out via the Cargo Link – Inter-System outpost structure.

Finding Al – Aluminum, Pb – Lead, and Ti – Titanium early into your playthrough is critical, so develop your infrastructure before you go about building the best Starfield outpost you possibly can.

Make a beeline for the main quest

For the initiated in Bethesda experiences, following the main quest might sound like an unusual suggestion. However, the Starfield main quest is designed to take you to the most important planets and cities in the game, and introduce you to all the joinable factions. Not only that, but you’ll eventually unlock some mysterious Starfield powers.

The best Starfield beginner’s advice

Ultimately, you should play Starfield the way you want to play it. Explore all of its mechanics and see what clicks with you. You may even find a few surprising quests or secrets that no one else has, and that’s part of the brilliance of Starfield!

If you’ve thought of some tips and tricks, fire them over to the Starfield forum, and see what other Starfield players have encountered. Alternatively, check out our guides on the best Starfield weapons, the best Starfield skills, and a selection of Starfield builds that you can replicate from level 1.