Best Starfield skills

Here are all the best Starfield skills:

Boost Pack Training – Without this skill, you cannot use your Starfield boost pack at all, even if you equip one. Once you have this skill and have a Pack with a boost pack mod installed, press the jump button a second time while mid-air to use your boost pack thrusters.

Piloting – The initial level of this skill doesn’t do a great deal as it only improves the maneuverability of your Starfield ship. However, grabbing this skill early is crucial to being able to fly the most powerful ships later on. Ships with a Grade of B or C can only be flown by Spacefarers with a Piloting skill of rank 3 and rank 4 respectively. Fortunately, the rank-up challenge for this skill involves destroying enemy ships, which you can grind up quite quickly, but only if you take the Piloting skill.

Security – From the beginning of the game, you can use a Digipick to unlock containers and computers that are Novice level in difficulty. The best weapons, armor, loot, and even shortcuts are locked behind Advanced or higher difficulty locks. By taking the Security skill, you will immediately be able to hack Advanced level locks, and will advance the rank-up challenge counter for the Security skill. Once you’ve picked enough locks, you can level up the Security skill so you can start hacking Expert, and eventually Master-level locks.

Targeting Control Systems – Disabling an enemy ship comes down to your choice of ship weapons and luck. However, by taking the Targeting Control Systems skill, you can enter a VATS-like system when flying your Starfield ship. In this mode, you can selectively target enemy ship systems like the engine and grav drive. Disable the engine and grav drive, and you can board and potentially capture the enemy ship. But bear in mind: if your Piloting skill is not rank 3 or 4, and the ship you board is Class B or C respectively, you will not be able to take the ship for your own.

Geology – Gathering resources in Starfield is critical to Starfield base building. Fortunately, the Geology skill makes it way easier to collect resources by giving you bonus resources randomly when using the Cutter tool. In honorary positions for best skills beneath Geology are the Zoology and Botany skills, which provide a similar resource boosts for animals and plants respectively.

Theft – You can’t start pickpocketing until you get this skill, making the Theft skill essential for thief and stealth Starfield builds. Increasing the Theft skill makes it even easier to steal things unnoticed from NPCs, so getting this skill early is recommended.

Stealth – Unlike previous Bethesda titles, the Detection Meter (which shows if you are Hidden or Detected by nearby NPCs) is not available until you take the Stealth skill. Regardless of whether you want to play a stealth build or not, taking the Stealth skill will allow you to be sneaky for Starfield missions like A New Narrative.

There are a host of other skills that you should aim for from the beginning and could easily make our best Starfield skills list. However, all of the above are available from the beginning of the game without spending a skill point if you pick the right background.

Check out our full Starfield backgrounds guide so you can grab as many of the best skills as possible when you get to the Starfield character creator menu. You can also see how skills can be used in a host of Starfield builds which we’ve compiled using hours of in-game experience.

Otherwise, head on over to the Starfield forum to share your favorite skills and builds.