Starfield opening
Everything you need to know about Starfield's opening scenes, including where to find the first Artifact, and your first weapons.
Starfield’s opening is a fairly quick tutorial in how to move your character, use your Cutter, and it’s a rapid introduction to the focal point of the game’s story: Artifacts. We’ve got all the advice you need to get this epic quest off to a solid start, as well as a few tips that can help carry you through the main quest and beyond in Bethesda’s universal RPG. Of course, there are spoilers ahead, so if you want your first experience to stay fresh, maybe come back a little later on.
To get your head around navigation before blasting off for the first time, check out our guide to Starfield planets, including Earth, Jemison, and everything in between, plus our list of all the systems waiting for you to visit. Or, if you want a better idea of what spacecraft you can fly, and commandeer, see our guides to Starfield ships and ship components.
Starfield opening – One Small Step
Starfield begins with the One Small Step mission, putting you in the shoes of a rookie miner. Naturally, spoilers ahead.
The mission begins in the Argos Extractors Mining Outpost, with your player character working alongside Heller and Supervisor Lin. The Starfield opening sees you inspecting the various miners, with one NPC notably wielding their Cutter like a weedwhacker rather than a laser drill, before being instructed to do some mining yourself. Lin directs you to your very own cutter, and requests you mine five resource nodes nearby. There are in fact additional nodes scattered throughout the cave, allowing you to collect additional resources before the story continues.
Once you’ve completed the objective, you’ll be invited to a mining drill, which will break through into an unexplored cave where Heller’s electronic equipment begins to give some weird readings. You can either race ahead, run along the rock bridge, and come face to face with the first of your Starfield Artifacts, or you can drop down into the cavern and find some bonus rare resources in a small crevice.
To proceed, you must locate the source of the “strange reading” that Heller detects – the Artifact – mine away the mysterious alloys coating it, and then interact with the alien object. In doing so, the sheer power of the Artifact forces you into a powerful vision that leaves you comatose. You’ll wake up outside of the mine, and be presented with a Starfield character customization menu. This is where the game truly begins.
At this menu, you can choose between multiple backgrounds and traits to define your player character. It’s worth checking out our guides to the best skills, best backgrounds, and best traits if you need a hand deciding, but we generally recommend picking up anything that gives you a point in Security, or Piloting.
Once you’re happy with your character, it’s time to really get into things, with your first taste of combat just around the corner.
What follows next is an introduction to Barrett, who gives you the first of your companions in the form of your new robot friend Vasco. Barrett is a member of the exploration faction known as Constellation, and is particularly interested in not just the Artifacts, but also the visions you experienced.
Unfortunately, Crimson Fleet pirates are also pretty interested in Barrett, and followed him down to the planet’s surface. You’ll need to fight them off with an EON pistol which will be available immediately to the left of the landing pad as you turn to face the oncoming pirates. You can also fight with your Cutter, if you so wish, but the best strategy is to pick up and drop off some nearby explosive barrels to the area the Crimson Fleet ship is landing. With one well-placed shot, you can easily take out all of the incoming pirates.
As an apology, and also because Barrett believes the pirates are interested in him and not his ship, Barrett gives you the Frontier, your first Starfield ship. You’re tasked with taking the Artifact back to The Lodge (Constellation’s headquarters) based on Jemison. Unfortunately, you’ll first need to defeat the nearby pirates making a base on Kreet.
On Kreet, you’ll find a science station filled with numerous resources and weapons that will prove very useful in the early stages of the game. You’ll also find a pirate on the roof whom you can deal with peacefully through persuasion (he does only want your ship because legends claim it’s full of treasure (when it isn’t)), or by blowing all of the pirates away.
Regardless, you’ll have resolved the pirate threat, and can make your way to The Lodge on Jemison, where you’ll soon find Sarah Morgan, the leader of Constellation, waiting with open arms to welcome you into their faction.
With that, you’re clued up on the Starfield opening. For clues on where to go next, head over to our Starfield missions database to chart a course to your next adventure.