Starfield Shattered Space DLC
The Starfield Shattered Space DLC is the first DLC to expand on Starfield's story by sending the player to the Va'ruun homeworld of Va'ruun'kai.
Starfield Shattered Space is the first piece of Starfield DLC, and the first story expansion pack which was released at 11:00am EST on Monday, September 30, 2024.
As a story expansion, Shattered Space added new Starfield weapons and armor, locations, NPCs, and story elements. In particular, Shattered Space expanded on the otherwise under-utilized faction of House Va’ruun, allowing us to explore the faction’s mythical homeworld of Va’ruun’kai and the Vortex Incident which caused the faction’s separation from the Settled Systems.
What is Starfield Shattered Space?
Shattered Space is the first story expansion for Starfield which provides a side story much like previous Bethesda DLC packages like Fallout 4 Nuka-World and Skyrim’s Dawnguard. Shattered Space introduces a whole new map featuring more than 50 locations centered around the major settlement of Dazra City.
Starfield Shattered Space is primarily set on the homeworld of House Va’ruun, Va’ruun’kai. Upon discovering an anomaly aboard a spacestation, the player is thrust onto the mysterious planet which appears to have been cut off from the rest of the Settled Systems geographically and chronologically.
Va’ruun’kai and the system of Kavnyk disappeared following an experiment with Grav-Drive technology which ended in disaster. The experiment in question resulted in the tearing of space and time, shunting the majority of House Va’ruun and their capital city into a separate dimension. It is for this reason that the faction all but disappeared from the known universe as far as the Settled Systems are concerned.
This disaster, known as the Vortex Incident, also tore the planet apart, surrounded the seat of government in an energy field, resulted in a considerable loss of life, saw the disappearance of the faction’s leader, and brought Va’ruun’kai into further danger: Vortex Horrors.
Vortex Horros, much like Phase Spiders from Dungeons and Dragons, are creatures from another world which phase into existence as ambush predators. Alongside the Vortex Horrors, humanoid ghosts plague the land.
The main quest of Shattered Space is seven missions long, with seven Starfield achievements available just for completing each of these quests.
What does Shattered Space add to the game?
Shattered Space adds several new planets contained within a new system, as well as a raft of new weapons, armors, items, and locations.
If you want to know how to get started in Shattered Space, see our full guide.
Sadly, the DLC does not introduce any new ships, ship components, or vehicles.
Full Shattered Space gameplay trailer
On Monday, September 16, 2024 Bethesda released the Starfield Shattered Space deep dive trailer which gave fans an in-depth exploration on what Shattered Space will introduce to the game, and what the overall storyline was going to focus on. You can view the full trailer below.
Starfield Shattered Space previously made a very brief appearance during Gamescom 2024, revealing only the game’s release date of September 30, 2024. While no bonus footage was revealed, an official description for the game was listed in parallel on the Gamescom lineup prior to the announcement:
“A mysterious power stirs in Dazra City, on House Va’ruun’s hidden home world, Va’ruun’kai. Investigate this frightening new cosmic threat and uncover the secrets behind the galaxy’s most enigmatic faction in Shattered Space, the epic new narrative DLC expansion for Bethesda Game Studios’ Starfield.”
Starfield Shattered Space release date
The Shattered Space DLC was released on September 30, 2024. The official release date was announced following the release of the 1.13.61 update which launched the long-awaited Starfield vehicles.
In-line with this, the previously labelled “Unknown App 2721670” which was uploaded to the Starfield Steam entry on February 28, 2024, was renamed to reflect the DLC package. It was previously speculated and rightly so that the Unknown App was Bethesda’s early staging or preparations for their first DLC package, but very few might have predicted that the release date would have been so much further down the line.
Starfield Shattered Space trailer
A full Starfield Shattered Space trailer was released on June 9, 2024 at the Xbox Games Showcase, and you can witness it in all its glory below.
You can read our original news story on the announcement for a full trailer breakdown.
Starfield Shattered Space interview
As part of a MrMattyPlays interview, Todd Howard spoke briefly about the design of Shattered Space, likening the upcoming Starfield DLC to the Fallout 4 Far Harbor DLC.
Taking this into account, there is a chance that the upcoming DLC will contain:
- A new companion – like Fallout 4’s Old Longfellow – unconfirmed
- A branching questline – unconfirmed
- New weapons – confirmed
- New armor – confirmed
- New legendary effects – unconfirmed
- New items – confirmed
- New monsters/aliens – confirmed
- New outpost items – unconfirmed
- New ships – unconfirmed
When speaking on the design philosophy behind Shattered Space, Todd Howard said that Bethesda was taking a more traditional approach in which they were creating a bespoke landscape containing all the new quests.
“Once you get to the city and the planet, it takes place there. It allows us to build a landscape like we would traditionally do and have the city and the quests and so. That story takes place there and the landscape’s kind of, you know, content-wise we’re looking at kinda of like what we do with Far Harbor on Fallout 4.”
1.11.33 update Shattered Space tease
Bethesda mentioned the Shattered Space DLC in its 1.11.33 update trailer and said that its first DLC was going to be “massive.” Nothing else was revealed about the first story expansion, however the work of two developers was pictured at the time the DLC was being discussed.
Here, we can see a developer working on designs for new Starfield armor or Starfield enemies. Given the motif of the helmet on the right, it’s possible that this is new House Va’ruun armor.
In this screenshot, we see a developer designing a location which is quite unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Thanks to Todd Howard’s interview and the recent trailer, we now know that this was an early tease of what was to come.
Starfield Shattered Space DLC price
Starfield Shattered Space is priced at $29.99 as of its initial release. As a direct comparison, Skyrim’s Dragonborn DLC was $20. Given that Shattered Space has so much value placed on it from the beginning, one can hope that the first Starfield DLC’s overall scope will be at least as great as Dragonborn, if not greater.
Of course, players who purchased the Starfield Constellation edition and other premium Starfield pre order editions are entitled to the first DLC package when it releases in 2024.
With the Starfield Shattered Space DLC pack nearly upon us, you’ve not got much time left to master the universe. So, be sure to check out our Starfield map hub, where you can find interactive versions of the Akila City map, Neon map, Cydonia map, and more. Or, if you’d rather concentrate on leveling up for the possible challenges at hand, see our guide to Starfield XP farming.