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Starfield skills

Make sure you select the best Starfield skills on your playthrough, with our complete list of Starfield skills and how to get them.

Starfield skills are the building blocks for your character. While your equipment, faction allegiance, and weapon choices will have a significant impact on gameplay and the story, the biggest changes you can make to your character are through the skills you select at the start of the game and when you level up.

Each skill has four ranks which require skill points to unlock, though higher ranks also require you to complete a gameplay challenge.

There are 82 Starfield skills in total split between five categories: Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Tech.

Here is a list of every Starfield skill:

	Aneutronic Fusion Category Type Science Summary Increases your ship reactor’s power output.
	Armor Penetration Category Type Combat Summary This skill allows your attacks to ignore enemy armor.
	Astrodynamics Category Type Science Summary This skill improves your grav drive range and reduces fuel costs.

	Astrophysics Category Type Science Summary When scanning a planet, gain the chance to discover traits and other planetary information.
	Automated Weapon Systems Category Type Tech Summary This skill will improve your ship’s automated weapon systems.
	Ballistic Weapon Systems Category Type Tech Summary This skill confers a bonus to your ballistic ship weapon modules.

	Ballistics Category Type Combat Summary The Ballistic skill increases your proficiency with weapons that deal physical damage.
	Boost Assault Training Category Type Tech Summary Improves the combat effectiveness of your boost pack.
	Boost Pack Training Category Type Tech Summary Make more efficient use of your boost pack by ranking up this vital skill.

	Botany Category Type Science Summary The Botany skill boosts the resources you get from plants.
	Boxing Category Type Physical Summary The Boxing skill increases damage of unarmed attacks while also reducing O2 consumed.
	Cellular Regeneration Category Type Physical Summary This skill increases your chance to recover from injuries.

	Chemistry Category Type Science Summary The Chemistry skill grants you access to powerful chemical recipes that can grant massive stat bonuses.
	Commerce Category Type Social Summary Allows you to buy items for less and sell them for more
	Concealment Category Type Physical Summary The Concealment skill will make it much harder for enemies to detect you, even when you aren’t crouching.

	Crippling Category Type Combat Summary Allows you to down enemies more effectively.
	Deception Category Type Social Summary This skill causes stronger ships to surrender, and decreases the effectiveness of contraband scans.
	Decontamination Category Type Physical Summary Decontamination allows you to recover from illnesses and conditions much faster with each incremental rank.

	Demolitions Category Type Combat Summary The Demolitions skill is centered around the use of explosive devices like the Frag Grenade, and increases the amount of damage you can deal, as well as how large the explosion will be.
	Diplomacy Category Type Social Summary Diplomacy lets you de-escalate a hostile situation.
	Dueling Category Type Combat Summary The Dueling skill gives a damage boost to all melee weapons such as the combat knife and the Rescue Axe.

	EM Weapon Systems Category Type Tech Summary Improves the damage of EM ship weapons and reduces cost in targeting mode.
	Energy Weapon Dissipation Category Type Physical Summary This skill decreases damage from energy weapons.
	Energy Weapon Systems Category Type Tech Summary Improves the damage of energy ship weapons and reduces cost in targeting mode.

	Engine Systems Category Type Tech Summary Increase your ship’s top speed and improves boosting.
	Environmental Conditioning Category Type Physical Summary Environmental Conditioning increases your resistance to environmental damage.
	Fitness Category Type Physical Summary The fitness skill increases oxygen available.

	Gastronomy Category Type Social Summary The Gastronomy skill is centered around cooking and brewing, which will grant you stat boosts and healing.
	Geology Category Type Science Summary Geology grants resource bonuses when mining.
	Gymnastics Category Type Physical Summary The gymnastics skill increases your mobility and decreases fall damage.

	Heavy Weapons Certification Category Type Combat Summary The Heavy Weapons Certification skill improves your ability to handle heavy weapons like the microgun and various rocket launchers.
	Incapacitation Category Type Combat Summary This skill increases damage from EM weapons.
	Instigation Category Type Social Summary You can force a target NPC to attack their allies.

	Intimidation Category Type Social Summary The Intimidation skill allows you to force NPCs into fleeing, even if they’re a higher level than you when you reach higher skill ranks.
	Isolation Category Type Social Summary Increases damage and damage resistance when you have no crew or companions.
	Lasers Category Type Combat Summary Increases damage from lasers.

	Leadership Category Type Social Summary The Leadership skill boosts the rate at which you form relationships with companions and crew members.
	Manipulation Category Type Social Summary Allows you to force NPCs to obey commands.
	Marksmanship Category Type Combat Summary Increased critical hit chance when using non-automatic ranged weapons.

	Martial Arts Category Type Physical Summary Increases the lethality of unarmed and melee attacks.
	Medicine Category Type Science Summary The Medicine skill improves how much healing you receive from healing items.
	Missile Weapon Systems Category Type Tech Summary Missile Weapon Systems gives a boost to ship missile weapons.

	Negotiation Category Type Social Summary Allows you to bribe NPCs in speech challenges.
	Neurostrikes Category Type Physical Summary Chance to stun enemies when using unarmed attacks.
	Nutrition Category Type Physical Summary The Nutrition skill improves the effects of food and drink items.

	Outpost Engineering Category Type Science Summary Allows for the construction and research of better outpost modules.
	Outpost Management Category Type Social Summary Additional cargo links, robots and crew can be placed at outposts.
	Pain Tolerance Category Type Physical Summary Reduces physical damage dealt.

	Particle Beam Weapon Systems Category Type Tech Summary Improves the damage of particle beam ship weapons and reduces cost in targeting mode.
	Particle Beams Category Type Combat Summary Particle beam weapons do more damage.
	Payloads Category Type Tech Summary The Payloads skill grants an immediate boost to the amount of resources and trade goods you can ferry around the Settled Systems in your ship.

	Persuasion Category Type Social Summary The Persuasion skill makes it easier to pass speech checks, and convince NPCs to listen to you.
	Piloting Category Type Tech Summary Piloting lets you maneuver better, and pilot advanced ships.
	Pistol Certification Category Type Combat Summary The Pistol Certification skill boosts the damage you deal with pistol-type weapons.

	Planetary Habitation Category Type Science Summary Allows for the construction of outposts in extreme environments.
	Rapid Reloading Category Type Combat Summary Increases your reload speed.
	Rejuvenation Category Type Physical Summary Allows for health regeneration.

	Research Methods Category Type Science Summary Decreases resource cost of crafting and researching.
	Rifle Certification Category Type Combat Summary Rifles do more damage.
	Robotics Category Type Tech Summary The Robotics skill increases the amount of damage you deal to Robotic enemies.

	Scanning Category Type Science Summary You can detect inorganic resources on planet and moon surfaces and more information about ships in space.
	Scavenging Category Type Social Summary Find extra loot when searching containers.
	Security Category Type Tech Summary The security skill allows you to bypass a variety of locks using a digipick.

	Sharpshooting Category Type Combat Summary Increases critical damage when using ranged weapons.
	Shield Systems Category Type Tech Summary Increase your ship’s shield capacity.
	Ship Command Category Type Social Summary Increases the amount of active crew members you can have.

	Shotgun Certification Category Type Combat Summary Shotgun Certification makes you deadlier with shotgun weapons, and requires you to kill enemies with a shotgun in order to rank up.
	Sniper Certification Category Type Combat Summary The Sniper Certification skill makes you more proficient at using scoped weapons by reducing the sway when aiming.
	Spacesuit Design Category Type Science Summary You can research and craft improved spacesuit, helmet and pack mods.

	Special Projects Category Type Science Summary You can research and craft rare manufactured components at an industrial workbench.
	Starship Design Category Type Tech Summary Allows you to install improved ship modules.
	Starship Engineering Category Type Tech Summary Ship systems repair faster, increases damage mitigation.

	Stealth Category Type Physical Summary The Stealth skill provides a boost to all damage you inflict while undetected.
	Surveying Category Type Science Summary Improves the hand scanner’s range and adds an optional zoom.
	Targeting Category Type Combat Summary Improves accuracy when not aiming down the sights

	Targeting Control Systems Category Type Tech Summary Allows you to lock onto enemy ships faster and target-locked ships will fire slower.
	Theft Category Type Social Summary The Theft skill boosts your ability to pickpocket, and increases the pool of items you can steal from an NPC’s inventory.
	Weapon Engineering Category Type Science Summary You can craft and research improved weapon mods at a research lab.

	Weight Lifting Category Type Physical Summary Increases maximum carry weight.
	Wellness Category Type Physical Summary The Wellness skill increases your health pool.
	Xenosociology Category Type Social Summary The Xenosociology skill gives the player the ability to control alien creatures, such as making them flee, or commanding them to perform a specific task.

	Zoology Category Type Science Summary Gain more resources from creatures without hurting them and gain information from them using the scanner

You get your first three skills from the beginning by choosing from the different Starfield backgrounds during character creation.

When you level up, you will earn skill points which you can use to upgrade existing skills or purchase new skills.

Each Starfield skill tree is divided into four tiers, with higher tiers requiring a set amount of skill points to be spent on lower tier skills within that skill tree.

What are the best Starfield skills?

Your choice of Starfield skills will ultimately depend on how you choose to play the game, but there are certainly some options that are more widely useful than others.

The Ballistics skill is especially useful as an early pick, since so many of the weapons you pick up in the game’s first act are likely to deal ballistics damage. Persuasion is another Starfield skill that’s useful in a wide variety of situations, and will often save you from difficult combat encounters or time-consuming extra steps in Starfield missions.

Wellness and Medicine are also some of the best Starfield skills to choose early on, since extra health is always useful.

What are the best Starfield skills for my build?

If you’re looking for which specific skills you need to harness to achieve the build of your dreams, we’ve got you covered. Below you can find advice on which of the various skills to opt for across a selection of builds. Just keep in mind, you can eventually unlock all the skills through various New Game Plus playthroughs, but it’s still a good idea to prioritize certain skills to get your build off the ground before the main quest becomes too daunting.

Stealth builds – For stealth builds, you should prioritize skills like Theft, Security, Persuasion, Scavenging, Stealth, and Fitness. These five are a great place to start as they give you access to digipicking and pickpocketing, while also making it more likely for you to get through tricky conversations without things evolving into a gunfight.

Social builds – Social builds are all about human interaction, so the Diplomacy, Commerce, Persuasion, Deception, and Manipulation skills all come into play. If you’re particularly combat averse, Instigation and Intimidation also help to turn enemies against each other or force them to flee.

Melee builds – If you’re opting for the hands-on approach to combat, the important skills are Martial Arts, Crippling, Dueling, Boxing, and Neurostrikes. It’s also a good idea to pick up the Pain Tolerance and Wellness skills early on to keep you fighting against enemies with high HP.

Samurai build – While the necessary Ronin background gives you access to skills such as Dueling, Scavenging, and Stealth, the ideal samurai also needs to be equipped with Wellness, Gymnastics, Pain Tolerance, and Martial Arts.