In the expansive universe of Starfield, strategic skill selection is paramount for rookie explorers. Whether it’s boosting resource gathering with Geology, mastering ship combat via Targeting Control Systems, or maneuvering social situations with Persuasion, Starfield offers a plethora of the best starting skills. Each one, tailored to different playstyles, ensures a tailored interstellar journey.
Important Read: Starfield Best Armor
- Starting skills in Starfield offer several unique traits that can affect gameplay, playstyle, narrative, and build variety.
- There are 82 different Skills in Starfield that come from 5 unique Skill Trees.
- Prioritizing early-game skills can give players a strategic edge throughout their journey.
- Some synergize better with others in Starfield, enabling more advanced gameplay techniques.
- While starting skills help players focus on certain mechanics, they generally become underwhelming upon reaching the mid-game or late-game phase.
- Author’s Note: With more than dozens of hours of experience in Starfield, I feel more than obliged to provide you with hands-on experience on the topic below.
Best Starting Skills In Starfield And Comparison
Here is an overview of the best starting skills in Starfield showcased, along with effects and the best usage of them in-game:
| Serial Number | Skill Name | Effects of Skill | Best Usage of Skill | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Medicine | Enhances effectiveness and speed of healing items. | Quick health regeneration and enhanced healing during initial combat encounters. | Healing |
| 2 | Stealth | Enhances sneaking and detection difficulty. | Safe navigation in hostile environments and efficient, silent enemy takedowns. | Stealth-based Missions |
| 3 | Boost Pack Training | Enables jet-pack usage for mobility and altitude gains. | Amplified vertical exploration and negating fall damage with timely boosts. | Boosting Mobility |
| 4 | Fitness | Boosts oxygen meter capacity for prolonged exertive actions. | Longer sprints, more melee skirmishes, and extended exploration without oxygen worries. | Sprinting |
| 5 | Piloting | Enhances ship handling and combat positioning. | Superior space combat efficacy and dexterous navigation of hostile space environments. | Controlling Ships |
| 6 | Persuasion | Enhances dialogue success rates for non-violent solutions. | Influencing dialogue outcomes, preserving resources, and cultivating NPC alliances. | Socializing |
1. Medicine
| Ranks | Description |
|---|---|
| Rank 1-4 | Med Packs, Trauma Packs, and Emergency Kits restore an extra 20% to 50% of health and work 20% to 50% faster. They also have a chance to cure an affliction. These ranks unlock challenges. |
| Unlock Requirements | To achieve these ranks, you must use healing items 20 to 100 times while wounded. |
- Why I Chose This: With the Medicine skill, players can ensure quicker health regeneration and enhanced healing capabilities, which are invaluable during initial combat encounters.
A Science-based skill like Medicine in Starfield enhances the effectiveness and speed of healing items, including Trauma Packs, Med Packs, and Emergency Kits. The hostile environment of Starfield, teeming with pirates, Spacers, automated turrets, and ravenous extraterrestrial creatures, ensures that players are bound to sustain damage. Early game survivability is pivotal, especially when adjusting to different game mechanics and confronting threats.
- Quite good in the early game.
- Great against hordes of enemies.
- Unique skill with a versatile effect.
- Will have to forgo better skills.
2. Stealth
| Ranks | Description |
|---|---|
| Rank 1-4 | You become 25% to 100% less likely to be noticed when sneaking. Suppressed weapons deal an extra 5% to 20% damage in sneak attacks. At Rank 4, opening doors while in stealth won’t alert enemies. |
| Unlock Requirements | To achieve these ranks, perform 10 to 40 sneak attacks. |
- Why I Chose This: In my gameplay experience, stealth is crucial, especially when resources might be limited, and direct confrontation can lead to detrimental consequences.
Stealth is a Physical skill that enhances sneaking abilities, includes a stealth meter, and increases detection difficulty in Starfield. Starfield’s vast universe faces challenges and adversaries, making stealth invaluable. Including a stealth meter, which is exclusive to this skill, transforms the gameplay dynamics in the early game. It is an intuitive indicator of player visibility, aiding navigation amidst hostile environments and ensuring safe passage without raising alarms.
- Additionally, the enhanced sneak damage, when using suppressed weaponry, ensures efficient and silent takedowns.
- This approach conserves resources and minimizes the risk of attracting unwanted attention.
- Ranking up the Stealth skill further augments one’s sneaking prowess, making it increasingly challenging for enemies to detect the player, even during actions like door openings.
- Won’t have to face all enemies at once.
- Can take out weaker enemies to thin the crowd.
- Limits to one playstyle.
- Similar read: Starfield Best Major Factions
3. Boost Pack Training
| Ranks | Description |
|---|---|
| Rank 1-4 | • You gain the ability to use boost packs.
• Boost pack usage consumes less fuel. At Rank 4, these benefits are doubled. |
| Unlock Requirements | • Perform 10 to 50 boost jumps during combat.
• Boost pack fuel regenerates faster. • At Rank 4, all previous bonuses are doubled. |
- Why I Chose This: Access to jet-pack functionalities not only amplifies vertical exploration capacities but also serves as an ingenious workaround to negate fall damage with a timely boost before landing.
The Boost Pack Training is a Tech skill enabling jet-pack usage for enhanced mobility, hover capabilities, and altitude gains, especially on low-gravity planets. Navigating the expansive cosmos of Starfield, mobility and versatility become paramount. The Boost Pack Training skill, while seemingly rudimentary at its onset, manifests as an indispensable tool for players in the early game.
- First, it optimizes fuel consumption and accelerates the jet-pack’s refill rate, extending both its utility and endurance.
- Refill Rate enables players to span vast terrains, scale towering heights, and experience Starfield’s diverse topographies seamlessly.
- Second, the act of hovering indirectly replenishes the player’s oxygen meter, a vital game mechanic, especially after exhaustive activities like sprinting or prolonged jumping.
- Allows players to reach higher locations.
- Optimizes fuel consumption of Boost Pack.
- Better skills are available for the late game.
4. Fitness
| Ranks | Description |
|---|---|
| Rank 1-4 | You have 10% to 30% more oxygen available. At Rank 4, sprinting and power attacks consume significantly less oxygen. |
| Unlock Requirement | To achieve these ranks, deplete all available oxygen 20 to 100 times. |
- Why I Chose This: When you’re trying to hunt for different resources across various planets, having some extra sprint can feel rewarding, which is why I feel the Fitness skill is extremely underrated.
A Physical skill that boosts oxygen meter capacity, allowing prolonged exertive actions like sprinting and melee-powered attacks. Augmenting the player’s oxygen meter provides the freedom to sprint longer distances, engage in consecutive melee skirmishes, or explore alien worlds more comprehensively without the constant anxiety of depleting oxygen levels.
- Furthermore, the intrinsic nature of Starfield requires frequent ground movements.
- Coupled with the unique aspects of the fast travel mechanic, having an extended oxygen meter is a priceless asset, significantly reducing the player’s downtime and optimizing exploration.
- Makes exploration easier.
- Best for melee-focused players.
- Limits players from unlocking other skills.
5. Piloting
| Ranks | Description |
|---|---|
| Rank 1-4 | (1) You gain the capability to use ship thrusters. (2) Improved ship turning rate and maneuverability. (3-4) Unlock the ability to pilot Class B and C ships. |
| Unlock Requirement | Destroy 5 to 30 enemy ships to reach these ranks. |
- Why I Chose This: Piloting is a tech skill in Starfield that enhances ship handling, vital for space voyages and encounters, a task you’ll be doing regularly.
Starfield is set against the sprawling expanse of space and positions spacecraft piloting at the heart of its gameplay. Piloting fine-tunes your ship’s handling capabilities and significantly elevates your combat efficacy. By enabling strafe maneuvers with ship thrusters, it grants players the agility to dodge enemy fire and attain superior positioning, a crucial advantage during space combat.
- Early in Starfield, as players grapple with the vastness of space and the unpredictability of celestial encounters, mastering ship controls is paramount.
- Piloting, especially when synergized with the Targeting Control Systems skill, provides an integrated combat and control experience, allowing players to navigate hostile space environments with dexterity.
- The duo makes space voyages less daunting and combats more manageable, particularly for beginners.
- Makes maneuvering ships easier.
- Allows players to use more ship types.
- Requires high-level piloting skills to fully utilize.
- Related: Starfield Best Traits
6. Persuasion
| Ranks | Description |
|---|---|
| Rank 1-4 | You have an increased chance of success by 10% to 50% when persuading someone. |
| Unlock Requirement | Succeed in 3 to 10 speech challenges to reach these ranks. |
- Why I Chose This: A key aspect of Starfield is building relationships and joining factions, a facet where this skill shines.
Persuasion is a Social skill that enhances dialogue challenge success rates, enabling non-violent solutions and maintaining favorable NPC relations.
- You have the ability to influence dialogue outcomes, creating pathways that might otherwise remain locked.
- By choosing persuasion, players can circumvent potential hostilities, preserve resources, and cultivate valuable alliances.
Early in Starfield, players can leverage the Persuasion skill to establish themselves as diplomatic entities, fostering trust and opening avenues for collaboration. As showcased in scenarios like “The Empty Nest with Sam Coe,” the choice to negotiate rather than engage in combat can be both a tactical and narrative boon.
Given the unpredictability of dialogue outcomes in Starfield, investing in Persuasion becomes crucial.
- Increases dialogue success rate.
- Allows players to avoid combat through dialogue.
- Puts at disadvantage in scenarios with no persuasion.
To summarize, Starfield’s vast cosmos becomes a distinct experience with the right starting skills. Whether focusing on Commerce for trade, Security for loot, or Fitness for exploration, the chosen path profoundly impacts gameplay. The initial skills define your journey and set the pace for your cosmic adventure.
Before you leave, I highly suggest that you also read how to install the Starfield DLSS mod. Or, learn more about the Shielded cargo. Similarly, mastering the Lockpicks in Starfield allows players to get better loot early on., and the best backgrounds in Starfield guides.
Next:
- Starfield: Powers
- Starfield: Vanguard motto
- Starfield: Dock Ships
- Starfield: FOV console
- Starfield: Best Backgrounds
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