Starfield: Crew Skills And Assignments [How To Assign & Usage]

Companions will play a crucial role during your travels, each equipped with unique skills. Depending on the crew you assemble in Starfield, you can use their skills to your advantage. These skills can vary from each other and can provide you with helpful bonuses when properly utilized in-game.

How To Use Starfield Crew Skills

The skills of crew members get activated when they are in a suitable environment. Therefore, it’s essential to assess their skills and assign roles accordingly. Those whose skills are most valuable at the outpost should be stationed there, while those better suited for tasks aboard the ship should accompany you on space journeys to maintain the starship.

However, Starfield Crew Skills doesn’t provide immediate benefits to the player.

• For instance, let’s say you have Sarah Morgan with the Botany Skill, take her on a planet exploration.
• While exploring, she autonomously collects plants; there’s a chance she’ll give you what she collects.
• It applies to other crew with relevant skills; a skilled cook might share the food they prepare with you.

Understanding The Crew Skills

• Each crew member possesses 1 to 4 skills, which can be viewed in the Crew Roster menu.
• Every skill is the exact copy of your skills, and the descriptions can be viewed in your skill tree.
• Skill proficiency is indicated by the number of stars on the skill’s icon.
• Assign crew members to roles based on their skills and star ratings on their icons.
• Fewer skill gaps result in more efficient crew performance.
• Generally, assign crew with Tech Skills to ships and those with Science and Social Skills to outposts.
• Crew members with strong Combat and Physical Skills excel as combat companions, like Andreja.

Recruiting Crew Members

Increasing your NPC crew in my opinion is crucial for efficient outposts and versatile starships in Starfield. 

I’ve listed two primary methods for acquiring more crew members which are:

Exploration And Mission Completion:

• Play missions, I recommend playing the Constellation’s main missions, to unlock crew members and companions.
• Completing missions can lead to opportunities to recruit relevant crew members.
• For example, saving Moara in Starfield allows you to recruit him in Cydonia.

Hiring At Spaceports And Bars

• Visit spaceports and bars in major Starfield cities.
• Look for specialists seeking work aboard a ship or at an outpost.
• In my opinion, some crew have limited Skills, suitable for filling gaps, while others offer broader expertise.
• An upfront fee is required for hiring crew members.

One important thing I’ve learned is that bringing aboard a crew member isn’t equivalent to having a companion who accompanies you everywhere. To clarify, all Starfield companions are part of your crew, but not every crew member becomes a companion. You can have companions follow you by inviting them along, while crew members must be assigned specific roles if you wish to utilize their skills effectively.

Assigning Crew Members In Starfield

After recruiting a team of crew members, the next step from my experience is to assign their roles so they can utilize their skills effectively. Assignments are not permanent, as you have the flexibility to reassign or remove crew members using the Crew menu when your ship is grounded. It is similar to how you recruit or accompany companions as needed.

1. Start by opening the main menu, then select the Ship menu.
2. Follow the button prompt at the bottom to open the ‘Crew’ menu and view all your available crew members in the roster.
3. You will also find the skills of your crew in the roster.
4. Scroll down the roster list and follow the button prompt to assign your chosen crew member to a station.
5. Choose an assignment from the list, such as one of your ships or outposts, and that crew member will head off to their assigned location. 

Outpost

• To assign crew members to an outpost, you must have built a Crew Station for them to live in.
• You can increase the number of crew members that an outpost can hold with more Crew Stations or by upgrading the Outpost Management Skill to Rank 3.

Ship

• The number of crew members you can assign to a ship is also determined by the number of Crew Stations it has.
• Increase the number of crew stations by using a better cockpit, adding better habs and more of them (it will require the Starship Design Skill), and upgrading the Ship Command Skill.

Do Crew Skills Stack?

Crew member skills benefit them exclusively, not you. For example, Sarah’s botany skill excels at finding plant items, and occasionally sharing them with you. However, you don’t acquire the skill, and it doesn’t stack with your own. Regarding crew ship skills, they rely on the highest level of a particular skill among the crew members to determine the bonus level. The bonus doesn’t accumulate with other crew members’ bonuses but combines with any bonuses you possess.

For instance, if you have one crew member with Rank 2 Payloads and another with Rank 3 Payloads, the game will only apply the bonus from the Rank 3 Payloads crew member, but the bonus will complement any Payloads perk bonus you possess.

That’s everything you need to know about the Starfield Crew Skills. When recruiting the Crew members, make sure to use Persuasion, as it can help get the fees lower and save you some credits. You can try to recruit some crew members in New Atlantis and Neon City.

Next:

• Starfield: The BEST Traits
• Starfield: Ship Building
• Starfield: BEST Armor Sets
• Starfield: First Contact Quest