All Starfield skills and which are best

1 year ago 1836

What are the best Starfield skills? Todd Howard claims that the studio’s new skill system “combines the best” from Bethesda’s previous games, and we’re inclined to agree. These skills are split into five separate paths: Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Tech, and are unlocked through a combination of spending skill points and completing challenges.

While the Starfield release date is still on the horizon, it’s never too early to start customizing your character for the acclaimed studio’s upcoming RPG game. After choosing your spacefarer’s Starfield background and Starfield traits, the best Starfield skills are your go-to for shaping how you’ll navigate combat, diplomacy, and survival in the long term.

What are Starfield skills?

Starfield skills are perks you can choose for your character as you level up via exploration, combat, and other means. You can use one point to unlock a skill, then allocate up to three additional points to boost the skill’s power or unlock additional benefits.

You can rank up each Starfield skill a maximum of four times by completing challenges, with each new rank conferring a new stat buff. These are straightforward and involve using the weapon or mechanic associated with each skill, much like in Skyrim. You might need to spend points to unlock basic features like sneaking.

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All Starfield skills revealed so far

Here are all 53 announced Starfield skills:

Skill	Category	Tier	Effect / Rank
Weight Lifting	Physical	1	Increases total carrying capacity.
Decontamination	Physical	3	Increased chance of recovering from infections naturally.
Stealth	Physical	1	Provides a boost to various stealth-based actions.
Wellness	Physical	1	Gain 30 health points.
Martial Arts	Physical	3	Boosts unarmed attacks.
Neurostrikes	Physical	4	Increased unarmed attacks in some way.
Concealment	Physical	4	Makes it harder for enemies to detect your movements.
Commerce	Social	TBC	TBC
Gastronomy	Social	2	You can craft specialty food and drink. Gain additional recipes at the research lab.
Persuasion	Social	1	Gain an increased chance of success on speech challenges.
Scavenging	Social	1	Potentially applies benefits to items found in containers.
Theft	Social	1	Boosts pickpocketing success chances and the items available in a target’s inventory.
Bargaining	Social	TBC	Get a discount in shops, and sell your items for more.
Diplomacy	Social	TBC	(Potentially repurposed for the Intimidation skill)
Intimidation	Social	2	Rank 1: Force your target to flee as long as they are at, or below, your current level. Rank 2: Force your target to flee as long as they are a maximum of ten levels above your current level. Rank 3: Force your target to flee as long as they are a maximum of twenty levels above your current level. Rank 4: Force your target to flee as long as they are a maximum of thirty levels above your current level.
Instigation	Social	3	Force your target to attack their allies, as long as they are at, or below, your current level.
Leadership	Social	3	Allies gain affinity 15% faster than normal.
Persuasion	Social	1	Makes it easier to succeed with conversational actions.
Outpost Management	Social	3	TBC
Xenosociology	Social	4	Allows for the control of various aliens.
Pistol Certification	Combat	1	Boosts damage dealt with pistols.
Ballistics	Combat	1	Rank 1: Ballistic weapons do 10% more damage Rank 2: Ballistic weapons do 20% more damage Rank 3: Ballistic weapons do 30% more damage Challenge: Kill 250 enemies with a ballistic weapon Rank 4: Ballistic weapons range is increased by 30%
Rifle Certification	Combat	2	Boosts damage dealt with rifles.
Dueling	Combat	1	Boosts damage dealt with melee weapons.
Shotgun Certification	Combat	1	Boosts damage dealt with shotguns.
Demolitions	Combat	2	Explosives do more damage and have a larger radius.
Heavy Weapons Certification	Combat	2	Gain Damage Resistance while aiming down sights with a heavy weapon.
Marksmanship	Combat	3	TBC
Particle Beams	Combat	2	TBC
Rapid Reloading	Combat	3	Gain a chance to reload your weapon twice as fast as normal.
Sniper Certification	Combat	3	Scoped weapons are steadier and have less sway.
Lasers	Combat	1	Boosts damage dealt with laser-class weapons.
Targeting	Combat	3	Greatly increased accuracy and range when shooting without aiming.
Astrodynamics	Science	1	TBC
Geology	Science	1	TBC
Medicine	Science	1	Medpacks heal for 10% more than normal.
Surveying	Science	1	TBC
Botany	Science	2	TBC
Astrophysics	Science	3	You have an increased chance of discovering a trait when scanning a planet or moon.
Chemistry	Science	3	Offers various improvements to self-made medicines and aid items.
Outpost Engineering	Science	3	TBC
Ballistics Weapon Systems	Tech	1	TBC
Boost Pack Training	Tech	1	TBC
Piloting	Tech	TBC	TBC
Security	Tech	1	Rank 1: You can attempt to hack Advanced locks, and two auto attempts can be banked. Rank 2: You can attempt to hack Expert locks, and 3 auto attempts can be banked. Rings now turn blue when the pick can be slotted. Rank 3: You can attempt to hack Master-level locks, and 4 auto attempts can be banked. Rank 4: Expend a digipick to eliminate keys that aren’t required to solve the puzzle. 5 auto attempts can be banked.
Targeting Control Systems	Tech	1	TBC
Payloads	Tech	2	TBC
Missile Weapon Systems	Tech	3	TBC
Particle Beam Weapon Systems	Tech	3	TBC
Robotics	Tech	3	You deal 10% more damage to robotic enemies.
Starship Design	Tech	1	TBC
Starship Engineering	Tech	TBC	TBC

Is there a Starfield skill tree?

There is a Starfield skill tree, but it’s more free-flowing than the stricter skill trees seen in games like Skyrim or Path of Exile. The Starfield skill tree consists of five different categories: Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Tech.

Putting points into one category doesn’t lock you out of the others, but you will need to put a set number of points into skills in one tier of a category before you can put points into skills of the subsequent category.

For example, you can put a point into every tier one skill in each of the five categories, but you’ll only be able to go further down the skill tree by investing more points into the skills of that category.

Ranking up skills, which takes additional points that will go toward the total needed to unlock the next tier, requires not only a skill point but the completion of a related challenge, too.

A promotional screenshot showing the Starfield skills the NPC Barrett comes with.

Do NPCs have Starfield skill trees?

NPCs don’t appear to have their own skill trees for you to manage as they hang around helping you out, but they do come with set perks from the skill tree itself.

Given as a prime example during one of the early Starfield Direct presentations, characters like Sarah Morgan, Barrett, and Sam Coe all come equipped with specific skill sets taken directly from the in-game skill tree.

Sarah excels at leadership and botany, Sam Coe has a thing for rifles and rocks, and Barret knows a good meal. When traveling in your troupe, you’ll benefit from their chosen areas of expertise.

A screenshot showing a created character choosing their best starting skills in Starfield.

What are the best Starfield skills?

Here are the best Starfield skills:

Security Persuasion Intimidation Weight Lifting Stealth Xenosociology Botany, Geology, Surveying

The best Starfield skills are going to depend entirely on the Starfield build you’re looking to use. And that will depend on your preferred playstyle. After all, there’s no point putting points into Shotgun Certification if you’re planning a pacifist run where you talk your way through the game.

Instead, here are the best Starfield skills based on those set to unlock core gameplay mechanics:

Security

With this skill, you’ll likely have a much easier time busting through harder locks. The harder the security, the better your reward. You’ll also not have to worry so much about not having a Digipick on hand. Those things could be rare.

Persuasion

Getting yourself into a hairy situation is easy. Getting yourself out of a hairy situation? That’s a tough one.

You can’t read people’s minds to say exactly what they want to hear every single time. Having the Persuasion skill will help with that, potentially saving your ship, your bullets, credits, or even your life.

Intimidation

Don’t want to get your hands dirty? Going for a pacifist run? With a few ranks in Intimidation, you’ll be able to force enemies stronger than yourself to flee. If they won’t listen to reason (because they’re a space dinosaur), this is why to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.

Weight Lifting

We all know the pain of having to drop mountains of items in a Bethesda game just to get to where you’re going. You can’t carry the world back with you. The Weight Lifting skill allows you to carry quite a bit more on your person, reducing the need to rely on a partner, and increasing any potential profits from your trip. Fuel ain’t free.

Stealth

Unless you’re happy going in guns blazing through any situation, you’ll want to turn to stealth somewhere down the line. Whether you’re sneaking through ducts to access an otherwise locked location or attempting to avoid getting into a fight you have little chance of walking away from, patience will pay off big time.

Xenosociology

Why waste your bullets putting down those pesky space pirates? Those cost credits. With Xenosociology, you’ll be able to reap the rewards of someone else’s high-risk efforts. They probably tried to commandeer an army of aliens and died trying. You’ll make it look easy.

Botany, Geology, Surveying

Assuming we’re right in our assumptions, this careful combination of skills will make every expedition more fruitful, speeding up the time it takes to see everything a planet has to offer, reducing the need to find multiple rare specimens to fully log them, and increasing the yield from each node you attempt to harvest. It pays to be prepared.

If you’re inclined to dump your skill points into Combat, have a gander at our list of confirmed Starfield guns to get a sense of which best suits your play style. Alternatively, if you’re itching to explore everything the Settled Systems have to offer, check out our Starfield ships so you can take to the skies in style. Or, if you prefer to keep your boots firmly on the ground, take a look at the Starfield cities and Starfield religions you can expect to discover in Bethesda’s shiny new space game adventure.