Tip
When viewing the full star map, hold RB (on Xbox) or left Alt key (on PC) to view all systems' names at once.
Starfield Trivia & Tips
Community-submitted facts, trivia, and gameplay tips. Your votes help surface the best.
Tip
A trick to help with leveling Persuasion is to go to the bars and talk to the unnamed NPCs available as ship crew members and try to haggle their price down. If you pass, it counts toward the goal of unlocking the next level of the skill. You don't even have to hire them once you pass or fail the persuasion.
Tip
The pilot simulator test - where you must prove your ability to destroy enemy ships - at the start of the UC Vanguard quest line can help with two skills: Piloting and Aneutronic Fusion. Both skills require destroying ships to increase their rank, and the ships you destroy in the simulator count toward the rank challenges.
Tip
Unless you've joined the Crimson Fleet, the safest place to sell contraband is The Den (in the Wolf system). The Trade Authority (TA) there will buy your contraband items, and there's no patrols to scan your ship.
Tip
By Dyeritso
When using the cutter, holding the left trigger button shrinks the reticle till it connects and as a result the laser becomes stronger. Great for faster mining.
By Dyeritso
Tip
By Dyeritso
The Mag Sniper is a powerful sniper in general, but using it one may not realized you'll need to hold the trigger button, which in turn charges up the weapon- the screen starts to shake slightly- to deliver the full power of the shot.
By Dyeritso
Tip
By Dyeritso
When in space, using the scanner allows you to see other planets in the system without opening the map. If the circle next to the planet is flashing, it means there's a PoI there. If its flashing and you turn your camera away from the planet, sometimes a "?" appears. This indicates that there's a PoI in space around that planet.
By Dyeritso
Trivia
By Dyeritso
Sometimes, when you harvest a plant, nothing appears to change. If you look closely where the fruit/nut/leaf should be, you'll see a credstik used as a placeholder instead.
By Dyeritso
Tip
By Dyeritso
When using the scanner on an animal, next to its name it either shows a green heartbeat icon or a red bacteria icon. This indicates whether an animal is diseased or not and if the diseased one hits you, you'll likely to get an infection.
By Dyeritso
Trivia
Microsoft acquired ZeniMax (Bethesda's parent) in 2020, making Starfield a key first-party title for Xbox.
Trivia
The planet Gagarin is named after Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. Chawla honors Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian woman in space.
Trivia
Deimos Staryards built Cydonia and supply metal for UC Navy ship manufacturing; the colony is the most important mining settlement in UC space.
Trivia
New Atlantis houses Constellation, described in lore as the last group of space explorers devoted to exploring the stars.
Trivia
New Atlantis on Jemison is the United Colonies capital and the largest city Bethesda has ever built; it was founded in 2156 when humans first confirmed Jemison's habitability.
Trivia
By Dyeritso
Certain items makes sounds when you pick them up. Example: the wooden duck quacks a bunch when picked up.
By Dyeritso
Trivia
An Elder Scrolls–style artifact appears in a museum on Titan, Saturn's moon.
Trivia
Director Todd Howard said the biggest challenges were both the tech of planet generation and making exploration "fun minute to minute, and then hour to hour."
Trivia
Bethesda used large handcrafted landscape tiles wrapped around procedural terrain rather than fully procedural planet generation.
Trivia
Only about 10% of Starfield's planets contain life; the rest are barren or resource-focused worlds.
Trivia
A History of Space Flight Museum exists on Earth and is visited during the main quest "Unearthed."
Trivia
Cydonia on Mars, founded in 2112, is humanity's oldest extraterrestrial colony in Starfield lore; most of the city is built underground beneath a shield.
Trivia
Jemison is named after Mae Jemison, the first Black woman NASA astronaut in space. Other systems and locations are named after astronauts like Gagarin, Chawla, and Olivas.
Trivia
NASA's Curiosity Rover is on display at The Lodge, Constellation's headquarters.
Trivia
In Cydonia, a "Hours Without Incident" billboard resets to zero in real time when you perform a hostile action.
Trivia
Flora is automatically scanned when you collect it; fauna only register as scanned after you kill them.
Trivia
The Cutter mining tool has an alternate fire mode for faster mineral extraction. Emergency cuttable walls sometimes hide hidden pathways.
Trivia
Starfield is Bethesda's first new intellectual property in 25 years and features over 1,000 explorable planets across more than 100 star systems.
Trivia
By the game's 2330 setting, Earth has fallen into disarray. You can still find the Apollo 11 moon landing site (with the Lunar Module and American flag), the Egyptian pyramids, and the Empire State Building as remnants.
Trivia
"Alex Hay's Note" at The Eye in Alpha Centauri is an in-game tribute to a fan, Alex Hay, who passed away in 2023. The note reads "I'm always with you, out there in the starfield."
Trivia
The game was trademarked and initial concepts were drafted in 2013; full development began after Fallout 4 in 2016 and took about seven years to "really find the fun."