Early-Game Skills You Can’t Ignore

Bethesda games have always placed player freedom at the forefront of the experience, and Starfield is no different. The space-faring adventure allows players to choose every aspect of their character, from the spacing of their eyes to their origin story raised in a specific way.

One of the core aspects of building your character in Starfield is choosing from a variety of skills to help your character evolve into a specialist. Whether you choose to become a brawler or slick talker is up to you, but there are some early-game skills you should pick up to make your time in Starfield easier!

Early Skill Choices Will Determine Your Experience in Starfield

The equipment and gadgets in the game can help you overcome many challenges you may face. However unlocking skills will offer you special abilities and give you more flexibility when approaching an objective. Skills in Starfield are spread across five broad trees: Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Tech. Which skill you choose will depend on the kind of character you wish to build.

There are a whopping 82 skills in the game, and each skill can be upgraded four times to improve its benefits. While previous Bethesda games have a skill cap, requiring the player to carefully plan their build, Starfield allows the player to earn every skill and max it out as well!

The catch is that the player will need to reach level 328 for this to be possible, and that’s no small task. Unlocking skills in Starfield is also different from other Bethesda games, as it’s not just a matter of acquiring skill points. When you unlock a new skill, you are also given a challenge that must be completed before you can invest more points to improve the skill.

To understand if a skill will benefit you, you should be reading the description and what the skill offers. Despite wanting to specialize in the Science or Physical tree, there may be some skills that aren’t as useful in your approach. However, there are a few skills that, regardless of your build, will help you become a better space explorer.

Boost Pack Training (Tech)

Using your jetpack can be a lot of fun, but the drawback is that the fuel capacity isn’t enough to really enjoy yourself. Investing points early into the Boost Pack Training skill will allow you to stay airborne for longer and also improve your fuel’s regeneration rate. This is an essential traversal skill that can come in very handy when exploring planets to acquire Survey Slates.

Aside from making it easier to cover ground, the jetpack can also be used during combat to add a new dimension to your offensive capabilities. Dodging fire becomes much easier when you can simply take to the skies and rain down death from above. It doesn’t matter what build you’re going for; this skill is one you should consider.

Stealth (Physical)

Sometimes, taking the sneaky approach can be more fun and rewarding than going in guns blazing. Stealth can help you in a variety of scenarios in Starfield, and the stealth meter on screen makes it easier to understand when you’re drawing enemy attention. You can crouch and walk around without this skill, but you are going to be spotted easily unless you have at least two ranks invested in Stealth.

The higher rungs of this skill also make your silenced weapons deal more damage, and the highest rank allows you to interact with doors without alerting enemies. If playing as a spacefaring assassin appeals to you, Stealth should be your focus.

Medicine (Science)

Your adventures can only last for so long as you are alive, and Medicine allows you to make the most of any recovery items. Space is vast, and there are many threats, making it inevitable that you will, at some point, get hurt. Keeping a supply of Med Packs and other recovery items is essential to ensuring you continue your explorations.

Recovery items in Starfield function a little differently than other games, as they will gradually heal a percentage of your health over a period of time. Investing skill points in Medicine will increase the overall percentage of your healing, and the final rank also has the chance of curing any afflictions you may have acquired.

Security (Tech)

It wouldn’t be a Bethesda game without any locks to break, and there are both digital and traditional safeguards that you can circumvent. As with previous titles, the higher-level locks hide better loot and secrets, and the only way to attempt them is to invest points into the Security skill.

You can level up this skill by practicing it on beginner-level locks at first. Subsequent ranks in this skill will unlock passive abilities that make picking locks easier, which makes improving this skill easier, so it becomes a circular process. Investing points into the Tech tree will also allow you to get some ship upgrades, making it a useful tree to focus on.

Persuasion (Social)

While you can attempt to persuade Starfield NPCs without investing points into this skill, you’ll have much higher chances of success when you do.

Persuading characters can play a massive role in shaping your adventure, and getting this skill early on can be a game-changer for many. Every rank will improve your persuasive ability by 10%, ending with a 50% chance of convincing an NPC to do what you like.

Ballistics (Combat)

Players can acquire fun certifications in the game that can help them improve their damage output with specific weapons. But, investing ranks into the Ballistics skill is a good way to get a blanket buff to all ballistic weapons in the game up to 30% until rank 4.

The skill will also stack with any other buffs you have, such as the increased damage from silenced weapons in the higher ranks of the Stealth skill. The final rank also increases the effective range of all ballistic weapons, making you a threat even at a distance.

Acquiring these skills early on will ensure your time in Starfield is both eventful and fun. But, you may have found some others that suit your playstyle, and we would love to hear about them in the comments below! Let us know which skills you think should be on this list and check out our other Starfield guides to become an adept space explorer.