How To Fully Explore Planets

With Starfield taking place across multiple stellar systems in space, the feature of landing on alien planets was a given. Bethesda has created over 1,000 planets and moons in the game, and each can either be explored or scanned to learn more about this unique world.

The exploration has been one of the points of critique for the game, with some calling it half-baked and consisting of a lot of filler. However, there are some truly unique planets in Starfield that you should visit during your time in the game, and we’re going to show you how to fully explore planets to pad your pockets!

Fly into a Planet’s Orbit to Begin Your Exploration

One thing Bethesda has managed to capture is the vastness of space and the limitless potential such a setting can have. This potential might not have been unlocked to the fullest extent, but the many planets allow players to see the different forms of life dotting the many reaches of Starfield. Your Starmap is a crucial bit of tech that allows you to see all the available planets in your current system.

Make sure you also check the Constellation missions, as some may require you to scan a specific planet, allowing you to earn both XP and money for your surveillance efforts. You can get these missions on the Constellation mission board in the Lodge’s basement. You can activate several missions, so you don’t have to keep shuttling back and forth.

Once you find a new planet, it’s a good idea to do an initial scan. This is good practice, even if you’re not looking to land and fully explore it right then. Scanning allows you to see what resources you can farm from the planet, and you never know what you may find may be useful in your current objective. You can do a quick scan by holding down the LB or R keys, giving you a breakdown of the concentration of resources.

Understanding resource distribution across the planet will help you get better outcomes when mining or building outposts. Scanning will also help build your Survey Slates reserve and inform you about any Traits on the planet that can help you complete your final report.

Exploring Planets in Starfield Requires a Lot of Legwork

There are a ton of planets in the game that you can land on, and almost all of them will have specific aspects that need to be scanned to build your Survey Slates. This will help you get a better understanding of the planet, and you can also sell these Slates to merchants to earn credits. Every planet and moon will have four characteristics in varying degrees.

• Flora: Plant life
• Fauna: Animal life
• Resources: Chemicals and minerals
• Traits: Biological or geological features

All of these must be scanned on every planet to build your database. You can check the progress of each planet by opening your Starmap or by bringing up the scanner. Players will have to scan eight species of plants and eight species of animals, while resources and chemicals need to be scanned just once. Biotic life that is airborne or in water can be scanned from a distance, but the ones found on land will require the player to get quite close.

The biome you are in will also determine the kind of flora and fauna you encounter. You can check biome types by zooming into a landing area and reading the biome’s description and how much of it you have scanned. Once you have scanned everything in that biome, the HUD will display a message stating “Biome Complete.”.

While there isn’t much aquatic interaction in Starfield, some planets have fish in their bodies of water. So, if you are a few marks short of a full survey, you might want to try using your scanner on the shores of a lake. You’ll find that there are fish to be scanned, which will count towards the number of Fauna you have acquired.

Along with resources and biotic life, Starfield players need to find unique planetary Traits. In your scanner, you’ll see icons labeled as Natural, Anomaly, Life Signs, or Unknown, which can be scanned to reveal the real icon. Head over to the “Natural” icon and scan specific parts of the Trait to catalog it.

Keep These Tips in Mind When Surveying Starfield Planets

As with everything in a Bethesda game, your scanning and surveying capabilities will improve as you invest points into the tree. Your scanner is quite weak at the start of the game, but by placing points into Surveying, you will gain increased zoom levels, allowing you to scan subjects as far as 50 meters away, which would be useful even in games like Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster to collect PP stickers!

You can also invest points into traversal skills such as Boost Pack Training to get around the planet faster. Astrophysics in the Science Tree will also help you get more data from an initial orbital scan, and Xenosociology can keep you safe from alien life that may attack.

After completing your scans, you will be granted the Survey Slate of the planet. You can find these in the Notes section of your inventory, and they barely take up any weight. You can sell these Slates to vendors to earn money, and we recommend visiting Vladimir on The Eye for the best prices. You can also sell the Slates for a habitable world to Phill Hill on Mars.

That’s all you need to know on how to explore planets in Starfield and survey their contents. Which planet have you found to be the most interesting so far? Let us know in the comments below and check out our Starfield guides to becoming a true colonist.