Starfield is a massive space exploration RPG, and it can get overwhelming very quickly when you’re just getting started in the game. To help you find your footing, here are eight things you should do first in Starfield to get your space adventure off on the right foot.
Favorite Your Weapons
After completing the tutorial level in Starfield, the first thing you should do is favorite your weapons. It doesn’t matter if you don’t even like the weapons you have, just favorite them. You can do this by accessing them in your inventory, pressing the Y button, and assigning them to a quickswap slot which can then be accessed with the d-pad when you’re out and about.
Favoriting a weapon allows you to quickswap between multiple weapons in combat, which makes life so much easier. You can also favorite healing items and food as well, allowing you to quickly heal up in the middle of a firefight. This is a huge quality-of-life feature that Starfield never explains to the player, so yeah, definitely do this first.
Join the UC Vanguard
After you’ve arrived at Jemison, which is the first proper planet and city you’ll visit in Starfield, you might be tempted to just explore everything the city has to offer. And you should do that! But not before clearing up a few housekeeping things first.
We recommend pushing on with the main story a little until you’re introduced to Sarah and the Constellation, and the main questline will eventually introduce you to the commander of the UC Vanguard, which is the first proper faction you can join. Definitely join up with the Vanguard, as this gives you access to a whole other optional questline involving some scary aliens, and also puts you on the path to becoming a UC citizen, which means you’ll be qualified to start purchasing housing in Jemison.
Research Everything You Can at the Research Station
Before you go jetting off into space, make sure to get acquainted with your ship in Starfield as well. There’s a Research Station just off to the side of the ship, and it’s important that you try to keep up with this as much as possible. First, deposit all of your resources from your inventory into the ship cargo, then check the Research Station to see how much research can be done with what you have.
The Research Station unlocks various modding and crafting capabilities that will help you on your journey, allowing you to install more useful and powerful mods to your gear and weapons. You will eventually be bottlenecked by skill upgrades, which can only be unlocked as you level up, but by keeping up with the Research Station, you’ll ensure that you’re always able to craft and mod the best items for your level.
Explore Jemison Thoroughly
It’s only the first proper planet, but Jemison is incredibly dense and packed with so many things for you to see and do. You could easily spend your first 10 hours here and probably still miss out on other cool quests that you’ll want to come back to eventually.
Right off the top of my head, there’s the UC Vanguard faction quests, there’s the conspiracy with the Trade Authority, and did you know that Jemison has a whole underground slum section called The Well for you to check out? Even as you’re just walking around the city, you’ll inevitable overhear NPC conversations, or just have them talk at you, and these are all small story threads that will get added to the Activity section in your questlog. Check it out when you have the chance, and you’ll get sucked into even more quests to knock out.
Sleep
Oh yeah, don’t forget to sleep. Not only is this a good way to pass time, which is required for certain quests, but it also gives you the Well-Rested bonus. Being Well-Rested gives you a small exp boost modifier, which really helps with leveling up faster and being able to unlock more skills.
Whenever you feel like you’ve accomplished a lot in the game and just need a little breather, find a bed to sleep in. You can do this at the Lodge in Jemison, or in your own ship.
Get Acquainted With Ship Controls
The ship controls in Starfield are pretty straightforward, but getting used to ship combat may take some time. Generally speaking, you’ll want to select an enemy ship with the A button, pelt them with lasers and ballistics, then finish them off with missiles once the target lock is complete. Things get dicier when enemies lock-on to you as well, and you’ll want to boost away as soon as they start locking-on, or be prepared to take on a ton of damage.
We recommend spending some time just flying around in orbit to get a feel for how the ship handles, and this should help prepare you for your first dogfights.
Recruit the Adoring Fan
If you started off with the Hero Worshipped trait in Starfield, it won’t be long before you run into the Adoring Fan himself. For what it’s worth, we do think that Hero Worshipped is one of the better traits to get in the game, just because it doesn’t come with any tangible downsides, unless you really end up hating the Adoring Fan’s voice lines.
But really, he’s just there to provide support, positive reinforcement, and to shower you with gifts. What more could you ask for? You’ll run into him in Jemison, where you’ll get to either recruit him as a companion or turn him away, and we found that he made for a rather decent early game companion, so don’t miss out.
Pick Up Everything
Finally, this is a Bethesda game. Of course you have to pick up absolutely every single thing in sight. Not only is this a good source of Credits, but also a good way to rack up resources, which are required for the Research Station, modding, and crafting.
Of course, you’ll also want to make sure you’re not overencumbered, and you can manage your inventory by depositing unnecessary items into your ship’s cargo, by selling them, or by increasing your own carry capacity through skill upgrades.
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