There are 82 different skills spread between 5 skill trees, so which are the best, and what should you choose to become powerful and prepared for everything in Starfield?
Skills and Leveling in Starfield involve a gradual journey that demands many hours and significant XP gains to unlock all available skill points within the game. This guide concentrates on selecting the most valuable skills from each tree to craft a well-balanced character. As a result, your protagonist will be equipped to handle any situation they encounter during your journey together among the stars.
What are the Best Skills and Skill Trees in Starfield?
The best skill tree in Starfield is Combat skill, and whether you like combat or prefer to skip it quickly and focus on other things, it will allow you to become powerful and defeat enemies with ease whenever it’s necessary.
The strongest skill in Starfield undoubtedly is Boost Pack Training because of its utility in combat, outpost building, exploration, and many other situations. In low gravity, it will even let you almost fly. Boost Pack training will help you explore and feel powerful when you jump to high places or strategically flank your opponents to surprise them from the air.
Best Skill trees in Starfield list by skill tree:
- Best Combat Skills: Rifle certification, Marksmanship, Armor Penetration
- Best Science Skills: Astrodynamics, Weapon Engineering, Spacesuit Design, Medicine
- Best Tech Skills: Boost Back Training, Security, Shield Systems
- Best Physical skills: Stealth, Wellness, Weight Lifting, Concealment
- Best Social skills: Persuasion, Commerce, Isolation, Instigation
1 Combat Skill Tree – Best skills
Comabt is the best skill tree because you need to fight to survive in the game, and combat will make you powerful.
The best Combat skills in Starfield are:
- Rifle certification
- Marksmanship
- Armor Penetration
Rifle certification
Rifles are a dominant and common weapon found in Starfield, from the early stages to the end game. As a result, most of the weapons available in the game fit the rifle certification criteria, and many of those guns are considered the most useful or powerful. The skill is accessible early in the game, so you can take advantage of it regardless of your level and game progress.
On top of this skill, you can stack other bonuses, such as a ballistic weapon bonus or sniper rifle certification, and get more damage when wielding a ballistic weapon or having the scope and using a sniper rifle. This all makes Rifles Certification the best skill in Starfield’s combat skill tree.
Marksmanship
Marksmanship is a perfect choice if you don’t want to use automatic weapons, meaning not holding down the trigger. This skill greatly increases your critical chances and pairs well with the Armor Penetration skill. Which is fantastic for big damage in close combat with shotguns. That brings us to the third fantastic skill.
Armor Penetration
Armor Penetration helps you deal more damage by ignoring a certain percentage of enemies’ armor. The longer you play, the more challenging enemies you will encounter, some of them will have red bars under their health pool that indicate the armor they are wearing. You must first break their shields and shred the armor before you can kill them and drain their health bar. This skill will help you counter harder enemies.
It pairs well with the above Marksmanship skill because, at rank 4, this skill decreases the foes’ armor by 25% for 6 seconds each time you crit. So if you take Armor Penetration and Marksmanship, then equip a powerful shotgun such as Bin Bang, and you will be a killing machine on the battlefield, one-shot enemies. Also, keep in mind that many fights will take place in tight spaces, buildings, and ships, so this playstyle will fit very well in those scenarios.
2 Science Skill Tree – Best Skills
We ranked the Science skill tree as the second best because it will allow you to build powerful modifications and explore new areas of Starfield’s game progression.
In Starfield, the best Science skills are:
- Astrydynamic
- Weapon Engineering
- Spacesuit Design
- Medicine
Astrodynamics
Ships are the transportation, complex mechanic, and minigame in Starfield. You are forced to use your spacecraft as a player from the start of the game. Therefore, the astrodynamic skill will help you explore, complete quests, and improve your experience through the entire playthrough. It is great for everyone, and without spoiling too much, you will need a better jump drive range for certain missions in the main quest, so taking this skill alongside improving your ship is beneficial. Astrodynamics is the best skill in the Starfield science skill tree.
Weapon Engineering
Modifications are the best way to become strong and deal overpowered damage with your guns. Weapon engineering skill unlocks patterns and allows you to craft your own guns or modifications using resources. With crafting, you can mod and change the weapons so heavily that even if something was primarily designed to be a ranged weapon, you could make it a high-damage melee gun. Gear modifications are an end-game goal and overpowered tool.
Spacesuit Design
While looted armor, helmets, and spacesuits can be powerful, the moded gear modifications will make your items overpowered. The Spacesuit design skill, similar to its weapon equivalent, will allow you to craft and make your gear insanely good.
Medicine
Medicine skill applies to every build, is easy to level, and is always a good option to take. Ensure you are always stacked up on med kits and Emergency kits, you can find them in specialized shops or general merchants in main city hubs across Strafield.
Science Skill Tree Is fantastic Overall
Every skill from this skill tree is worth taking at some point. For example, outpost engineering will improve your experience if you like to focus on building and creating your own bases. So, if you have extra points, spend them on a science skill tree and something that will boost your favorite activities in the game.
3 Tech Skill Tree – Best Skills
The Tech skill tree can make your character powerful thanks to the skills that boost your ship and gear, making you a strong force in space and on the planets’ surface. It can improve the advanced technology you are using.
The following list ranks the best Tech skills in Starfield:
- Boost Pack Training
- Security
- Shield Systems
Boost Pack Training
With Boost Pack Training, you can navigate your surroundings in both enjoyable and efficient ways, allowing you to swiftly outmaneuver enemies or access elevated positions, evade, and avoid being shot. It’s easy to level. Equip a boost pack to utilize this capability effectively.
Security
Thanks to the security skill, you can hack advanced digital locks. And as we all know from previous Bethesda games, the best loot is hidden behind locked doors and in chests. This skill will also get you to rank two and give you access to more helpful skills in the tech skill tree.
Shield Systems
Shield Systems increase your shield capacity, and without it, you won’t be able to survive during more challenging fights. And some space combat elements and missions are part of the main story. If you have a lot of shield capacity in your ship, enemies must break them before they can destroy your hull and, as a result, your ship. While shields regenerate after a certain time, the hull must be repaired using repair parts, which can be expensive. This skill will boost your starship shields and greatly increase survivability, especially at the beginning when you don’t have a lot of upgrades on your ship.
4 Physical Skill Tree – Best Skills
Physical skill tree is fantastic if you want to play melee you deffinetly should take advantage of it. However, it has some good skills but focuses vastly on specific playstyle or playstyles, its utility is dependent on your build.
Here are the best skills from the Physical skill tree in Starfield:
- Wellness
- Weight Lifting
- Stealth
- Concealment
Wellness
Wellness skill increases your max health each time you level it up and put a pint into it. It is easy to level and will also grant you progress in the physical skill tree, gaining you access to other skills. Overall, this skill is good to take regardless of your build and will make you more tanky and die less.
Weight Lifting
In Starfield, you’ll need to manage a variety of items throughout your journey, from the start to the end-game. This includes weapons, gear, resources, and quest-related items, all of which will be stored in your inventory. Boosting your carrying capacity through the weight lifting skill is a great way to expand your inventory, particularly in the early stages before you acquire other tools like outposts and expanded ship cargo holds. This upgrade becomes especially important if you prefer not to rely on companions. Although companions can assist you, a significant carrying capacity is essential for your character.
Stealth
It’s really self-explanatory: Stealth will make your character more difficult to detect and deal more damage while sneaking. Stealth and damage from concealment is a very powerful playstyle and extremely rewarding, you can eliminate the whole group of enemies without even being noticed.
Concealment
Similarly, the Concealment skill will greatly improve your protagonist’s ability to eliminate enemies from stealth. With this skill, the range sneak attacks deal extra damage, up to 10 more damage melee, and 4x damage at range. Additionally, you don’t trigger enemy mines, you can run while sneaking, and so on. This skill, paired with the sneak skill, makes you powerful quickly and offers fun gameplay and roleplaying possibilities.
5 Social Skill Tree – Best Skills
We ranked Social Skill Tree as the last because it has a small number of good skills for every build, and you can easily skip it completely and won’t be punished for it. The skill tree focuses on very slim areas of expertise, and bonuses from it are the weakest.
The following list presents the best skills from the Social skill tree in Starfield:
- Persuasion
- Commerce
- Isolation
- Instigation
Persuasion
Persuasion enhances your ability to convince others effectively. If you lean towards nonviolent resolutions and want to steer clear of violence, dedicating points to this skill will help you achieve that. Moreover, it is highly valuable during various in-game scenarios where your negotiation abilities can change the quest outcomes, provide you with advantages, or even earn you credits. In Starfield, the Persuasion and Intimidation skills form a captivating mini-game that you definitely shouldn’t overlook.
Commerce
You can combine your persuasion skills with commerce to increase your selling prices, reduce your purchase costs, and efficiently earn credits in Starfield. Shopping and selling are ongoing activities, demanding your consideration at every turn. Is it worthwhile to carry this item for sale? Should I invest in resources or ship upgrades? The additional credits you gather will help you buy necessities and enhance your overall gameplay experience in Starfield.
Isolation
If you don’t like to use companions and prefer a Lone Wolf playstyle, the Isolation skill is something you should take as early as possible. It provides you with extra damage and resistance when you travel alone. However, you will lose some of the benefits of having companions, such as extra carry capacity so make sure you’ll take skills that will replace them, for example, as mentioned before the Weight lifting skill can aid you with how much you can carry.
Instigation
Instigation is a pacifist perk, and you can force others to attack their allies so you can create a distraction for a limited time. You spark chaos around you and influence others to achieve your goals. Pair this skill with other skills from the Social skill tree, such as Intimidietion, to create interesting roleplaying possibilities and kill some bandits at the same time.
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