Starfield Skill System & Leveling Explained

Starfield has a Complex Skill System and multiple ways to gain experience and level up, in this guide, we explain it all in detail.

Skill System in Starfield

Starfield skill system includes multiple skills spread between 5 categories of skills: Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Tech. Skills from every category will upgrade, customise, and enhance your Starfield character playstyle. Skills can make your protagonist more powerful in combat, efficient with weapons, better negotiator and ship pilot, or even increase your base statistics like health or endurance.

Firstly, in the character creation menu, you will choose your protagonist’s background, which determines your character’s origin but also three starting abilities. Some of those abilities can instantly unlock rank 1 skills in a corresponding skill tree.

In Starfield, you receive a skill point each time you level and can spend it on any additional ability. However, you’ll need to complete challenges to unlock some higher-ranking skills. Challenges depend on what skill you would like to unlock. For example, if you want your character to be able to open complex digital locks, you can invest in the Security skill from the Tech skill tree. To unlock Security Rank 2, you must Pick 5 locks to complete the challenge.

In Starfield, the Skill tree starts at the top and moves down, separated by rows. To take Skills from the second, third, and fourth row, you must first spend at least 4 skill points on the skills from the row before. Some skills are hard to level because they require you to do certain challenges in order to upgrade them. To overcome this, spend four skill points on more than one skill from the first row to quickly get to the second, and so on.

The fastest way to level up skill trees in Starfield: Pick two easy skills to level to rank 2, and spend points on them. Complete challenges and rank them up. Spend points on rank 2 for each, and you can now move to the second row.

Skill Trees and Categories in Starfield

Skills in Starfield are split into the following five main categories:

• Physical
• Social
• Combat
• Science
• Tech

Physical

Physical skills focus on improving character base stats such as health, stamina, and endurance, increasing character survivability, and damage reduction. It also increases character melee combat capabilities.

Social

Social skills help you interact with NPC, negotiate, and persuade them. Also, you can use it to become a better leader for your crew and companions. It will help you with trading and earning credits in-game.

Combat

The combat skill tree focuses primarily on your performance in fights and weapon proficiency. It’ll upgrade your skills with weapons and weapon upgrades, increasing the overall damage of each weapon type.

Science

Science skills can improve character, medic, exploration abilities, and technology. They also focus on crafting times, unlocking more recipes, and research. When building ships or outposts, applying and discovering new technologies and resources is crucial.

Tech

The tech skills and robotics skills boost auto-turrets and combat droids’ damage, armor, or functionality. It also focuses on your ability to control and utilize advanced technology in combat, ships, outposts, and exploration.

Best Skills to Take

The best and most crucial skill in Starfield you should take is Boost Pack Training. Here is what to focus on:

1. Combat Skill Tree: Additionally, focus on the weapon type or types from combat skill. It’s your most important survivability tool, and what exactly skill you should choose will depend on the build you want to go for.
   • The combat skill tree focuses primarily on your performance in fights and weapon proficiency. It’ll upgrade your skills with weapons and weapon upgrades, increasing the overall damage of each weapon type.
2. Physical Skill: If you like close combat, you may like some skills from this skill tree. However, it also offers you extra health and endurance, so regardless of your preferred playstyle, it’s worth investing some pits there.
3. Tech and Science Skill Trees: Those two have the most useful skills in exploration, a research ship, and an outpost building. Ships play a vital role in the story, too. Some missions will require specific firepower and upgrades to be able to complete them.
4. Social Skills: Those play a secondary role in the game. If you prefer to avoid fights, invest more in social skills.

Leveling & Experience Sources in Starfield

Levels in Starfield describe your character progress. Each time you complete a quest, kill enemies or discover an uncharted planet, you’ll receive experience points. When you gather enough experience, you’ll level up and get a skill point to spend.

In Starfield, you can get levels and experience points from the following sources:

• Visiting new locations
• Defeating creatures and enemies
• Completing quests and missions
• Passing Speech Checks
• Using Skills or Weapons
• Joining Factions
• Lockpicking

Planet and System Levels

Each planet or system will have a suggested level that players should reach before they enter it. If you choose to access a too-high-level zone compared to yours, you may be unable to kill enemies or even survive environmental dangers – everything will be too challenging for you. The same can happen if you try to kill Enemies that are too high level compared to yours.

Equipment Level

Weapons, equipment, and armor you can obtain in the game will scale based on your level. So, everything you find will be determined by your level.

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Thank you for reading the Starfield Skill System and Leveling Explained Guide. We provide the latest news and create guides for Starfield. Also, watch me play games on Twitch or visit my YouTube channel! Starfield launches exclusively on Xbox Series X|S and PC on September 6, 2023. You can play it day one with Xbox Game Pass.

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