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Starfield

Best Optic Modifications in Starfield

By
Seren Morgan-Roberts

Optic Modifications are all about improving the aim of your weapon in Starfield. Some will improve the overall accuracy of your weapon, whilst other mods offer magnified scopes, red dot laser sights, and more. This page will detail all the optic mods that you can unlock and we’ll also give a detailed breakdown of each optic modification, their crafting cost, and the research required. And, we’ll also give some advice on whether we think the different Optic Sights are worth it, giving pros and cons for each mod!

All Optic Modifications in Starfield

Below, you’ll find a full list of all Optic Modifications, with a list of all compatible weapons, crafting costs, bonuses (and cons!), as well as the research requirement to unlock the mods.

Optic Mod Description Crafting Cost Research Requirement (Skill) Compatible Weapons (Inc. Unique Weapons)
Reflex Sight Reflex sights for quicker target acquisition and visibility. "Aluminum" iconAluminum x1, "Adhesive" iconAdhesive x1, "Chlorosilanes" iconChlorosilanes x1 None AA-99, "Ace Sidearm" iconAce Sidearm, "Ambassador" iconAmbassador, "Beowulf" iconBeowulf, "Big Bang" iconBig Bang, "Breach" iconBreach, "Bridger" iconBridger, "Coachman" iconCoachman, Desperation, "Drum Beat" iconDrum Beat, "Elegance" iconElegance, Eon, "Equinox" iconEquinox, Experiment A-7, Gallow’s Reach, "Grendel" iconGrendel, "Hard Target" iconHard Target, Jake’s Hangover Cure, "Kodama" iconKodama, "Kraken" iconKraken, "Lawgiver" iconLawgiver, "Maelstrom" iconMaelstrom, "Marathon" iconMarathon, Negotiator, "Novablast Disruptor" iconNovablast Disruptor, "Novalight" iconNovalight, "Old Earth Assault Rifle" iconOld Earth Assault Rifle, "Orion" iconOrion, "Pacifier" iconPacifier, Peacekeeper, Pirate Legend, "Rattler" iconRattler, "Razorback" iconRazorback, Reckless Bombardment, Reflection, "Regulator" iconRegulator, "Shotty" iconShotty, "Sidestar" iconSidestar, Solace, "Solstice" iconSolstice, "Street Sweeper" iconStreet Sweeper, "Tempest" iconTempest, Terror Inflictor, "The Buzzcut" iconThe Buzzcut, "The Spacer" iconThe Spacer, "Tombstone" iconTombstone, "Unfair Advantage" iconUnfair Advantage, "Unmitigated Violence" iconUnmitigated Violence, "Urban Eagle" iconUrban Eagle, Va’ruun Inflictor, "Va'ruun Starshard" iconVa’ruun Starshard
Glow Sights "Iron" iconIron sights with specialized capsules that glow in both day and night for increased visibility. "Aluminum" iconAluminum x1, "Uranium" iconUranium x1 None Eon, "Novablast Disruptor" iconNovablast Disruptor, "Novalight" iconNovalight, "Rattler" iconRattler, "Regulator" iconRegulator, "Shotty" iconShotty, "Va'ruun Starshard" iconVa’ruun Starshard
Red Dot Sight Standard red dot sight for better target acquisition. "Aluminum" iconAluminum x1, "Neon" iconNeon x1, "Helium-3" iconHelium-3 x1 None XM-2311
Iron Sights Standard issue iron sights. "Aluminum" iconAluminum x1, "Nickel" iconNickel x1 None AA-99, "Beowulf" iconBeowulf, "Big Bang" iconBig Bang, "Breach" iconBreach, "Bridger" iconBridger, "Coachman" iconCoachman, "Drum Beat" iconDrum Beat, "Grendel" iconGrendel, "Kodama" iconKodama, "Kraken" iconKraken, "Lawgiver" iconLawgiver, "Maelstrom" iconMaelstrom, "Memento Mori" iconMemento Mori Negotiator, "Old Earth Assault Rifle" iconOld Earth Assault Rifle, "Orion" iconOrion, "Pacifier" iconPacifier, "Razorback" iconRazorback, "Regulator" iconRegulator, "Sidestar" iconSidestar, "Tombstone" iconTombstone, "Urban Eagle" iconUrban Eagle, Va’ruun Inflictor, "Va'ruun Starshard" iconVa’ruun Starshard, XM-2311
Medium Scope Medium scope for 4x magnified view. "Adhesive" iconAdhesive x2, "Chlorosilanes" iconChlorosilanes x3, "Vanadium" iconVanadium x3, "Zero Wire" iconZero Wire x1 None AA-99, "Beowulf" iconBeowulf, "Drum Beat" iconDrum Beat, "Equinox" iconEquinox, "Hard Target" iconHard Target, "Hunterwulf" iconHunterwulf, "Maelstrom" iconMaelstrom, "Magsniper" iconMagsniper, "Orion" iconOrion, The Last Breath
Short Scope Short scope or 2x magnified view. "Titanium" iconTitanium x2, "Adhesive" iconAdhesive x1, "Chlorosilanes" iconChlorosilanes x2 Optics and Laser Mods 1 (No Skill Required) AA-99, "Beowulf" iconBeowulf, "Breach" iconBreach, "Bridger" iconBridger, "Drum Beat" iconDrum Beat, "Equinox" iconEquinox, "Eternity's Gate" iconEternity’s Gate, "Fiscal Quarter" iconFiscal Quarter, "Grendel" iconGrendel, "Lawgiver" iconLawgiver, "Maelstrom" iconMaelstrom, "Marksman's AA-99" iconMarksman’s AA-99, Negotiator, "Novablast Disruptor" iconNovablast Disruptor, "Orion" iconOrion, "Razorback" iconRazorback, Riot Shotgun, "Shattered Shock" iconShattered Shock, "Tombstone" iconTombstone, "Urban Eagle" iconUrban Eagle, Va’ruun Inflictor, XM-2311
Holographic Sight Holographic sight for increased target visibility. "Adhesive" iconAdhesive x2, "Vanadium" iconVanadium x3, Palladium x2, "Zero Wire" iconZero Wire x1 Optics and Laser Mods 1 (No Skill Required) "Solstice" iconSolstice
Long Scope Long scope for 6x magnified view. "Adhesive" iconAdhesive x3, "Chlorosilanes" iconChlorosilanes x4, "Europium" iconEuropium x3, "Zero Wire" iconZero Wire x2 Optics and Laser Mods 2 ("Weapon Engineering" iconWeapon Engineering 1★) "Hard Target" iconHard Target, "Magsniper" iconMagsniper, The Last Breath
Recon Scope Marks enemies while Aiming. "Adhesive" iconAdhesive x2, "Chlorosilanes" iconChlorosilanes x3, "Europium" iconEuropium x2, "Zero Wire" iconZero Wire x1 Optics and Laser Mods 3 ("Weapon Engineering" iconWeapon Engineering 2★) AA-99, Avatar, "Drum Beat" iconDrum Beat, "Equinox" iconEquinox, "Hard Target" iconHard Target, "Head Ranger" iconHead Ranger, "Lawgiver" iconLawgiver, "Magsniper" iconMagsniper, "Orion" iconOrion, Peacemaker, "Razorback" iconRazorback, "The Prime" iconThe Prime, "Tombstone" iconTombstone, Va’ruun Inflictor

Best Optic Mods in Starfield - Pros and Cons

The Optic Modifications are best suited to players looking to build sniper rifles. There are other optic mods with different bonuses, and we’ve listed some of those below as well. You’ll find a breakdown of the best optic mods, complete with pros and cons.

Reflex Sight

The Reflex Sight is a base tier optic modification that will offer your weapon a cute lil red crosshair on a light green screen to help improve your aim. This is great for players who are newer to shooter games as it’ll help with aiming for headshots or other specific targets. If you’re interested in other sight modifications that go well with the Reflex Sight, the Laser Modifications offer more added benefits of increased accuracy and visual aiming aids.

(1 of 2) The Reflex sight offers a lil red crosshair on a green background that helps with manual accuracy

The Reflex sight offers a lil red crosshair on a green background that helps with manual accuracy (left), you can craft this upgrade easily or purchase weapons with it already equipped - it’s quite common! (right)

Short Scope, Medium Scope and Long Scope

The Medium Scope is a base tier modification that offers 4x magnification. Whilst this is a higher magnification than the Short Scope, which requires researching Optics and Laser Mods 1, it is only available to a handful of weapons. It is a good option for the "Hard Target" iconHard Target and "Magsniper" iconMagsniper weapons, but you’ll likely want to upgrade these to the Long Scope mod when you have completed the research!

The Short Scope is available after researching Optics and Laser Mods 1, which doesn’t require any skills to research. This mod will offer a 2x magnified view, allowing you to zoom in and shoot with greater accuracy from a distance. Although it has less magnification than the medium scope, it is compatible with far more weapons.

The Long Scope offers 6x magnification, which is the greatest magnification of the three scopes. This modification is only available for actual sniper rifles though, such as the Hard Target and Magsniper. So, if you’re looking to become the greatest Sniper of the Settled Systems, you’re gonna want the Long Scope mod. It can be found on modified weapons found in the wild and The Last Breath unique weapon, which is purchased from the "Starborn" iconStarborn Trader in NG+.

Be careful with combining these weapon mods with mods that might reduce your weapon’s range (barrel mods in particular) as you may find that you can’t shoot from as great a distance as you’d like

(1 of 3) You can upgrade some rifle weapons to have a magnified scope, making them more akin to a Sniper.

Recon Scope

Like the Recon Laser Sight in the Laser Modifications, this mod will mark enemies whilst you’re aiming at them, highlighting their bodies to make it easier to target them. This is great for low-light environments where it’s harder to spot the enemies. This weapon mod can’t be accessed until you’ve researched Optics and Laser Mods 3, so perhaps only suitable for the hardcore weapon modifiers.

Looking For More Weapon Pages?

We’ve been busy writing a ton of pages on the best weapon mods and recommended weapon builds in Starfield. Take a look at some of them below:

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Bethesda Softworks
  • Platforms,
    PC, XB X|S
  • Genre
    Action Adventure, Action RPG, Shooter
  • Guide Release
    30 August 2023
  • Last Updated
    18 October 2023
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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Starfield is an action role-playing game from Bethesda Game Studios set in a futuristic interpretation of space exploration and colonization. Earth has long been abandoned, but there are plenty of other planets in different star systems where humans have ventured and settled. You have the freedom to create your own character with a unique background, but the main story will take you through a series of adventures as you uncover more information about mysterious artifacts which create gravitational anomalies. Along the way, you can build and customize your own space ship, establish your own outpost, befriend and romance new companions, and more. As a Bethesda game, you can also expect to see a lot of creative mods which have the potential to change your experience of the base game, or take it in an entirely new direction.

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