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Starfield

Best Outpost Skills in Starfield

By
Matt Chard

Although you can build Outposts without any skills invested into it in Starfield, if you’re serious about building the best Outpost that you can, you’ll need several key skills. The skills chosen here are chosen with Outpost in mind as well as skills that will help you with money and resources as they all go hand in hand.

Building the perfect Outpost takes time, and more importantly, a set of specific skills.

Outpost Skills Tier List

Here is a list of what we perceive to be the best skills to level up if building Outposts is your goal in Starfield. This list is displayed in the order of the most important to the least important, although any tier list is subjective.

Outpost Skills Build

Science Tree

Start in the Science tree first as you will want to get "Outpost Engineering" iconOutpost Engineering as soon as possible. This skill allows you to research, and construct more and improved modules; at Rank 4 it reduces the cost of building modules up to 50%. Unfortunately, this is an Expert Science skill, so you’ll need to invest at least 8 points into Science before you can reach this.

Starting at the Novice Rank in the Science tree, you have "Astrodynamics" iconAstrodynamics, Geology, "Medicine" iconMedicine, "Research Methods" iconResearch Methods, and Surveying. Place 4 points into "Research Methods" iconResearch Methods, although "Surveying" iconSurveying and "Geology" iconGeology are both good skills to add points into later.

In the Advanced tier, all the "Botany" iconBotany, "Scanning" iconScanning, and "Zoology" iconZoology skills are great to have, so the choice is yours, but we would recommend Botany just because it’s a good way to get "Sealant" iconSealants. Whatever you choose, put at least four points in this tier whether that’s all in one skill, or shared between the three is up to you.

Moving on to the Expert tier, place all four points into "Outpost Engineering" iconOutpost Engineering as this is the main skill you want from the entire tree.

The Master tree is subjective, if you want to build an Outpost on an extreme temperature planet as well as be able to build more Outposts (16 max) then you will want to invest into the "Planetary Habitation" iconPlanetary Habitation skill as it does just that. On the other hand, you can ignore this for now, and come back to it later when you’ve covered the basics first, it’s your choice.

Outpost Engineering is one of the most important skills to have for Outpost building.

Social Tree

Next up is the Social tree. In this tree, you’ll be aiming for "Outpost Management" iconOutpost Management. Outpost Management obviously has a lot of benefits for your base. At Rank 1 you can have additional "Cargo Link" iconCargo Links which allow you to link up different Outposts to each other. Rank 2 will allow you to have additional Robots at your Outpost which help with the defense of it. Rank 3 allows you to assign more crew members to the Outpost. Finally, Rank 4 will make your Extractors yield twice the amount of resources which is a must-have.

Once again, you’ll need to spend 8 points to reach it, so starting in the Novice tier, either get "Commerce" iconCommerce which allows you to purchase resources (among other stuff) 20% cheaper which can be helpful in the beginning when Credits are tight, or "Persuasion" iconPersuasion as it’s generally useful.

In the Advanced tier, there isn’t any which will help you in regard to your Outpost, so choose whatever skill will enhance your playstyle. "Deception" iconDeception is an all-around good skill, especially if you want more Credits, but that will involve smuggling.

The Expert tier has "Outpost Management" iconOutpost Management, so it’s a no-brainer on what to choose here. Pump all four points into this skill. There really isn’t anything great in the Master tier for Outposts, but "Ship Command" iconShip Command is one you will want to get eventually, but wait on this for now. Leadership is also good as it’ll give your companions an additional 50 KG carrying capacity at Rank 2.

You will definitely want the Outpost Management skill in the Social tree. Predominantly for the Rank 4 trait.

Physical

The Physical tree doesn’t have a lot for Outposts, but 4 points in "Weight Lifting" iconWeight Lifting is a must. This will give you an additional 100 KG for carrying capacity, and if you’re hauling a lot of resources about, that soon adds up. The only other skill we’d recommend is Environmental Conditioning as that will give you some resistance which can help on an extreme planet.

(1 of 2) Although not specifically for Outpost building, Weight Lifting will increase your carrying capacity dramatically which helps haul the resources you’ll be gathering.

Although not specifically for Outpost building, Weight Lifting will increase your carrying capacity dramatically which helps haul the resources you’ll be gathering. (left), The Combat tree doesn’t have anything for Outpost building, but Demolitions can help when defending it. (right)

Combat

There’s nothing in this tree that will help with Outposts, but it can help towards the defense of it. Choose your favorite weapon and level that up then get "Demolitions" iconDemolitions, and "Particle Beams" iconParticle Beams as both are pretty good to have. Finally, get "Armor Penetration" iconArmor Penetration to help against enemies that wear, well, armor which becomes more and more by the end of the game. If you’re playing a pacifist playstyle, select skills related to that such as "Incapacitation" iconIncapacitation.

Boost Pack Training is important when you want to traverse the planets for resources.

Tech

Tech is more of a Ship/Space tree, so once again nothing really helps here, but there are some skills that are worth investing into which can somewhat help your Outpost needs. Take "Security" iconSecurity for more money/equipment. Then "Boost Pack Training" iconBoost Pack Training for planet traversal which will help you get resources quicker. The "Payloads" iconPayloads Skill is always worth having as it will increase your ship’s cargo capacity. Finally, "Starship Design" iconStarship Design allows you to install better ship mods.

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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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