Recommended and Personal Favorite Skills

Dyeritso Dyeritso Valued Contributor | L.I.S.T. 🚀 Sunset Overdrive
Starfield Hub (edited) 83 views

Anothe component to character builds are skills, and Starfield has a lot of them. Not only that, all skills have unlockable tiers tied to them upgrading more abilities in all sort of ways.

What do you think are essential skills for players to unlock with any given character?

What are your personal favorites in general?

In regards to essential, I find Security (all tiers) to be of utmost importance. A ton of stuff and areas are locked, needing to be hacked to gain access (especially in Shattered Space). Ignoring this locks you out of a lot of good stuff and even possible quest outcomes. Another skill I find important is the first tier of Boost Pack Training. Boosting around is helpful and get you to places otherwise unreachable. You may even be rewarded for doing so. Another skill I find of utmost necessity is Gymnastics, and really just the first tier of it. Unlocking it grants you the ability to slide; incredibly helpful when in combat trying to avoid enemy attacks and preventing injuries. In a similar vein, the first tier for Stealth is great for the fact it unlocks the sneak bar. Lastly, I always recommend upgrading Weight Lifting. There's a ton of resources and loot to find in Starfield but your pockets aren't simply big enough in the beginning. The more space, the better.
Of course a lot of skills got their uses, some vital over others, but a lot of it comes down to personal preferences.

With that being said, I got some skills I like in general for the role-playing aspect and they're just nifty to have. First, Outpost Engineering. I love to decorate, so the more decor the better. Additionally, Planetary Habitation unlocks more options for creating that perfect outpost. Another is Gymnastics fully unlocked. The ability to jump higher and fight in Zero-G more smoothly are game-changers. Another favorite is Environmental Conditioning for the bonus to environmental protection allowing for more flexibility with gear. Then there's Sharpshooting, perfect for the sniper build I love.

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kinesthesia kinesthesia Valued Contributor Mod Author
(edited)

If I had to be minimalist about this, I'd start with the Bounty Hunter background preset as that contains Targeting (VATS for space combat), Boost Pack Training, and Piloting out of the gate.

From there I'd pick Sneak, Security and Persuasion. For me these allow you to maximize exploration and most of the options available whether it's a locked behind a door, a container, or a conversation. The rest of the skills would be depending on what kind of playthrough I'd go for.

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GallStaf50l GallStaf50l Valued Contributor
(edited)

Gotta add Starship Design to everything already mentioned.

Because spaceshipspaceshipspaceship!

Also, Boost Assault Training is a hoot. Bullet time is always a good time.

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Dyeritso Dyeritso Valued Contributor OP
(edited)

in reply to GallStaf50l

I recently started investing in Boost Assault Training with one of my characters, and you're right on the nose with how fun it is. Wish I invested into it earlier. 😁

All the ship skills are gonna get a lot of use outta me when the update drops, that's for certain.

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Ghastly Knight Ghastly Knight Admin
(edited)

It's really interesting you favor Gymnastics so much. I tend to ignore it, and I'm not sure I've ever used the combat slide. I think, early on, I heard others saying how useless it felt, so I've just always let that be my take on it - which I know is bad. I'll give it a go on my next session based on your recommendation!

One I didn't see you mention is the Piloting skill. To me, it's right up there with Boost Pack Training as a must-have. I like finding ships to disable, board, and steal. It's very frustrating to spot a nice-looking ship, clear out its crew and try to sit in the pilot's seat only to get an error popup that your Piloting skill is too low to operate the ship you just cleared.

I like upgrading my gear and weapons, so I also prioritize enough of the Science tree to start unlocking Spacesuit Design and Weapon Engineering.

I, too, like to quickly upgrade Security (even though I agree the loot is too often rather lackluster) and Weight Lifting (I hate changing from the default inventory size). I would add Commerce is a nice one for lower level characters - especially if you want to do a lot of ship building which can get expensive.

A little tip I'm going to add to the Tips page soon: A trick I realized not long ago with leveling Persuasion is to go to the bars and talk to the unnamed NPCs available as ship crew members and try to haggle their price down. You don't even have to hire them once you pass or fail the persausion. 😅

Back in 2023, I would have focused more on combat skills, but now I favor the ones above more and get the combat ones as secondary.

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GallStaf50l GallStaf50l Valued Contributor
(edited)

in reply to Ghastly Knight

Back in 2023, I would have focused more on combat skills, but now I favor the ones above more and get the combat ones as secondary.

I was the opposite. I was so deep into gear/ship tinkering that I completely neglected the combat tree. It was only on NG+ that I realized just how much I'd been leaning on top-tier crafted gear to get by in combat. Subsequently dropped 20ish points into shooty skills over the course of that run.

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Dyeritso Dyeritso Valued Contributor OP
(edited)

in reply to Ghastly Knight

How embarrassing of me to forget Piloting! I knew I was forgetting something important, especially with the new content incoming that's basically all in space. I'm in agreement it's an essential skill to have, and even moreso with this upcoming update. In fact, a lot of the space-faring skills are going to see a lot more use overall- at least it will for me, ha.

Commerce is an excellent skill, too, but not right away for me. I don't find it too important if I'm not planning on building ships from the get-go, but at the mid-game or end-game point, its effects will reap notable benefits.

Gymnastics was a skill I ignored early on actually, but when I was creating my first ever sniper build, I realized how important it was to run faster, slide, and reach high places quickly that otherwise would have gotten me spotted, wounded, or killed if I was any slower or wasted my time unable to reach. Turns out it's great for melee builds, too, since you're parkouring all over the place trying to reach all the hostiles within smacking range.

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