Starfield - Best Skills To Unlock And Level Up

You can level up over 80 Starfield skills as you progress through the campaign, and since there's no level cap, you could, in theory, have them all eventually. But getting there is a long process, so you'll want to ensure you have the best ones first. Due to all the options, as well as the time and effort required, you might be wondering as to which ones are viable in the long run. Our Starfield best skills guide discusses the ideal picks for your journey.

The best skills in Starfield

We feel that the best Starfield skills are Stealth, Commerce, Persuasion, Leadership, Ship Command, Ballistics or Lasers, Geology, Weapon Engineering, Boost Pack Training, Piloting, Security, Targeting Control Systems, and Starship Design. These are based on our full campaign and New Game Plus playthroughs, owing to all the actions and tasks that you can expect.

Moreover, don't forget to take note of the best backgrounds, as these provide three starting skills. This means you won't need to allocate skill points just to unlock them.

Physical skills

Stealth

• Effect: Adds a stealth meter; makes you harder to detect; increased sneak attack damage for suppressed weapons.
• Leveling tally: Perform sneak attacks.
• Tip: While it's normal to run-and-gun your way to victory, you could still opt for silent but deadly takedowns, especially once you have weapons with suppressor attachments.

Social skills

Commerce

• Effect: Buy items at lower prices and sell them at higher prices.
• Leveling tally: Sell different kinds of items.
• Tip: If you need to make a lot of money fast, then having the Commerce skill aids you in that endeavor.

Persuasion

• Effect: Increases the success rate of persuading an NPC.
• Leveling tally: Use the Persuade option when talking to NPCs.
• Tip: There are many times when your dialogue options include a means of avoiding conflict which, coincidentally, is liked by companions such as Sarah. Moreover, you can lower the requested joining fees of certain crew members.

Leadership

• Effect: Increases companion affinity gains, HP, carry weight, and skill bonuses; companions can heal you when you're low on health.
• Leveling tally: Sprint a certain distance while you have an active follower.
• Tip: Although you can only bring one companion at a time, you're still better off having these boosts. The affinity bonus alone is invaluable due to how quickly you can unlock romance options and quests.

Ship Command

• Effect: Increases the number of active crew members on your ship by +4/5/6/8.
• Leveling tally: Destroy or board ships while you have a crew of X or more.
• Tip: There are various ways to increase ship crew size. However, the limit is based on the lowest value out of all related factors. As such, Ship Command becomes one of the best Starfield skills, since you'll only need to worry about ship compartments to reach the limit.

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Combat skills

Ballistics or Lasers

• Effect: Increases the damage dealt by ballistic or laser-type weapons.
• Leveling tally: Kill X number of enemies using ballistic or energy weapons.
• Tip: While not as important as other selections, you really can't go wrong with having extra damage for a particular weapon type that you prefer.

Science skills

Geology

• Effect: Gain more inorganic resources from surface objects.
• Leveling tally: Harvest inorganic resources from X objects.
• Tip: Inorganic resources refer to materials like iron, silver, titanium, and more. Since these are required for crafting, you might as well have a skill that increases how much you acquire from nodes.

Other viable picks

We suggest trying out these Starfield skills later on: Research Methods, Spacesuit Design, Weapon Engineering, Astrophysics, Outpost Engineering, Planetary Habitation, and Special Projects. These are primarily related to crafting, research projects, and outpost development. You won't need these early on due to all the loot you can find, as well as the objectives to complete. As such, it's really up to you to grab these once you feel like you need to craft and build stuff.

Tech skills

Boost Pack Training

• Effect: Allows you to utilize boost packs/jetpacks; expends less fuel and speeds up fuel regeneration.
• Leveling tally: Do boosted jumps while in combat.
• Tip: You only need to allocate a single point. This lets you use your equipped jetpack, which is great for exploration and traversal.

Piloting

• Effect: Lets you utilize your ship's thrusters; improves turning rate and maneuverability; allows you to pilot Class-B and Class-C ships.
• Leveling tally: Destroy X number of ships.
• Tip: Piloting is one of the best skills in Starfield since, later on, you'll be able to pilot higher-tier ships, along with their complement of better equipment, weapon systems, and defenses.

Security

• Effect: Allows you to lockpick doors and containers.
• Leveling tally: Successfully pick locks.
• Tip: Security is yet another one of Starfield's best skills. This is due to the sheer number of locked doors and chests that you'll stumble upon during your adventure.

Targeting Control Systems

• Effect: Unlocks your ship's targeting functionality, which lets you destroy specific parts of a hostile vessel.
• Leveling tally: Destroy X number of ships while in targeting mode.
• Tip: This is also a great option to have early on. That's because the skill lets you board and take over enemy vessels. Naturally, that means more loot and cash.

Starship Design

• Effect: Allows you to install high-end ship modules.
• Leveling tally: Install X number of unique ship modules.
• Tip: Similar to Piloting, the Starship Design skill is for those who really want to have the best possible options when customizing their ships. Once leveled, you can purchase cutting-edge parts for your vessel.

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These are what we consider to be the best skills in Starfield. Don't forget that leveling tallies themselves are not retroactive. As such, make sure you allocate points to unlock a perk that you want, just for their respective tallies to increase based on key actions. Lastly, once you've completed the campaign, you might want to know what New Game Plus mode entails for your selected skills and other facets.