Best Starfield Traits: Which should you choose?

Right at the beginning of Starfield, during character creation, you’re given the chance to imbue your spacer with three unique “traits” which can shape your experience of the galaxy.

Alongside your background, these traits can help to fill out your headcanon for your character’s past, while also giving them tangible gameplay boosts during your adventure.

The practical benefits - and drawbacks - of traits in Starfield range from gameplay modifiers like percentage buffs to damage and increased health, to alternative story beats like unique optional dialogue or exclusive areas.

We’ve tested the best traits in Starfield so you don’t have to wonder which are actually worth it.

However, whichever traits you choose, it’s worth noting that they’re all extremely easy to remove if you decide you don’t like them. Leaving a religion is as simple as saying you don’t believe in it anymore, giving up your house just means handing it back over to the bank, and telling your parents to take a hike is just a couple of brutal lines of dialogue.

Best Starfield Traits

Kid Stuff

• Pros: Unique interactions and exclusive gifts
• Cons: Small monetary contribution

This trait gives you a canonical mother and father in the world of Starfield. They’re a wholesome bunch who pop up periodically to support you and offer a few different unique interactions that you wouldn’t get otherwise.

Really though, choosing Kid Stuff has a ton of practical benefits and pretty much no downside. The amount of credits you send back home is nothing compared to the unique gifts you receive from your parents. This includes special weapons, armor sets, and loads more surprises throughout your adventure.

What’s more, your parents’ home in New Atlantis is a free place to sleep immediately as you gain access to the city if you ever need to wait for a specific time.

Dream House

• Pros: A giant, free house to decorate
• Cons: A perpetually unfinished quest in your log

The Dream House comes with a 125,000 mortgage, which sounds scary, but given the amount of credits you receive across Starfield, it’s not actually that much. Plus, with how the repayments are structured, there’s probably no point in ever stumping up the cash anyway.

Basically, to access the property you need to pay 500 credits per in-game week. This is absolute peanuts. Literally selling one piece of equipment you collect from a bandit will cover this.

Additionally, you only need to pay the fee when you actually access the property. So if it sits empty for a while as you explore the deepest reaches of the galaxy, it’s no big deal - you’re not losing out at all.

Again, this trait is an almost pure win without any downside and is another you can choose without much hesitation.

Extrovert

• Pros: Adds a gameplay benefit to something you would do anyway
• Cons: Discentivises you from using non-human companions

Given the way many of the story missions in Starfield work, companions are nearly everpresent. Unless you specifically try to travel alone - except from literally the start of the game where you only have access to the robot, Vasco - you’re always going to be able to find someone to tag along.

Whether it’s hired help or a named companion with backstory and specific sidequests, one of the most interesting parts of Starfield is its cast of characters, so you’d be leaving a lot of missions on the table to strike out alone.

Raised Universal/Enlightened

• Pros: Unique dialogue options and a few early-game items
• Cons: Can only have one religion at a time

There are a few major religions in the world of Starfield, and being raised with knowledge of one gives you access to alternative dialogue options and a useful cache of early-game items that can help you right at the start of your adventure.

We’re talking a few med packs, some clothes and some books detailing the doctrine of the religion you can either read or sell.

As mentioned above, if you decide either of these are not for you - even after you’ve swiped the goodies - you can just remove the trait at either church.

The Universal chest is found in the church near the commercial district of New Atlantis. Whereas the Enlightened chest is found in the middle of “The Well”, a utilitarian sub-area underground.

Serpent’s Embrace

• Pros: An easy “in” with an intriguing faction
• Cons: This faction doesn’t feature a huge amount in the early-game and main cities

House Va’ruun are the outsiders of space society. Arriving late to the party from a colony ship that went missing for hundreds of years following the evacuation of Earth, a series of crusades in the name of the Great Serpent has made its followers more than a little unpopular.

Like the other religions, this trait gives you access to unique dialogue options, particularly with other followers of the Great Serpent, which might appeal if it’s a faction you’re interested in.

Hero Worshipped

• Pros: Someone to lug around your stuff comes in handy
• Cons: How much “ick” can you handle?

More of a meme than a true benefit, this trait saddles you with an adoring fan who follows you around offering to shine your boots and give you back rubs in reference to a similar character you could recruit after you became champion of the arena in another Bethesda game, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.

If you’re a fan of little gnome-headed freaks, then by all means subject yourself to this torment.

If you're looking for any more help getting started, check out our guides to the best Starfield skills, best traits and best armor. For help with specific Starfield quests, check out our guides for the Ryujin Industries questline, the Executive Level quest and the Guilty Parties quest.