What to do first in Starfield

Starfield has landed in the hands of players keen to explore the abundance of procedurally-generated planets and hand-crafted quests that it offers, but all-in-all, it’s still pretty daunting to begin with. With entire solar systems at your fingertips and a multitude of people to meet, it can be hard to figure out what you should do first in Starfield.

Fortunately, we’re here to help with that. As is usually the case with Bethesda games, it becomes easy to get caught up in menial tasks or fetch quests that steer you away from the most interesting, fun parts of this sci-fi RPG. So, here’s where to go first in Starfield.

What to do first in Starfield

First things first, you do not want to get bogged down with fetch quests at the very beginning of Starfield.

Or maybe you do. If so, go wild, but if you’d rather get into the really good stuff and begin to unlock more fascinating aspects of the game, stick to the main quests during your first couple hours in space.

• Focus on the main quests first

We recommend completing the ‘One Small Step’ quest by heading to meet the Constellation crew at The Lodge. Then, you’ll have met with Sarah and kicked off the ‘The Old Neighbourhood’ quest which will take you to the United Colonies Vanguard and beyond. There’s plenty to come across in the meantime, but try not to let this distract you too much just yet; we’ll have plenty of time to do whatever we want soon.

After ‘The Old Neighbourhood’ is completed, you’ll be presented with three new quests to choose from. We recommend choosing ‘Into the Unknown’ here, which will have you hunting down more of those mysterious artifacts that people keep talking about. You’ll see exactly why we recommended this over the other quests once you reach its conclusion…

• Join Factions

As part of the first main story mission, you will also be introduced to the UC Vanguards, one of the key factions in Starfield. After you have completed the main quests outlined above, the world - or myriad solar systems, should I say - becomes your oyster. At this point, we recommend tackling some side quests that interest you, and this includes joining major factions!

The major factions in Starfield are as follows:

• Constellation - The main faction in Starfield. A group of keen space explorers.
• United Colonies - Starfield’s biggest political and military faction.
• Crimson Fleet - One of Starfield’s antagonist groups, made up of Pirates.
• Freestar Collective - Settlements concerned with personal freedom and peacekeeping.
• Ryujin Industries - A megacorporation based in Neon for those interested in technology and all things cyberpunk.
• Xenofresh Corporation - An antagonist megacorporation based in Neon. These guys create and distribute the space drug, Aurora.

And you can join every single one of them, if you wish! Joining each one is no problem, but you’ll want to keep in mind that some of these factions do have issues with one another, so you may find yourself in a little bit of trouble later on. Join ones that align with your character's traits, or what you have imagined for your character's future in Starfield, to begin with.

• Steal a new ship

Ships in Starfield are pretty cool, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you already wanted a new one to add to your collection.

Ships belong to different classes, all have different pros and cons, and you’ll want to improve your Piloting skill if you want to pilot better ships later on.

You also don’t really need to steal or buy a new ship early on in your game if you’re perfectly happy with the Frontier, but for those who are already looking for something new, we recommend stealing a new ship. It also just so happens that Dom stumbled upon a fantastic way to bag yourself a new one, and some gear, during the early-game.

This is by completing the ‘Mantis‘ quest, which can be picked up by looting a ‘Secret Outpost’ slate from any ol’ Spacer. You should be able to pick this up before even finishing ‘The Old Neighbourhood’ quest, but if not, go kill some more Spacers at a nearby planet and you’ll find one soon enough.

You’ll be wildly underleveled for where this quest takes you, but don’t worry. Dom managed to make their way through the quest at Level 9, and has written a helpful guide to the Mantis quest so that you can get your hands on a brand new ship and spacesuit early.

This will do the job while you save your hard-earned credits up for an even better ship. Don’t forget to put some skill points into Piloting, though!

• Experiment with your weapons

Starfield has plenty of weapons for you to play around with, and you can add mods to them too. After having done a couple of main quests, explored a few planets, and possibly completed the Mantis quest, you should have plenty of gear to experiment with.

Choose which weapon suits you the most and take it to a Workbench to modify it. You will, however, need to put some skill points into Research if you want better mods to add to your weapons. If powerful weapons are what you think you’re going to need, then this is something to keep in mind as you find your feet in Starfield.

• Pay a visit to Mom and Dad

This particular suggestion applies to those who have selected the ‘Kid Stuff’ trait during character creation. This trait gives your character an in-game Mom and Dad to tend to, if your character is a family guy. If you’ve selected this trait, then we definitely recommend paying them a visit when you can, and if you haven’t yet created your character, we certainly recommend picking up this trait.

You’ll find them in the Pioneer Tower on New Atlantis, and they come with plenty of benefits. They’ll give you gifts, ranging from exclusive weapons and to random equipment, and mini quests to embark on, too. The downside is that you will be sending your parents a weekly fee, but it’s well worth it, so make sure to say hi to them!

Need more help with Starfield? Then head to our handy pages on the Starfield Crimson Fleet questline, the Guilty Parties quest and the Ryujin Industries questline. We've also got guides on ship building, the best ship upgrades and the Starfield Red Mile.