Why are Starfield players putting buckets on the heads of NPCs?

It's a tale as old as time: Starfield players are following in the footsteps of all Bethesda games that came before by putting buckets on NPC's heads.

If we're being perfectly honest with ourselves, Bethesda games aren't all that serious. They're pretty goofy for the most part! Not just because of the content of the games themselves, but the kinds of things you can do with them. And there's one trick that players have used to sneak past enemies for years now; a simple bucket, turned upside down, placed on the head of whichever NPC they're trying to hide from.

I had to make sure it’s a Bethesda game.
by u/Photoproguy in Starfield

A number of players on the Starfield subreddit have taken to putting the old trick to the test, and yeah, obviously all the NPCs adorned with buckets look a bit silly because of it. In previous Bethesda games, doing something like this would stop the NPC in question from being able to see you, though players seem to be a bit uncertain if it still works that way or not. One user noted that they used a rubbish bin on an NPC and they could still see, but that is a bin and not a bucket, so jury's still out I say. Whether the trick works or not, it's good to see such a classic Bethesda game tradition being upheld.

This alone makesme love this game so much
by u/Potential-Zucchini30 in Starfield

While putting buckets on character's heads is more of a player-made reference, Starfield does harbour some references of its own - and yes, there are a couple of nods to Skyrim's most memorable quote. There's even a really nifty feature involving the game's photo mode that returns from Fallout 76.

This just feels right.
by u/FireZombie2113 in Starfield

Of course, whether the bucket trick works or not, if you're playing on PC you might want some tricks up your sleeve that makes it so it doesn't matter if NPCs see you or not. We've got a little guide for console commands in Starfield setup for you, which can let you become immortal, make combative enemies not try to fight you, or even just kill all nearby NPCs.

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