Starfield: The BEST Starting Skills (Top 12)

In the expansive universe of Starfield, strategic skill selection is paramount for rookie explorers. Whether it’s boosting resource gathering with Geology, mastering ship combat via Targeting Control Systems, or maneuvering social situations with Persuasion, Starfield offers a plethora of the best starting skills. Each one, tailored to different playstyles, ensures a tailored interstellar journey.

Important Read: Starfield Best Armor

Best Starting Skills In Starfield

Here is an overview of the best starting skills in Starfield showcased, along with effects and the best usage of them in-game:

Serial Number	Skill Name	Effects of Skill	Best Usage of Skill
1	Medicine	Enhances effectiveness and speed of healing items.	Quick health regeneration and enhanced healing during initial combat encounters.
2	Stealth	Enhances sneaking and detection difficulty.	Safe navigation in hostile environments and efficient, silent enemy takedowns.
3	Boost Pack Training	Enables jet-pack usage for mobility and altitude gains.	Amplified vertical exploration and negating fall damage with timely boosts.
4	Fitness	Boosts oxygen meter capacity for prolonged exertive actions.	Longer sprints, more melee skirmishes, and extended exploration without oxygen worries.
5	Piloting	Enhances ship handling and combat positioning.	Superior space combat efficacy and dexterous navigation of hostile space environments.
6	Persuasion	Enhances dialogue success rates for non-violent solutions.	Influencing dialogue outcomes, preserving resources, and cultivating NPC alliances.
7	Commerce	Optimizes buying/selling rates for better financial stability.	Efficient credit management by striking profitable deals and ensuring robust finances.
8	Targeting Control Systems	Enhances ship combat with precise targeting.	Precision in ship battles, reduced enemy firing rates, and strategic ship encounters.
9	Security	Unlock advanced hacking abilities. Bank auto attempts.	Essential for accessing valuable loot or information. Makes intricate minigames easier. Early investment is beneficial.
10	Research Methods	Reduce crafting & research resources. Faster progression.	Essential for efficient crafting, saving money, and accessing high-tier items.
11	Theft	Grants up to 50% pickpocketing boost. Steal weapons.	Ideal for a stealth-based approach. Enables discreet resource accumulation.
12	Geology	Harvest increased inorganic resources from surfaces.	Essential for self-sufficiency in gathering resources. Enhances survival & crafting experience.

1. Medicine

Ranks	Description
Rank 1-4	Med Packs, Trauma Packs, and Emergency Kits restore an extra 20% to 50% of health and work 20% to 50% faster. They also have a chance to cure an affliction. These ranks unlock challenges.
Unlock Requirements	To achieve these ranks, you must use healing items 20 to 100 times while wounded.

A Science-based skill in Starfield enhancing the effectiveness and speed of healing items, including Trauma Packs, Med Packs, and Emergency Kits. The hostile environment of Starfield, teeming with pirates, Spacers, automated turrets, and ravenous extraterrestrial creatures, ensures that players are bound to sustain damage. Early game survivability is pivotal, especially when adjusting to different game mechanics and confronting threats.

• With the Medicine skill, players can ensure quicker health regeneration and enhanced healing capabilities, which are invaluable during initial combat encounters.
• Moreover, it provides an increase in the potency of healing items by 10%, concurrently decreasing the time taken to heal.

This efficiency is crucial, especially when health resources might be scarce. Paired with the Wellness skill, which boosts total health, Medicine provides a robust foundation for survival. This synergy amplifies a player’s resilience, making it arguably one of the best starting skills in Starfield, fortifying one against the myriad threats that Starfield’s universe presents.

2. Stealth

Ranks	Description
Rank 1-4	You become 25% to 100% less likely to be noticed when sneaking. Suppressed weapons deal an extra 5% to 20% damage in sneak attacks. At Rank 4, opening doors while in stealth won’t alert enemies.
Unlock Requirements	To achieve these ranks, perform 10 to 40 sneak attacks.

Stealth is a Physical skill that enhances sneaking abilities, includes a stealth meter, and increases detection difficulty in Starfield. Starfield’s vast universe is replete with challenges and adversaries, making stealth an invaluable asset. The inclusion of a stealth meter, exclusive to this skill, transforms the gameplay dynamics in the early game. It serves as an intuitive indicator of player visibility, aiding in navigation amidst hostile environments and ensuring safe passage without raising alarms.

• Stealth is crucial, especially when resources might be limited, and direct confrontation can lead to detrimental consequences.
• Additionally, the enhanced sneak damage, when using suppressed weaponry, ensures efficient and silent takedowns.
• This approach not only conserves resources but also minimizes the risk of attracting unwanted attention.
• Ranking up the Stealth skill further augments one’s sneaking prowess, making it increasingly challenging for enemies to detect the player, even during actions like door openings.

For players seeking a balance between strategy and action or those keen on a covert approach, the Stealth skill offers unparalleled advantages in Starfield’s early game, making it an excellent choice for the initial skill investment.

3. Boost Pack Training

Ranks	Description
Rank 1-4	• You gain the ability to use boost packs. • Boost pack usage consumes less fuel. At Rank 4, these benefits are doubled.
Unlock Requirements	• Perform 10 to 50 boost jumps during combat. • Boost pack fuel regenerates faster. • At Rank 4, all previous bonuses are doubled.

The Boost Pack Training is a Tech skill enabling jet-pack usage for enhanced mobility, hover capabilities, and altitude gains, especially on low-gravity planets. Navigating the expansive cosmos of Starfield, mobility, and versatility become paramount. The Boost Pack Training skill, while seemingly rudimentary at its onset, manifests as an indispensable tool for players in the early game.

Access to jet-pack functionalities not only amplifies vertical exploration capacities but also serves as an ingenious workaround to negate fall damage with a timely boost prior to landing. Moreover, the added benefits of this skill are twofold.

• First, it optimizes fuel consumption and accelerates the jet-pack’s refill rate, extending both its utility and endurance.
• Refill Rate enables players to span vast terrains, scale towering heights, and experience Starfield’s diverse topographies seamlessly.
• Second, the act of hovering indirectly replenishes the player’s oxygen meter, a vital game mechanic, especially after exhaustive activities like sprinting or prolonged jumping.

The universality of the Boost Pack Training skill makes it a quintessential early investment. Every player, irrespective of their chosen playstyle in Starfield, will find themselves reaching for the skies, and this skill ensures they do so with prowess and efficiency.

4. Fitness

Ranks	Description
Rank 1-4	You have 10% to 30% more oxygen available. At Rank 4, sprinting and power attacks consume significantly less oxygen.
Unlock Requirement	To achieve these ranks, deplete all available oxygen 20 to 100 times.

A Physical skill that boosts oxygen meter capacity, allowing prolonged exertive actions like sprinting and melee-powered attacks.

In the expansive terrains of Starfield, players constantly traverse between waypoints on planetary surfaces. Such prolonged activities, especially in extraterrestrial settings, demand more than mere stamina – they require increased oxygen capacity. The Fitness skill addresses this need.

• By augmenting the player’s oxygen meter, it provides the freedom to sprint longer distances, engage in consecutive melee skirmishes, or explore alien worlds more comprehensively without the constant anxiety of depleting oxygen levels.
• Furthermore, the intrinsic nature of Starfield requires frequent ground movements.
• Coupled with the unique aspects of the fast travel mechanic, having an extended oxygen meter is a priceless asset, significantly reducing the player’s downtime and optimizing exploration.

While many skills in Starfield cater to niche playstyles, the Fitness skill offers a universal advantage. In tandem with the Wellness skill in Starfield, which amplifies health, Fitness ensures a foundational enhancement benefiting every character build. Given the constant need for movement and combat agility in Starfield’s early stages, investing in the Fitness skill emerges as an astute strategy, solidifying its stance as another of the best starting skills in Starfield.

5. Piloting

Ranks	Description
Rank 1-4	(1) You gain the capability to use ship thrusters. (2) Improved ship turning rate and maneuverability. (3-4) Unlock the ability to pilot Class B and C ships.
Unlock Requirement	Destroy 5 to 30 enemy ships to reach these ranks.

Piloting is a Tech skill in Starfield that enhances ship handling, Strafe controls, and improves combat positioning, which is vital for space voyages and encounters.

Starfield is set against the sprawling expanse of space, and positions spacecraft piloting at its gameplay’s heart. Piloting Skill not only fine-tunes your ship’s handling capabilities but significantly elevates your combat efficacy. By enabling strafe maneuvers with ship thrusters, it grants players the agility to dodge enemy fire and attain superior positioning, a crucial advantage during space combat.

• Early in Starfield, as players grapple with the vastness of space and the unpredictability of celestial encounters, mastering ship controls is paramount.
• Piloting, especially when synergized with the Targeting Control Systems skill, provides an integrated combat and control experience, allowing players to navigate hostile space environments with dexterity.
• The duo makes space voyages less daunting and combats more manageable, particularly for beginners.

Given the emphasis on space exploration and combat in Starfield, a proficient piloting ability becomes indispensable. Investing early in the Piloting skill ensures players are equipped to tackle space challenges head-on from the onset, making it a strategic choice as an early game or the best starting skill in Starfield.

6. Persuasion

Ranks	Description
Rank 1-4	You have an increased chance of success by 10% to 50% when persuading someone.
Unlock Requirement	Succeed in 3 to 10 speech challenges to reach these ranks.

Persuasion is a Social skill that enhances dialogue challenge success rates, enabling non-violent solutions and maintaining favorable NPC relations.

• The Persuasion skill empowers players with the ability to influence dialogue outcomes, creating pathways that might otherwise remain locked.
• By choosing persuasion, players can circumvent potential hostilities, preserve resources, and cultivate valuable alliances.

Early in Starfield, players can leverage the Persuasion skill to establish themselves as diplomatic entities, fostering trust and opening avenues for collaboration. As showcased in scenarios like “The Empty Nest with Sam Coe,” the choice to negotiate rather than engage in combat can be both a tactical and narrative boon.

Given the unpredictability of dialogue outcomes in Starfield, investing in Persuasion becomes crucial.

Every rank bolsters the chance of swaying an encounter in the player’s favor, offering a nuanced way of navigating Starfield’s multifaceted universe. Although skills like Boost Pack, Stealth, and Security have their tangible benefits, the early acquisition of Persuasion paves the way for a balanced and tactful gameplay approach, positioning it among the invaluable best starting skills in Starfield.

7. Commerce

Ranks	Description
Rank 1-4	You can purchase items for 5% to 20% less and sell them for 10% to 25% more.
Unlock Requirement	Buy or sell 25 to 150 unique items to reach these ranks.

Commerce is a Social skill that enhances buying and selling rates, optimizing credit gains, and bolstering overall in-game financial stability.

In the vast universe of Starfield, resource management, especially credits, is paramount. The Commerce skill emerges as an economic linchpin, ensuring that players strike lucrative deals, whether buying essential resources or selling surplus assets. By minimizing expenditure and maximizing profit, players can maintain a robust credit balance, a critical aspect of prolonged space exploration and survival.

• The gameplay’s dynamism means expenses are inevitable – be it for procuring healing kits, acquiring new ships, obtaining pivotal information, or even diffusing potentially hazardous situations with credits.
• The Commerce skill in Starfield acts as a financial cushion in such instances, preventing rapid depletion of credits and fostering sustainable economic growth.

While the allure of scavenging and outpost building might appeal to some, the convenience of direct purchases in the Settled Systems’ major cities is undeniable. Given the multifaceted demands of Starfield, where survival is as much about financial acumen as combat prowess, investing early in the Commerce skill offers a strategic advantage, marking it as the best starting skill in Starfield easily.

8. Targeting Control Systems

Ranks	Description
Rank 1-4	• Ships that have locked onto you fire at a 25% slower rate. • You have a 10% higher chance of critically hitting target-locked ships. • In targeting mode, deal 20% more system damage.
Unlock Requirement	To reach these ranks, destroy 5 to 30 enemy ships while in targeting mode.

The Targeting Control Systems is a Tech skill that enables enhanced ship combat, precise targeting, and reduced enemy firing rate for strategic ship encounters.

Venturing into the celestial expanses of Starfield, players soon realize that space battles are an integral and challenging aspect of their journey. This makes the Target Control Systems skill a crucial early-game acquisition. Unlocking the ship’s targeting functionality ensures consecutive shots land with precision and potency, providing a decisive advantage in these cosmic confrontations.

• Moreover, the Targeting Control Systems skill does more than just enhance shooting precision.
• By drastically reducing enemy ship firing rates upon lock-on, it provides players with the much-needed breathing space to strategize and act.
• Such moments are pivotal, allowing players to inflict severe damage or potentially disable enemy ship systems altogether.
• The latter benefit creates an opportunity to board enemy vessels, opening avenues for loot and further progression.

As players delve deeper into Starfield and encounter increasingly formidable adversaries, the benefits of ranking up Targeting Control Systems become evident.

Drawing parallels with Fallout’s iconic V.A.T.S., the Target Control Systems skill offers an invaluable combat mechanism, making space skirmishes manageable and engrossing. For those aiming to master the art of ship combat, this skill emerges as a must-have early-game investment.

9. Security

Rank	Hacking Abilities	Auto Attempts and Bonus Features
4	Complete the Previous Rank Challenge to Unlock	Expend a digipick to eliminate unnecessary keys. 5 auto attempts can be stored.
2	Attempt to Hack Expert Locks	3 auto attempts can be banked. Rings turn blue when a pick can be slotted.
3	Attempt to Hack Master Locks	4 auto attempts can be banked.
4	Attempt to Hack Advanced Locks	2 auto attempts can be banked.

Essential for hacking advanced locks, easing minigames, and accessing valuable loot or information behind locked barriers.

While Novice-level locks in Starfield might yield to any casual hacker, the real treasures in Starfield always lie behind the Advanced, Expert, and elusive Master locks.

• Not only does the Security skill allow attempts at these higher-tier locks, but it also makes the intricate minigames associated with them significantly more manageable.
• These mini-games, reminiscent of the intricacies I have seen in titles like Fallout, can be daunting without the right skill investment.
• Additionally, the ability to bank auto attempts acts as a safety net, ensuring players don’t miss out due to a momentary lapse in concentration or skill.

In essence, the Security skill acts as a master key to the many mysteries and riches of Starfield. Given the plethora of locked items dotting Starfield, early investment in this skill grants players access to superior loot, which can make initial exploration and combats markedly smoother. Couple with skills like Ballistics, and players find themselves well-equipped, both in arsenal and information, to face the challenges of the starry frontier.

10. Research Methods

Rank	Unique Crafts Requirement	Resource Efficiency and Research Improvements
1	Craft 5 unique items	Resources needed for crafting and research are reduced by 10%.
2	Craft 10 unique items	Resources needed for crafting and research are reduced by 20%.
3	Craft 15 unique items	Resources needed for crafting and research are reduced by 40%.
4	Complete the Rank 3 Challenge to Unlock	Sudden developments during research become twice as common, and resources needed for crafting and research are reduced by 60%.

The Research Methods is, without a doubt, a great addition to the best starting skills in Starfield as it reduces crafting and research project resource requirements. Essential for efficient crafting, money-making, and accessing high-tier items.

At the core of these systems lies the invaluable Research Methods skill, which holds the key to efficient resource management, a foundational element in ensuring a player’s progression and sustenance in the vastness of space.

• Crafting, the art of creating a diverse array of items ranging from medical supplies to advanced weaponry, becomes an indispensable aspect of the Starfield experience.
• Every piece crafted can significantly influence a player’s journey, dictating how combats are approached, injuries are treated, or outposts are fortified.
• This efficiency not only accelerates a player’s ability to produce critical items but also positions them to potentially profit by selling high-value items crafted from surplus materials.

Research projects, on the other hand, are gateways to unlocking Starfield’s pinnacle of item crafting, granting access to the most potent tools and upgrades. Investing in Research Methods reduces the barriers to these projects, diminishing the grind associated with resource gathering and streamlining the path to advanced item crafting.

However, the true brilliance of the Research Methods skill lies in its long-term cascading benefits. As players delve deeper into crafting, every project’s reduced resource requirement fuels faster skill-level progression.

11. Theft

Rank	Successful Pickpockets	Improved Pickpocketing Abilities
1	5 times	Unlock the ability to pickpocket targets.
2	10 times	Gain a 10% greater chance for successful pickpocketing.
3	20 times	Increase your chance of success by 30%.
4	Complete the Rank 3 Challenge to Unlock	Attain a 50% greater chance for successful pickpocketing. Additionally, you can now pickpocket holstered weapons.

The Theft skill in Starfield grants pickpocketing ability, up to 50% success rate boost, and can pilfer holstered weapons.

In the intricate cosmos of Starfield, mastering skills are vital, and the Theft skill shines as an early-game gem.

• While various skills unlock indispensable capabilities, Theft is a unique gateway to a stealth-based approach.
• Desire the thrill of discreetly lifting valuables? Theft is your ticket.
• Beyond mere pilfering, it bestows a remarkable 50% boost in pickpocketing success and lets players daringly snatch holstered weapons—altering confrontations dynamically.

Certainly, skills like Persuasion in Starfield offer non-violent solutions, but for those keen on subtlety/stealth, Theft stands unparalleled. It might be tempting to prioritize skills like Boost Pack or Security early on. Still, integrating Theft can strategize resource accumulation and expand playstyle versatility. As a cornerstone for stealth aficionados, it’s a skill not to be overlooked in the early game.

12. Geology

Rank	Harvest Inorganic Resources from Sources	Additional Benefits from Surface Objects
1	20 sources	Get more common and uncommon inorganic resources
2	50 sources	Get more rare inorganic resources
3	100 sources	Get more exotic inorganic resources
4	Complete the Rank 3 Challenge to Unlock	Occasionally harvest additional rarer resources

Geology is the best starting skill in Starfield as it allows players to harvest increased inorganic resources, including rare ones, from planetary surfaces.

While scavenging isn’t Starfield’s core, its undeniable relevance surfaces when diving into outpost construction and in-depth research.

• Geology boosts your gathering, ensuring a richer haul of invaluable inorganic resources like iron, titanium, and the occasional rare find from surface nodes.
• Sure, one might argue the merits of Commerce, allowing players to simply purchase these resources in bustling Settled Systems.
• Yet, the Geology skill offers self-sufficiency, letting explorers tap directly into planetary bounties.
• This autonomy not only saves credits in Starfield but also enhances the immersive experience of survival and crafting.

Later in Starfield, crafting and outpost development skills might catch one’s eye. However, early on, with abundant loot and pressing objectives, it’s Geology that grants players the edge, ensuring a consistent and enriched resource pool. In essence, for those looking to meld exploration with crafting seamlessly, Geology is an unbeatable starting choice.

To sum it up, Starfield’s vast cosmos becomes a distinct experience with the right starting skills. Whether focusing on Commerce for trade, Security for loot, or Fitness for exploration, the chosen path profoundly impacts gameplay. The initial skills not only define your journey but also set the pace for your cosmic adventure.

Before you leave, I highly suggest that you also read Starfield DLSS mod, Shielded cargo, Lockpicks, and the best backgrounds in Starfield guides.

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