There are 82 Skills in Starfield divided into 5 Skill Trees: Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Tech. Read on for a list of all the Skill Trees in the game, how to learn them, what skills are, as well as how to unlock and rank up skills.
| Skills Guides |
| List of Skills | Best Skills |
List of Contents
- List of All Skill Trees
- Physical
- Social
- Combat
- Science
- Tech
- How the Skill Tree Works
- What Are Skills?
- Related Guides
List of All Skill Trees
Physical Skills
| Jump to a Skill Tree! |
| Physical | Social | Combat |
| Science | Tech |
The Physical Skill Tree enhances your physical capabilities by allowing you to unlock movement abilities, increase your health & resistances, or gain stealth mechanics.
Novice Skills
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Wellness | Wellness can significantly increase your total Health, up to 40% at rank 4. |
| Stealth | Stealth adds the Stealth Meter, makes you harder to detect, and lets you deal more damage with suppressed weapons. |
| Weight Lifting | Weight Lifting significantly increases your total carrying capacity, up to 100kg at rank 4. |
| Fitness | Fitness increases the amount of oxygen you have and reduces the amount of oxygen sprinting and power attacks use. |
| Boxing | Boxing lets you deal more damage with unarmed attacks and it consumes less oxygen. |
Advanced
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Nutrition | Nutrition makes food and drinks more effective, up to 50% at rank 4. |
| Pain Tolerance | Pain Tolerance reduces the Physical Damage you receive, and gives you the chance to ignore physical damage completely at rank 4. |
| Gymnastics | Gymnastics grants you more mobility such as combat slide and better movement in Zero-G. |
| Environmental Conditioning | Environmental Conditioning grants you increased resistances to Airborne, Thermal, Corrosive, or Radiation damage. |
| Energy Weapon Dissipation | Energy Weapon Dissipation lets you take less damage from Energy Weapons and has a chance to reflect the damage at rank 4. |
Expert
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Decontamination | Decontamination gives you the chance to recover from infections without doing anything. |
| Martial Arts | Martial Arts gives you different effects for unarmed or melee attacks, such as higher crit chance and the ability to disarm foes. |
| Cellular Regeneration | Cellular Regeneration gives you the chance to heal from injuries naturally without having to do anything. |
Master
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Concealment | Concealment increases your stealth attacks and grants you special stealth abilities, like not triggering mines and going invisible. |
| Neurostrikes | Neurostrikes grants you the ability to stun enemies with unarmed attacks and knock them down. |
| Rejuvenation | Rejuvenation lets you regenerate health while outside of combat, and while in combat in higher ranks. |
List of All Physical Skills
Social Skills
| Jump to a Skill Tree! |
| Physical | Social | Combat |
| Science | Tech |
The Social Skill Tree lets you deal with situations non-violently by giving you access to more dialogue options, buff up your companions, force NPCs to do things at your will, and improve your management with outposts and crew members.
Novice Skills
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Persuasion | Persuasion increases your chances of successfully persuading an NPC. |
| Commerce | Commerce lets you buy items for cheaper and sell items for more credits at vendors. |
| Theft | Theft gives you the ability to pickpocket NPCs, increases your chances to pickpocket successfully, and lets you pickpocket weapons at rank 4. |
| Gastronomy | Gastronomy lets you research and craft better tier food and drinks, and does not use up as much resources in rank 4. |
| Scavenging | Scavenging lets you find more credits, ammo, or aid items in containers, and it lets you highlight specific items at rank 4. |
Advanced
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Intimidation | Initmidation grants you the ability to make NPCs and enemies flee away from you. |
| Diplomacy | Diplomacy grants you the ability to make NPCs and enemies stop fighting. |
| Deception | Deception lets you make other ships of higher level surrender to your piracy demands, and it makes contraband scans less effective. |
| Isolation | Isolation gives you more weapon damage and damage resistance whenever you do not have any companions or crew. |
| Negotiation | Negotiation grants you the ability to bribe NPCs during dialogues, and it can reduce the bribe costs as you rank up. |
Expert
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Leadership | Leadership buffs up your companions by gaining affinity faster, increasing their health, and the ability to heal you or pick themselves up while downed. |
| Instigation | Instigation grants you the ability to make enemies with a higher level than you fight for you. |
| Outpost Management | Outpost Management lets you place more things at your outposts, such as cargo links, robots, and crew members. |
Master
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Xenosociology | Xenosociology lets you make alien creatures that are higher level than you fight for you. |
| Manipulation | Manipulation grants you the ability to make NPCs of higher level to follow your commands for a certain amount of time. |
| Ship Command | Ship Command increases the amount of crew members you can have, up to 8 active members at rank 4. |
List of All Social Skills
Combat Skills
| Jump to a Skill Tree! |
| Physical | Social | Combat |
| Science | Tech |
The Combat Skill Tree helps you become more effective in fighting enemies by improving your efficiency with different types of weapons, unlocking combat abilities, and adding addtional effects to your damage.
Novice Skills
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Lasers | Lasers increases your damage with Laser Weapons, and it can grant you the chance to set enemies on fire at rank 4. |
| Dueling | Dueling improves your melee capabilities by increasing melee weapon damage, take less damage while using melee weapons, and heal with melee kills at rank 4. |
| Pistol Certification | Pistol Certification makes you deal more damage with Pistol weapons, and it can increase your critical chance at rank 4. |
| Shotgun Certification | Shotgun Certification lets you deal more damage with shotgun weapons, and a chance to stun enemies at rank 4. |
| Ballistics | Ballistics significantly increases your damage with ballistic weapons, like rifles and pistols, up to 30% at rank 4. |
Advanced
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Rifle Certification | Rifle Certification makes you deal more damage with Rifle Weapons, and increases your reload speed at rank 4. |
| Demolitions | Demolitions gives you the ability to see a trajectory arc for throwables and explosions would deal bigger damage. |
| Heavy Weapons Certification | Heavy Weapons Certification lets you deal more damage with heavy weapons and grants you more resistance while holding down sights at rank 4. |
| Particle Beams | Particle Beams lets you deal more damage with particle beam weapons and gives you a chance to crit at rank 4. |
| Incapacitation | Incapacitation significantly increases your damage with EM Weapons, up to 15% at rank 4. |
Expert
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Targeting | Targeting improves the accuracy and range of your weapons without aiming down sights, and it marks enemies who attack you. |
| Sniper Certification | Sniper Certification gives you better handling of scoped weapons and can deal more damage with them. |
| Marksmanship | Marksmanship increases the critical hit chance and damage of your non-automatic weapons. |
| Rapid Reloading | Rapid Reloading grants you faster reloading speed for different weapon types. |
Master
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Armor Penetration | Armor Penetration makes your weapons ignore a percentage of your target's armor. |
| Crippling | Crippling increases your chances to make enemies enter a downed state and stay downed for longer. |
| Sharpshooting | Sharpshooting significantly increases your critical hit damage with ranged weapons. |
List of All Combat Skills
Science Skills
| Jump to a Skill Tree! |
| Physical | Social | Combat |
| Science | Tech |
The Science Skill Tree assists the player in exploration by unlocking upgrades for your equipment, improving your outposts, and crafting better items or projects.
Novice Skills
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Astrodynamics | Astrodynamics let you grav jump farther by increasing your grav jump range and reducing fuel costs. |
| Surveying | Surveying adds zooms to your Hand Scanner and lets you scan objects from farther distances. |
| Medicine | Medicine increases the effectiveness of healing items by making them heal more and heal faster. |
| Geology | Geology allows you to get higher rarity resources from surface objects like mineral deposits. |
| Research Methods | Research Methods reduces the amount of resources you need to craft items and complete research projects. |
Advanced
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Botany | Botany allows you to get higher rarity resources from plants, and learn information about them faster. |
| Scanning | Scanning grants you the ability to scan planets and moons for higher rarity resources, and lets you scan ships for information and what they have in cargo. |
| Spacesuit Design | Spacesuit Design lets you craft higher rarity armor, such as spacesuits and helmets. |
| Weapon Engineering | Weapon Engineering allows you to craft higher tier weapon mods on the workbench. |
| Zoology | Zoology allows you to get higher rarity materials from alien creatures, and you can learn more about them quicker when scanning them. |
Expert
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Outpost Engineering | Outpost Engineering allows you to construct better outpost modules and research higher tier modules at a Research Lab. |
| Chemistry | Chemistry allows you to create and craft higher tier chems at a Research Lab. |
| Astrophysics | Astrophysics lets you scan moons and planets without having to fly to their orbit, as far as 30 Light Years away at rank 4. |
Master
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Special Projects | Special Projects lets you research experimental projects and craft higher tier manufactured components on an Industrial Workbench. |
| Planetary Habitation | Planetary Habitation lets you build outposts in harsher environments such as ones with extreme temperature or extreme pressure. |
| Aneutronic Fusion | Aneutronic Fusion makes extra power for you ship, up to 5 units of power at rank 4. |
List of All Science Skills
Tech Skills
| Jump to a Skill Tree! |
| Physical | Social | Combat |
| Science | Tech |
The Tech Skill Tree makes space navigation easier by giving you access to space equipment, better upgrades to ship weapon systems, and the ability to fly higher class ships more effectively.
Novice Skills
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Security | Security allows you to lockpick higher tier locks and lets you use auto attempts. |
| Piloting | Ploting grants you the ability to pilot higher class ships, and makes it easier to move around in space. |
| Boost Pack Training | Boost Pack Training grants you to the ability to use boost packs and increases its effectiveness. |
| Ballistic Weapon Systems | Ballistic Weapon Systems increases you ship's ballistic weapon damage and reduces the cost of Targeting mode. |
| Targeting Control Systems | Targeting Control Systems unlocks the ability to target a certain part of an enemy ship, and lets you deal more damage while targeting. |
Advanced
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Payloads | Payloads increases your ship's cargo capacity significantly, up to 50% at rank 4. |
| Energy Weapon Systems | Energy Weapon Systems increases the damage of your ship's energy weapons amd reduces the cost of Targeting mode. |
| Engine Systems | Engine Systems improves your ships engines by making it move faster and gain longer boosts. |
| Shield Systems | Shield Systems increases your ship's shields by up to 60% at rank 3, and has a chance to ignore damage altogether at rank 4. |
Expert
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Starship Engineering | Starship Engineering increases your ship's survivability by making repairs faster and take less damage |
| Particle Beam Weapon Systems | Particle Beam Weapon Systems increases your ship's damage with particle beam weapons, and reduces the cost of Targeting mode. |
| Robotics | Robotics lets you deal more damage to robots and turrets, and it lets you command a robot to fight for you. |
| Missile Weapon Systems | Missile Weapon Systems increases your ship's missile weapons damage, and reduces the cost of Targeting mode. |
| Starship Design | Starship Design lets you install higher tier ship modules while you customize or build ships. |
Master
| Skill | Brief Description |
| Boost Assault Training | Boost Assault Training lets you deal damage with your boost pack and hover in the air while aiming down sights. |
| EM Weapon Systems | EM Weapon Systems increases your ship's damage with EM weapons and reduces the cost of Targeting mode. |
| Automated Weapon Systems | Automated Weapon Systems increases you ship's automated weapon damage and buffs your ship while you use Targeting mode. |
List of All Tech Skills
How the Skill Tree Works
Spend Skill Points to Unlock More Skills
Players will need to invest a certain number skill points in a skill tree to unlock skills in a higher tier. All the Novice skills are available at the start, but you will need to spend 4 skill points in the tree to unlock the Advanced tier, spend 8 skill points in the tree for the Expert tier, and spend 12 skill points in the tree for the Master tier.
How to Level Up and Farm Skill Points
Do Skill Challenges to Unlock Skill Upgrades
Each skill also has 4 ranks of upgrades you can invest your skill points into. The upgrades can increase the effectiveness and efficiency, or it can add new effects depending on the skill. However, you need to complete a challenge before you can unlock a skill upgrade.
Character Backgrounds Have Pre-Selected Skills
The backgrounds during character creation also grant you pre-selected skills as soon as you start the game. This helps you start off with some useful skills for your build without having to spend any skill points for it.
List of All Backgrounds
What Are Skills?
Abilities that Improve Capabilities
Skills are the main way to improve your character in Starfield. Learning and upgrading skills will make your character more effective in many ways, such as increased damage when using weapons or new abilities.
Starfield Related Guides
Starfield Walkthrough and Guides Wiki
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Skills
