If you’re playing Bethesda’s latest, you might be wondering what to invest your Skill Points into in Starfield.
While Starfield isn’t as in-depth an RPG as something like Baldur’s Gate 3, there are some nice perks you can acquire by spending your Skill Points wisely.
Here are the best Skills to pick up in Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Tech.
Best Physical Skills in Starfield
Whether you want to outlive your enemies in combat or outsmart them with guile, the Physical tab is where you’ll want to spend Skill Points. Here are the ones worth investing in the most:
Stealth
While you won’t be doing a great deal of sneaking around in Starfield, there are some questlines that require it – in particular, the Ryujin faction quests on Neon. If you can, it’s worth upgrading this all the way to Rank 4, which gives the following benefits:
- Rank 1
- Adds a stealth meter and makes you 25% more difficult to detect when sneaking. Suppressed weapons also do 5% more damage when sneaking.
- Rank 2
- Upgrades the stealth meter and makes you 50% more difficult to detect while sneaking. Suppressed weapons do 10% more damage.
- Rank 3
- 75% more difficult to detect while sneaking, and suppressed weapons do 15% more damage.
- Rank 4
- You’re 100% more difficult to detect while sneaking and suppressed weapons do 20% extra damage. Doors also make no sound when you interact with them.
Weight Lifting
There’s no point in being able to kill people efficiently if you can’t carry their loot. Weightlifting gives you extra carrying capacity for each Rank you invest in. Unlock each tier of this as you need it. After all, you might be overencumbered in Starfield for some other reason.
Concealment
Separate from the Stealth Skill, Concealment works in harmony with many of the unlocks you get there, as well as allowing you to bypass enemy defenses more easily and do bigger damage while sneaking. It’s worth investing in each rank.
- Rank 1
- You no longer set off enemy mines. Ranged attacks do 2.5x normal damage and melee attacks do 4x.
- Rank 2
- Running while sneaking no longer affects stealth. Ranged attacks do 3x normal damage and melee attacks do 5x.
- Rank 3
- You can now cloak when crouched still (you can also get this ability from the Mantis questline in Starfield). Ranged attacks do 3.5x normal damage and melee attacks do 8x.
- Rank 4
- Distant enemies lose you when you crouch. Ranged attacks do 4x normal damage and melee attacks do 10x.
Best Social Skills in Starfield
Social skills are all about getting what you want without fighting, whether that’s better prices at vendors or forcing your enemies to do the fighting for you. Here are our favorites:
Persuasion
Persuasion dictates how successful you’ll be when trying to convince someone to see things your way, which is often a good way of dealing with encounters before they even start in Starfield. Each Rank increases your chances of pulling it off successfully.
Theft
This unlocks the option to pickpocket people, which you can trigger by crouching behind them and interacting with them, at which point you’ll see their inventory and a percentage chance of you getting away with pilfering each item. You can look in people’s pockets without triggering the guards, and you’d be surprised how many times you can get keys or compromising material needed to complete missions this way. Extra Ranks increase your chances of getting away with theft, but you can invest in it once and save scum like a little rat and I won’t judge you for it.
Deception
If you’re planning to go down the piracy route, Deception is a must. When you hail a ship to threaten it, there’s a good chance they’ll hand everything over without a fight once you’ve invested in this Skill. Each Rank increases the chance a ship will offer up its goods while also making it easier to smuggle illicit cargo onto planets. Helpful for when you’re holding contraband in Starfield.
Best Combat Skills in Starfield
As the name suggests, these Starfield Skills are all about winning fights and doing damage. Here are the best:
Ballistics
Ballistic weapons are the most common you’ll find in Starfield, so it makes sense to prioritize their damage output with a couple of investments here. Rank 1-3 increase their damage while Rank 4 increases their effective range.
Marksmanship
This Skill increases your critical hit chance with non-automatic ranged weapons. Couple this with those sneak attacks and you can cut down pretty much any unsuspecting enemy with a suppressed bullet.
Rapid Reloading
Increase the speed you can reload various weapon types with this Starfield Skill. Rank 1 is for ballistic weapons, which is plenty.
Sharpshooting
This is another that pairs extremely well with your sneaking abilities and Marksmanship. At Rank 1, you get 50% extra damage with headshots. Rank 2 adds 50% damage to legs. Rank 3 increases all critical damage by 50%. Rank 4 is where it gets more interesting, with each critical hit increasing your chance to land even more critical hits by 25% for 20 seconds.
Crippling
This skill is all about getting different enemy types into a downed state more quickly. Fire it up to Rank 4 and you’ll do 100% extra damage to anyone who’s crawling away injured.
Armor Penetration
Rank 1-3 of this Skill help you to ignore a target’s armor, while Rank 4 decreases their armor score by 25% for six seconds after landing a critical hit. I’m sure you can see how this combines with the other Skills we’ve talked about already.
Best Science Skills in Starfield
Unless you’re planning to go super deep on base building and crafting, Science is the least essential Skill tree in Starfield. Still, there are some useful bits to pick out – especially if you’ve chosen the Starfield Traits that make healing items less potent.
Medicine
This Skill increases the potency of Med Packs, Trauma Packs, and Emergency Kits. Good news if you went with Alien DNA as a Trait.
Aneurotic Fusion
A ship Skill, Neurotic Fusion allows you to get more out of your ship reactors, giving you extra units of power to pump into your ship’s systems for each Rank you unlock.
Best Tech Skills in Starfield
Mostly built around ships and the technology you can kit them out with, there are also a few useful Skills for when you’re in a fight on foot here.
Ballistic Weapon Systems
Faster targeting, bigger damage, and cheaper to use when in targeting mode – you can’t beat ballistic weapons for going at the hull of an enemy ship once its shields are down, and this Skill will make them even deadlier.
Boost Pack Training
Rank up in this to make your boost pack utilize less fuel and regenerate more quickly, allowing you to be more agile in fights on the ground and in zero-G.
Boost Assault Training
Combine this one with Boost Pack Training to dominate the skies as you jump between enemies pulling the trigger. Here’s what each Rank does:
- Rank 1
- Nearby enemies take damage when you boost and have a chance to catch fire.
- Rank 2
- Chance to knock down enemies when you boost.
- Rank 3
- Aiming down the sights will let you hover while you’re boosting (until your fuel is expended).
- Rank 4
- While hovering, time slows by 70%.
Piloting
At Rank 2, this skill makes your ships nippier when maneuvering. Rank 3 and 4 allow you to pilot bigger and better machines with more exotic parts.
Security
Security is a must in Starfield. Rank this up to at least Rank 3 so you can attempt to unlock any lock in the game.
Check out our full Starfield walkthrough for more quest guides, mechanic explainers, tips, tricks, free ships, and a whole lot more.
