Best skills in Starfield: Combat, exploring, crafting, more

Lucas Simons
Crafting skill in Starfield

Starfield is the new Sci-Fi space exploration experience from Bethesda Software that takes us on a journey of discovery and trepidating space combat. In this RPG, skills play a vital role during the adventure, so here’s a rundown of the best skills to have for combat, exploring, crafting, and more.

Starfield is a space exploration RPG that allows you to live a hundred space adventures and more. But in the treacherous Star Systems, exploration can often lead to unexpected dangers: space pirates, vicious alien creatures, and even environmental hazards.

To survive in the hostile Star Systems, you must learn many skills as your character gains experience. So, here’s a guide with the best Starfield skills to invest your skill points.

Starship Engineering Starfield
Skills not only affect your character’s performance, but your crew and starship stats too.

What are skills in Starfield?

In Starfield, skills determine your aptitude to excel at any of the activities you can find in the game. From ranged combat to starship piloting and even crafting, skills unlock the full potential of your space explorer.

But to unlock said potential, you need to invest Skill Points in them. Also, to upgrade said skills, you need to accomplish some goals before obtaining the corresponding certificates.

Certificates allow you to improve a skill even further. Each skill has up to four levels of certification, meaning you can improve them three times after you unlock them, with each skill point invested in them further enhancing the boons and abilities they grant.

How do you unlock more skills in Starfield?

To unlock more skills in Starfield, you need to level up your character. Each time you level up, you will earn one skill point to invest in new skills or to level up those that you already have.

There is no level cap in Starfield, so you can keep obtaining skill points as long as you keep leveling up, which will eventually enable you to unlock every skill and their upgrades.

Best Physical skills in Starfield

The best Physical skills in Starfield include those that grant a lot of utility and boost your overall physical condition. So we recommend you to invest first in Weight Lifting and Wellness, as they improve your carry capacity and total Health.

If you are going for a Stealth build, we strongly recommend you to go with Fitness, Stealth, and Concealment, as they increase your overall capabilities during covert operations.

Weight Lifting Skill in Starfield
If you are having trouble carrying all that loot, Weight Lifting is the solution.

Best Social skills in Starfield

The best Social skills in Starfield allow you to talk your way out of tricky situations or procure better trade deals for your hard-gained loot. So, we recommend you quickly invest in Commerce to improve your credit yield every time you trade and reduce the cost of buying products.

Scavenging is another great skill to have, as it improves all the loot you find. And finally, Ship Command increases the capacity of Crew Members with each level, so it’s one of the best skills to have if you are going for a Space Fighter build.

Best Combat skills in Starfield

The best Combat skills in Starfield improve your combat capabilities, be it melee or ranged. You should invest in either Lasers or Ballistics, as they greatly improve the damage you do with those two kinds of ranged weapons that are also easy to obtain during the adventure.

Most regular enemies don’t have too much ballistic or energy resistance, but during late game encounters, you will find it harder to deal damage against stronger enemies, so we also recommend you quickly unlock the Sharpshooting skill, which increases critical damage to weak spots with ranged weapons.

For melee combat, we recommend you go for Dueling, as it grants more melee damage and damage reduction when holding a melee weapon. Then, you should invest in Armor Penetration, which makes attacks ignore a percentage of the target’s armor.

Lasers skill in Starfield
Laser weapons balance power and versatility, but they are expensive to upgrade.

Best Science skills in Starfield

The best Science skills in Starfield unlock Item crafting and Outpost building skills that are tremendously useful during your adventure. They are also related to planet Survey and Exploration which are key to earning the most credits in the game.

Investing in Surveying and Research Methods will grant access to Scanning, Space Suit Design, and later, Astrodynamics. Those are essential if you want to complete many Planet Exploring and Surveying Constellation Quests that grant lots of credits.

Lastly, the best skill to have once you reach the requirements is Aneutronic Fusion, which increases the Power Units of every starship you pilot.

Best Tech skills in Starfield

The best Tech skills in Starfield grant access to an arsenal of upgrades for your gadgets, including your Boost Pack and your Starship piloting abilities and performance.

Boost Pack Training is a must-have for every ground explorer, and Security will allow you to unlock the most complex of loot chests and doors, so we highly recommend you pay attention to those. In higher tiers, Boost Assault Training is great for using Boost Pack for combat and can overpower groups of enemies.

Then, for starship combat, we recommend you take Piloting and Shield Systems, as they will increase ship maneuverability and resistance. At higher levels, Piloting unlocks access to pilot certifications for better ships, so it’s a must-have.

Boost Pack Training in Starfield
Without Boost Pack Training, your ground exploration will be tremendously painful.

And that’s a wrap on the best skills in Starfield. Keep in mind that you will eventually unlock all skills, but to enhance your chances of survival and mission success, we strongly encourage you to take these as a priority.

If you are still looking for more Starfield content and guides, you can check our guide section right below:

Starfield: How to fix stuttering & low FPS issues on PC| All Starfield console commands: All cheat codes  | Does Starfield have New Game Plus? | Is Starfield on Steam Deck? | Will Starfield have DLC & story expansions? | Starfield Outposts explained: How to build bases | Every religion in Starfield explained | Starfield plants explained: All types & how to scan | Who is the Adoring Fan in Starfield? 

About The Author

Lucas is a Games Writer for CharlieIntel, specializing in covering Pokemon, including Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, Pokemon Go, and Pokemon TCG. A former Game Reviewer and PR Liaison for HD Tecnologia (ARG), Lucas is also an Audiovisual Media Producer, Game Designer, Narrative Designer, and author, having published several books including Press Start, a guide to video game writing and world building. You can contact him at [email protected].