Starfield First Contact best choice: Install grav drive or accept deal?

While exploring space in Starfield, you’ll find a ton of quests and most of these missions will require you to make difficult decisions that test your morality. One such quest is First Contact and here’s whether you should install the grav drive or accept the deal.

There’s no shortage of engaging quests in Starfield and although most of the decisions you make in them won’t affect the final true ending of the game, you can heavily impact the lives of other characters throughout the Settled Systems.

A quest that might compel you to rack your brain during the final decision is First Contact. There are three choices and your decision can kill or save an entire crew. This is similar to several sidequests in the game where life and death are at stake.

Here’s what happens if you choose to install the grav drive or accept the deal in Starfield First Contact quest and the best choice to make.

• starfield-first-contact-quest-explained
• Starfield: First Contact choices
• Starfield: First Contact best choice

Starfield: First Contact quest explained

The First Contact quest in Starfield begins after you travel to Porrima II located in the Porrima star system. Upon arrival, you’ll be able to spot an unknown ship orbiting the planet, and you’ll also receive a message from Jiro Sugiyama asking for your help in resolving the situation.

After landing in Paradiso and talking to Sugiyama, you’ll be asked to establish contact with the ship. This is easy enough, as you simply have to dock with the vessel. You’ll be greeted by Diana Brackenridge, the ship’s captain, at the entrance.

From here on, players will be able to uncover the history behind the vessel. Named the ECS Constant, the ship left Earth long before the invention of the first grav drive. It embarked on a 200-year-long journey to reach Porrima II, with the ship housing multiple generations of humans. While exploring the interiors of the ship, players can come across a classroom, mess halls, a hydroponics garden, and more.

Conversing with Diana will reveal that the ECS Constant plans to colonize Porrima II. The crew onboard believe they have an exclusive claim on the planet, which the suits in Paradiso will vehemently deny. Eventually, she’ll ask the player to negotiate with Paradiso on the ship’s behalf, setting up the rest of the quest.

Starfield: First Contact choices

The First Contact quest in Starfield presents players with three choices. These are revealed after attending a board room meeting with Pardiso CEO Oliver Campbell. All three choices have a significant impact on the crew aboard the ECS Constant, which only amps up the stakes.

The choices are:

• Resettle the ECS Constant crew on Porrima II as indentured servants.
• Buy a modified grav drive for the ECS Constant, allowing them to travel elsewhere.
• “Take care,” or destroy the ECS Constant, killing everyone on board.

Starfield: First Contact best choice

The best choice for the First Contact quest in Starfield is to purchase a modified grav drive for the ECS Constant. Not only does it spare the crew from life as indentured servants, but it also grants them the ability to look for a new home.

Picking this route will reward players with antique sports items and a suppressed XM-2311 pistol, which is one of the best stealth weapons in the game. Beyond the rewards, players can rest easy knowing that they gave the ECS Constant a shot at life in the Settled systems.

Of course, players can opt for alternative routes depending on their character’s morals. If you’re playing as a sadistic killer then you can always murder the crew and blow up the ship to complete the quest.

That was the best choice for the First Contact quest in Starfield. For more on the game, check out our other guides:

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 | Starfield plants explained: All types & how to scan | Who is the Adoring Fan in Starfield?