Starfield has a ton of perks to sift through, and while all of them can find somewhere to fit in a build, some of them are clearly better than others. More specifically, some of them are much, much more beneficial to be taken early on in the game to make the most of them and to avoid frustrations, and some perks are better skipped entirely. Considering how you only get one perk point per level, and making your way from one row of perk points to the next can be a costly investment, it’s in players’ best interests to know what perks to go for and which to skip.
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Thankfully, we’ve got some insights into that gained from our time reviewing Starfield. To use your perk points as efficiently as possible early on in the game, here are several Starfield perks you should get right away and a few more that you should skip altogether. If you’re not too concerned with roleplaying a specific kind of character, picking a starting background that includes one or some of the must-have perks will get you off to a great start, too.
Starfield Perks to Get ASAP
Boost Pack Training
Without a doubt, the skill you should take first in Starfield is Boost Pack Training. It’s found under the far-right Tech skill tree, and it’s essential if you want to use a jetpack at all. You won’t have a jetpack when you start the game, but as soon as you find one either through story progression or through searching on your own, you’ll have a much better time exploring planets, cities, and everything in between. This perk also benefits from being a one-and-done skill in that you don’t need additional skill points invested in it to make it worthwhile, so put a point in it right away and then forget about it.
Targeting Control Systems
You get a free ship pretty early on in Starfield, but before long, you’ll be looking for upgraded options. Those include buying a new ship entirely or upgrading the one that you already have, but neither of those methods are cheap. So, the next best thing is to steal one.
That’s where Targeting Control Systems in the Tech skill tree comes into play. With this spaceship perk, you can lock onto an enemy ship to disable specific functions rather than just blow it up. Knock out the shields first, then the engines, and you’ll be able to board the ship, kill the crew, and take it for your own.
Stealth
The first couple of times you crouched in Starfield, you were probably left wondering why you couldn’t tell whether people could see if you were up to no good or not. For some reason, Bethesda opted to lock the indicator that tells you if you’re hidden or not behind a perk. As annoying as that may be, you’ll have to pay the perk tax by dropping one point into the Stealth perk in the far-left Physical tree if you want to know whether you’re hidden when sneaking around enemies.
Weight Lifting
Also in the Physical tree is Weight Lifting, a perk that’s not sexy at all but is worth investing in with as many points as you can spare whenever you can spare them. It increases your carry weight with every point, and the challenge to level it up is pretty easy since you’re almost always going to be near max carry weight in Starfield anyway. If you’ve ever got a free perk point with no home for it, you could do a lot worse than Weight Lifting.
Any Combat Perk
You’re at the whim of RNG loot early on regardless of whatever perfect build you have in mind for your character, so even if you know you want to be a laser-wielding spaceman, you may be stuck with only ballistic weapons and knives until you find what you’re looking for. Even still, you’ll find what you’re looking for eventually, so go ahead and invest a perk point into whatever weapon type you want to specialize in within the Combat tree. Once you find what you were looking for, you’ll be happy that you did.
Starfield Perks to Avoid
Gymnastics
Do not take this perk. It’s found in the Physical section, and it grants you the ability to do a combat slide. “But it’ll look cool!” players might say.It will not. The combat slide in Starfield functions much more like your player character stumbling over their own feet before falling into a crouched position. With a jetpack at your disposal, there is no reason why at any point in time you should be combat sliding anywhere in Starfield. If you do choose to take it, save your game beforehand so that you can undo it after you see how embarrassing it looks.
Fitness
The Fitness perk in the Physical tree grants you increased oxygen capacity, oxygen being this game’s version of a stamina system that’s affected by running, jumping, heavy attacks, and other factors. Adding 10% more oxygen to your meter may sound beneficial, but don’t fall for that trap. There are so many different ways to increase your oxygen capacity or reduce its usage through not only gear upgrades but also through prepared meals and drugs that this perk becomes irrelevant. It’s a convenience, sure, but it’s far from necessary.
Persuasion
If you want to be a smooth talker who plays fair, by all means, take the Persuasion perk under the Social tree. With every point invested, it increases your chances of succeeding in a persuasion check during dialogue. But if you’re like most players and just want to succeed no matter what, save scumming is the way to go. If you save your game before a persuasion check and reload it if you fail, you’ll never need to drop a point in the Persuasion skill.
Surveying
Take this advice from someone who dropped a point in Surveying first thing — it’s not worth it. Every level you invest gives you a zoom level and increases your scan range, but it’s to a pitiful degree. Almost every time you’re looking at something on a planet in Starfield, you’re moving towards it anyway, so zoom levels are negligible. If you really want to increase your scan range, build the outpost structure that does that instead of wasting a perk point.
Scanning
Scanning is far from the worst perk that you can pick, but a lot of what it does involves saving you time. That sounds like a good thing, but it saves you time by making it so that you know more about a planet or a ship before even landing on it or boarding it. Boarding a ship and taking its loot is still worthwhile even if the ship itself isn’t worth stealing, and you’ll find out much of what’s on a planet soon after landing there anyway, so it’s better to do the exploration yourself rather than using Scanning to cross possibilities off your list.
