Posted 23rd September 2023 • Last updated
Welcome to my Starfield achievement guide! Naturally, this guide will include spoilers, mainly for the main quest line so if you don't want spoilers you might want to complete the main story first.
Main Quest
The following you will achieve just by following and completing the main quest line.
For All, Into the Starfield
Enter Space for the First Time
One Small Step
Join Constellation
Into the Unknown
Complete "Into the Unknown"
All That Money Can Buy
Complete "All That Money Can Buy"
Further Into the Unknown
Complete "Further Into the Unknown"
High Price to Pay
Complete "High Price to Pay"
In Their Footsteps
Complete "In Their Footsteps"
Entangled
Complete "Entangled"
Unearthed
Complete "Unearthed"
One Giant Leap
Complete "One Giant Leap"
Note: Completing this quest triggers the New Game Plus and you will lose all your items, ships, etc except for your invested skill points. If you like, you can reload a previous save so you can get the achievement but not start the New Game Plus.
Faction: UC Vanguard
The following you will achieve just by following and completing the UC Vanguard faction quest line.
Supra et Ultra
Join the UC Vanguard
You can join the UC Vanguard by talking to Commander Tuala in the MAST district building. You will talk to him during the main questline with Sarah after joining Constellation. After a quick pilot test, you'll take the oath to become a Vanguard.
The Devils You Know
Complete "The Devils You Know"
A Legacy Forged
Complete "A Legacy Forged"
Faction: Freestar Rangers
The following you will achieve just by following and completing the Freestar Rangers faction quest line.
Deputized
Join the Freestar Rangers
You can join the Freestar Rangers by talking to Emma Wilcox at The Rock in Akila City. Before you can do this however, you need to start the main quest "The Empty Nest" where you take Sam Coe to Akila City. There will be a bank robbery happening. After you deal with it, the Marshal will tell you to talk to Emma WIlcox about joining the Freestar Rangers. Do one of the Freestar Rangers missions from the missions board in The Rock as she says and you will join after completing it.
Surgical Strike
Complete "Surgical Strike"
The Hammer Falls
Complete "The Hammer Falls"
Faction: Ryujin Industries
The following you will achieve just by following and completing the Ryujin Industries faction quest line.
Back to the Grind
Join Ryujin Industries
When wandering around New Atlantis you should get an Activity to apply for a job at Ryujin Industries at a kiosk. If you haven't got it, you can travel to Neon and you should get it as well. Apply for the job at a kiosk and continue with the quest to unlock the achievement.
Guilty Parties
Complete "Guilty Parties"
Executive Level
Complete "Executive Level"
Faction: Crimson Fleet
The following you will achieve just by following and completing the Crimson Fleet faction quest line.
Rook Meets King
Join the Crimson Fleet
After completing "Grunt Work" quest during the UC Vanguard faction quest line, you will get the quest "Deep Cover" where you will fly to the UC Vigilance ship in order to go undercover and join the Crimson Fleet.
The Best There Is
Complete "The Best There Is"
Legacy's End
Complete "Legacys End"
Outposts
Home Sweet Home
Build an Outpost
Find a planet on the starmap and land somewhere. Get out of your ship, open the scanner and you will see an option to place an Outpost at the bottom of the screen.
Shipping Magnate
Connect 5 Outposts with Cargo Links
The quickest way of achieving this is to build 6 outposts on the same planet. In each outpost build a Cargo Link - this is listed under the Miscellanous section. On the cargo links there is a terminal where you can link outposts together. Link the outposts in pairs like so: 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6. You will need 72 aluminium, 12 beryllium, 120 iron and 12 zero wire to craft all 6 cargo links. You can buy all you need at Jemison Merchantile in New Atlantis.
Industrialist
Produce 500 Total Resources from Outposts
Outposts can harvest resources using extractors. When you are placing an outpost you can see what resources are available in that radius. Make sure you have at least one resource available for your outpost. Open the build menu and build an extractor on one of the resource veins in the ground. You will need to power the extractor, the build menu will tell you if you have enough power supplied. Connect the extractor to storage containers so the resource gets moved into it. You can place a bed and sleep to extract the resource faster.
Exploration
Stellar Cartography
Visit 20 Star Systems
The Stars My Destination
Visit all Star Systems
To do this and "Stellar Cartography" achievement quickly, use a ship with a good grav drive and just hop between the systems on the star map. You can tell if you have visited a system by seeing if it is glowing or not. If it is a dull circle, then you have not visited it yet. If it is glowing you have. Note that some systems are stacked on top of each other. You will need to visit 120 systems to trigger this achievement. You can see the number of systems you have visited by going into the stats menu: Press TAB and then B.
Boots on the Ground
Land on 100 Planets
Similar to the "The Stars My Destination" achievment, just hop between systems but make sure you land on every planet. You do not need to leave the ship or anything, just make sure you have landed your ship on it before going to the next one. You can see the number of planets you have landed on by going into the stats menu: Press TAB and then B.
Life Begets Life
Gather 500 Organic Resources
Organic resources refers to flora/plants you find on planets that you can harvest. Jemison has a high number of plants so just land somewhere in the forest on the planet, get your scanner out so you can see the plants and just keep running and harvesting them. You can see the number of organic resources you've harvested by going into the stats menu: Press TAB and then B.
Rock Collection
Gather 500 Inorganic Resources
Inorganic resources refers to the ores you harvest with your trusty Cutter. They are available pretty much everywhere so just mine everything you see. You can see the number of inorganic resources you've harvested by going into the stats menu: Press TAB and then B.
Levels
Depending on how you play the game, you will end up at a different level once you've run out of things to do before finishing the main quest and starting New Game Plus. If you're struggling to level up enough, you can build an XP farm using Outposts. There is a great video by Maka91Productions:
Dust Off
Reach Level 5
Traveler
Reach Level 10
Elite
Reach Level 25
Space Opera
Reach Level 50
Reach for the Stars
Reach Level 100
Other
Chief Engineer
Modify a Ship
Talk to a Ship Technician at any Starport and choose the dialogue option to modify your ship. You can choose to upgrade a system, add/remove parts, or just change the paint colour. The first Starport you come across will be in New Atlantis.
Fixer`
Complete 30 Activities
Over the course of the game, you will rack up a long list of activities among your quests. Just complete 30 of them to trigger the achievement.
Privateer
Complete 30 Terminal or Misc. Missions
Terminal missions are the missions boards you find at bars in cities and some starports/starstations. Misc missions seems to refer to any quests that are not listed as main or side quests, so some activities. I only did a small handful of mission board quests so you'll likely end up triggering this achievement as you make your way through the game.
Cyber Jockey
Bypass 50 Digital Locks
Simple enough, just pick 50 locks. Apart from being a different minigame than usual, the other thing to remember is that you use digipicks regardless of doing it sucessfully or not, so make sure you keep topped up whenever you do your shopping runs. Also increase your Security skill so you can pick the higher difficulty locks.
Jacked In
Access 50 Computers
Again, simple enough and you'll just achieve this naturally. There are more than enough computers to get this so you shouldn't have a problem.
Soldier of Fortune
Mod 50 Weapons
Weapons can be modded by using a Weapons Workbench. You unlock new weapon mods by upgrading the Weapon Engineering skill. The easiest way I found to quickly do this was to land at New Atlantis and make sure you have an Engineering Bay installed on your ship - this comes with a Weapons Workbench. Make a manual save here because you'll be spending a decent amount of money on resources. Make trips to Jemison Merchantile and buy crafting resources and weapons, haul them back to your ship and apply mods to those weapons.
Replicator
Craft 100 Items
The cheapest and easiest item to craft is probably the Adaptive Frame. It costs 1 iron and 1 aluminium to craft. If you want to buy the materials you can do the same approach as "Soldier of Fortune" achievement above and just buy them from Jemison Merchantile. If you are going for the Level 100 "Reach for the Stars" achievement, the method listed will get this as well.
The Family You Choose
Recruit 10 Separate Companions
Recruiting companions make them available to be your Ship Crew or assigned to an outpost. Here is a list of some companions you can recruit for the achievement:
- Sarah Morgan (unlocked by main questline)
- Barret (unlocked by main questline)
- Andreja (unlocked by main questline)
- Sam Coe (unlocked by main questline)
- Vasco (unlocked by main questline)
- Lin (unlocked by main questline)
- Heller (unlocked by main questline)
- Gideon Aker (hired at The Viewport in New Atlantis)
- Omari Hassan (hired at The Hitching Post in Akila City)
- Andromeda Kepler (hired at The Broken Spear in Cydonia)
- Mickey Caviar (hired at The Astral Lounge in Neon)
- Adoring Fan (unlocked with Hero Worshipped trait)
Starcrossed
Reach Maximum Relationship Level with a Companion
The four companions you can unlock this achievement with are Sarah Morgan, Barret, Sam Coe and Andreja. Each character has their own likes/dislikes where your actions will change their relationship level depending on what you do. At various stages, your companion will initiate some dialogue. You'll eventually get the companion quest which you will need to do in order to continue. It seems this achievement may not trigger if you don't romance one of the companions so you should choose the [Flirt] whenever available. When you eventually choose the [Romance] option in dialogue then this achievement should trigger.
War of Angels
Collect 20 Quantum Essence
At some point during the main questline, you will start getting attacked by Starborn. From then on, every time you complete a temple to receive its power, a single Starborn enemy will attack you. Every time you kill a Starborn, you will automatically get 1 quantum essence - you can't loot the Starborn corpse. Keep following the main quest line and you will visit NASA on Earth where there will be some more Starborn enemies. The mission where you visit the last temple with The Emissary/The Hunter there will be even more Starborn enemies. Lastly, once you've collected every artifact, the game says once you've put the artifacts into the Armillary into either your ship or an outpost, either should randomly get attacked from Starborn from time to time.
Fleet Commander
Collect 10 Ships
You will get some ships as rewards for some quests. You can also buy ships from Starports. The cheapest way of acquiring ships though is by boarding enemy ships and flying off with them. In order to board enemy ships you need to take out their engines without destroying the ship. You can easily shoot the engines after getting the Targeting Control Systems skill. Once you've taken control of a ship fly to a Starport and it'll be listed as part of your fleet. You don't need to register the ship for this achievement so you don't end up paying for anything.
Thirst for Knowledge
Read 20 Skill Magazines
Skill magazines are the notes that give you bonuses to skills, etc. PowerPyx has a great video to follow for this achievement:
Dark Matter
Eliminate 300 Human Enemies
You'll get this naturally from playing the game unless you're doing a pacifist/stealth run.
Another Bug Hunt
Eliminate 300 Creatures
You'll likely not do this as easily as the human enemy ones depending on how often you go exploring other planets. Fauna listed on planets count for this achievement so go to any planet with them and kill them.
I Use Them For Smuggling
Successfully Smuggle Contraband
There are multiple ways to increase your chances of successfully smuggling contraband:
- The Deception social skill
- Shielded cargo, which can be bought from the Crimson Fleet in The Key or the Red Mile. Just make sure you put the contraband in the ship cargo for this to take any affect
- Scan jammers, which can be bought from the Crimson Fleet in The Key or the Red Mile.
You can get contraband from pirate ships if you regularly board them during fights or at jails/security checkpoints in cities. Contraband is marked with a yellow symbol. Once you've got contraband, fly to a new system controlled by the UC or Freestar and they will scan you. If successful, you will trigger this achievement.
DLC: Shattered Space
You can start this DLC by entering space and traveling to another system not currently occupied by an active quest. It's recommended to be at least level 35. You should get a distress call come up and you'll need to travel to a space station. If the space station is not appearing at the quest marker (like it did for me), try traveling to another system and back again, this should fix it.
What Remains
Complete “What Remains”
Story related. Continue through the main story to unlock this achievement.
The Promised, Broken
Complete “The Promised, Broken”
Story related. Continue through the main story to unlock this achievement.
The Other Side
Complete “The Other Side”
Story related. Continue through the main story to unlock this achievement.
Zealous Overreach
Complete “Zealous Overreach”
Story related. Continue through the main story to unlock this achievement.
Conflict in Conviction
Complete “Conflict in Conviction”
Story related. Continue through the main story to unlock this achievement.
Exhuming the Past
Complete “Exhuming the Past”
Story related. Continue through the main story to unlock this achievement.
The Scaled Citadel
Complete “The Scaled Citadel”
Story related. Continue through the main story to unlock this achievement.
Facing Your Fears
Defeat 25 Vortex Horrors
These are the spider vortex enemies that will appear throughout the story and some encounters at some locations on the map. It is worth noting that the Horrorlings, the smaller enemies, also count here.
The Great Unknown
Discover 50 Locations on Va’ruun’kai
Here is my map of locations I found. You'll need 50 locations, many of which can be found in and around Dazra, the main city. Using the scanner while walking around can help find locations.
Redemption Arc
Defeat 10 Redeemed
These are more difficult enemies that spawn in groups of Zealots. You should encounter a decent amount of these during the main story but you'll likely need to find more from exploring around the map.
Savior of the Promised
Aid the People of Va’ruun’kai
There are a small number of sidequests you can pick up, but it looks like you don't actually need to do all of them. The ones I completed in order to trigger the achievement were:
- The Duel, available after completing "The Promised, Broken", given by Borhal Adlam, Amila Adlam, and Danika Hargan.
- Scientific Method, after completing "The Promised, Broken", given by Azad Dubas in Hamadi Station after hearing a Citizen talking about them.
- A House Divided, available after completing "The Promised, Broken", given by Qisrani Dul'kehf near the Halls of Obedience.
Five of a Kind
Craft one of each type of Vortex Grenade
There are 5 types of Vortex Grenades you'll need to craft at an Industrial Workbench. During the quest "The Promised, Broken", you'll be given the recipes to craft them by Ekris Kaisir. They all require special vortex materials which you get from killing many of the vortex enemies throughout the story and locations around the map.
You'll need:
- 5x Vortex Shards
- 3x Vortex Cysts
- 2x Dark Vortex Cysts
- 2x Glowing Vortex Cysts