Starfield Backgrounds Guide

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ByArzyeL

Starfield Backgrounds

Backgrounds in Starfield provide the player with three starting skills, a personal history and additional dialogue options! Picking a Background for your character is an important part of the Character Creation process in Starfield along with Traits! Backgrounds can define the identity of your character.

Table of Contents

What are Backgrounds in Starfield and How Do they Work

Backgrounds are basically Classes in Starfield. When you pick a Background for your character you also gain access to a set of three Starting Skills. These are Novice skills that will determine your play-style early in the game and help you pursue a specific path. You can later learn and upgrade new skills but the Background you pick, will affect your early levels in Starfield.

Backgrounds are also a nice way to offer a history to your character, as well as more dialogue options! Based on your Background, you may be able to pick an additional dialogue option that will help you progress a quest faster or simply avoid being attacked. Backgrounds add immersion to the lore of your character and can help you role-play efficiently.

Backgrounds List in Starfield

Below you can see all available Backgrounds. Each comes with three starting Skills and a short description to help you understand how it works!

BackgroundSkillsDescription
Beast Hunter
1. Fitness
2. Ballistics
3. Gastronomy
From the Ashta of Akila to the Terrormorphs that plague the whole of the Settled Systems, hostile alien life abounds. You've learned the skills to track them, find them, and take them down.
Bouncer1. Boxing
2. Security
3. Fitness
You've worked the line at the toughest clubs in the Settled Systems. Back then, you learned that most non-lethal confrontations can be solved one of two ways: a strong right hook, or a more strongly secured door.
Bounty Hunter
1. Piloting
2. Targeting Control Systems
3. Boost Pack Training
Wherever there are wanted individuals, there are those who profit from their capture. And your quarry knows that in the vastness of space, they can run...but they can't hide.
Chef
1. Gastronomy
2. Dueling
3. Scavenging
While the unrefined masses scarfed down Chunks by the shipload, you catered to those with a more... discerning palate. In your kitchen, countless alien species became true culinary masterpieces.
Combat Medic
1. Pistol Certification
2. Medicine
3. Wellness		Leave it to human beings to fight over something as infinite as outer space. That's where you come in. You've never been afraid to take on the enemy... but you'd much rather take care of your friends.
Cyber Runner
1. Stealth
2. Security
3. Theft		From Neon to New Atlantis, the megacorps stand as monuments to power, prestige and profit. You've worked both for and against them, on the inside and out, often sacrificing conscience for credits.
Cyberneticist
1. Medicine
2. Security
3. Lasers		Robots? Mere toys. Neuroamps? Good for parlor tricks. The Colony War may have made implants and upgrades available to veterans, but you once saw a greater future. Humans and machines, as one.
Diplomat
1. Persuasion
2. Commerce
3. Wellness		The wars are over. Peace now reigns over the Settled Systems. But only because there are those quietly fighting to keep it. Because of you, agreements were signed, words were heeded... lives were spared.
Explorer
1. Lasers
2. Astrodynamics
3. Surveying		They said exploration is a lost art. You didn't listen. As the major factions argued over the space they desperately tried to control, you were busy uncovering the wonders of the Settled Systems.
Gangster
1. Shotgun Certification
2. Boxing
3. Theft
You were always disgusted by suckers killing themselves to make an "honest wage." As soon as you were old enough to hold a weapon, you took what you wanted from anyone unlucky enough to have it.
Homesteader
1. Geology
2. Surveying
3. Weight Lifting
The discovery of the Settled System' many oxygen-rich planets and moons meant humans could live just about anywhere...if they had the know how. You did, and utilized it to great effect.
Industrialist1. Persuasion
2. Security
3. Research Methods
There was a time when all you wanted to be was a titan of industry, maybe a ship designer or megacorp exec. Thankfully, that skillset never goes out of style in the settled systems.
Long Hauler
1. Weight Lifting
2. Piloting
3. Ballistic Weapon Systems
Let those other hothead pilots obsess over laser weapons and manoeuvrability. You're a space trucker, pure and simple. Pack the cargo, get it there fast, get paid, repeat. Life is simple and good.
Pilgrim
1. Scavenging
2. Surveying
3. Gastronomy
Wayfarer, wanderer, seeker...transient. You've been called many things during your travels, and learned something those others could never understand - the journey IS the destination.
Professor1. Astrodynamics
2. Geology
3. Research Methods
You've always enjoyed learning, but nothing could compare to the joy of teaching others. As humankind spread throughout the stars, there was never a lack of knowledge to obtain, and you gladly assisted.
Ronin1. Dueling
2. Stealth
3. Scavenging
Masterless and unbound, you wandered the Settled Systems as a blade for hire. To some, you were a simple mercenary. To others, a hero. And to a select few...a nightmare they could never wake from.

Sculptor

1. Medicine
2 Geology
3. Persuasion		With your knowledge of anatomy and skilled, steady hands, you could have become a surgeon. Instead, you followed your heart, and created works of art to amaze and inspire.
Soldier1. Fitness
2. Ballistics
2. Boost Pack Training		The Settled Systems is no stranger to warfare, and if there's one thing armed conflict relies on its trained warriors with guns and guts. You had both. Simple, bloody work...and you were great at it.
Space Scoundrel1. Pistol Certification
2. Piloting
3. Persuasion		Good? Bad? Whose right is it to say? If there's anything you've learned traipsing through the galaxy, it's this: space may look black, but it's really one shade of grey.
Xenobiologist1. Lasers
2. Surveying
3. Fitness		The Settled Systems is home to untold alien species. And while none of them have yet proven sentient, that never deterred you. So you sought out and studied them for whatever gifts they offered.
[File Not Found]1. Wellness
2. Ballistics
3. Piloting		Oddly, there's no information on file about your past life. Clerical oversight? Deletion by some powerful unknown faction? Or was there just nothing of note to mention? Whatever the reason, your past is known only to you. What's important is the here and now, and the path you're about to forge.

What are the Best Backgrounds in Starfield

The Best Backgrounds depend on the play style you wish to pursue in Starfield. Playing as a silent assassin will benefit from a different background than playing like a Heavy Weapons Brawler! For example if you wish to explore alien worlds and isolated planets early in the game, then picking the Explorer Background is your best option! If you wish to use your words to finish quests and solve encounters peacefully, then the Diplomat Background seems like the best for you. Backgrounds can alter the way you play and add replayability to the game! Here are some of the Best Backgrounds you can pick, depending on the play style you wish to follow:

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