The first thing you do in Starfield is create your character. You will need to pick a background, different traits, and skills. There are plenty of different options to choose from, so there is plenty that can go wrong. In this Starfield character creation guide, we cover some of the best backgrounds and traits that you should pick.
Starfield Character Creation
The following is what you need to know about creating your character in Starfield.
Best Backgrounds
Backgrounds give your character a unique starting point. Not only do they provide a unique backstory but special dialogue options as well that can change the outcomes of certain missions. Each background has a set of starting skills. The chef, for example, might seem like a simple and innocent option, but it has rather interesting starting skills, as mentioned below.
Chef Starting Skills
- Gastronomy: Craft specialty food and drinks. Research additional recipes in the research lab.
- Dueling: +10% melee weapon damage.
- Wellness: Instantly gain 30 HP.
So, the chef can heal on demand and has bonus melee damage, which makes it ideal if you are going for a tanky, melee damage build. You can pair this background with skills such as Neurostrikes, which will increase, which increases critical damage when unarmed.
Cyber Runner Starting Skills
- Pistol Certification: +10% pistol damage.
- Security: Attempt to hack advanced locked. Two auto attempts can be banked.
- Persuasion: Increased chance of success in speech challenges.
This is the background for stealth players, and you can invest in stealth skills to get bonus damage from sneak attacks. Persuasion also allows you to deal with situations without getting into a fight. You can even use a silencer on your pistol to take advantage of the pistol damage buff. You can also use the Introvert trait to buff your insurance as long as you do not have any human companions with you.
Diplomat Starting Skills
This is the background for players who want to talk their way out of situations rather than fighting. If you want to go through the game with non-lethal options, then this is the background that will help you do that.
- Persuasion: Increased chance of success in speech challenges.
- Diplomacy: Stop NPC at or below your level to stop fighting for a time.
- Bargaining: 5% discount when buying items and sell items for 10% more.
Bargaining will allow you to make more money. You can also use the Instigation skill to have NPCs fight for you. Furthermore, Leadership will allow you to gain companion affinity much faster, allowing you to form deeper connections with them quickly.
There are plenty of other backgrounds in Starfield, but these are some of the best that we know of right now. We will update the guide when we have more information.
Traits
There are plenty of traits to choose from in Starfield, and you can pick three of them when creating your character. Traits have advantages and disadvantages that you need to consider.
| Traits | Effects |
| Alien DNA | Max health and endurance buffs Healing items will not be as effective |
| Wanted | Damage buff at low health Bounty hunters will track you |
| Raised Enlightenment | Significant discount at organization store Lose access to Sanctum Universum store |
| Raised Universal | Significant discount at church store Lose access to enlightened store |
| Neon Street Rat | Access special dialogue options Better rewards for some missions on Neon Crime bounty by other factions is greatly increased |
| Starter Home | Own a small house 50,000 credit mortgage |
| Kids Stuff | Your parents are alive and you can visit them 10% of your money is sent to them |
| Introvert | Endurance buff when not with human companions |
| Empathy | Doing tasks that your companions like will increase their combat effectiveness Downgraded combat effectiveness if you do something they dislike |
| Extravert | Uses less oxygen with human companions |
| Spaced | Increases health and endurance in space Both decrease on surface |
These are some of the best backgrounds and traits that we can recommend when creating your character in Starfield. If you are interested in learning more, then you can check out our guide on how you can increase your max health. For more content, check out our Starfield guides hub.