Starfield traits task you with setting your life story out before it even begins. Maybe you’ll be an Enlightened introvert who can’t stand setting foot on solid ground or a snake-loving softie with a big bounty on their head. Some of them are cooler than they seem, like the parasocial relationship trait where you get free presents. It’s not as bad as it sounds! Well, maybe it is.
Anyway, there’s a surprising number of traits that have very little effect on how you play the game and some that even punish you for playing a certain way.
If you’re after more Starfield goodness, check out our Starfield companion ranking list for a totally accurate, completely subjective list of the best friends you can surround yourself with.
Alien DNA
Alien DNA sounds like a cool and natural fit for a space game. What’s more sci-fi than being part alien? The thing about Starfield is that there are no aliens, though, except a very spoilery selection of “alien” lifeforms that definitely can’t be your ancestors or the story would completely unravel.
The alternative is that one of your parents is a Terrormorph and the other one would’ve… let’s just not get into that, actually.
It also makes healing items less effective, which is a massive bummer in a tense situation. Just stick with the alien costume, and call it a day.
Serpent’s Embrace
Serpent’s Embrace is just weird. You get more health and oxygen if you grave jump “frequently,” but have those attributes downgraded if you don’t. It’s “like an addiction,” the in-game description says, which is frankly just sloppy handling of Starfield’s lore. House Va’ruun followers believe they first met their god during a grave jump, so grav jumping is an act of worship, not addiction.
You do get some nice extra dialogue options in some circumstances, including some with Andreja, but the penalty if you take a long time exploring without grav jumping just isn’t worth it.
Introvert
Introvert makes you use more oxygen when you’re traveling with a companion. There are very few situations where you shouldn’t travel with a companion, so you’re just debuffing yourself almost all the time for no apparent reason. I know plenty of introverts who don’t hyperventilate the moment someone else walks into a room, so this one gets a thumbs down.
Spaced
Your poor body never got used to space, so you have reduced health and oxygen while you’re out in the last frontier. There’s no roleplaying potential here except what you make of it in your imagination, so this is just another debuff without an actual point.
Terra Firma
Terra Firma is the same, but for when you’re on solid ground. Accidents will happen in space, though, and you’re in space an awful lot for this to be a good tradeoff.
Taskmaster
Taskmaster gives your systems a 50/50 chance of restoring themselves when damaged, which sounds great. The downside is that you have to pay double to hire crew members, and they’re not cheap to begin with. At least you’re paying them extra to crunch for you, so that’s something.
Raised Enlightened
This one gives you some nice roleplaying background, a unique trove of items from the Enlightened headquarters on New Atlantis, and a few lines of unique dialogue when you chat with proponents of Enlightened philosophy. That’s pretty much it.
Raised Universal
Raised Universal is the opposite. You lose access to the Enlightened chest and get the Sanctum chest instead. You should be listening to both sides anyway, really. The Sanctum and Enlightened factions have some of the best lore for fans of history, religion, and philosophy.
Extrovert
Extrovert is introvert’s opposite and buffs your oxygen when you travel with a companion. That’s much more useful than Introvert, and I can easily imagine someone spiraling into breathless anxiety if they were sat alone in space, with no one around for miles.
Neon Street Rat
These next three are pretty interchangeable, but I liked Street Rat the least. You’re supposed to get better rewards from Neon requests, which is nice, but the unique dialogue options were pretty disappointing. Nearly everyone in Neon brushed it off when I said I grew up on the streets there. One even essentially said “Big deal, you ain’t from here now.”
Truly a hard-knock life for my poor little street rat.
Freestar Collective Settler
Freestar Settler gives you better rewards if you join the Freestar Rangers – which you should, as they’re an interesting faction – and some unique dialogue options in Freestar Collective systems. The FC is generally a nicer set of systems compared to Neon, so the dialogue options are halfway decent and have some decent roleplaying payoff.
United Colonies Native
The United Colonies are such a mess of militarism and attempts at normal democracy. I jumped at any chance to learn more about the people there and the tangled web of war crimes and whitewashing that undergird UC society. The dialogue options don’t go that deep, admittedly, but it’s a nice complement to the Vanguard faction.
Wanted
Getting jumped by random mercenaries sounds incredibly annoying, and it is sometimes. Defeating them gives you a steady stream of XP, though, and you also deal more damage when your health is lower. It’s not spectacular, but at least it’s helpful.
Empath
Being an empath in Starfield means getting a combat buff when you do something your companions like. Assuming you don’t play as an Introvert, that buff is going to pop up quite a bit as you complete the main quest and side quests, so it’s a pretty nifty trait to go with.
You also gain “self-doubt” debuffs if you do something they dislike, so don’t do theft and murder while your friends are around.
Dream Home
Owning a home is just as much a dream in Starfield’s future as it is in the present, but for the exceptionally low price of 50,000 credits, you can start your journey with one already in the bank. 50,000 credits is nothing, even in the early game. It’s as good as an inheritance, only without someone having to die for you to get it.
Hero Worshipped
Hero Worshipped gets you an Adoring Fan who follows you forever. Yes, that’s just a nice way of saying he stalks you, but he also gives you free stuff, is willing to pay for the privilege of basking in your grace, and carries a ton of stuff so you don’t get encumbered. It’s an unhealthy parasocial relationship, but hey, at least you get some nice perks out of it.
Kid Stuff
Kid Stuff blends roleplaying with practical benefits, and it’s just really, really cute sometimes too. Your parents live in a New Atlantis apartment, and they’re just so gosh-darn proud of what you’ve accomplished (and, handily, don’t know all the bad stuff you’ve probably done). They’ll come up with rare gifts for you sometimes, including a relic of Constellation’s past. They turn up in unlikely places, too. I caught them red-handed in Neon’s Astral Lounge, where dear ol’ ma was about to try the mind-altering drug Aurora.
You send 500 credits home every week, but that’s the equivalent of pocket change in Starfield.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
