Starfield Perks Guide: All perks explained, best perks

What are the best Starfield Perks?

Starfield features dozens of different perks, but you’re going to have to pick carefully which ones you take with you on your journey.

While you’ll eventually be able to fill up the skill tree due to recent revelations about Starfield’s level cap, during your first run through the game, you’ll likely want to know which perks are the best ones to pick to have the best Starfield experience.

Starfield Guides:

Starfield New Game Plus | Starfield Contraband | Crimson Fleet quests | Ryujin Industries quests | Freestar Collective quests | Starfield fast XP gain | Starfield boost pack | Starfield console commands

Starfield Perks Guide: How Perks Work

Every time you level up in Starfield, you’ll be given a skill point. You can use these skill points to either purchase new perks, or you can upgrade a perk you’ve previously purchased IF you’ve completed the prerequisite challenge.

For example, if you’ve chosen the first rank of the Marksmanship perk, you’ll be tasked with getting 10 critical hits. Once you do this, you can then use a further skill point to unlock the next level of the skill, and thus another challenge.

All skills have four ranks associated with them. There are also four tiers of skills. In order to unlock later skills, you’ll have to invest points into that tree, whether it be Physical, Social, Combat, Science, or Tech.

Starfield Perks Guide: Essential Perks

Boost Pack Training – In order to use your Boost Pack in Starfield, you’re going to have to choose the Boost Pack Training skill. The Boost Pack is ideal for flanking around enemies, and it makes getting across the world of Starfield much easier.

Stealth – Starfield has a Stealth system, and a stealth meter, but this will only appear once you’ve chosen the Stealth skill with one of your skill points.

Pickpocketing – You’re able to pickpocket pretty much any character in the game, but in order to do this, you’ll need to select the pickpocketing skill first.

Lockpicking – Much like in previous Bethesda games, you’re able to pick the lock of several doors throughout the world of Starfield. In order to do this, you’ll need Digipicks, and you’ll also need the Lockpicking skill.

You can find more information about how the Starfield lockpicking mechanics work in our extended guide.

Starfield Perks Guide: All Perks Explained

Physical Perks

Tier 1

• Boxing
  • Unarmed attacks do more damage.
• Fitness
  • You have more oxygen available.
• Stealth
  •  Adds a Stealth Meter. You are more difficult to detect while sneaking. Suppressed weapons do more damage.
• Weight Lifting
  • Your carry weight is increased.
• Wellness
  • Your maximum health is increased.

Tier 2

• Energy Weapon Dissipation
  • Energy damage is reduced.
• Environmental Conditioning
  • Gain resistance against airborne, thermal, and other planet-related damage.
• Gymnastics
  • Unlocks the combat slide. Take less fall damage.
• Nutrition
  • Food and drink are more effective.
• Pain Tolerance
  • Physical damage is reduced.

Tier 3 

• Cellular Regeneration
  • Increased chance to recover from injuries naturally.
• Decontamination
  • Increased chance to recover from infections naturally.
• Martial Arts
  • Increased chance to crit with a melee or unarmed attack.

Tier 4

• Concealment
  • You no longer set off enemy mines. Ranged attacks do more damage. Sneaking attacks do 4x damage.
• Neurostrikes
  • Increased chance to stun an NPC with an unarmed attack.
• Rejuvenation
  • Slowly regenerate health outside of combat.

Social Perks

Tier 1 

• Commerce
  • Get discounts from vendors, and sell your items for more credits.
• Gastronomy
  • You can now craft specialty food and drinks, and research additional recipes at a Research Lab.
• Persuasion
  • Increased chance of success when persuading someone.
• Scavenging
  • Increased chance to find extra credits when looting.
• Theft
  • Unlocks the ability to pickpocket targets. Further tiers increase your chance of success.

Tier 2 

•  Deception
  • Ships are more likely to surrender to piracy demands.
• Diplomacy
  • You can force enemy NPCs to stop fighting. This also unlocks some dialogue options.
• Intimidation
  •  You can force enemies to flee.
• Isolation
  • Do more damage and have more resistance when you don’t have a companion or any crew.
• Negotiation
  • You can now bribe characters as part of speech checks.

Tier 3

• Instigation
  • You can force low-level NPCs to attack each other.
• Leadership
  • Companions gain affinity faster.
• Outpost Management
  •  Place more cargo links at outposts.

Tier 4

• Manipulation
  • You can force NPCs to obey commands.
• Ship Command
  • You can increase your active crew members.
• Xenosociology
  •  You can force alien creatures to stop attacking, or attack their allies.

Combat Perks

Tier 1 

• Ballistics
  • Ballistic weapons do more damage.
• Dueling
  • Melee weapons to more damage.
• Lasers
  • Laser weapons do more damage.
• Pistol Certification
  • Pistols do more damage.
• Shotgun Certification
  • Shotguns use more damage.

Tier 2

• Demolitions
  • Grenades have a further trajectory and do more damage.
• Heavy Weapons Certification
  • Heavy weapons do more damage.
• Incapacitation
  • EM weapons do more damage.
• Particle Beams
  • Particle beams do more damage.
• Rifle Certification
  • Rifles do more damage.

Tier 3

• Marksmanship
  • Increased critical hit damage with ranged weapons.
• Rapid Reloading
  • Weapons reload faster.
• Sniper Certification
  • Scoped weapons are steadier and have less sway.
• Targeting
  • Increased accuracy without aiming.

Tier 4

• Armor Penetration
  • Chance to ignore your target’s armor.
• Crippling
  • Human enemies have an increased chance of going into a downed state.
• Sharpshooting
  • Increased headshot damage with ranged weapons.

Science Perks

Tier 1

• Astrodynamics
  • Increased grav jump range.
• Geology
  • Get more common and uncommon inorganic resources from planetary objects.
• Medicine
  • Med packs and other healing items are more effective.
• Research Methods
  • Resources required to craft are reduced by 10%.
• Surveying
  • Adds a zoom to the hand scanner and increases scanning distance.

Tier 2

• Botany
  • Get further organic resources from planets.
• Scanning
  • You can detect uncommon inorganic resources on planet and moon surfaces.
• Spacesuit Design
  • You can now craft improved spacesuits, helmets, and pack mods.
• Weapon Engineering
  • You can now craft improved weapon mods at a weapon workbench.
• Zoology
  • Get more common organic resources from creatures and harvest from them without harming them, learn additional info about them from the scanner, and also allow you to produce animal resources at your outposts.

Tier 3

• Astrophysics
  • You can scan planets and moons throughout the systems without having to land on them.
• Chemistry
  • You can create improved chems and research additional chems at the Research Lab.
• Outpost Engineering
  • You can now construct improved outpost modules and research additional modules at the Research Lab.

Tier 4

• Aneutronic Fusion
  • Ship reactors produce more power.
• Planetary Habitation
  • You can now build outposts on planets with the Tempero Extremis planet status.
• Special Projects
  • You can research experimental projects at a Research Lab.

Tech Perks

Tier 1

• Ballistic Weapon Systems
  • Ballistic weapons now do more damage.
• Boost Pack Training
  • You can now use the boost pack. Further tiers increase the effectiveness of the packs.
• Piloting
  • You can now utilize in-ship thrusters. Further tiers allow you to pilot higher-tier ships.
• Security
  • You can now attempt to hack advanced locks. Further tiers include more difficult locks.
• Targeting Control Systems
  • You can now use your ship’s targetting functionality.

Tier 2

• Energy Weapon Systems
  • Energy weapons on ships now do more damage.
• Engine Systems
  • Your ship’s top speed is increased.
• Payloads
  • Your ship’s cargo has more capacity.
• Shield Systems
  • Your ship has an increased shield capacity.

Tier 3

• Missle Weapon Systems
  • Missile weapons do more damage.
• Particle Beam Weapon Systems
  • Particle beam weapons do more damage.
• Robotics
  • You do more damage to robots and turrets.
• Starship Design
  • You can now install improved ship modules.
• Starship Engineering
  • Ships now repair faster.

Tier 4

• Automated Weapon Systems
  • Automated ship weapons do significantly more damage.
• Boost Assault Training
  • Enemies have a chance to take damage when you use your boost pack.
• EM Weapon Systems
  • EM Weapons are vastly improved.