Starfield mods are here, even before the game has completed its first day in early access. From reshades to performance boosters, the game has received more than 50 mods on the very first day. Bethesda games have a bustling and extremely active modding community, as visible from many many Skyrim and Fallout mods out there.
In this post, we will take a look at some of the best Starfield mods that have surfaced on the first day of the game’s early access release. Kudos to modders who have worked within such a tight timeframe to offer enhanced (or at least unique) experiences for their spacefaring friends.
1. Starfield Upscaler
Probably one of the most requested Starfield mods, the Starfield Upscaler mod by Nexus Mods user PureDark enables players to replace the game’s native support of FSR2 with DLSS or XeSS. After the AMD-Bethesda exclusivity deal was announced, fans across the world expressed their discontent about the lack of upscaling support for players who use Nvidia or Intel GPUs. This mod rights that wrong, enabling PC players with non-AMD hardware to switch the native FSR2 upscaling to support Nvidia’s DLSS or Intel’s XeSS.
2. Potato Graphics
The Potato Graphics Starfield mod allows players to lower the graphics quality in order to enjoy a better, faster performance. According to the creator of this mod, using this mod can enable almost a 50% increase in the framerate of the game. There are four settings available in this mod, namely Good Potato, Decent Potato, Bad Potato, and Pixel Heaven. The good potato lowers the quality of graphics so it’s a little blurry and the quality keeps decreasing till Pixel Heaven, wherein the game becomes completely undecipherable. This could be a boon to players working with an average or less-than-recommended GPU if they don’t mind a little pixelation.
3. Skip Launch Video
Many players, especially ones who have completed one playthrough and have jumped back into a New Game Plus mode, wish they could simply skip the launch video in order to get straight to gameplay. This Starfield mod by Nexus Mods user enables them to do exactly that. Using this Skip Launch Video Starfield mod will allow players to immediately jump into the game, without having to sit through the five-second launch video that features Bethesda and Starfield logo animations.
4. Kill Essential NPCs
In Starfield, if you decide to shoot an essential NPC, they will go down, flop around a little, and ultimately stand up and go about their business as if nothing has happened. However, this clearly doesn’t fly with everyone. Kill Essential NPCs Starfield mod enables players to kill any essential NPCs so when they go down, they stay down. For players with extreme rage issues, this modder has created an immediate solution – in a long and proud tradition of Bethesda game mods designed for killing essential NPCs. Skyrim has one, Fallout 4 has one, and now Starfield has one.
5. George Costanza Preset
This particularly hilarious mod enables players to unlock a character preset that bears an extraordinary resemblance to George Costanza from the famed 90s sitcom, Seinfeld. Now, it’s beyond logical reasoning as to why one would spend two hours (as claimed by the creator of this mod) to customize their character to look like George, of all possible characters in pop media. Wouldn’t Kramer make a more visually interesting-looking character, even if it can’t do the trademark shudder? Maybe they’re disturbed, depressed, or inadequate. But hey, why not? A little respect for the king of idiots!
6. All Weapons, Ammo, Space Suits, and Skills
This Starfield mod does exactly what the name suggests. For players who want to pimp their character up at the very beginning without having to go through the main story in order to gradually achieve and unlock various in-game resources, this mod simply unlocks them. Players can experiment with every possible weapon, space suit, and skill in the game right away. While it takes away the challenge and fun of exploration and the rewarding experience of achieving them, it might be fun to become an all-powerful character at the very beginning of the second playthrough.
7. FOV Changer Mods
Many PC players have vocalized their complaints about the lack of customizations for their field-of-vision (FOV) settings, forcing them to accept the stock settings. As of now, a couple of Starfield mods are available on Nexus Mods to counter this problem, such as the Starfield FOV mod by user Hellstorm102. This particular mod allows players to tweak the FOV settings in both the first and the third person, enabling them to increase or decrease their FOV, thereby enabling them to capture more or less visual information at a time, based on their preferences. There are also multiple other mods already available that allow players to endlessly customize their FOV apart from this one.
8. Move or Disable XP Bar
A large number of fans were annoyed about the placement of the XP bar that shows up in the smack middle of the screen whenever they achieve a target or kill an enemy. Right after it was revealed during the Starfield Direct, players were worried about the placement of the XP bar and its effect on the gameplay experience. Many believed it would break the immersion immediately. This Move or Disable XP Bar Starfield mod enables players to either get rid of the XP bar completely or change its placement to a corner so it doesn’t affect their field of vision.
9. Deep Space ReShade
The Deep Space ReShade mod is perfect for players who aren’t completely impressed by Bethesda’s version and vision of the game’s universe. This mod reinvents the game’s color palette, sharpening certain elements, and offering a more cinematic look to the game. The shadows and lights look brilliant in the images offered by the modder, however, we have not yet tested how this will affect the game’s performance.
There are also plenty of other ReShade Starfield mods available on Nexus Mods that allow you to view the game’s massive universe in a completely different light. Some focus on coloring and lighting, while others experiment with graphical enhancement to make the game’s world look more life-like.
