Starfield Direct featured an extensive overview of the upcoming RPG’s extremely detailed character creation and customization options. As a role-playing game, Starfield’s character customization takes cues from many classic RPGs. And as the gameplay deep dive showcased, the choices you make here have very tangible impact throughout the ensuing journey.
The option to choose Starfield background and traits for your character comes as part of the character creation, right after you have finalized appearance either by choosing a preset or meticulously tinkering with tons of sliders. While your visual appearance does not have any discernible effect in gameplay, backgrounds and traits absolutely do. They not only help to flesh out your character out of a blank slate but also occasionally impacts how you approach certain situations in the game.
Starfield Backgrounds
Background help you flesh out a backstory for your character by defining their role in society. You will be able to choose from a host of different backgrounds, each of which will grant you with three starting abilities from a pool of many. These abilities can be further explored and upgraded in-game as you earn more XP. These skills include increased weapons damage for combat-oriented backgrounds, the ability to bargain and diplomatically handle tense situations, extra protection in terms of HP with the medicine-oriented background, and extra stealth skills to pull off not-so-legal activities.
In Starfield Direct, we got a glimpse of these 16 backgrounds:
- Beast Hunter
- Bouncer
- Bounty Hunter
- Chef
- Combat Medic
- Cyber Runner
- Cyberneticist
- Diplomat
- Explorer
- Gangster
- Homesteader
- Industrialist
- Long Hauler
- Pilgrim
- Professor
- Ronin
Among these, Bethesda revealed the starting skills granted with the following six Starfield backgrounds:
Chef
Starting skills
- Gastronomy: Craft special food and drink, and research additional recipes
- Dueling: 10% more melee damage
- Scavenging: gather more loot from chests
Combat Medic
Starting skills:
- Pistol certification: 10% extra pistol damage
- Medicine: 10% more healing from health packs
- Wellness: gain an extra 30 health points
Cyber Runner
Starting skills:
- Stealth: Lower chance of being detected while sneaking
- Security: able to hack level 2 locks and bank two auto attempts
- Theft: increased chance of success on speech challenges
Cyberneticist
Starting skills:
- Medicine: 10% more healing from health packs
- Security: able to hack level 2 locks and bank two auto attempts
- Lasers: 10% more laser weapons damage
Diplomat
Starting skills:
- Persuasion: increased chance of success on speech challenges
- Commerce: buy items at a cheaper rate, and sell them at a higher rate
- Wellness: gain an extra 30 health points
Explorer
Starting skills:
- Lasers: 10% more laser weapons damage
- Astrodynamics: your ship’s grav drive takes less resource
- Surveying: easier scanning of the flora and fauna
Starfield Traits
After you choose your Starfield background, character traits are an additional layer of customization at your disposal. You can trace the root of character traits back to the classic 2D Fallout titles and New Vegas, and there they added a charming flavor in each playthrough. You can choose up to three Starfield traits for a single character, from a pool of 16+.
Unlike backgrounds, all traits come with some downsides alongside their benefits. While certain Starfield traits allow you safe passage through a particularly rough patch of space dominated by people that hail from your religion (associated with your trait), you’ll also encounter additional wrath when confronting members from its adversary religion. Some traits will offer allegiance to a particular faction, with rival factions immediately deeming you as an enemy.
Choosing traits in Starfield is completely optional, and the developers even confirmed that you will be able to get rid of them during your playthrough in various unique ways.
These are all of the 16 confirmed Starfield traits available in the game’s character creation menu:
- Alien DNA
- Dream Home
- Empath
- Extrovert
- Freestar Collective Settler
- Hero Worshipped
- Introvert
- Kid Stuff
- Neon Street Rat
- Raised Enlightened
- Raised Universal
- Serpent’s Embrace
- Spaced
- Taskmaster
- Terra Firma
- United Colonies Native
- Unwanted Hero
Among these, we got glimpses on the details of the six following traits during Starfield Direct:
Hero Worshipped
Pro: You gain the attention of an adoring fan who can randomly show up at any time, join your party, and offer you gifts
Con: The fan keeps jabbering on incessantly and can be pretty annoying
This is an The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion easter egg. Poking fun at the wildly annoying nature of the interaction with him, the developers implied the player character murdering him, in order to get rid of him once and for all.
Introvert
Pro: You gains extra endurance while taking on any missions alone
Con: Your endurance drains while undertaking missions with other human companions
Kid Stuff
Pro: Your parents are alive and healthy and you can visit them at their home
Con: 2% of all the money you ear gets automatically deducted and sent to parents.
Neon Street Rat
Pro: You gain access to special dialogue options, and gain better rewards in certain missions on Neon
Con: Increase in crime bounty by other factions
This trait cannot be combined with any other faction allegiance trait, such as Freestar Collective Settler.
Raised Enlightened
Pro: You gain a significant amount of discount at the Enlightened store
Con: You cannot access the Sanctum Universum store
This Starfield trait cannot be combined with any other religious trait, such as Raised Universal trait and Serpent’s embrace trait.
Raised Universal
Pro: You gain a significant amount of discount at the Sanctum Universum store
Con: You cannot access the Enlightened store
This trait cannot be combined with any other religious trait, such as Raised Enlightened trait and Serpent’s Embrace trait.
