Starfield "A High Price to Pay" Quest Walkthrough Guide

The main story of Starfield might feel somewhat slow and disappointing at the beginning, but it gains momentum once you are prompted to visit The Scow and obtain an artifact from a renowned collector. Once you return to the lodge after acquiring the artifact, the quest "A High Price to Pay" begins.

During this quest, you must decide between staying at the lodge or proceeding to the Eye, and this will likely be one of the most crucial decisions in the game. Here is everything that changes based on your choice.

Getting The Choice At The Lodge

If you return to the lodge after the quest "No Sudden Moves," Noel will mention that the Eye has gone completely dark. After a while, you will hear Vladimir's voice mentioning that Starborn has attacked them and is now after you. He also mentions that everyone at the Eye is severely injured.

During this conversation, you will receive dialogues where you can choose either to stay at the lodge or go to the Eye. However, note that these dialogues don't make much difference as you still have the choice regardless of what is chosen. Before making a decision, there are a few things you should consider:

• During the dialogue, Vladimir mentions a character and says that they're still alive but there's a lot of blood. This will likely be Sarah, but in case he doesn't mention her during this dialogue, it's important to keep the character's name in mind.
• At the start of the No Sudden Moves quest, Vladimir will send one character with you to The Scow while the rest stay with him at The Eye.

What Happens If You Stay At The Lodge?

Once the dialogue ends, the quest will either prompt you to defend the lodge or go to the Eye. This changes shortly after when you hear some choking sounds, leading to "Check on Walter" or "Go to the Eye." This is the final point where you can make your decision, and if you go to Walter, you will choose to defend the lodge.

Once you approach him, the Hunter will appear, and you will be prompted to stop him while Noel retrieves the artifacts. The Hunter will be a formidable enemy, and even on the lowest difficulty level, you will struggle to deal damage to him. Furthermore, after a few seconds, he will also summon a shadow, essentially meaning that you will be dealing with two Hunters.

Once Noel has the artifacts, you must follow the entire group through a cellar passage that opens up in the well. This will ultimately lead you back to your ship, but the hunter will reappear at certain points. You simply need to ignore him and continue following the group until you can take off with your ship.

Then you will go to the Eye, where you will realize that you are too late and the character mentioned by Vladimir during the dialogue is already dead. He will then ask you to create an armillary sphere and keep the artifacts with you.

What Happens If You Go To The Eye?

The story takes a massive turn when you decide to leave the lodge and go to the Eye at the beginning of the quest. This time, you manage to return in time to save the character mentioned by Vladimir, and he will ask you to go back to the lodge together with this character.

Unfortunately, upon entering this area, you will find that the character who accompanied you to the Scow is lying on the ground. Either way, someone must die during this quest. You only have control over who you want to save. Aside from permanently losing a character, the story doesn't change much based on your choice.

Make sure everyone else in the lodge is doing well and go to the cellar passage to meet Noel. This time, you will only follow her until your ship, and once again, Vladimir will ask you to create an armillary sphere at the end.

How To Make The Armillary

You have the choice to create an armillary sphere either on your ship or at one of your outposts. Starborn attacks will occur more frequently regardless of where you create them, and you will be attacked everywhere if you keep them in your inventory. Here's how you can create an armillary sphere on your ship or at an outpost:

Either way, the quest ends once you go back to the lodge and speak with Matteo there. After that, you can also interact with the belongings of the deceased companion.