Starfield: The 7 Best Backgrounds

Different backgrounds in Starfield offer unique advantages such as easier mobility, combat abilities, or social skills. Therefore, choose one that suits your preferred playstyle.

For example, the Cyber Runner specializes in stealth and theft, making it a good choice if you enjoy sneaking around and pickpocketing.

The Soldier is a solid starter choice as it provides a balanced start, increasing ballistic damage, enlarging your oxygen gauge, and granting access to boost packs.

Once you're done creating your character in Starfield's character editor, you'll need to choose a background. Backgrounds determine your initial equipment and skill values. NPCs in the game will also recognize your background and react accordingly to what defines you.

The starting equipment is important. With the right background, you can navigate planets more easily or carry heavier weapons at the beginning of the game. There are over 20 different backgrounds to choose from when creating your character, but which ones give you an advantage at the start of the game?

7 Cyber Runner

• Stealth
• Security
• Theft

If your playstyle revolves around stealth kills and pickpocketing, then the Cyber Runner is an absolute must for you. The Cyber Runner is the right path for those who desire the ability to sneak through areas they shouldn't be able to access.

You cannot utilize stealth unless you unlock the physical ability for it. The Cyber Runner gives you an advantage. By upgrading this ability, you can be 25/50/75 percent less likely to be noticed. The Security ability allows you to hack complex locks, and the Theft ability unlocks the pickpocketing feature for NPCs. Instead of waiting to unlock these advantages, you can start with these abilities.

6 Cyberneticist

• Medicine
• Security
• Lasers

The Cyberneticist is a more practical embodiment of a cyber citizen, and instead of specializing in stealth and theft, you are able to inflict specialized damage and sustain yourself. This background is balanced as you receive Medicine, which enhances the effectiveness of Med Packs, and Laser, which increases the damage of laser weapons.

The increase in laser damage is 10/20/30 percent, and Med Packs heal an additional 10/20/30/50 percent. Therefore, hacking, dealing damage, and healing are all you need to get through. The Security ability allows you to hack advanced/expert/master locks and increases the number of automatic attempts by 2/3/4. The Cyberneticist values certain skills that you may not immediately realize are useful at the beginning, such as lock picking.

5 Bounty Hunter

• Piloting
• Targeting Control Systems
• Boost Pack Training

Starfield is a game about exploration. You will spend most of your time traveling with your spaceship and traversing the uncharted areas of planets. In addition to social and combat abilities, mobility skills will also be very useful.

The Bounty Hunter background grants you enhanced mobility. Piloting unlocks ship upgrades such as improved engines and maneuverability. With target control systems, you can enhance your ship's attacks by increasing the chance of critical hits and survivability. Finally, training in boost packs early in the game unlocks jetpacks.

4 Diplomat

• Persuasion
• Commerce
• Wellness

If you're not interested in increasing your combat effectiveness, you're likely more interested in the story and interacting with characters. In that case, the Diplomat background is the best option as it focuses on social skills, allowing you to talk your way through everything. This includes persuading in dialogue or negotiating for better prices with a merchant.

Persuasion increases your success chance in convincing others by 10/20/30 percent, and Trade lowers the price of items by 5/10/15/20 percent while simultaneously increasing the selling price of your own items. To compensate for the lack of combat effectiveness that comes with this background, you receive the Wellness ability, which increases a portion of your total HP by 10/20/30.

3 Gangster

• Shotgun Certification
• Boxing
• Theft

This background is heavily focused on combat abilities. The Shotgun Certification increases shotgun damage by 10/20/30 percent. The Gangster background is designed to be a strong attacker, so there's no time for flattery with this origin background. As a Gangster, you can simply take what you want from others, by any means necessary.

Theft allows you to perform pickpocketing, which you would otherwise have to unlock. Boxing also increases the damage of unarmed attacks by 25/50/75 percent and reduces oxygen consumption during these attacks. With the Boxing ability, you consume 25/50 percent less oxygen during heavy attacks. Rank 3 of Boxing ensures that running consumes 30 percent less oxygen.

2 Soldier

• Fitness
• Ballistics
• Boost Pack Training

The Soldier is a great starting background that increases ballistic damage, enlarges your oxygen gauge, and unlocks the ability to use Boost Packs (also known as Jetpacks). Boost Packs allow you to practically fly and reach great heights while exploring alien planets. Upgrading the Boost Pack abilities reduces fuel consumption and speeds up fuel regeneration.

Your oxygen gauge is important and can best be understood as an endurance bar. The Fitness ability increases the available oxygen by 10/20/30 percent. And finally, Ballistics increases the damage of ballistic weapons by 10/20/30 percent.

1 [File Not Found]

• Wellness
• Ballistics
• Piloting

This is a peculiar name for a background, but it serves its purpose. "File Not Found" is a common, well-rounded experience where you don't have a clear identity but are adept at important things. If you're unsure about which abilities to invest in, this background is a good choice.

"File Not Found" grants you increased hit points and increased damage with ballistic weapons at the beginning of the game. The "Piloting" ability is a technical skill that allows you to unlock ship-related abilities, such as easier maneuvering and the types of ships you can pilot.