Should you spare or kill Ron Hope in Starfield?

Choosing whether to spare or kill Ron Hope in Starfield during The Hammer Falls mission is a tough choice as you're the judge, jury, and maybe the executioner in this situation - or maybe you're interested in extorting as much money as possible from this whole fiasco while getting your Freestar Ranger badge. Whatever your approach in Starfield, the Ron Hope choice isn't as impactful as it sounds, but it might be good to be aware of the decision you've go to make. Below, I've laid out all the choices associated with killing or sparing Ron Hope in Starfield and all the consequences and rewards for each one, bringing the Starfield Freestar Rangers questline to an end.

It should go without saying, spoilers for the end of The Hammer Falls mission in Starfield to follow.

The Hammer Falls choice in Starfield explained

The choice about whether to spare or kill Ron Hope in Starfield doesn't have too much of a divergence, but there are four outcomes (though in actuality the last three are minor variations on the same one):

• Try to arrest and kill Ron Hope (recommended)
• Accept Ron Hope's bribe of 20,000 credits and spare him
• Use the Negotiation Skill to accept Ron Hope's bribe and raise it to 50,000 credits
• Spare Ron Hope without taking a bribe

To explain this choice, Ron Hope is clearly guilty of having poisoned farmers' land to make it more mineral rich, then hiring the mercenaries known as the First to try and force the farmers to leave land later so he can claim those minerals for his industry - a scheme he's willing to stop doing now that he's been caught. However, he's on the Council of Governors that runs the Freestar Collective, and owns the HopeTech corporation, and he warns that arresting him will cause political chaos and collapse a business that supports thousands of people. To sweeten the pot, he offers you a bribe in exchange for the evidence against him, tells you to pretend you don't know about his involvement, and says he'll financially support the families of those who died to the First as recompense. 

If you try to arrest him, he'll make it violent, not willing to go down without a fight - so the choice is ultimately to let him go consequence-free, lining your pockets in the process, or dispense some frontier justice and turn him into a thin red mist. There is no way to bring in Ron Hope alive, so he either stays in power, or gets killed.

Should you spare or kill Ron Hope?

We'll cover the consequences of both outcomes below, but we think you should arrest/kill Ron Hope, as that's the more narratively satisfying outcome, there's no negative consequences to doing it, despite his threats, and the money, while appealing, isn't a huge deal when cash in Starfield is generally relatively easy to obtain.

Kill Ron Hope

If you choose to kill Ron Hope, there won't be any bonus financial reward beyond the minor credits and ammo you can pick off him and his security detail for doing so. His assistant then admits to you in dialogue that HopeTech will probably endure despite this, as one man dying probably isn't going to drag down a full interplanetary conglomerate.

Afterwards you go back to the Freestar Rangers and explain everything that's happened, and while the Marshall is a bit bothered that you shot a member of the Council of Governors, Hope was provably guilty and attacked an officer attempting to arrest him, so the whole thing is waved off after a bit of bickering.

Afterwards, you're made a proper Ranger, and given credits, special weapons, gear, and even a free new ship that's specialised for combat and disabling enemy craft, clearly designed for those who know how to dock in Starfield and board ships. These last rewards do not change no matter what you do or what choice you make - no matter whether you kill or spare Ron Hope, this outcome and rewards are fixed.

Spare Ron Hope

If you choose to spare Ron Hope, your companions will probably disapprove of you - he is pretty villainous - but he'll pay you 20,000 credits, increased to 50,000 if you have the Negotiation skill (though if you pick certain dialogue options, you can spare him without getting paid a bean).

Either way, the result is the same - Hope continues without consequences. And no, you can't turn around and betray Ron Hope to the authorities afterwards, there's simply no dialogue option to do so. After you get back to the Rock, the only option is to lie and say that the trail went cold after Paxton. While the Marshall is disappointed that the greater villain remains unknown, he's impressed that you took on the First effectively by yourself, and makes you a Ranger with all the above rewards mentioned.

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