Picking some Starfield traits is the final step in creating your spacefaring character, adding some flavor and small buffs, but also a few penalties. The traits available in Starfield range from things like aligning with particular religious groups or factions to being introverted, empathetic, or having an Adoring Fan who is creepily obsessed with you.
Since there are some drawbacks to each trait, you might think twice about picking ones that sound useful, or write off surprisingly good options, so you've got to consider traits carefully which ones you want – if any! To help you out, we’ve detailed all the Starfield traits available, what they all do, and the best ones to pick.
Best Starfield traits
The best Starfield traits are tricky to pick with a complex balance of pros and cons these are some solid options for your character:
- Any Faction trait: If a particular faction calls to you, such as the UC or the Freestar Collective, pick the relevant faction trait to help you get along with them and get better rewards and specific dialogue options.
- Empath: Having one of the Starfield companions around is always helpful, but you need to make sure you’ve got someone around that likes what you do to get the full benefits of the Empath trait. Act in ways that your companion approves of and you’ll frequently have a buff for combat.
- Hero Worshipped: The fact that the Adoring Fan can be used as a ship crew member early on is very useful. You can also ship him off to an outpost to get him out of your way.
- Serpent’s Embrace: The health and oxygen boosts are always useful to have, and Starfield grav jumping is pretty common if you’re travelling throughout the stars a lot. That means it’s rare to not have the buff, though you do sacrifice the other religion options.
- Taskmaster: If you plan on piloting a large ship with a solid crew, the repair benefits from Taskmaster will help you keep safe from pirates and other spacefaring aggressors. You will need to have a good flow of income to finance your crew, but missions generally pay pretty well anyway.
How do Starfield traits work?
After you’ve chosen your Starfield background, you’ll then get the option to add up to three Starfield traits to your character – there are 17 to choose from, though they’re not compulsory, so you don’t have to choose any if you don’t want to! Each trait adds a little more flavor to your character by adding a nice benefit but also a limitation or penalty. Depending on your playstyle, or allegiance to a group, faction, or religion, you might be willing to take the downsides for the advantages you get in return.
However, not all traits are compatible with each other, so you’ll find that choosing one will lock you out of choosing others – you can’t be an Introvert and an Extrovert, for example, or a member of multiple religions of factions. Your choice of background also has no effect on the traits available to your Starfield character.
Once you’ve chosen your traits, they are always active, unless there’s a condition that causes them to deactivate temporarily. Based on what we’ve played, it appears that some traits can be removed permanently, and each one seems to be removed in a particular way. For example, you can simply dismiss or assassinate your Adoring Fan to stop them following you, or leave most religions. As far as we know, there’s also no way to pick up more Starfield traits or replace ones you’ve permanently removed as you play.
All Starfield traits
Here are all 17 Starfield traits:
- 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
- Wanted
Below we'll explain in more detail, with all the pros and cons they provide. We’ve also laid out details on how to remove certain traits and any extra information on how a trait works:
STARFIELD ALIEN DNA TRAIT
- Pros: Increased health and oxygen.
- Cons: Healing items are less effective.
- How to remove the Alien DNA trait: Visit a doctor in a city and you can pay them to remove the DNA spliced into you, permanently removing the trait.
STARFIELD DREAM HOME TRAIT
- Pros: You start with a luxurious, customizable house on a peaceful planet.
- Cons: You have to pay off a 125,000-credit mortgage. Must be paid weekly.
STARFIELD EMPATH TRAIT
- Pros: Performing actions that your companion approves of grants a temporary increase in combat effectiveness.
- Cons: Performing actions that your companion disapproves of grants a temporary decrease in combat effectiveness.
STARFIELD EXTROVERT TRAIT
- Pros: Actions that use oxygen (sprinting, for example) consume less oxygen when you have a human companion following you.
- Cons: Actions that use oxygen consume more oxygen when you don’t have a companion.
- Additional notes: Can't be combined with Introvert trait.
STARFIELD FREESTAR COLLECTIVE SETTLER TRAIT
- Pros: Gain access to special Freestar Collective dialogue options and better faction rewards during relevant missions.
- Cons: Crime bounties towards other factions are greatly increased.
- Additional notes: This is a faction allegiance trait and can’t be combined with any other allegiance traits for Starfield factions.
STARFIELD HERO WORSHIPPED TRAIT
- Pros: You get an Adoring Fan who can join your ship’s crew and will give you gifts.
- Cons: The Adoring Fan will show up randomly and “jabber at you incessantly”.
- Additional notes: It seems like using the Adoring Fan as a ship crewmate keeps them out of your way, so they’re a good free crew member.
- How to remove the Hero Worshipped trait: You can dismiss or kill the Adoring Fan to get rid of them – you monster.
STARFIELD INTROVERT TRAIT
- Pros: Actions that use oxygen consume less oxygen when you don’t have any companions following you.
- Cons: Actions that use oxygen consume more oxygen when you have a human companion following you.
- Additional notes: Can't be combined with Extrovert trait.
STARFIELD KID STUFF TRAIT
- Pros: You can visit your Starfield parents at their home in the Pioneer Tower in New Atlantis. Go to your bedroom to collect the High School Backpack, which adds 10kg to your maximum Starfield carrying capacity while worn.
- Cons: You automatically send 2% of all your credits to your parents each in-game week.
- Additional notes: You can collect the High School Backpack, which adds 10kg to your maximum Starfield carrying capacity while worn, from your old bedroom. You get more gifts from them as you play – we were given a very nice pistol on one occasion, as well as a family recipe. Your parents can also embarrass you by visiting your new Constellation friends in the Lodge.
- How to remove the Kid Stuff Starfield trait: You can have a tough conversation with your parents by telling them you can’t afford to send them credits anymore. This permanently removes the Kid Stuff Starfield trait, as your parents say they need to find somewhere cheaper to live so you won’t be seeing them for a long time.
STARFIELD NEON STREET RAT TRAIT
- Pros: Access to special dialogue options and better rewards for some missions on Neon.
- Cons: Crime bounty by other factions is greatly increased.
- Additional notes: This is a faction allegiance trait and can’t be combined with any other allegiance traits for factions.
STARFIELD RAISED ENLIGHTENED TRAIT
- Pros: Gain access to a special chest of items in the House of the Enlightened in New Atlantis.
- Cons: Lose access to the Sanctum Universum chest.
- Additional notes: This is a religion trait and cannot be combined with other religion traits. The chest can be found in the Enlightened church in New Atlantis. It contains med packs and some other things but really isn’t useful later in the game. Pick this up as soon as you arrive on Jemison for an early boost.
- How to remove the Raised Enlightened trait: Visit an Enlightened priest and tell them that you no longer believe. This removes the trait and therefore access to the chest, so make sure you loot it first.
STARFIELD RAISED UNIVERSAL TRAIT
- Pros: Gain access to a special chest of items in the Sanctum Universum in New Atlantis.
- Cons: Lose access to the House of the Enlightened chest.
- Additional notes: This is a religion trait and cannot be combined with other religion traits. The chest can be found in the Universal church in New Atlantis. It contains med packs and some other things but really isn’t useful later in the game. Pick this up as soon as you arrive on Jemison for an early boost.
- How to remove the Raised Universal trait: Visit a Universal priest and tell them that you no longer believe. This removes the trait and therefore access to the chest, so make sure you loot it first.
STARFIELD SERPENT'S EMBRACE TRAIT
- Pros: Grav jumping in your ship provides +25 boost to your health and oxygen. Also unlocks special dialogue options with the Va’Ruun zealot faction.
- Cons: Health and oxygen are reduced if you don’t grav jump regularly – once every four hours in real time.
- Additional notes: This is a religion trait and cannot be combined with other religion traits. You can see a timer under your character’s Status Effects telling you when the Serpent’s Embrace buff runs out, so do a grav jump to reset it back to four hours.
STARFIELD SPACED TRAIT
- Pros: Health and oxygen are increased when in space.
- Cons: Health and oxygen are decreased when on the surface
- Additional notes: Can't be combined with the Terra Firma trait.
STARFIELD TASKMASTER TRAIT
- Pros: If you have a crew member trained in a certain ship system, that system will occasionally repair itself automatically to full health whenever it is below 50% health.
- Cons: All crew members cost twice as much to hire.
STARFIELD TERRA FIRMA TRAIT
- Pros: Health and oxygen are increased when on the surface.
- Cons: Health and oxygen are decreased when in space,
- Additional notes: Can't be combined with the Spaced trait.
STARFIELD UNITED COLONIES NATIVE TRAIT
- Pros: Gain access to special United Colonies dialogue options and better faction rewards during relevant missions.
- Cons: Crime bounties towards other factions are greatly increased.
- Additional notes: This is a faction allegiance trait and can’t be combined with any other allegiance traits for factions.
STARFIELD WANTED TRAIT
- Pros: Deal extra damage when your health is low.
- Cons: Armed mercenaries will randomly appear and attack you.
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