Base Building in Starfield: How it Works

Base Building in Starfield is one of the most complex systems in the game, and one that you can spend hours upon hours of play time on.

This is what base building in Starfield can do

For being an entirely optional feature, Base Building in Starfield is very complex and can do quite a bit.

• Generally, base building consists of three components: Placing an outpost beacon, building a factory and building a base.

• Before you get into the other functions of the Outpost, you must first place an Outpost Beacon. This will mainly mark out the area on a planet that you will have access to with the rest of the components.

• Within this radius, you can now build a factory to mine, store and transport the minerals and construct a habitable base.

• While this all sounds very simple at first, the systems go quite deep. A factory needs an active power grid to run the drilling equipment and containers to store the minerals. Depending on what you want to mine, you need different equipment. Of course, you also need resources to make the equipment.

• You can also let off steam when building the shelters and design and customise the living quarters down to the last detail. Once you have completed the living quarters, members of your crew can be employed there to promote production.

Base Building in Starfield – just a few steps to the Outpost

To turn an area in Starfield into an outpost, only a few steps are necessary at first. It’s only when it comes to base building that things get complicated.

• One important thing to know first: Setting up an outpost beacon is free of charge, but you cannot set up an unlimited number of outposts. At the beginning of the game, a maximum of 8 outposts can be built, but this can be increased to up to 24 outposts by increasing the Planetary Habitation skill. The skill is also important because it allows you to build outposts on planets with extreme environmental conditions.
• Once you have chosen a planet on which you want to start the base building, land on it and activate the scanner function. At the bottom of the screen you should now see the Outposts option. If this is greyed out, it may be because you are on a planet with extreme environmental conditions and you lack the Planetary Habitation skill.
• All the equipment you place to mine resources needs a power source. At the bottom of the screen you will see how much energy you need to run all the machines. There are different energy sources available to you. However, keep in mind that the yield of solar energy varies depending on how much sun your outpost’s planet gets.
• At an industrial workbench, which you will find in most towns and in the basement of the lodge, you make processed materials. Optionally, both raw recyclables and processed materials can be bought from NPCs such as the merchants in the towns. If you can spare the money, this is also the best way to start, as otherwise you will have to laboriously mine minerals by hand on your travels.
• For fuel-powered generators, you must ensure that they do not run out of petrol so that production does not come to a standstill. Generally, it is sufficient to simply place the power source near the machines so that they are supplied with energy. However, you can also specifically connect individual machines to a power source through cables to restrict the supply to them.
• Now you can expand your outpost. Go into build mode and select the components you want to build or place. On the right side you will now see the individual categories that you can navigate through. Greyed out items require materials that you do not currently possess. Most equipment requires a mix of unprocessed and processed materials to build.
• In addition, if you have built containers to store the mined resources, link them to the drills so that the resources can be placed there. The linking feature can also automate the power supply if you also have a Helium-3 deposit on your outpost, as the generators are powered by this very resource.
• Now press the R key on the keyboard or the X key on the controller. Now it’s a matter of placing an Outpost Beacon. At the top left of the screen you will see at all times what resources are in the current potential radius. Once you are satisfied with the occurrences, place the beacon.
• Base building is similar to factory building. Note, however, that you must place an airlock to make the building habitable. Once you have built a habitable building, you can assign members of your crew to work on your outpost. To do this, navigate to the character overview and click on the ship menu at the bottom left. This is where you assign your crew to specific outposts.