Outposts in Starfield aren’t just havens for your stay, they reap in-game resources passively without costing you a fortune.
The outpost feature in Starfield is quite intriguing. While it remains entirely optional, those who choose to explore it can enjoy a range of advantages that significantly enhance their gameplay. The outpost system serves two main purposes:
Initially, you can establish your own base on a fascinating planet you’ve discovered. Additionally, you can construct a productive outpost that generates resources passively while providing additional cargo and inventory capacity. This comprehensive guide will walk you through all the essential considerations before embarking on your outpost-building journey in Starfield, such as selecting the ideal planet, acquiring necessary skills, and addressing other pertinent aspects.
Building outposts in Starfield Explained
Typically, outposts are constructed primarily for resource extraction purposes. To achieve this, you’ll need a Resource Extractor and a reliable energy or power source. The extractor functions as a temporary storage cache for a limited quantity of resources. However, if the extractor reaches its storage limit, you’ll need to establish a dedicated storage system.
Before establishing an outpost in a specific location, it’s crucial to keep several key considerations in mind. For instance, a new outpost should always be in proximity to your home base. This proximity eliminates the need for complex cargo logistics and resource generation in Starfield.
Whether you’re establishing a home base or a resource mining outpost, certain fundamental principles apply to both types of installations. These details are elaborated upon below!
Best Outpost Skills In Starfield
Like many aspects of Starfield, building an outpost can be enhanced if you pick up the right skills. Some important ones include:
- Outpost Engineering (Science): This skill allows us to make better modules for our outpost, provided we have researched them first.
- Planetary Habitation (Science): This increases the number of active outposts you can have while also allowing you to build outposts on more hazardous planets.
- Outpost Management (Social): This allows us to conduct more convenience items such as Cargo Links and robots who will work for us. Similarly, we will be able to assign more crew to our outpost.
Choosing the right planet
The initial factor to bear in mind is that you cannot construct outposts indiscriminately across the entire Starfield map. There are designated restricted zones on each planet where building factories or bases is prohibited.
Upon nearing a planet’s surface, it’s advisable to conduct a scan to identify the types of non-organic resources available, such as iron, titanium, and aluminum. This approach helps you save valuable time by avoiding attempts to establish a base on planets where you won’t be able to fully leverage your advantages.
Furthermore, it’s essential to ascertain that the planet’s environmental conditions do not entail extreme weather patterns that could impede your construction efforts.
Setting up a Beacon
Once you’ve chosen a planet, the next step is to position a beacon in a suitable location. This beacon defines the area within which your outpost will be constructed. On PC, the default key for building outposts is ‘R,’ and on Xbox, it’s ‘X.’ Upon activating the key, the beacon will appear on the screen, and you can position it anywhere you desire.
While the beacon is active, it also provides information about the available resources on the current planet. After placing the beacon, pressing the ‘Tab’ key will display a variety of modules for you to choose from when building your base. You can cycle through these modules using the ‘Z’ or ‘C’ keys and press ‘E’ to construct a specific module.
Pressing ‘Tab’ again allows you to readjust the placement, or you can use this method to add another module to your outpost.
Power and Resources
To supply power to numerous modules within our base, such as Solar Arrays and Wind Turbines, it’s imperative to construct the appropriate power sources. Notably, there’s no need to connect them; their mere construction suffices.
Once the power sources are in place, you can proceed to build other components that rely on the availability of power. However, it’s important to bear in mind that all of this requires resources. Resources can be acquired through mining or by stumbling upon them in various locations.
Yet, the most convenient source for these materials can be found right in the heart of Atlantis City. Just beyond the star post in that area, you’ll discover the renowned Jemison Mercantile shop. This establishment offers a wide array of resources and other items essential for player outposts.
Extractors and Storage
The extracting tab of the build menu is based on what resources you have to extract for your outpost. You can use these extractors to pull resources out of the ground or air before we can use them. Once an extractor’s inventory is full, it will stop producing.
This is where storage comes in. You can set up a storage facility and auto-assign the extractors to put what they produce into the storage. These cargo bins you made can also be used to dump your inventory into, providing an extra place to store things and making your outpost much more useful.
Cargo Links
If your goal is to obtain specific resources at individual outposts and facilitate their transfer between these outposts, you can make use of a feature known as a Cargo Link. This functionality enables you to establish connections between outposts, and with certain skill upgrades, you can extend these links across Star Systems.
To accomplish this, you’ll create a cargo link at each outpost and then establish connections to other outposts. This setup allows you to share inventory and optimize your resource harvesting endeavors effectively.
Fabricators
Once you are done building other base components, it is time to use a Fabricator. Fabricators can produce various things, as long as you have the power and resources.
Assign Crew to the Outpost
Assigning a crew to an outpost in Starfield is a straightforward process. To begin, you’ll need to construct an adequate number of crew stations, which serve as the workstations for your crew members. Having both human crew members and robots can significantly enhance efficiency by boosting production rates.
Once your crew stations are in place, navigate to the ship section of your player menu and locate the crew button. From this screen, you can easily assign crew members to the appropriate outpost.
With the crew assignment sorted, you can then proceed to customize the interior of your base or outpost according to your preferences.
