Although you can build Outposts without any skills invested into it in Starfield, if you’re serious about building the best Outpost that you can, you’ll need several key skills. The skills chosen here are chosen with Outpost in mind as well as skills that will help you with money and resources as they all go hand in hand.

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Building the perfect Outpost takes time, and more importantly, a set of specific skills.

Outpost Skills Tier List¶

Here is a list of what we perceive to be the best skills to level up if building Outposts is your goal in Starfield. This list is displayed in the order of the most important to the least important, although any tier list is subjective.

• Outpost Engineering
• Outpost Management
• Planetary Habitation
• Research Methods
• Commerce
• Botany/Zoology/Geology
• Weight Lifting
• Boost Pack Training
• Leadership
• Surveying
• Environmental Conditioning

Outpost Skills Build¶

Science Tree¶

Start in the Science tree first as you will want to get Outpost Engineering as soon as possible. This skill allows you to research, and construct more and improved modules; at Rank 4 it reduces the cost of building modules up to 50%. Unfortunately, this is an Expert Science skill, so you’ll need to invest at least 8 points into Science before you can reach this.

Starting at the Novice Rank in the Science tree, you have Astrodynamics, Geology, Medicine, Research Methods, and Surveying. Place 4 points into Research Methods, although Surveying and Geology are both good skills to add points into later.

In the Advanced tier, all the Botany, Scanning, and Zoology skills are great to have, so the choice is yours, but we would recommend Botany just because it’s a good way to get Sealants. Whatever you choose, put at least four points in this tier whether that’s all in one skill, or shared between the three is up to you.

Moving on to the Expert tier, place all four points into Outpost Engineering as this is the main skill you want from the entire tree.

The Master tree is subjective, if you want to build an Outpost on an extreme temperature planet as well as be able to build more Outposts (16 max) then you will want to invest into the Planetary Habitation skill as it does just that. On the other hand, you can ignore this for now, and come back to it later when you’ve covered the basics first, it’s your choice.

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Outpost Engineering is one of the most important skills to have for Outpost building.

Social Tree¶

Next up is the Social tree. In this tree, you’ll be aiming for Outpost Management. Outpost Management obviously has a lot of benefits for your base. At Rank 1 you can have additional Cargo Links which allow you to link up different Outposts to each other. Rank 2 will allow you to have additional Robots at your Outpost which help with the defense of it. Rank 3 allows you to assign more crew members to the Outpost. Finally, Rank 4 will make your Extractors yield twice the amount of resources which is a must-have.

Once again, you’ll need to spend 8 points to reach it, so starting in the Novice tier, either get Commerce which allows you to purchase resources (among other stuff) 20% cheaper which can be helpful in the beginning when Credits are tight, or Persuasion as it’s generally useful.

In the Advanced tier, there isn’t any which will help you in regard to your Outpost, so choose whatever skill will enhance your playstyle. Deception is an all-around good skill, especially if you want more Credits, but that will involve smuggling.

The Expert tier has Outpost Management, so it’s a no-brainer on what to choose here. Pump all four points into this skill. There really isn’t anything great in the Master tier for Outposts, but Ship Command is one you will want to get eventually, but wait on this for now. Leadership is also good as it’ll give your companions an additional 50 KG carrying capacity at Rank 2.

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You will definitely want the Outpost Management skill in the Social tree. Predominantly for the Rank 4 trait.

Physical¶

The Physical tree doesn’t have a lot for Outposts, but 4 points in Weight Lifting is a must. This will give you an additional 100 KG for carrying capacity, and if you’re hauling a lot of resources about, that soon adds up. The only other skill we’d recommend is Environmental Conditioning as that will give you some resistance which can help on an extreme planet.

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(1 of 2) Although not specifically for Outpost building, Weight Lifting will increase your carrying capacity dramatically which helps haul the resources you’ll be gathering.

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Although not specifically for Outpost building, Weight Lifting will increase your carrying capacity dramatically which helps haul the resources you’ll be gathering. (left), The Combat tree doesn’t have anything for Outpost building, but Demolitions can help when defending it. (right)

Combat¶

There’s nothing in this tree that will help with Outposts, but it can help towards the defense of it. Choose your favorite weapon and level that up then get Demolitions, and Particle Beams as both are pretty good to have. Finally, get Armor Penetration to help against enemies that wear, well, armor which becomes more and more by the end of the game. If you’re playing a pacifist playstyle, select skills related to that such as Incapacitation.

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Boost Pack Training is important when you want to traverse the planets for resources.

Tech¶

Tech is more of a Ship/Space tree, so once again nothing really helps here, but there are some skills that are worth investing into which can somewhat help your Outpost needs. Take Security for more money/equipment. Then Boost Pack Training for planet traversal which will help you get resources quicker. The Payloads Skill is always worth having as it will increase your ship’s cargo capacity. Finally, Starship Design allows you to install better ship mods.