Skills are hugely important in Starfield, and will give you access to all manner of new options as you play through the star-spanning campaign. Being able to steal, build, and explore to the best of your ability all boils down to different types of skills.
How to get access to more skills
To get access to more skills in Starfield, you will need to earn skill points. This is done by leveling up through experience that you earn from exploring, finishing missions, and combat. Each additional level grants one skill point that will allow you to purchase either a new rank in a skill or part of a rank, depending on the overall level of the skill you are going for.
What really makes Starfield interesting is that, after you purchase a skill, you will have some requirements that you need to meet to purchase the next rank in that skill. If you purchase Wellness, that will give you an increase of 10% in your Maximum Health. You will then need to heal a total of 200 health in order to be able to purchase the next level of Wellness with a skill point. You will then need to heal 500 health to be able to unlock the next level. This means you cannot just horde skill points and rapidly rank up a single skill when you need it.
How to unlock higher-tier skills
The skill trees of Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Tech are all broken up into four different tiers. The first tier is instantly available to be unlocked as soon as you start earning points. You will then need to spend skill points to be able to unlock a root skill in the next tier. Only then can you start completing that skill’s challenge to unlock the next rank.
- Normal – available from the start
- Advanced – 4 skill points in total
- Expert – 8 skill points in total
- Master – 12 skill points in total
So, while you can essentially “buy” your way from tier to tier using the skillpoint brackets, once you start investing in a skill you must spend the time finishing the relevant challenge to be able to upgrade that skill to the next rank.
