Starfield is Bethesda’s latest behemoth and their first new universe in over 25 years. The game itself is just that—a new universe. Players are able to explore planets, moons, solar systems, and even galaxies to their hearts’ content. It’s truly massive, and not even the sky is the limit.
While exploring every corner of the universe, players will level up and receive skill points to spend in a classic Bethesda fashion. Starfield has five skill trees—Physical, Social, Combat, Science, and Tech. Each tree will change the way your character feels and what their strengths are, allowing for a greatly customizable experience. The Physical tree is perhaps the most straightforward, but that doesn’t mean it’s simple, and by no means is it boring.
Starfield: Physical skill tree explained
The Physical tree offers some fantastic quality-of-life upgrades as well as combat bonuses. Spending your points here will enable you to carry more weight, increase your maximum health, sneak more effectively, and enhance your melee and unarmed damage. Basically, you’re hitting the gym. Even if you don’t plan to be a melee or stealth character, the health and carrying capacity increases are universally beneficial and worth investing in, no matter your build.
Starfield: Physical skills and ranks explained
Like all skill trees in Starfield, the Physical tree has four tiers—Basic, Advanced, Expert, and Master. Each tier has three to five different skills available for selection, and each skill has four ranks—meaning you would need about 60 to 80 skill points before you could max out even a single tree. Did I mention Starfield is a big game?
You must spend four skill points in the Basic Tier before you are able to select Advanced skills, and so on and so forth to the Master tier. Points can be placed in four different skills, or four ranks of the same skill. Before you are able to reach the second rank of a skill, you must complete a challenge that involves using that skill. For example, if you select the Basic Physical skill Wellness to increase your max health by 10 percent, you must heal 200 damage before you unlock the option to spend another skill point to advance to rank two.
Basic Physical skills
These are going to be some of your best choices for early-game skills in Starfield. Starting at the very first tier, you can increase your max health and carrying capacity significantly—something you’ll benefit from forever.
- Boxing—At rank one, unarmed attacks deal 25 percent more damage, and power attacks consume 25 percent less oxygen. These bonuses double at rank two. Rank three increases the damage bonus to 75 percent and makes running consume 30 percent less oxygen when unarmed. At rank four, unarmed attacks deal double damage and have a chance to knock opponents down. To unlock the second rank of Boxing, you must first kill 20 enemies with your fists.
- Fitness—At rank one, you will have 10 percent increased oxygen capacity. The second rank grants 20 percent, and the third rank grants 30 percent. At rank four, sprinting and power attacks both consume significantly less oxygen. Before you can advance ranks, you must deplete your oxygen 20 times.
- Stealth—Rank one adds a stealth meter to inform how close you are to being detected. At the second rank, you will be 25 percent better at sneaking, and suppressed weapons deal 5 percent additional damage while sneaking. The second rank doubles these bonuses, and the third rank triples them. At rank four, you are 100 percent more difficult to detect while sneaking, your sneak attacks deal 20 percent additional damage, and you can open/close doors without alerting enemies. Perform 10 sneak attacks to unlock the second rank of this skill.
- Weight Lifting—At rank one, you can carry an additional 10 kilograms. This bonus increases to 25 kg at the second rank and 50 at the third. At rank four, you can carry 100 additional kilograms and gain 50 percent stagger resistance.
- Wellness—Increases your maximum health by 10 percent. This skill increases linearly at each rank, granting a 40 percent increase at the fourth rank. You must heal 200 damage before you can advance to rank two.
Advanced Physical skills
Advanced Physical skills will begin adding some damage reduction to your character and, most notably, allow for sliding in combat. Sliding has become so popular in RPGs that many players will consider this a must-have skill.
- Energy Weapon Dissipation—Reduces damage taken from energy weapons by 5 percent. The second rank grants 10 percent reduction, and the third grants 15 percent. At rank four, you have a 25 percent chance to reflect energy damage on the attacker when you are below half health. You must take 150 energy damage before you can unlock rank two of this skill.
- Environmental Conditioning—At rank one, you gain 10 resistance to Airborne environmental damage. The second rank adds 10 resistance to Thermal environmental damage, and the fourth grants 10 resistance to Corrosive and Radiation environmental damage. The fourth rank reduces your chances of acquiring afflictions from environmental damage. Before you can advance ranks, you must take 100 environmental damage.
- Gymnastics—Unlocks the Combat Slide ability and grants 15 percent fall damage reduction. Rank two lets you move faster in Zero-G and an additional 5 percent fall damage reduction. At rank three, you’ll have additional weapon stability in Zero-G and 30 percent total fall damage reduction. Additionally, mantling grants a small amount of oxygen recovery. At the fourth rank, you gain additional jump height and a temporary speed boost after sliding or mantling. Before you can increase this skill’s rank, you must take 100 fall damage.
- Nutrition—At rank one, food and drink effects are 10 percent more effective. This bonus increases to 20 percent at the second rank, 30 percent at the third, and 50 percent at rank four. You must consume 10 food or drink items before you can unlock the second rank.
- Pain Tolerance—Grants 5 percent Physical damage reduction. Increases to 10 percent at the second rank, and 15 percent at the third. The fourth rank grants a 5 percent chance to completely negate physical damage when your health is low. You must take 250 physical damage before you can unlock rank two.
Expert Physical skills
At this tier, you can start becoming a self-sustaining organism to an extent. You’ll be able to start recovering from injuries and infections naturally. Additionally, you can become well-versed in the ancient art of Throwing Hands.
- Cellular Regeneration—Grants a slightly better chance to naturally recover from injuries. Rank two increases this chance, and the third rank does so even further. At rank four, you have a 20 percent chance of avoiding an injury you otherwise would have sustained. Before you can rank up in this skill, you must recover from 5 injuries.
- Decontamination—At rank one, your chance to recover from infections naturally is increased. The second rank grants a better chance, and rank three grants more still. At the fourth rank, you have a 20 percent chance of avoiding infection when it should have set in. You must recover from five infections before you can rank up.
- Martial Arts—Grants 15 percent increased crit chance with melee weapons and unarmed attacks. The second rank awards a 15 percent chance of disarming foes with power attacks, and rank three grants 10 percent damage reduction while unarmed or wielding a melee weapon. Rank four reflects 50 percent of damage back to the attacker when you block a melee or unarmed strike. You must deal 250 damage with unarmed attacks before you can advance ranks.
Master Physical skills
This last tier of Physical skills can turn you into the sneak-attacking menace that every Bethesda game is apparently obligated to include and can give you a Wolverine-like healing factor.
- Concealment—At rank one, you no longer set off mines, and sneak attacks do 250 percent damage for ranged weapons and 400 percent for melee weapons/unarmed strikes. At rank two, running will not affect stealth success, your ranged weapons three times as sneak attack damage, and your melee weapons deal five times as much. Rank three grants a Chameleon ability while sneaking and not moving. Additionally, your damage bonuses increase to 350 percent and 800 percent, respectively. At rank four, entering stealth causes enemies to lose sight of you, and your damage bonuses increase to 400 (ranged) and 1000 (melee) percent. Unfortunately, that is all this skill does, so stealth in Starfield is only the objective most powerful build possible, and isn’t necessarily game-breaking. You must perform 10 melee sneak attacks before you can access rank two.
- Neurostrikes—At rank one, your unarmed attacks have a 10 percent chance to stun. Rank two grants additional EM (nonlethal) damage, and rank three increases the stun chance to 20 percent. At the fourth rank, all nearby enemies are knocked over when a stun procs. You must stun 10 enemies before you can advance ranks.
- Rejuvenation—Slowly regenerate health while outside of combat. Rank two increases the regen rate. The third rank significantly increases the rate and adds a slower regen while in combat. Rank four increases both rates. Before you can rank up in Rejuvenation, you must fully heal from less than 25 percent health three times.
