All Starfield Character Backgrounds

You can choose a background right at the beginning of the game, shortly after you start your first mission when you get the chance to personalize your character.

There are over a dozen different backgrounds at your disposal, which don't block any other game path or gameplay style, but can make it easier for you to play in a planned way and add new background-specific elements, such as additional background-specific dialogue options.

All backgrounds in Starfield will give you access to Starfield's three starting skills, which can affect your play style and effectiveness in many different situations.

Beast Hunter

Description: From the Ashta of Akila to the Terrormorphs that plague the whole of the Settled Systems, hostile alien life abounds. You've learned the skills to track them, find them, and take them down.

Starting Skills:

• Fitness - Rank 1: You have 10% more oxygen available.
• Ballistics - Rank 1: Ballistic weapons do 10% more damage.
• Gastronomy - Rank 1: You can craft specialty food and drinks, and research additional recipes at a Research Lab.

Bouncer

Description: You've worked the line at the toughest clubs in the Settled Systems. Back then, you learned that most non-lethal confrontations can be solved one of two ways: a strong right hook, or a more strongly secured door.

Starting Skills:

• Boxing - Rank 1: Unarmed attacks do 25% more damage. 25% less O2 used when using a power attack.
• Security - Rank 1: You can attempt to hack Advanced locks, and 2 auto attempts can be banked.
• Fitness - Rank 1: You have 10% more oxygen available.

Bounty Hunter

Description: Wherever there are wanted individuals, there are those who profit from their capture. And your quarry knows that in the vastness of space, they can run... but they can't hide.

Starting Skills:

• Piloting - Rank 1: You can now utilize ship thrusters.
• Targeting Control Systems - Rank 1: Unlocks ship targeting functionality.
• Boost Pack Training - Rank 1: You can now utilize boost packs.

Chef

Description: While the unrefined masses scarfed down Chunks by the shipload, you catered to those with a more... discerning palate. In your kitchen, countless alien species became true culinary masterpieces.

Starting Skills:

• Gastronomy - Rank 1: You can craft specialty food and drinks, and research additional recipes at a Research Lab.
• Dueling -Rank 1: Melee weapons do 25% more damage. Take 10% less damage while wielding a melee weapon.
• Scavenging - Rank 1: There's a chance you'll find extra credits when searching containers.

Combat Medic

Description: Leave it to human beings to fight over something as infinite as outer space. That's where you come in. You've never been afraid to take on the enemy... but you'd much rather take care of your friends.

Starting Skills:

• Pistol Certification - Rank 1: Pistols do 10% more damage.
• Medicine - Rank 1: Med Packs, Trauma Packs, and Emergency Kits restore 10% additional Health 10% faster.
• Wellness - Rank 1: Increase your maximum health by 10%.

Cyber Runner

Description: From Neon to New Atlantis, the megacorps stand as monuments to power, prestige and profit. You've worked both for and against them, on the inside and out, often sacrificing conscience for credits.

Starting Skills:

• Stealth - Rank 1: Adds a Stealth Meter. You are 25% more difficult to detect when sneaking. Suppressed weapons do an additional 5% sneak attack damage.
• Security - Rank 1: You can attempt to hack Advanced locks, and 2 auto attempts can be banked.
• Theft - Rank 1: Unlock the ability to pickpocket targets.

Cyberneticist

Description: Robots? Mere toys. Neuroamps? Good for parlor tricks. The Colony War may have made implants and upgrades available to veterans, but you once saw a greater future. Humans and machines, as one.

Starting Skills:

• Medicine - Rank 1: Med Packs, Trauma Packs, and Emergency Kits restore 10% additional Health 10% faster.
• Security - Rank 1: You can attempt to hack Advanced locks, and 2 auto attempts can be banked.
• Lasers - Rank 1: Laser weapons do 10% more damage.

Diplomat

Description: The wars are over. Peace now reigns the Settled Systems. But only because there are those quietly fighting to keep it. Because of you, agreements were signed, words were heeded... lives were spared.

Starting Skills:

• Persuasion - Rank 1: 10% increased chance of success when persuading someone.
• Commerce - Rank 1: Buy for 5% less and sell for 10% more.
• Wellness - Rank 1: Increase your maximum health by 10%.

Explorer

Description: They said exploration is a lost art. You didn't listen. As the major factions argued over the space they desperately tried to control, you were busy uncovering the wonders of the Settled Systems.

Starting Skills:

• Lasers - Rank 1: Laser weapons do 10% more damage.
• Astrodynamics - Rank 1: Increase grav jump range of jump drives by 15%.
• Surveying - Rank 1: Adds an optional zoom to the hand scanner, and scan distance is increased to 20 meters.

Gangster

Description: You were always disgusted by suckers killing themselves to make an "honest wage." As soon as you were old enough to hold a weapon, you took what you wanted from anyone unlucky enough to have it.

Starting Skills:

• Shotgun Certification - Rank 1: Shotguns do 10% more damage.
• Boxing - Rank 1: Unarmed attacks do 25% more damage. 25% less O2 used when using a power attack.
• Theft -Rank 1: Unlock the ability to pickpocket targets.

Homesteader

Description: The discovery of the Settled Systems' many oxygen-rich planets and moons meant humans could live just about anywhere... if they had the know how. You did, and utilized it to great effect.

Starting Skills:

• Geology - Rank 1: Get more common and uncommon inorganic resources from surface objects.
• Surveying - Rank 1: Adds an optional zoom to the hand scanner, and scan distance is increased to 20 meters.
• Weight Lifting - Rank 1: Increase total carrying capacity by 10 kilograms.

Industrialist

Description: There was a time when all you wanted to be was a titan of industry, maybe a ship designer, or megacorp exec. Thankfully, that skillset never goes out of style in the Settled Systems.

Starting Skills:

• Persuasion - Rank 1: 10% increased chance of success when persuading someone.
• Security - Rank 1: You can attempt to hack Advanced locks, and 2 auto attempts can be banked.
• Research Methods - Rank 1: Resources required to craft items and complete research projects is reduced by 10%.

Long Hauler

Description: Let those other hotheaded pilots obsess over laser weapons and maneuverability. You're a space trucker, pure and simple. Pack the cargo, get it there fast, get paid, repeat. Life is simple and good.

Starting Skills:

• Weight Lifting - Rank 1: Increase total carrying capacity by 10 kilograms.
• Piloting - Rank 1: You can now utilize ship thrusters.
• Ballistic Weapon Systems - Rank 1: Ballistic ship weapons have 10% increased damage and cost 20% less to use in Targeting Mode.

Pilgrim

Description: Wayfarer, wanderer, seeker... transient. You've been called many things during your travels, and learned something those others could never understand - the journey IS the destination.

Starting Skills:

• Scavenging - Rank 1: There's a chance you'll find extra credits when searching containers.
• Surveying - Rank 1: Adds an optional zoom to the hand scanner, and scan distance is increased to 20 meters.
• Gastronomy - Rank 1: You can craft specialty food and drinks, and research additional recipes at a Research Lab.

Professor

Description: You always enjoyed learning, but nothing could compare to the joy of teaching others. As humankind spread throughout the stars, there was never a lack of knowledge to obtain, and you gladly assisted.

Starting Skills:

• Astrodynamics - Rank 1: Increase grav jump range of jump drives by 15%.
• Geology - Rank 1: Get more common and uncommon inorganic resources from surface objects.
• Research Methods - Rank 1: Resources required to craft items and complete research projects is reduced by 10%.

Ronin

Description: Masterless and unbound, you wandered the Settled Systems as a blade for hire. To some, you were a simple mercenary. To others, a hero. And to a select few... a nightmare they could never wake from.

Starting Skills:

• Dueling - Rank 1: Melee weapons do 25% more damage. Take 10% less damage while wielding a melee weapon.
• Stealth - Rank 1: Adds a Stealth Meter. You are 25% more difficult to detect when sneaking. Suppressed weapons do an additional 5% sneak attack damage.
• Scavenging - Rank 1: There's a chance you'll find extra credits when searching containers.

Sulptor

Description: With your knowledge of anatomy and skilled, steady hands, you could have had a lucrative career as a surgeon. Instead, you followed your heart, and created works of art to amaze and inspire.

Starting Skills:

• Medicine - Rank 1: Med Packs, Trauma Packs, and Emergency Kits restore 10% additional Health 10% faster.
• Geology - Rank 1: Get more common and uncommon inorganic resources from surface objects.
• Persuasion - Rank 1: 10% increased chance of success when persuading someone.

Soldier

Description: The Settled Systems is no stranger to warfare, and if there's one thing armed conflict relies on it's trained warriors with guns and guts. You had both. Simple, bloody work... and you were great at it.

Starting Skills:

• Fitness - Rank 1: You have 10% more oxygen available.
• Ballistics - Rank 1: Ballistic weapons do 10% more damage.
• Boost Pack Training - Rank 1: You can now utilize boost packs.

Space Scoundrel

Description: Good? Bad? Whose right is it to say? If there's anything you've learned while traipsing through the galaxy, it's this: space may look black, but it's really one big shade of grey.

Starting Skills:

• Pistol Certification - Rank 1: Pistols do 10% more damage.
• Piloting - Rank 1: You can now utilize ship thrusters.
• Persuasion - Rank 1: 10% increased chance of success when persuading someone.

Xenobiologist

Description: The Settled Systems is home to untold alien species. And while none of them have yet proven sentient, that never deterred you. So you sought out and studied them for whatever gifts they offered.

Starting Skills:

• Lasers - Rank 1: Laser weapons do 10% more damage.
• Surveying - Rank 1: Adds an optional zoom to the hand scanner, and scan distance is increased to 20 meters.
• Fitness - Rank 1: You have 10% more oxygen available.

[File Not Found]

Description: Oddly, there is no information on file about your past life. Clerical oversight? Deletion by some powerful unknown faction? Or was there just nothing of note to mention? Whatever the reason, your past is known only to you. What's important is the here and now, and the path you're about to forge...

Starting Skills:

• Wellness - Rank 1: Increase your maximum health by 10%.
• Ballistics - Rank 1: Ballistic weapons do 10% more damage.
• Piloting - Rank 1: You can now utilize ship thrusters.