Best Backgrounds in Starfield: Bonuses, skills, build, more

Backgrounds in Starfield are pre-built origins that grant your character access to some starting skills during the early game and add some interesting dialogue options during the adventure. Here’s a list of the best backgrounds in Starfield, with tips about build, details about skills, and more.

Starfield is Bethesda Softworks’ latest open-world RPG, and its massiveness is only equal to the many options you have to customize your character. One of the said options is the Backgrounds you can choose to personalize the origin of your space explorer.

Backgrounds grant you three initial skills and some story-related options, but they are also important for late game and gameplay. Here’s all you need to know about the best Backgrounds in Starfield and what skills they grant your character.

• What are Backgrounds in Starfield
• Best Backgrounds in Starfield
• Background bonuses and builds

What are Backgrounds in Starfield?

In Starfield, Backgrounds add an extra option to character customization that grants you access to a set of initial skills (certifications) during the early game.

Each Background works not only as a profile for your character but also marks its past exploits before the start of the adventure. They work similarly to traits, but you can select only one.

The denizens of the Star Systems will react differently depending on which Background you choose, and it could lead to some interesting dialogue options and add more roleplay to the adventure.

You will gain access to your Background once the first part of the tutorial quest begins, so you need to pick it up after you finish creating your character and complete part of the gameplay.

Best Backgrounds in Starfield

Here are the best Backgrounds for a character in Starfield, with detailed information about the skills they unlock.

Cyberneticist

Grants access to Medicine, Security, and Lasers skills. A good combo that will guarantee the best headstart in the adventure. With balance in survivability, looting, and damage boost.

Players who want to focus on a frontal assault/looter-shooter kind of adventure should definitely pick this Background.

The Cyberneticist will also unlock special dialogue options related to tech-related quests and can lead to some interesting job options far ahead during the adventure.

Diplomat

Grants access to the Persuasion, Commerce, and Wellness skills. This is a good Background to choose if you are going for a Merchant or Diplomatic build.

Players who want to choose dialogue instead of violence could benefit from picking this Background. But it will not have too much effect during the early stages of the game.

The Diplomat will excel later on, be it by increasing the rewards of certain missions, bypassing some annoying NPCs through persuasion, or simply avoiding to fight choosing the right dialogue options that other Backgrounds would be unable to choose.

Explorer

The Explorer Background grants the Lasers, Astrodynamics, and Surveying skills, and this is the build most players choose if they want a balance between exploration and combat. Early on in the adventure, Explorers excel at finding resources and moving with ease between star systems.

Choosing the Explorer will also grant certain dialogue options during some quests and can also grant an advantage during the mid-game phase when you need to take on several survey missions.

This is the best Background in Starfield if you want to get your hands early on one of the best skills in the game, Astrophysics, and also if you want to earn some extra credits doing the most lucrative exploration missions in the game.

Starfield Background bonuses and builds

Backgrounds are also an important part of character builds in Starfield. They synergize well with traits and certain equipment, so you have to keep in mind that if you choose certain traits like Introvert, that boosts Solo gameplay, you need to pick a Background that complements well with those bonuses.

Introvert reduces the oxygen spent when doing actions, but only when your character is alone. If you take a crewmember with you, you are going to be penalized instead, with more oxygen spent for every action. This means that exploring alone can be more dangerous, especially when encountering larger groups of enemies.

To boost your chances of success, pick a Background like Soldier, which grants Fitness, increasing Oxygen capacity even further, Ballistics, which boosts your weapon damage with the most common and cheap weapons in the game, and Boost Pack Training, which will grant early access to this traversal action that allows you to reposition yourself and use the environment in your favor.

And that’s a wrap on the best Backgrounds to pick for your character in Starfield, if you are still interested in more content about the game, we suggest you take a look at our guide section right below:

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