In Starfield, Optional Traits Pair Buffs With Nerfs, May End In Tragedy

During the Starfield Direct, Bethesda Game Studios went into great detail regarding the game’s character creation tools, which it says are actually built on the team’s own NPC generation features. The results, the studio says, give players something that is both extremely granular and yet still easy to use.

We’ve already covered the game’s toolset for creating a character physically, so don’t miss those details. However, once a player has their character’s physical traits determined, they’ll also decide who the character is, not just by giving them a name, but by creating their backstory and giving them optional traits. By choosing a background, players will receive three starting skills based on their character’s newly created personal history. In the video, options such as Chef, Combat Medic, Gangster, Explorer, and more were shown. While it may not be every background available in the game at launch, here’s a full list of backgrounds we noticed during the show:

• Beast Hunter
• Bouncer
• Chef
• Combat Medic
• Cyber Runner
• Cyberneticist
• Diplomat
• Explorer
• Gangster
• Homesteader
• Industrialist
• Long Hauler
• Pilgrim
• Professor
• Ronin

These early skills will become your go-to abilities early on in your journey, before later skill unlocks are expanded, including five skill trees with four levels of unlockable skills within each tree. The Cyberneticist’s starting trio of skills, for example, includes an understanding of medicine, security (which reads as something like hacking), and laser weapons.

Players can also choose up to three traits. These are completely optional, Bethesda said, because they offer both a nerf and a buff in each case. One example called Introvert revealed that players will use less oxygen when traveling alone, but more when traveling with human companions.

Characters whom players meet may sometimes recall or react to their background traits, changing the course of the player’s experience in sometimes unpredictable ways. For example, one developer said a player might run into hostile zealots in space, but if they’ve chosen the Serpent’s Embrace trait, they may be the same religion as the zealots, causing them to stand down and not attack. Another example, Wanted, gives you a damage buff when your health is low, but “mercenaries will randomly show up and try to kill you.”

There are even ways to remove traits, though Bethesda said it wants players to discover how on their own. The studio did, however, tease that players could eliminate an obsessive fan, who might appear due to the Hero Worshipped trait, by Of-Mice-And-Men-ing them while, we assume, promising that his space farm is coming soon.

There’s plenty more to discover about Starfield, and we have it all here for you. Don’t miss our deep dives on subjects like the new Starfield story trailer, an exploration of who’s-who in the vastness of space, and more details on that obsessive fan, who just might be a familiar face to The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion fans.