Best Starfield Traits: Every Trait Ranked Worst to Best

Picking three Traits is the final part of Starfield‘s character creation process. The truth is that Traits in Starfield can be your best friend or your worst nightmare. Few are obviously helpful, and many of them are more confusing at the outset than they were perhaps intended to be. However, some Traits are ultimately significantly better than others.

Before we get into that topic, though, please note that I’m going to break this article down into multiple sections that compare comparable Traits that you can only select one of (from each category) as well as general Traits that have fewer selection restrictions. Ultimately, I’ll recommend the best overall Traits you can select in the game.

Spaced or Terra Firma?

Terra Firma – You’ve never acclimated to space. Health and oxygen are increased when on the surface, but decreased when you’re in space.

Spaced – Your body has become acclimated to space. Health and oxygen are increased when in space, but decreased when on the surface.

To be honest, I think that Terra Firma is the obvious better choice here and one of the best overall Trait options in the game. You’re going to spend a lot of time on planets, and having access to increased Health and oxygen while you’re on those planets is kind of a big deal. 

Spaced is…an odd Trait. There are times when you’ll find yourself needing a Health and oxygen boost while in space, but honestly, you’ll find yourself relying on your ship more often than not in those scenarios. If the ship is destroyed, none of the rest really matters. Meanwhile, the Health and oxygen debuff while on planets is a huge detriment. Grab Terra Firma or skip these altogether. 

Extrovert or Introvert?

Extrovert – You’re a people person. Exerting yourself uses less oxygen when adventuring with human companions, but more when adventuring alone.

Introvert – You really need your alone time. Exerting yourself uses less oxygen when adventuring alone, but more when adventuring with other human companions.

Here again, I think that Extrovert is the much better option by a pretty considerable distance. You’ll almost always be traveling with someone in Starfield, which means that Extrovert is basically a free buff.

Introvert, meanwhile, is actually a detriment unless you decide to manually send your companions away. While your companions aren’t always as helpful as they could be, having them around offers a few advantages while not having them around offers…well, nothing, honestly. Why send companions away to acquire a perk when you can get that perk and the companions? 

Freestar Collective Settler, Neon Street Rat, or United Colonies Native?

Freestar Collective Settler – You gain access to special Freestar Collective dialogue options and better rewards from some missions given by the faction. But, crime bounty towards other factions is greatly increased.

Neon Street Rat – You grew up on the mean streets of Neon. You gain access to special dialogue options and better rewards from some missions on Neon. Crime bounty by other factions is greatly increased.

United Colonies Native – You gain access to special United Colonies dialogue options, and better rewards from some missions given by the faction. However, crime bounty by other factions is greatly increased.

While I haven’t been able to fully explore all of these Trait paths, this is pretty much a pure role-playing decision based on my experience. If you’re a little more of an outsider, go with the Freestar Collective. If you’re more interested in being a Starfleet-style character, United Colonies Native is for you. Neon Street Rat, meanwhile, is best for the outlaws, rogues, and scavengers out there who want to walk a darker path. 

For what it’s worth, Neon Street Rat is technically the most limited option in this group, as it really only pops up when you’re on Neon or interacting with others about Neon-related business. However, the dialog options and perks that Trait does give you are incredibly amusing, so it’s a fantastic role-playing option if the other Traits don’t speak to you. 

Raised Enlightened, Raised Universal, or Serpent’s Embrace?

Raised Enlightened – You grew up as a member of the Enlightened. You gain access to a special chest full of items in the House of the Enlightened in New Atlantis but lose access to the Sanctum Universum chest.

Raised Universal – You grew up as a member of the Sanctum Universum. You gain access to a special chest full of items in the Sanctum Universum in New Atlantis, but lose access to the House of the Enlightened Chest.

Serpent’s Embrace – You grew up worshiping the Great Serpent. Grav jumping provides a temporary boost to health and oxygen, but health and oxygen are lowered if you don’t continue jumping regularly – like an addiction.

For the most part, this is another role-playing option. Raised Enlightened will be the preferred choice for those who see themselves as realists, while Raised Universal is a slightly more “traditional” religious option. The items you get from these Traits seem to be largely equal, so it really comes down to role-playing decisions. 

Serpent’s Embrace is very much its own thing. Truth be told, I think this ability is more of a detriment early on when you rarely find yourself grav jumping often enough to get the most out of it. However, as the game opens up and it becomes significantly easier to jump often enough to keep this perk active, it becomes one of the more appealing Traits in the game. It’s best to still treat it as a role-playing option, but it does have a little more to offer in the long run than the other choices. 

Kid Stuff

Your parents are alive and well, and you can visit them at their home. But you will automatically send 2% of your credits home to them every week.

After playing with this Trait a bit, I feel like I can pretty safely say that it’s a neat role-playing option that comes with a negligible, but annoying, downside. Without getting too deep into spoilers, I’ll say that this Trait unlocks some fun interactions and…not much else. It’s worth checking this out if you’re into the concept, but you’re not going to get nearly as much out of it as many of the other Trait options (even the more role-playing-focused ones). 

Wanted

Someone put a price on your head, and word has spread. Occasionally, armed mercenaries will show up and try to kill you, but being cornered gives you an edge – when your health is low, you do extra damage.

This is a strange one. Truth be told, I don’t think the downside of this Trait is all that bad. It’s relatively easy to kill the mercenaries that attack you, as they’re not necessarily significantly more powerful than the other enemies you’ll fight throughout the game. It basically just adds some extra fights to the game, which is only a bad thing if you’re trying to avoid that aspect of the Starfield experience as much as possible. 

However, the damage boost you get when your health is low is honestly not that great. Based on my testing, your health has to be pretty low to trigger it and the damage bonus is ultimately not that significant. It’s pretty hard to utilize that bonus for long before you’ll need to heal yourself, which makes this a pretty tough sell. 

Dream Home

You own a luxurious, customizable house on a peaceful planet! Unfortunately, it comes with a 125,000 credit mortgage with GalBank that has to be paid weekly.

Owning a home in Starfield is one of the coolest (and most expensive) things you can do in the game. Being able to start the game with a home is a nice little perk, and 125,000 credits is honestly pretty reasonable for what you get. 

However, this Trait does mean that you essentially start the game 125,000 credits in the hole. Earning extra credits in this game isn’t exceptionally difficult, but buying property tends to be a luxury that you’ll put off until after you’ve spent your credits on far more useful things. As such, the downsides of this Trait certainly outweigh the benefits early on. 

Hero Worshipped

You’ve earned the attention of an annoying “Adoring Fan” who will show up randomly and jabber at you incessantly. On the plus side, he’ll join your ship’s crew and give you gifts…

This elaborate Easter egg reference to one of Oblivion’s most infamous characters certainly scores points for personality and charm. As long as you can appreciate the…joys of having an overeager admirer, you’ll enjoy your interactions with the character this Trait adds to the game. 

Intentional annoyances aside, there really aren’t any downsides to picking Hero Worshipped. You get an extra crew member, some free items, and a bonus crew member at some point in the game. The advantages aren’t incredible, but there are no real disadvantages. 

Empath

You are deeply connected to the feelings of others. Performing actions your companion likes will result in a temporary increase in combat effectiveness. But, performing actions they don’t like will have the precise opposite effect.

Truth be told, this skill can be a lot to deal with in the beginning of the game. Before you figure out what kind of actions your travelling companions do and don’t agree with, you can accidentally give yourself a painful debuff. Even then, there are times when avoiding this debuff can be surprisingly difficult. Sometimes, you say the “wrong” thing and don’t even know it.

Once you get to know a companion, though, it becomes fairly easy to treat this Trait as a free buff. Granted, you have to make sure you’re traveling with someone who aligns with your moral radar (or you have to be willing to placate them), but that’s easy enough to do in the long-run. Of course, if you’re trying to avoid combat, then this Trait is significantly less appealing.

Alien DNA

You volunteered for a controversial experiment that combines alien and human DNA. As a result, you start with increased health and oxygen, but healing and food items aren’t as effective.

Based on my loose tests of this ability (keeping accurate track of stats in Starfield can be a challenge), it seems like the increased health and oxygen are roughly the equivalent of what you would get from investing a Skill Point in the perks associated with those stats (so about 10%). The debuff to your healing is a little harder to track, though it also seems to be hovering around that 10% range.

Is that worth it? Based on my experience, my answer would be a solid “usually.” The buff to Health and Oxygen will most likely be most useful to combat-oriented players who could use the stronger starting stats and take advantage of stacking this ability atop their existing buff. For everyone else, it’s a bit of a give-and-take. I think the trade-off is ultimately worth it, especially since you eventually acquire powerful healing aids and quite a lot of them. However, this attribute can be a little more annoying in the early parts of the game, and anyone who intends to advance their cooking skills (which is one of the weaker overall crafting paths) is probably better off relying on food buffs instead.

Taskmaster

Occasionally, if you have crew trained in a certain ship system, that system will automatically repair itself to full health whenever it is damaged below 50%. However, all crew cost twice as much to hire.

In my experience, this is the most powerful Trait in Starfield by a fair distance. Actually, the biggest problem with this Trait is that you may have no idea what it actually does when you’re creating your character.

Basically, though, this ability allows you to occasionally receive a free (and automatic) ship repair from time to time. That’s obviously great for pilot-focused builds, but anyone who will get into the occasional ship-to-ship battle (which will be most players) will get to take advantage of this ability without really having to do anything special.

As for the downsides, they’re surprisingly manageable. It’s easy enough to fill your ship crew with companions that cover most major ship systems, especially once you unlock larger ships that can house larger crews. As for the hiring fee, that honestly never became an issue for me. I acquired my early crew members by following the story, and by the time I was hiring crew, I had so much money that the extra credits ended up not being a big deal.

Starfield: Best Trait Choices

Extroverted, Empath, Taskmaster

If you’re planning on emphasizing your crew/cast of companions in Starfield (which is honestly a great way to go), then this is the most powerful set of Traits you can start the game with.

Though this combination of Traits requires you to be mindful of who you travel with and how you act around them, there’s a good chance you’re going to do that anyway. As such, we’re really just talking about a series of Traits that give you some nice buffs for playing the game the way you were probably going to play it anyway. This is also a particularly good set of skills for anyone who plans on spending a lot of time in their ship (though I still wouldn’t recommend Spaced for that).

Terra Firma, Alien DNA, Extroverted

If you want to focus a little more on exploring planets and getting into firefights, then you’ll probably end up getting the most mileage out of these traits.

Terra Firma is an obvious choice for that style of play, and Alien DNA does tend to work best for on-the-ground combat scenarios. As for Extroverted, companions are invaluable during on-the-ground conflicts, and Extroverted essentially gives you a free buff just for bringing along already helpful companions. It’s not quite “Oops, all buffs,” but it’s not far off.

Extroverted/Task Master and Two Role-Playing Options of Choice

Finally, if you want to pick two role-playing/faction options while maximizing your Trait benefits, I would recommend going with either Extroverted or Task Master for your primary Trait slot. Extroverted is probably the most powerful Trait in the game with the most manageable downside, though Task Master is arguably a bit better for players looking to spend more time in space. Terra Firma is another powerful option for anyone who intends to spend more of their time on the ground.