What’s Starfield’s principal quest about, and the way does the area RPG start? Through the years Bethesda video games have had some fairly iconic openings. Most notably—it turned a meme—is Skyrim’s “Hey you, you are lastly awake” intro, the place you start the sport as a prisoner on a wagon carrying you to your execution. Fallout 3’s introduction, in the meantime, begins along with your precise delivery that leads right into a tutorial as you develop from a baby into an grownup in Vault 101.
These memorable intros result in the beginning of the video games’ principal quests, and Bethesda followers have been speculating in regards to the starting of Starfield, too: The way it introduces gamers to the world, what you are doing on the very begin of the sport, how the primary quest begins, and what that quest truly is about.
There’s not a complete lot of official data on the market to go on, however simply based mostly on the 15-minute Starfield gameplay reveal (opens in new tab) from final 12 months, followers have provide you with some fairly convincing theories.
Here is how some Starfield followers suspect the sport begins, how the primary quest kicks off, and even the way you purchase your first spaceship and robotic companion. Whereas that is all hypothesis and solely makes use of the gameplay trailer as a supply, I will nonetheless offer you all a spoiler warning for Starfield’s principal quest.
You start Starfield as an area miner
Many of the hypothesis in regards to the begin of the sport and the way the primary quest begins was put collectively by Reddit poster Exo_soldier, and to observe their concept you must rearrange the footage proven within the gameplay reveal. Many of the data is there, nevertheless it’s not proven in chronological order.
As an example, the primary look we get at Starfield’s character creation system is close to the top of the gameplay video (at 8:40 (opens in new tab)), nevertheless it’s place to begin when speculating in regards to the starting of Starfield.
An important factor to notice on this footage is that “Argos Extractors” and “document locator” are proven within the prime left nook of the character creation display always. Why would the identify of some company be displayed throughout character creation? It is since you start the sport already working for them. You are not simply constructing your character, customizing your look, and choosing your attribute—you are additionally creating an worker profile for Argos Extractors. There’s even an worker quantity proven on the backside of the character creation display.
So, what’s Argos Extractors? It certain seems like a mining firm, and doubtless the very place the place you realized to extract minerals with a mining laser, which we see the participant doing earlier (at 3:33 (opens in new tab)) within the video. Even the participant’s HUD reveals a planetary survey as they first step off the ship on the 2:45 (opens in new tab) mark.
That matches in with a mining operation’s targets: detecting what assets a planet comprises. This all signifies that you simply start the sport as a miner, and following the sport’s intro you’re taking your mining gear with you on the remainder of your adventures. A few of that is additionally confirmed by Starfield’s description on Steam (opens in new tab).
You dig up a mysterious artifact whereas on the job
So, you start Starfield as simply one other worker of an enormous mining firm. That is supported in footage you possibly can see by skipping ahead to eight:12 (opens in new tab) within the gameplay video. This clip is most definitely from the earliest scenes within the recreation, the place a number of individuals are seen utilizing mining lasers underground. One in all them says to you “Most dusties do not even make it this far.” This could possibly be a veteran mining worker noting that “dusties” (which could possibly be a nickname for mining newbies) do not final very lengthy on the job—or that you’ve got gone a lot deeper into the planet than most miners do.
One other Reddit commenter, XannyLarusso (opens in new tab), speculates that you simply is perhaps working off a jail sentence within the mines. Others recommend you can be working off a debt. Each would tie in with the beginning factors of Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls collection the place you at all times start as prisoner. Even within the Fallout collection you start in a Vault, which is loads like a jail in some methods.
Whilst you have been minding your individual enterprise as a easy area miner, drilling for minerals and assets, you dug up a wierd alien artifact. You touched it, which gave you unusual visions (proven very briefly at 6:52 (opens in new tab)). Afterwards, you apparently instructed a few of your coworkers about it, they usually referred to as Constellation, which is a guild representing “the final group of area explorers.”
A member of Constellation is dispatched to speak to you in regards to the artifact
Constellation then despatched somebody out to satisfy with you in regards to the artifact you discovered. We will guess this as a result of at 7:03 (opens in new tab) we see a ship touchdown, and a pilot in a spacesuit walks out and says to a miner “So, you discovered one thing?” The miner says “The brand new man discovered it,” a sign you have not been working for Argos Extraction for very lengthy.
The pilot then speaks to you and says “You dug up the artifact, proper? Meaning you noticed it. The visions.” No matter it’s you found, Constellation has additionally found related artifacts prior to now.
Your assembly is interrupted by area pirates
Skip to 7:35 (opens in new tab) and we see a distinct ship touchdown, as somebody yells “That is the Crimson Fleet,” who’re described by one other character a number of moments later as “cut-throat pirates.” Then there is a battle. This in all probability is not only a random skirmish from another level within the recreation: It appears to be like like this look by the Crimson Fleet, and the gunfight that follows, interrupts your assembly with the Constellation pilot.
Are the area pirates additionally there for the artifact, or is that this only a random raid? We do not know. Nevertheless, different clues recommend that it is seemingly that the Constellation pilot you meet does not survive the battle.
You inherit your first ship from the useless Constellation member
It’s kind of grim, nevertheless it appears seemingly that your first ship in Starfield is that Constellation pilot’s ship. It is only a guess, nevertheless it’s doable that as he lay dying, the pilot tells you to take his ship and use it to achieve Constellation’s headquarters. Extra proof helps this: the wristwatch you utilize to unlock the door to the Constellation headquarters (earlier within the video, at 6:23 (opens in new tab)) in all probability belonged to the pilot, too. That pilot does not appear to be in attendance at your introduction to Constellation, which helps the speculation that he was killed within the skirmish with the Crimson Fleet. If he was alive, he’d in all probability have include you.
Nicely, it is not like you do not spend quite a lot of time in Bethesda video games looting useless our bodies, proper? This time, lifting objects from a corpse bought you your first spaceship and a key to Constellation’s entrance door. Heck, even your companion robotic, Vasco, in all probability belonged to the useless Constellation pilot. All the things you get early on in Starfield is a hand-me-down, or to be extra correct, a loot-him-up.
You’re taking over the Constellation pilot’s mission
At 6:26 (opens in new tab) you see the participant reaching the Constellation constructing with Vasco, utilizing the watch to get inside, and assembly with the guild’s members. They present you the opposite artifacts which were found, which they hope will reply the query “What’s on the market?” That is the thriller Constellation is making an attempt to resolve. Since you have seen the visions, you are now “a part of fixing that puzzle” too.
And most definitely that’s the principal quest: discovering extra artifacts, determining “what they’re [and] what they’re constructing,” and discovering what we are able to assume is both alien life or (as occurs in quite a lot of science fiction) the remnants of some kind of historical alien civilization. The stuff the pilot was doing—flying round, investigating artifacts, and speaking to the individuals who discovered them—is now your job.
Lastly, at 8:22 (opens in new tab), we see the participant strolling towards some kind of assemble, which could possibly be a part of the imaginative and prescient you’ve at the beginning of the sport, or probably an occasion close to the ending of the primary quest.
That is quite a lot of hypothesis and guesswork, nevertheless it all sounds fairly darn believable to me. Beginning as a typical space-miner, stumbling throughout a mysterious artifact, inheriting your first ship and robotic companion from a useless pilot, and turning into the one one that can unravel the mysteries of the universe feels on par with the primary quests in earlier Bethesda video games. We’ll see how correct this concept is when Starfield comes out.
