Starfield outpost guide - where to build, what to mine, how to assign crew
If you’re sick of space, try building a Starfield outpost. Not only will this give you a place to rest your weary bones, but can give you the means to make vast quantities of credits and resources. We’ve already covered how to set up a cargo link in Starfield, but for a broader beginner’s guide featuring everything you need to know to get started - and avoid some costly mistakes - read on.
First off, you’ll want to establish your Starfield outpost in the right spot. Now, you can build anywhere you want to, assuming the celestial body you’ve picked isn’t a gas giant like Saturn or Jupiter, for obvious reasons. The ideal location is one with lots of resources. Resources such as iron, helium, and aluminum are crucial throughout Starfield.
What resources to look for
You can check the resources on a scanned planet via Starfield's planet view.
Iron and aluminum are used to create the adaptive frame, which you’ll need any time you want to build any type of structure. The large landing pad, for instance, requires 18 adaptive frames. Helium, meanwhile, is a crucial fuel source that powers a lot of outpost structures. Build your outpost on a planet with these three resources, and you’ll be able to make the most widely used building materials.
Best planet for outpost building
Find yourself a nice planet to make a home with the best outpost spot in Starfield.
The planet Jemison is a great place to build your first outpost. It’s high in iron, and is also one of the best-looking planets from a visual standpoint, with colourful skies and varied topography. As resource-rich as some moons are, wallowing in perpetual darkness can be depressing. Another great location is Andraphon. It’s a moon around the planet Sumati, which is in the Narion system, and it features abundant iron, aluminum, and helium.
A handy trick to getting the most resources possible is to build your outpost on the intersection between biomes. Each biome has different resources. So, for instance, mountainous biomes might contain nickel, while crater biomes might contain iron. If you touch down right between them, these biomes will overlap, meaning you can have an outpost with three resources within its boundary. That means you won’t have to build as many outposts.
How to mine resources
Place an extractor and you're one step closer to mining resources automatically in Starfield.
First, you’ll need a power supply. The cheapest of which is a solar dish This gives you six power, which is enough to run an extractor. So open your menu and lay an extractor over an area that contains a resource. These areas are colored so you can identify them easily. Iron, for instance, is colored brown.
Once your extractor is down, it’s time to build storage. Select the first storage crate from the list. Finally, you just have to hook up your extractor to the storage - this makes its extracted resources flow into storage automatically. For this, hit RT on the extractor, move the cursor to your storage box, and hit A. There you go, your extractor is up and running, and is now depositing resources into your storage.
How to assign crew to outpost
Assign the right crew members and you can boost your Starfield outpost's productivity.
You can make your operations run a bit smoother with the ‘assign crew to outpost’ function. Certain crew are more preferable than others to assign to your outpost. Lin, for instance, has the Outpost Management skill, which optimizes outpost functionality, adds cargo links, and boosts extractor productivity. Check your crew’s skills in the crew tab.
Now you’ll need to build and place a crew station. This is found under the miscellaneous tab, and costs two iron, five aluminum, and three nickel. Once that’s finished, go to your ship menu, which is in the bottom left corner of the main menu wheel, and hit Y to bring up the crew screen. This lets you assign crew to outposts if it has a crew station. You can only station one crew to an outpost at first, however. For more, upgrade your outpost management skill to rank three.
Find an outpost management specialist
Make sure you have all the power you need and then find the right specialists to drop into your Starfield outpost.
Outpost management specialists are recruitable crew members with the ‘outpost management’ skill. Lin is one, but you can find another. For this, head to the Astral Lounge. This is located in Starfield’s Neon, on planet Volii Alpha within the Volii System.
Speak to them and they’ll give you the option of hiring them. You can do this one of two ways. Either hire them for 6000 Credits, or use your talents of persuasion and haggle this price down by half, to 3000 Credits.
So that’s our Starfield outpost guide. To visit these outposts, you’ll need a ship, so why not check out our guide to every free ship you can unlock in Starfield. We also have a full Starfield walkthrough to help your journey across the Milky Way be as smooth as possible.
