Starfield: Best Starting Traits Guide

When creating your character in Starfield, you can choose up to three optional Traits. These are modifications to your character that can make the first few dozen hours of your playthrough spicier. Some of them are straight-up buffs to your character. Provided you play to their strengths, the most effective ones can make you an even better one-person-army. These are the best starting Traits in Starfield.

The Best Starting Traits in Starfield

For this list of the best starting Starfield Traits, I’ve chosen options that cater to the widest possible playstyle pool and provide the biggest potential benefit with the least amount of drawback. You can select up to three Traits when you start a new game, so I picked six of them if you want to mix and match. You can also reset them with console commands, but only if you choose to.

Related: How to Use Console Commands on Xbox

Alien DNA

Here’s why you should choose the Alien DNA Trait:

• It’s very good early game. You won’t have access to much healing or food early on, so the extra health and oxygen will be welcome.
• You can easily have it removed. For only 10,000 credits, any doctor in the Settled Systems can remove the Trait if it becomes bothersome.
• Kinda cool to have alien DNA, isn’t it?

Dream Home

Here’s why you should choose the Dream Home Trait:

• You have one of the nicest homes in the game. Rent is only 500 per week, which you can make selling a single gun.
• You can pay it off entirely later on. As it’s a mortgage, when you come into 125,000 credits, you can meet with your GalBank representative and have the loan paid off.
• Your home is in New Atlantis. Next to The Key, New Atlantis is the best place to offload goods, upgrade your ship, and generally relax between adventures.

Empath (When Paired with Extrovert/Introvert)

Here’s why you should choose the Empath Trait:

• You’re using Introvert. If you plan to play solo, taking the Trait does literally nothing but can benefit you should you decide to take someone along.
• You’re using Extrovert. Provided you can key into what companions like Sarah Morgan and Sam Coe like, you can have them in an essentially infinite combat-aware state.
• Feelings are mushy.

Extrovert/Introvert

Here’s why you should choose the Extrovert/Introvert Traits:

• (Extrovert) You plan to play with companions. Companions are one of the best ways to make Starfield an easier game. They can hold things for you, help in a firefight, and generally be helpful in other ways.
• (Introvert) You plan to play solo. Many of Starfield less savory activities (smuggling, piracy, attacking the authorities) are best done alone, and Introvert makes it more comfortable to do.
• (Either) The Trait can change how you play. As long as you always keep in mind you have the Trait, you might experience some cool moments no one else can boast.

Taskmaster

Here’s why you should choose the Taskmaster Trait:

• You get at least six crew members for free. Your Constellation friends, as well as several other NPCs, will join your crew for free, voiding the Trait’s negative effect.
• Hiring is expensive, but not horribly so. Most hires ask a bit over 10,000 credits by default, so adding a few to your crew with Taskmaster will cost at least 50,000-60,000. Thankfully, that’s not the largest sum to earn back.
• Having crew only adds value. You can have Taskmaster and not have a crew at all, gaining their Trait’s benefits whenever you please.

Related: Best Crew Members in Starfield

Wanted

Here’s why you should choose the Wanted Trait:

• You’ll have a steady supply of enemy ships to pillage. Having a bounty provides you with more hostile enemies both in space and on the ground, providing plenty of additional loot as well as plenty of opportunities to upgrade your ship.
• You can pay off the bounty at any time. There are bounty clearing stations across the Settled Systems. Provided you can pay the bounty off (it only costs 3,000 credits), you might have gained hundreds of thousands more.
• Being on a wanted list is just a great backstory for an adventurer.

And those are our picks for the best starting Traits in Starfield. Wanted, in particular, can make the early-game both much more comfortable and much more stressful if the game spawns a high-level ship to bother you. The others have their drawbacks as well, but there are plenty of possible benefits to mixing and matching. If you’re looking for more help with Starfield’s masses of content, check out our guides on the best free ships, how to get all houses, and more in our guides hub for the game.