Categories: Starfield, Starfield Builds
Living the pirate’s life in Starfield brings with it the thrill of high-stakes encounters and plundering ships, but which build is best? This guide is your compass through the cosmos, revealing the intricacies of the Space Pirate Build – a path paved with ruthless spacefaring tactics and bountiful rewards.
If you’re looking to become the ultimate space outlaw, this Starfield Pirate Build is designed to dominate both ship combat and close-quarters boarding while maximizing profits through smuggling and trading.
This build focuses on disabling enemy ships, boarding them for loot, and using persuasion or deception to control every situation. Whether you want to roleplay a Crimson Fleet-style raider or simply make credits fast, this setup gives you everything you need.
This guide is updated for Starfield Free Lanes and Terran Armada DLC (1.16.236).
Starfield Pirate Build Overview
The Pirate build focuses on a fun gameplay loop, ship combat, disable ships with targeting, board, loot, and sell. You get to experience every part of Starfields gameplay in a fun and effective build meant for role players and fans of the Han Solo Smuggler theme. Blending close-quarters DPS with ballistic shotguns and great ship upgrades, you’ll excel at each form of combat.
While this build excels at ship and CQB combat, you want to be aware it’s designed for ship building. If you do not enjoy that aspect of Starfield, this might not be the best build for you. Moreover, you must sacrifice skills like Boost Pack Training and Fitness for more space battle skills like Starship Shields. Thus, your survivability will be low unless in close quarters where your shotgun dominates. Check out our Starfield Builds video guide for even more tips and gameplay!
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- Starfield Leveling Guide
Pirate Build Pros and Cons
Below are the pros and cons of the Pirate / Smuggler build in Starfield:
| Pirate Build Pros | Pirate Build Cons |
|---|---|
| Thematic Build | Must Enjoy Ship Building |
| Credit Generator | Limited Crafting |
| Influence Dialogue | Weaker Mobility |
TL:DR Pirate Build
- Core Identity: Boarding-focused pirate (disable → board → loot → sell)
- Damage: Shotguns
- Range: 15 meters (Shotguns)
- Weapon: Pacifier or Big Bang (Shotguns)
- Best Skills: Targeting Control Systems, Shotgun Certification, Deception
- Starborn Power: Void Form
- Background: Space Scoundrel
- Traits: Wanted, Introvert, Spaced
- Companion: None (Isolation Skill)
How to Play the Starfield Pirate Build
To conduct space piracy effectively in Starfield you’re going to be primarily bullying your way on board unlucky ships using either social skills or your ship weapons and then ruthlessly clearing out that ship’s passengers to obtain contraband and credits.
Look no further than the Crimson Fleet faction and questline to start your path of intergalactic crime. Simply commit a crime and surrender to the authorities in a UC-controlled area. You’ll be given the opportunity to work with UC Sysdef to repay for your criminal activity start the questline and join the Crimson Fleet. As a Crimson Fleet member you’ll be set up with the roughest and toughest group of space pirates in the settled systems.
Space Scoundrel Background
The name of this background truly says it all. This character creation option is hands down the best background for a Pirate build in Starfield. It combines the best opening skills from three different skill trees and puts them together in a way that narratively makes perfect sense and feels genuine and lived in.
Space Scoundrel grants us 1 rank in the Pistol Certification, Piloting, and Persuasion skills at level 1 right out the gates. This allows you to use your Persuasion to talk your way through most scenarios and when you can’t or don’t want to you’ll have the extra damage boost from Pistol Certification to put your enemies down.
The Piloting skill will allow us to use the thrusters right from the beginning of the game allowing us to fly circles around much more difficult foes in space which should allow you to take on more difficult or numerous amounts of enemies increasing your XP gain.
This background is a must have if you plan on playing through the Crimson Fleet and Trade Authority storyline as the roleplaying and immersion from this combo is some of the best the game has to offer.
Best Traits for a Pirate Build
Wanted, Introvert, and Spaced are the best traits for a Pirate Build in Starfield because they fit the thematic theme of a solo renegade boarding ships and taking their loot. Wanted gives you a damage bonus when low HP, and also you are hunted by mercenaries throughout the galaxy. Perfect performance and RP trait. Introvert gives you extra oxygen playing solo while Spaced boost health and oxygen while in space. Below are some more details about traits:
Wanted
Occasionally armed mercenaries will show up and try to kill you, but when your health is low you do extra damage. This trait takes the Pirate playstyle to the next level! Now it feels like you have some competitors out in the galaxy, trying to hunt you down before your next big score!
Introvert
Being a wanted criminal won’t make you a lot of friends. As a Pirate you need to do a few things that Starfield’s primary companions, especially those in Constellation, may not appreciate. With this trait, you will use less Oxygen when you don’t have any companions with you.
Spaced
As a Pirate in Starfield most of your targets will be found in the Blackest Sea and as a result the Spaced trait will significantly boost your Health and Oxygen levels when in space. This will make boarding and clearing out vessels, star stations, and other valuable targets a breeze.
Pirate Build Best Weapons
The best weapons for the Pirate build are Shotguns due to their up close nature, perfect when boarding a ship. The Big Bang shotgun is the absolute best in the game, because of its damage. However, it’s a Particle Beam Shotgun so it won’t fully benefit from Ballistic perks. In this case, use the Pacifier Shotgun while leveling since it’s ballistic style, until you reach higher levels. Below are some other additional weapon options and choices we recommend:
Best Shotguns
During early gameplay grab yourself a Coachman or Pacifier shotgun, plus keep a Ballistic Rifle like a Grendel or Maelstrom as your secondary (remember switching to it is faster than reloading your shotgun). You can later upgrade to the amazing Breach shotgun (easily found/purchased from Crimson fleet vendor) which deals the most amount of damage with the highest accuracy out of all the game’s shotguns and has 8 modible slots for further tweaking. The Old Earth Shotgun also packs a punch if you can find one early on!
The Revenant
The Revenant is statistically one of the best legendary weapons in the game and is an absolute beast that will tear your enemies to shreds. This powerful ballistic rifle can be earned towards the end of the Crimson Fleet questline.
Best Weapon Traits
For a Pirate build be on the lookout for weapon traits such as:
- Anti-Personnel: bonus damage against humans.
- Furious: Each consecutive hit deals more damage.
- Instigating: Deals double damage to targets with full health.
- Shattering: Break through even the strongest armor.
- Rapid: +25% increase in attack speed.
Pirate Space Suit and Helmet Options
The Superior Bounty Hunter Spacesuit and Helmet for higher levels or the Pirate Assault Spacesuit and Helmet for lower levels at the beginning of the game are your best options for Pirate gear. These armors can both be purchased from the Crimson Fleet armor trader in the depot or pilfered from Spacer/Fleet corpses at Abandoned Outposts/Facilities.
Recommended Boost Pack
The Superior Bounty Hunter Seek Pack with a Basic or Balanced Boostpack is hands down your best option if you have the skills in spacesuit design to further tweek the stats to match the following image for the most useful bonuses.
Best Skills For the Pirate Build
The best skills for a Pirate Build in Starfield are Ballistics, Piloting, Ship Command, and Weight Lifting.
- Piloting: This is one of the core skills to a functional Pirate build, it provides greater control of your ship which will help you hunt down your targets and more importantly get behind them to take out their engines so that you can quickly board them. The Piloting skill is located in the Tech Tree.
- Targeting Control Systems: This is the most important skill to the Pirate build. It allows you to target specific systems on an enemy ship, and importantly the engines. Disabling the engines allows us to fly up to a ship and board it. Without this skill you are extremely likely to destroy your target during ship combat meaning all the loot on board is destoryed too.
- Shotgun Certification: The cornerstone of close-quarters combat and the bread and butter of your damage output, this skill will increase the damage dealt with Shotguns and eventually grant us the ability to stun targets as well. This skill is found in the Combat Tree.
- Ballistics: This is a must have skill for this build because it improves the damage of all Ballistic weapons (pistols, rifles, shotguns, etc). Ballistic-based weapons are also extremely common in Starfield making this skill useful no matter what. This skill is located in the Combat tree.
- Persuasion: The Persuasion skill will give us the ability/chance to convince a target ship to surrender without a fight and allow us to loot their ship with ease. The Persuasion skill is located in the Social Tree.
- Deception: This is a crucial skill as we get more invested and seasoned as a Crimson Fleet Pirate, this will significantly increase the percentage that enemy ships will automatically surrender to piracy demands (dialogue option) as well as increasing the effectiveness of evading contraband scans. Deception skill is found in the Social Tree.
- Ship Command: Another fantastic skill to have in our Pirate build, this allows us to increase the amount of crew we can have on our ship at any one time.
- Security: The Security skill will allow our Pirate access to locked containers and thus even more lucrative loot and plunder. It also allows us to open otherwise locked doors and disable security systems which further aids our safety and speed at clearing an enemy ship during a boarding raid. The Security skill is found in the Tech Tree.
- Weight Lifting: This is a great skill that boosts your Carry Weight, which is important for a Pirate who needs to pilfer an entire ships worth of equipment, supplies, and contraband. The Weight Lifting skill is located in the Physical Tree.
- Commerce: A crucial skill for any pirate trying to make an dishonest living. Commerce allows us to buy items at lower prices but most importantly increases the value of items we sell in particular having tremendous effect on the price of contraband items making our ill gotten goods worth all the risk and potential bounties. This skill is found in the Social Tree.
Pirate Build Leveling Guide & Skills Progression (Level 1-50)
While the exact order you select skills on this build is not incredibly important, this outline will help give you a general direction of how to get started. We will want to focus on both combat skills and science skills early on for balance. Below is a sample level 1-50 skill progression based on our experience:
| Level | Skill | Rank | Skill Tree | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Space Scoundrel (Pistol Cert, Piloting, Persuasion) | — | Background | Perfect pirate start with combat, ship control, and dialogue advantages |
| 2 | Targeting Control Systems | 1 | Tech | Enables ship targeting for disabling and boarding enemy ships |
| 3 | Ballistics | 1 | Combat | Boosts ballistic weapon damage for early gunfights |
| 4 | Weight Lifting | 1 | Physical | Increases carry capacity for loot-heavy pirate gameplay |
| 5 | Security | 1 | Tech | Allows lockpicking for credits, contraband, and loot |
| 6 | Shotgun Certification | 1 | Combat | Strong close-range burst damage for boarding combat |
| 7 | Piloting | 2 | Tech | Unlocks better ship handling and access to stronger ships |
| 8 | Persuasion | 2 | Social | Improves dialogue success for piracy and negotiations |
| 9 | Commerce | 1 | Social | Buy low, sell high—essential for profit-focused play |
| 10 | Ballistics | 2 | Combat | Further increases weapon damage output |
| 11 | Shotgun Certification | 2 | Combat | Improves shotgun lethality in close quarters |
| 12 | Weight Lifting | 2 | Physical | More carry weight = more contraband and loot |
| 13 | Security | 2 | Tech | Unlocks more advanced locks |
| 14 | Commerce | 2 | Social | Better vendor prices increases profit margins |
| 15 | Deception | 1 | Social | Helps smuggle contraband without getting caught |
| 16 | Piloting | 3 | Tech | Access to Class B ships |
| 17 | Shield Systems | 1 | Tech | Improves survivability in ship combat |
| 18 | Ballistics | 3 | Combat | Significant boost to weapon damage |
| 19 | Shotgun Certification | 3 | Combat | Stronger close-range combat dominance |
| 20 | Weight Lifting | 3 | Physical | Carry more stolen goods and gear |
| 21 | Persuasion | 3 | Social | Better outcomes in intimidation and bribery |
| 22 | Security | 3 | Tech | Access to high-tier locks and safes |
| 23 | Deception | 2 | Social | Improved contraband smuggling success |
| 24 | Piloting | 4 | Tech | Unlocks Class C ships (endgame pirate vessels) |
| 25 | Shield Systems | 2 | Tech | Better survivability in space combat |
| 26 | Commerce | 3 | Social | Maximizes profit from selling loot |
| 27 | Starship Design | 1 | Tech | Start customizing and upgrading ships |
| 28 | Ballistics | 4 | Combat | Max weapon damage for ballistic builds |
| 29 | Shotgun Certification | 4 | Combat | Max shotgun effectiveness |
| 30 | Persuasion | 4 | Social | Near-guaranteed dialogue success |
| 31 | Deception | 3 | Social | Reliable smuggling |
| 32 | Targeting Control Systems | 2 | Tech | Faster and more efficient ship targeting |
| 33 | EM Weapons Systems | 1 | Tech | Better Weapon Systems |
| 34 | Starship Engineering | 1 | Tech | Improves ship repair and survivability |
| 35 | Targeting Control Systems | 3 | Tech | Enhanced subsystem targeting |
| 36 | Shield Systems | 3 | Tech | Stronger shields for extended fights |
| 37 | Starship Design | 2 | Tech | Better ship parts and upgrades |
| 38 | Targeting | 1 | Combat | Improves ranged weapon accuracy hip firing shotguns |
| 39 | Weight Lifting | 4 | Physical | Max carry capacity |
| 40 | Deception | 4 | Social | Max contraband stealth capability |
| 41 | Targeting | 2 | Combat | Further boosts ranged combat effectiveness |
| 42 | Targeting Control Systems | 4 | Tech | Max ship targeting efficiency |
| 43 | Shield Systems | 4 | Tech | Maximum ship durability |
| 44 | Starship Engineering | 2 | Tech | Improved repair and performance |
| 45 | EM Weapons Systems | 2 | Tech | Better disabling power for boarding |
| 46 | Starship Design | 3 | Tech | Advanced ship customization |
| 47 | Starship Engineering | 3 | Tech | Stronger ship survivability |
| 48 | EM Weapons Systems | 3 | Tech | Efficient ship disabling |
| 49 | Starship Design | 4 | Tech | Full access to top-tier ship builds |
| 50 | Starship Engineering | 4 | Tech | Max ship performance and durability |
Best Chems for Pirate Build
The chems and consumables for your Pirate build should focus on speed, damage, and healing. You want to use the best like Amp just before combat, so you can close the gap faster and control positioning. Combine with your Starborn power to get a 10-15 second advantage, where you can clear an entire ship full of enemies. Below are the best consumables you should carry with you on the Pirate Build:
| Chem | Type | Effect | Why It’s Good |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amp | Utility | Increased movement speed and jump height | Lets you close gaps fast and control positioning |
| Med Pack / Trauma Pack / Emergency Kit | Healing | Restores health (varying strength) | Core survivability tools for all encounters |
| Reconstim | Healing | Gradual health regeneration over time | Sustained healing without constant micromanagement |
| Frostwolf | Combat | Increased damage and damage resistance | Best all-around combat enhancer |
| Battlestim | Combat | Boosts combat effectiveness and survivability | Reliable stat boost for difficult fights |
| Hippolyta | Social | Increased persuasion chance | Helps avoid combat or increase rewards |
| Paramour | Social | Massive persuasion bonus | Maximizes dialogue success for pirate roleplay |
Best Starborn Powers for Pirate Build
The two best Starborn powers for the Pirate build are Void Form and Phased Time. Void Form turns you invisible, and its perfect for starting fights where you need to eliminate one or two enemies quickly on a ship. Phased Time is the second choice because it slows down time. You can take AMP and boost your speed, using Phased time to chain kill a ton of enemies in a short time while boarding. Below is our recommended Starborn powers for a Pirate build:
| Power | Type | Effect | Why It’s Good |
|---|---|---|---|
| Void Form | Stealth | Turns you invisible | Lets you initiate fights on your terms |
| Phased Time | Combat | Slows time dramatically | One of the strongest combat powers in the game |
| Parallel Self | Combat | Summons a clone ally | Adds distraction and extra damage |
| Reactive Shield | Defense | Reflects incoming damage | Great survivability in tight spaces |
| Gravity Well | Crowd Control | Pulls enemies together | Sets up devastating shotgun blasts |
| Sense Star Stuff | Utility | Reveals enemies through walls | Prevents ambushes and speeds up looting |
| Personal Atmosphere | Utility | Infinite stamina temporarily | Helps carry more and move faster |
Changelog & Build Updates
- v1.2 – June 13, 2026 – Updated traits section
- v1.1 – March 30, 2026 – Updated skill progression, weapons, added Starborn Powers, and Consumables
- v1.0 – January 22, 2024 – Originally created for Starfield.
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