The 5 Best Science Skills in Starfield

The Science Skill tree in Starfield offers some amazing skills that can make your character more effective and open up new paths for exploration and crafting in Starfield.

1. Weapon Engineering

If there was just one Science Skill you were going to invest into in Starfield it should definitely be Weapon Engineering. The usefulness of this skill surpasses all other crafting skills just for the sheer amount of customization you can add to weapons. This includes barrels, muzzles, optics, stocks and grips, laser sites, receivers, magazines, and more. Utilizing the most powerful of these weapon mod options can add hundreds of damage per round to any weapon in the game which is absolutely insane.

Of course, you can also change up how a weapon functions completely, taking it from single shot to burst fire to fully automatic or adding new round types, some of which are exclusive to certain kinds of guns. Want to up the damage of a rifle? Switch to armor-piercing rounds. Want to turn your boring Coachmen shotgun into an explosive juggernaut? Switch it over to “Hornet’s Nest” and watch the carnage ensue.

I cannot recommend the Weapon Engineering Skill enough to you for Starfield. Customizing my guns exactly as I want has been one of my favorite parts of the game.

2. Spacesuit Design

The Spacesuit Design skill allows you to modify your helmets, space suits, and boost packs with a variety of useful traits to truly customize your build. You can for example have your armor automatically use a med pack for you when your health gets too low which is a literal lifesaver.

The most useful reason for picking up Spacesuit Design however is the ability to change your boostpack type. For example, if you find a legendary pack with its own great perks that also happens to have a less useful “basic” or “power” boostpack you can then modify it into the much more useful “balanced” variant.

For more information on Spacesuit Design, Weapon Engineering, and other powerful Science skills check out the video below!

3. Special Projects

Some of the best crafting mods in Starfield do require one additional skill that’s also in the Science Skill tree. This is called Special Projects.

If all you want to do is unlock the best possible armor and weapon mods then just one rank of the Special Projects skill is all you need as this is the only rank tied to specific research projects. For example, Rank 1 of Special Projects unlocks the previously mentioned “hornet’s nest” mod for the Coachman shotgun.

If you are fully committed to outpost building then you’ll probably also want to put in a few more ranks of this skill to unlock the ability to craft the manufactured components for more advanced outpost builds.

4. Astrodynamics

The Astrodynamics Skill in Starfield is useful for getting to the farthest systems in space with minimal effort. For example, Rank 1 of this skill increases your ship’s Grav Jump range by 15 percent while Rank 2 reduces the Fuel cost of your jumps by another 15 percent.

Rank 3 of Astrodynamics pushes your range even further, increasing Grav Jump range and reducing Fuel cost by another 30 percent. Finally, Rank 4 reduces your fuel cost of Grav Jumps by another 50 percent.

This skill can be very helpful early on in Starfield when you may not have the best ship or ship parts available, and it is certainly more convenient for all players when you can jump straight to the system you want without having to partially jump between systems along the way.

5. Medicine

The Medicine Skill in Starfield makes your healing items more effective, increasing their total amount healed and speeding up their healing time. This is important because the basic healing items in Starfield such as Med Packs don’t heal for all that much, especially early on in the game. By level 10 on my first playthrough, I was burning through these things like crazy before I figured out that I could actually upgrade their healing substantially with this skill.

Even getting Medicine up to Rank 2 will make a noticeable difference in your overall ability to heal through damage, letting you focus more on the combat at hand which is great.

The Final Word

In this guide for the best Science Skills in Starfield, we covered five skills that can have a big impact on your playthrough including better crafting, combat survival, and space travel. While these skills are not required, they do have a bigger impact than most in this skill tree and are highly recommended. Don’t forget to check out every Science Skill available with our complete list, but above all, explore, have fun, and we’ll see you in the Starfield!

More Skill Guides For Starfield