Here is everything you need to know about the Milliwhale pet in Starfield, including how to unlock her through the Housesitting quest, what tricks she can perform, and how to change her appearance.
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The Milliwhale is one of the most charming additions in the Free Lanes update. She is a small alien creature that lives at your outpost, responds to your interactions, performs tricks on command, and can be customized with several different color schemes. She is purely cosmetic in terms of gameplay, but she is the kind of small detail that makes your outpost feel genuinely lived in rather than just a resource farm.
Starfield Milliwhale Pet Overview
Unlocking the Milliwhale requires completing the House Sitting mission, a side quest that starts on Anchorpoint Station and takes you on a short but memorable adventure involving a kidnapped alien pet, a ransom note, and a surprisingly tense negotiation. This guide covers the full quest walkthrough and everything the Milliwhale can do once she is yours.
Quick Summary: The Milliwhale is unlocked by completing the Housesitting quest, which starts on Anchorpoint Station in the Algorab system. After completing the quest, you receive Milliwhale Food as a reward, which lets you summon your own Milliwhale at any outpost.
What Is the Milliwhale?
The Milliwhale is a small alien creature added as a new outpost pet in the Free Lanes update. She waddles around your outpost, reacts when you interact with her, and can be taught a small set of tricks. You can also change her color to one of several different appearances, giving you some control over how she looks in your base.
She does not mine resources, craft items, or provide any mechanical gameplay benefit. The Milliwhale is a companion for your outpost in the truest sense of the word, something to make the place feel more like home.
How to Start the House Sitting Quest
The House Sitting quest begins on Anchorpoint Station, the new star station added in the Starfield Free Lanes update. Anchorpoint is located in the Algorab system and serves as the main hub for much of the new Free Lanes content.
When you first arrive on the station, my advice is simply to talk to everyone. The station has several NPCs with quests and activities to offer. One of the early quests on the station involves taking out a group of spacers. Once you have completed that initial activity, you will receive a prompt to speak with an NPC named Yura.
Milliwhale House Sitting Quest Walkthrough
Yura asks you to house-sit for her sister while she is away. The job is simple: travel to a small house on Muphrid IV, water a few plants, and feed a Milliwhale named Milli until the sister gets home.
When you arrive at Atka’s house on Muphrid IV, read the instructions left for you to learn how to water the plants and feed Milli. At that point, you will quickly discover something has gone wrong. Instead of finding Milli at home, you find a ransom note.
The full text of the ransom note reads:
“We have Milli. We know she’s rare, so bring 100,000 credits to the old maintenance garage if you want her back alive. The password is pomegranate.”
After reading the note, you will be prompted to locate a nearby maintenance garage to negotiate Milli’s release.
Rescuing Milli
Once you reach the maintenance garage, you have several options for getting Milli back. You do not have to pay the full ransom price.
Your options include:
- Pay 100,000 credits outright
- Use Persuasion to talk them down
- Use Intimidation to force their hand
- Use your faction allegiance as leverage
The faction option is the one I used. If you are aligned with the Crimson Fleet, you can use that affiliation to intimidate the kidnappers and get Milli released for free. Other faction alignments may offer their own dialogue paths, so it is worth trying your faction option before spending credits.
Pro Tip: If you have been building your Persuasion or Intimidation skills, this quest is a good test of them. Both options are available and work independently of your credit balance, so there is no need to have 100,000 credits on hand if your skills are strong.
Quest Reward
After rescuing Milli and returning her to Atka’s house, you receive two rewards:
- 1,000 credits
- Milliwhale Food
The Milliwhale Food is the key reward. Using it at any of your outposts will summon your own Milliwhale pet there permanently.
How to Place Your Milliwhale
Once you have the Milliwhale Food, travel to whichever outpost you want your Milliwhale to call home. Use the Milliwhale Food from your inventory while at the outpost and Milli will appear there. She will remain at that outpost and roam around the space you have built for her.
You can only have one Milliwhale active at a time, so choose your favorite outpost as her home base.
What Can the Milliwhale Do?
Interacting with the Milliwhale by petting her brings up two options: Play and Change Appearance.
Play
Selecting Play lets you choose from four different tricks:
- Play Dead: Milli flops over dramatically
- Turn Around: Milli spins in a circle
- Down: Milli settles into a resting position
- Wave: Milli waves at you
Each trick is a simple interaction, but they are charming and add some personality to your outpost visits.
Change Appearance
Selecting Change Appearance lets you switch Milli’s color scheme between five options:
- Common (default appearance)
- Albino
- Desert
- Volcanic
- Forest
Each appearance changes the color of Milli’s body to match the theme. Albino gives her a pale white look, Desert gives her warm sandy tones, Volcanic gives her a deep red and black color scheme, and Forest gives her earthy greens. You can change her appearance as many times as you like.
The Final Word
The Milliwhale is a small reward for a short quest, but the House Sitting quest itself is one of the most memorable side activities in the Free Lanes update.
Once she is home and settled at your outpost, Milli adds a personality to the space that no workbench or cargo container ever could. Make sure you talk to everyone on Anchorpoint Station when you first arrive, complete the spacer quest, and the House Sitting activity will follow naturally from there.
Starfield Milliwhale Pet FAQ
1. Do you need the Terran Armada DLC to unlock the Milliwhale?
No. The House Sitting quest and the Milliwhale pet are part of the free Free Lanes update and are available to all Starfield players for free. You do not need to own the Terran Armada DLC.
2. What happens if you pay the 100,000 credit ransom instead of using persuasion or a faction option?
You get Milli back either way and the quest completes normally. The only difference is the cost to your credit balance. If you have 100,000 credits and do not want to attempt persuasion or intimidation, paying the ransom is a completely valid option and does not affect the rewards you receive.
3. Does the Milliwhale pet provide any gameplay benefit or stat bonus?
No. The Milliwhale is a purely cosmetic outpost companion. She performs tricks and can be customized, but she does not generate resources, provide buffs, or affect any gameplay systems. She is there to make your outpost feel like home.
4. Can you have more than one Milliwhale across multiple outposts?
Based on the single Milliwhale Food reward from the quest, it appears you can only have one Milliwhale active at a time. There is no known way to obtain multiple Milliwhale Food items at this point. We will update this guide if additional methods are discovered.
5. What is the password to the maintenance garage in the Housesitting quest?
The password is pomegranate. You find it written in the ransom note at Atka’s house on Muphrid IV. You will need it to gain entry to the maintenance garage where Milli is being held.
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