Image: Bethesda Game Studios via HGG/Sarah Arnold
Sarah loves RPGs, sandboxes, and sims. She's played every expansion of World of Warcraft and WoW Classic and spent hundreds of hours modding and playing Bethesda games.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Hsu
There are five skill trees in Starfield, and each one offers character perks that affect different areas of the game. Within each tree, some skills are stronger than others. Many skills offer flat stat bonuses, while others can completely change the way you play by unlocking unique mechanics or features. Since there is no option to respec in Starfield, it’s particularly important to know exactly what skills you want to use to avoid wasting any of your skill points. That’s why we’ll be going over the best Physical skills to take in Starfield.
The Best Physical Skills in Starfield
The Physical tree is all about making your character faster, stronger, sturdier, or sneakier. It includes perks that affect your health, stamina, unarmed damage, damage resistance, and stealthiness.
Let’s take a look at the best skills in the Physical tree and what each one has to offer. We’ll be working our way down to the best one.
Gymnastics
Although a portion of this skill’s impact is only relevant in Zero-G, which makes up a pretty small portion of the game, the rest of it has some pretty useful applications for any character.
Rank 1 of Gymnastics unlocks the use of the combat slide ability, allowing you to dodge attacks. This ability will be especially useful to melee characters who need help avoiding damage as they close the gap. To combat slide, you just have to press the crouch button while sprinting.
This skill also reduces the fall damage you take, which can be especially nice to pair with the Boost Pack Training skill. You’ll have no trouble getting around in any environment with that combo. Rank 4 of Gymnastics also increases your jump height and allows you to run faster after using your combat slide.
Neurostrikes
Unarmed attacks in Starfield aren’t a very good way to do damage by default. The Neurostrikes skill gives you a good reason to punch people in the face by turning your unarmed attacks into a tool.
With this skill, you’ll be able to stun enemies and even knock them out with nonlethal damage. At rank 4, you’ll also knock down any enemies who happen to be close to your primary target.
You can combine this skill with the lower level Boxing and Martial Arts skills to create a powerful monk type of character who relies on their fists rather than weapons.
Concealment
The Concealment skill offers multiple unique benefits to enhance stealth gameplay, and if you’re playing a sneaky character, you’re absolutely going to want this skill sooner or later. It’s all the way at the top of the tree in tier 4, though, so you’ll have to spend 12 skill points before you can unlock it.
For your trouble, you get significantly stronger sneak attacks with each rank, capping out at 4x for ranged and a whopping 10x for melee. You won’t set off enemy mines anymore, so you’ll be able to dance your way across a minefield with no worries.
You’ll also be able to run while sneaking without incurring a penalty to your stealth, and you’ll become nearly invisible when staying still, making you feel like a true ninja. Additionally, when you reach rank 4, you’ll be able to lose distant enemies by crouching.
Stealth
This skill won’t be useful to you if you prefer to charge in guns blazing, but for everyone else it’s essential. Even if you’re only going to be sneaking on stealth missions, it’s good to have at least rank 1 in this skill. That’s because rank 1 unlocks the stealth meter, which lets you see when you’re in danger of being detected.
On top of unlocking the stealth meter, each rank of the Stealth skill increases your sneakiness. You’ll also increase the damage you do with sneak attacks when using a suppressor, making this an excellent skill for a sniper or a pistol-wielding assassin. Rank 4 even lets you open doors without alerting enemies to your presence.
As a tier 1 skill, you can put points into Stealth right off the bat. This is a good way to unlock skills in the higher tiers as well.
Weight Lifting
This skill is deceptively simple: each rank increases your carrying capacity by a progressively larger amount. But in a game where you’ll be picking up so much loot, that’s a huge benefit. It’s made even better by the fact that it’s a rank 1 skill, so you can grab it right out of the gate.
Every character is going to want this skill sooner or later. It’s also a great choice for unlocking the higher tiers in the Physical tree. To complete the skill challenges, all you need to do is load your character up with junk and sprint everywhere you go. You’ll probably be doing that anyway.
Like Stealth, Weight Lifting is a tier 1 skill, which means it’s also a great skill to take if you want to unlock skills in the higher tiers.
Join the High Ground!
Thanks for reading! We hope this guide has helped you choose the best Physical skills for your character in Starfield. If you have any questions, leave a comment below, and be sure to subscribe to High Ground for more useful guides!
Happy gaming!
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