Summary
- Starfield's ending is dependent on the choices players make throughout the game, from ing factions to leveling skills and picking Traits.
- The final stage of the main quest determines the ending, and players can take certain measures to ensure a satisfactory conclusion.
- The three main endings of Starfield have minor differences, but all include an epilogue that explains the fate of Constellation and the player character's journey through the Unity.
Traits to pick in Starfield. While choices throughout affect the ending, there are a few final measures that players can take to ensure they get a satisfactory conclusion. However, by the time the final stage of the main quest begins, the ending may already be locked in.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for the ending of Starfield.]
The main quest of Starfield revolves around the effort to locate, retrieve, and study a series of alien Artifacts, undertaken by the explorers' guild Constellation. This is most likely the first faction everyone will in Starfield, as progress in their quest is absolutely necessary to move the story forward and eventually reach the ending. Once a character has gathered enough Artifacts, they'll be able to place them all in the Armillary, a model of the heavens built earlier in the game. With the Armillary completed, they can get on their ship and attempt to jump to any system, only to find themselves transported to the mysterious Unity instead.
Starfield's Final Boss Depends On An Earlier Mission
Once they reach the Unity, the player character will be accosted by either one or two ships, depending on how they chose to resolve the mission "Unearthed". They've been dogged by two Starborn, superhuman beings with the power of foresight, for the entire game. Those two are the Hunter and the Emissary, and they both want the same thing as the player character: to collect all the Artifacts. The Hunter works by force, simply murdering whoever has whatever he wants. The Emissary uses the power of reason, possessed by the belief that the powerful Artifacts should never fall into the wrong hands.
If the player character sided with the Hunter, he'll fly in to help against the Emissary, and if they sided with the Emissary, they'll help against the Hunter. If they sided with neither, the two Starborn's ships will attack at once. Once the opposing ships are damaged, all parties will land and continue the fight. The Hunter, Emissary, or both will summon an army of undead mercenaries, repeatedly resurrecting them. Then, they'll proceed into a room full of angry robots. The player character can either fight these directly or dash to the control room, where they can hack a computer to turn the robots against the Starborn.
After proceeding through a series of rooms that show glimpses into other universes, where they see the outcomes of choices different from the ones they actually made, the player character will enter a large cavern. Here, they'll participate in a chaotic battle against just one of the Starborn, even if they sided against both. The Starborn will summon waves of hostile duplicates that resemble companions the player character may have recruited. Just ignore them and focus on the Starborn to put a quick end to this fight.
Ahead of the final phase, the Hunter, Emissary, and player character will convene one final time. Here, the player character will have a last opportunity to put a nonviolent end to the conflict. With a very high Persuasion skill in Starfield, they can convince both the Hunter and Emissary to give up, explaining that no matter what their goals are, they're doing more harm than good to the rest of the galaxy. Otherwise, they'll have to fight whichever of the Starborn they didn't side with in a reality-shifting battle that takes place over multiple arenas.
As the final boss' (or bosses') HP bars tick down, all three will be transported to a variety of different locations from the game: the Lodge, the Well, and the NASA Landmark, to name a few. Each has its own conditions, from confused Constellation firing back to the NASA Landmark's low-gravity environment. The Starborn will use all the abilities at their disposal, knocking the player character back with Gravity Wave or creating more duplicates with Parallel Self. When the dust settles, pick up the final Artifact and head for the ending.
Starfield's Three Endings Are Mostly The Same, With Minor Differences
All three of Starfield's main endings begin the same way. The differences lie in a series of epilogues that are portrayed through silent, animated dioramas. The player character approaches the heart of the Unity, where a friendly Starborn explains what exactly they're seeing. They describe the Unity as the heart of the universe, where all creation and destruction occur. It's also an encapsulated multiverse, containing everything that exists in all possible dimensions. ing through the Unity will grant the player awareness of all these realities, reincarnating them as a Starborn. Then, they view the epilogues that determine if they achieved the good, bad, or true ending.
No matter what, one of the epilogues always explains that Constellation survives the events of the game and goes on to complete and publicize its research. If the player completed one or more of the faction quests or romanced a character in Starfield, they'll get a little recap of what happened there, too.
Siding With The Hunter Leads To Starfield's Bad Ending
Siding with the Hunter in Starfield leads to a pessimistic epilogue that could be called the game's bad ending. The Hunter's diorama shows him clutching his gun, surrounded by dead bodies. The friendly Starborn narrates over it, explaining that the Hunter's violent attitude grew to be celebrated, and inspired countless others to rise up and seize power by force. This didn't always lead to a bad outcome, but always left tragedy in its wake.
Siding With The Emissary Leads To Starfield's Good Ending
Siding with the Emissary instead leads to a more optimistic epilogue that represents Starfield's good ending. The Starborn explains that the Emissary became something of a religious leader, and led many others to reincarnation through embracing the Unity. The Emissary is seen in the diorama kneeling peacefully, surrounded by worshipers.
Siding With Neither The Hunter Nor The Emissary Leads To Starfield's True Ending
If they choose to side with neither the Hunter nor the Emissary, either by turning them down during "Unearthed" or by convincing them to make peace during the final battle, the player character will see the most hopeful epilogue possible in Starfield's true ending. The diorama depicts a group of people looking at a giant stone ring, deep in thought. Instead of following either Starborn, humanity was left alone to forge its own path. Absent any powerful outside influence, people could determine their own paths, and while reaching the Unity might have taken them more time as a result, this is ultimately the best outcome.
Starfield's Ending Is A New Beginning
However the epilogue goes, at the end of Starfield the Starborn will usher the player character to walk into the light of the Unity, explaining that they'll be reborn in another continuum. On doing so, the player character will wake up on their ship, beginning a New Game Plus save. All their belongings and upgrades will be gone, but they'll retain their skills and Artifact powers.They'll also have access to Starborn-exclusive dialogue options and upgraded Artifact powers, and can use one of them immediately to skip through the main campaign.
If they travel to the Lodge to speak to Constellation's leader, Sarah Morgan, she won't recognize them. The character can either play along and offer to help find the Artifacts, restarting the main quest, or it that they're a Starborn and already know what the Artifacts do. The latter option allows them to skip the story and use their second playthrough to focus on Starfield's side quests and exploration.
It's true that Starfield doesn't really get going until the player has finished their first run-through of the game. While its ending may seem a bit anticlimactic, that's not really the point. It's just a means to an end, drawing attention to the cyclical nature of the game and encouraging players to experience it again through Starborn eyes. In the end, it's a reminder of the vastness of the multiple universes in which Starfield takes place.
