Summary

• Starfield's 1.12.30 update added the Trackers Alliance, a bounty hunter group, and two missions: "The Trackers Alliance" and "The Starjacker."
• The Vulture, a main bounty quest, was added via Creation for 700 Creation Points, sparking controversy due to its cost.
• The bounty board system could be used for more devious missions, allowing players to become ruthless assassins, expanding the game's potential for both good and evil.

Alongside adding the Creation Kit and letting players their officially ed mods for both PC and Xbox, Starfield's 1.12.30 update also added the option to the Trackers Alliance. The Trackers Alliance is a bounty hunter group situated in Akila City that posts on various mission boards across the Settled Systems, making their bounties available to outsiders looking to make a quick buck or build a reputation through bounty hunting.

Currently, there are two Trackers Alliance missions available in the base version of Starfield: "The Trackers Alliance," in which players first meet with the leader of the group, Agent No. 1, at their headquarters, and a bounty called "The Starjacker," which serves as an introductory test for a new candidate before they can the Trackers Alliance, where they must track down Hannibal Eutropio and apprehend him for his crimes. As well as miscellaneous repeatable bounty hunting missions, Bethesda also added another main bounty quest called "The Vulture" via Creations in which players must track down a veteran sniper from the Colony War who has since become a mercenary.

The Vulture could be purchased for 700 Creation Points, which equates to roughly $7. This proved to be controversial among fans, leading to an onslaught of negative reviews, as not only was $7 for one single mission deemed incredibly steep, but there was no option to just pay this amount, with players having to buy at least 1000 Creation Points for $10 to buy the mission.

The Trackers Alliance Is Still Ultimately A Good Faction

These Missions Involve Apprehending Or Killing Criminals

Ultimately, the Trackers Alliance is a group that sets out to hunt criminals at the moment, and can therefore be deemed morally good. These missions currently work much like the bounties in Red Dead Redemption or the Cyberpsycho missions in Cyberpunk 2077, where players have a choice to use non-lethal or lethal tactics to remove the threat, but will receive rewards regardless.

In the case of both aforementioned examples, there could be a higher payout for non-lethal approaches, and in Red Dead Redemption, players would actually have to bring in the target after capturing them, whereas in Cyberpunk 2077 a message from the person who assigned the missions, Regina Jones, would appear telling players she was pleased that the Cyberpsycho could be used for research. In Starfield, however, there only seems to be one outcome to The Starjacker due to its role as an introductory mission, and The Vulture offers the same rewards regardless of whether the target is spared and convinced to turn himself in, or if the player chooses to kill him.

Players can acquire The Vulture’s attire, including the Vulture Veteran Duelwear and the Vulture Dustwear, along with the incredibly powerful Calibrated Arboron Novastrike Sniper upon defeating him. There is also a further reward of 25,000 Credits upon completing the quest.

Bethesda may add more specific bounties like The Vulture via Creations in the future, but in the meantime, players can take on other side missions from the bounty board, which involves finding, capturing, or killing various people or ships. While all of these bounties involve hunting criminals currently, the concept of a bounty board has plenty of potential for something a bit more devious in the future.

The Bounty Board System Could Be Used To Put Up Hits

Starfield Should Let Less Morally Inclined Players Become Deadly Assassins

While currently the bounties available are through the Trackers Alliance, this system could be used by some of the less scrupulous characters in Starfield to put up their own targets, essentially letting players become assassins. While Starfield doesn't necessarily encourage much in the way of villainous gameplay outside of going undercover working with the Crimson Fleet - in which players can carry out some slightly more nefarious acts to get in with the group - such a feature would open up a whole array of possibilities for those who don't want their characters to be squeaky clean.

These hits could be posted by some of the characters within the game, such as the questionable CEOs of various Megacorps who may want to silence a whistleblower about to tell the world about a less-than-ethical experiment, such as the Neuroamp, and would certainly be in keeping with some of the corporate espionage-based quests players can already participate in throughout the base game. Alternatively, with the new Creation kit, it would be fun to see players coming up with their own targets and hits across the Settled Systems, expanding the seedier side of Bethesda's vision even further with their own backstories. These could cover anything from the aforementioned corporate espionage, to tales of revenge, or even attempts to claim inheritance or an insurance payout from a wealthy spouse.

Considering the illegal nature of such missions, these could offer a higher payout as well, making for an incredibly fast way to rack up credits for those willing to leave their morals behind. Players could also plan their assassinations in a variety of ways, with all of the tools already available in the game, from sniper rifles such as The Vulture's Calibrated Arboron Novastrike offering a ranged approach, or Starfield's stealth builds letting players get up close and personal as they infiltrate the target's office, home, or outpost. Alternatively, for those who don't want to be a silent assassin, there are also plenty of other weapons and builds in the game that could let them make a statement by going in blasting.

Now Bethesda's laid the groundwork, it would be great to see bounties expand to something more in Starfield - and preferably not for $7 each time - to fully utilize this mechanic. Whether Bethesda will be the one to incorporate this or if it will ultimately be a fan Creation that does it is yet to be seen, but there's certainly plenty of potential for both good and evil to come out of it.