If you want to last longer in space, here are the best combat tips in Starfield
Starfield offers a distinctly player-friendly gaming experience, yet it also incorporates a significant element of violence, which plays a vital role within the game. Throughout your journey in Starfield, you’ll face various forms of combat, each necessitating its unique set of strategies for survival.
From close-quarters melee battles to long-range encounters on celestial bodies and within the vast expanse of space, the following tips and tricks will empower you to assert your dominance on the battlefield, much like you excel in other domains.
Starfield Combat Tips
In Starfield, you have the opportunity to venture into expansive celestial systems. Nevertheless, your explorations may lead to confrontations with numerous adversaries determined to plunder your cargo. To successfully navigate these situations, it’s imperative to employ top-notch combat tactics. Here, we’ve compiled the finest combat tips for your journey in Starfield:
1. Sensitivity
Sensitivity in Starfield can be a double-edged sword, offering both advantages and challenges. Adjusting it to suit your preferences is possible, but it can be a learning curve. The key to finding the perfect sensitivity setting is through experimentation and learning from your mistakes. This process will ultimately enable you to unlock your full combat potential in Starfield.
2. Stealth
Stealth is an absolute necessity in this game. Without it, you can easily find yourself in precarious situations due to careless actions. Maintaining stealth ensures that you don’t alert multiple adversaries simultaneously, which is a significant advantage as it limits your immediate threat to just one enemy at a time. Employing stealth tactics opens up opportunities for stealth kills and sneak attack bonuses, greatly amplifying your damage output and potentially securing instant kills. This mastery of stealth can elevate your combat prowess in Starfield to near-legendary levels.
3. Count your Ammo
It’s always a prudent move to exercise caution when employing ranged projectiles like bullets or missiles. Ammunition is a precious resource, and it’s advisable to use it sparingly. A clever approach to achieve this is by engaging in melee combat when you can close the distance to your foes. If your firearm is in the midst of a reload, seize the opportunity to rush in and deliver a melee strike. This tactic not only inflicts damage but also preserves your precious ammunition at the same time.
4. Landing headshots
Headshots are vital as they are the ones that will inflict the most amount of damage on an enemy. The head region is very sensitive to attacks and will cause a significant drop in your opponent’s health bar. You can always go for the chest if you’re worried about your aim.
The damage will be low so you might have to put some extra rounds in them. You can get the lowest damage by shooting someone in the arms or legs.
5. High-ground advantages
Getting to higher ground will expose all your enemies to you and gravity will also help you rain hell down (as low as it might be, it still exists). The higher ground will also help you spot enemies from far away, and it will open up your FOV quite a bit. To maximize it, change your FOV in Starfield from the settings, letting you see more of your environment.
If enemies surround you, you will also get their hiding locations above. The Jetpacks are the best picks you can get for these purposes. If not, you can reach a higher structure like a building or a cliff.
6. Close quarter combat
Perfect aim isn’t guaranteed, especially at long distances, but point-blank shots tend to be more accurate. Engaging in close-quarters combat also gives you the chance to assess your hand-to-hand combat abilities and put your melee weapons to good use, preventing them from becoming mere inventory clutter.
7. Grenades are your friends
In situations where you find yourself surrounded, having a weapon with a wide area of effect is crucial. Guns, which typically target a single enemy, can be swapped out for grenades to inflict damage across a broader area. All you need to do is toss one into a group of adversaries.
Witness as your enemies are decimated by the powerful explosion. Depending on the type of grenades you use, they can also serve as effective crowd control. Employ a Stun Mine to incapacitate your foes or, for an even more potent tactic, unleash Incendiary Grenades to create a fiery barrier that momentarily halts their advance.
8. Movement is Key
Remaining in motion on the battlefield in Starfield is far superior to becoming an easy target during combat. The unpredictable nature of warfare makes it impossible to anticipate where potential threats might emerge. It’s always advantageous to be the one flanking adversaries from all directions – left, right, and center. However, eliminating an enemy will inevitably reveal your location. Therefore, it’s essential to stay alert and swiftly relocate to a safer position.
The same principle holds true for ship combat in Starfield. Maneuverability is your key to evading incoming missiles and explosive threats. Staying on the move, especially on your thrusters, is paramount to sidestepping damage and maximizing your offensive capabilities by landing precise hits.
9. Reload
As mentioned above, keep an eye out for your ammo. Find a safe place to reload, and then keep spamming that fire button to unload everything in your crosshairs. It is never wise to run into an enemy pack with an empty weapon.
10. Health is Wealth
Remember, no matter how heavy shields you may have equipped, you are not immortal in any scenario in this game. You will get wounded in a battle. How severely, that we cannot say. It is wise to keep some healing items on hand so you can refresh, reset, and get going again.
11. Match your arsenal to your build
Consider a scenario where stealth is essential, yet your only available weapons are grenades. In the game, there’s the option to extensively modify your weaponry. Make full use of this feature and strive to align your arsenal with your character build as effectively as possible.
12. Saving
Understanding the enemy’s patterns in a game isn’t something you can achieve right from the start. Utilize the manual save option liberally to establish checkpoints at regular intervals. Neglecting to save could result in significant setbacks, as even minor errors could wipe out your progress entirely.
13. Teamwork
The final combat tip for Starfield emphasizes the importance of your crew as valuable allies. Place your trust in them and cooperate as a cohesive team to neutralize potential threats. Your team members have the ability to create diversions that can serve as effective cover for you. Additionally, you can assign them to various responsibilities at your outposts, leading to valuable rewards as a result.
