Quick Links
Starfieldoffers players a wide array of weapons to choose from and use while exploring the galaxy. As you progress through the game, enemies will get more and more health, along with stronger armor, and can become very difficult to kill.
Related:Starfield: Where To Get Med Packs
Increasing your damage output is key to taking out enemies quickly, and Starfield gives players multiple ways to do so. Upgrading your damage output in multiple ways will all add up and have you dealing much more damage as long as you build your character correctly.
Upgrading Skills
The moststraightforward way of increasing your damage is byupgrading skillsto make your weapons deal more damage. The game has many weapon types and multiple skills that prioritize the damage of specific weapon types. Players should figure out what weapon they like most and will use the most andupgrade the corresponding skills for that weapon.
When wanting to upgrade the damage of a specific weapon, you’ll first need to figure out what type of gun it is and what bullets it shoots. Open up your inventory and find the gun you want to deal more damage with. Along theright side of the menu will be the gun’s stats.Below its name will be thekeywords such as rifle, pistol, energy, etc. Each of these keywords has a corresponding skill to upgrade and deal more damage with.Ballistic weapons won’t be listed as ballistic, and cover all weapons that don’t have a bullet-type keywordsuch as Energy or EM.
Below is a list of skills that upgrade damage:
Skill Name
Rifle Certification
Rifles deal more damage.
Ballistics
Ballistic weapons deal more damage.
Laser weapons deal more damage.
Pistol Certification
Pistols deal more damage.
Shotgun Certification
Shotguns deal more damage.
Unarmed attacks deal more damage, and heavy unarmed attacks use less oxygen.
Martial Arts
Unarmed attacks have an increased critical hit rate.
Melee weapons deal more damage, and players receive less damage while wielding a melee weapon.
Heavy Weapons Certification
Heavy weapons deal more damage.
Incapacitation
EM weapons deal more damage.
Particle Beams
Particle Beam weapons deal more damage.
Armor Penetration
Ranged weapons ignore a percentage of enemy armor.
Sharpshooting
Increased ranged headshot damage for all ranged weapons.
Related:Starfield: All Weapon Types And Effects
Upgrading Weapons
Another way to increase the damage of a specific weapon in your inventory is byupgrading that weapon with better parts.This can be doneat a Weapon Workbench and will require the Weapon Engineering skillto research better modifications that deal more damage. Some modifications canincrease accuracy, fire rate, or reduce recoil, but the best simply increase your weapon’s damage.
When hovering over the possibleupgrades for a weapon, you’llsee its effects on the stats of your gun with the menu on the left side of the screen.Flip through the upgrades to find the best damage upgrades and use the resources to get and equip the modification. Dealing damage will require amix of both the right skills and a highly modified weapon,so be sure to find your favorite weapons and start working on all the ways to make them deal more damage.
Related:Starfield: Where To Sell Survey Data
Increasing Ship Damage
The process of dealing more damage with your ship is mostly the same. Go to a Ship Service Technician andpurchase an upgraded weapon that deals more damage.Ship weapons havemultiple stats that make it less clear on which weapons are the most effective, but pick and choose whichever you think is best based on your play style and equip it to your ship.
There are alsomultiple skills in the Tech skill tree that increase the damage of specific weapon types.Based on the weapons equipped to your ship, upgrade eitherBallistic Weapon Systems, Energy Weapon Systems, Particle Beam Weapon Systems, and Missile Weapon Systemsto increase the damage done by these weapon types.
