When creating your character in Starfield, you’ll need to pick three Traits. While your Background unlocks three skills and gives your character a history, Traits help you further define exactly who your character is while also giving you some buffs and debuffs. Without further adieu, here are the best traits in Starfield.
Related: Not sure about the best Background in Starfield? Allow us to help you choose what the best Background is for you.
All Traits in Starfield
There are 17 Traits in Starfield. When creating your character, you’ll select three Traits (though you can’t pick Traits that conflict with each other). Like your Background, your Traits can give you special dialogue options, unlock unique features, and give you bonuses.
Before we get to the 10 best Traits in Starfield, you would benefit from learning what all 17 Traits do first. Here are all 17 Traits in Starfield and what they do:
- Alien DNA – You volunteered for a controversial experiment that combines alien and human DNA.
- Start with high health and greater endurance, but healing items aren’t as effective.
- Dream Home – You’re a home owner.
- Start with a small house on a peaceful little moon, but it comes with a 50,000 credit mortgage with GalBank.
- Empath – You are deeply connected to the feelings of others.
- Performing actions your companion likes temporarily increases combat effectiveness. However, performing actions they don’t like will have the opposite effect.
- Extrovert – You’re a people person.
- Use less oxygen when adventuring with human companions but use more oxygen when adventuring alone. (Can’t be combined with Introvert.)
- Freestar Collective Settler – You were born and raised in the Freestar Collective.
- Gain access to Freestar Collective dialogue options and better rewards from Freestar Collective quests. Crime bounty towards other factions is greatly increased. (Can’t be combined with any other faction allegiance Trait.)
- Hero Worshiped – You have an “Adoring Fan.”
- An “Adoring Fan” will show up and obsess over you. You can recruit them and have them give you gifts.
- Introvert – You really need your alone time.
- Use less oxygen when adventuring alone, but use more oxygen when adventuring with other human companions. (Can’t be combined with Extrovert.)
- Kid Stuff – Your parents are alive and well.
- You get parents whom you can visit anytime. You have to send them 10% of all the money you earn. It’s automatically deducted and sent to them.
- Neon Street Rat – You grew up on the streets of Neon.
- Gain access to Neon dialogue options and better rewards from Neon quests. Crime bounty towards other factions is greatly increased. (Can’t be combined with any other faction allegiance Trait.)
- Raised Enlightened – You grew up as a member of the Enlightened.
- Gain a significant discount at Enlightened stores. Lose access to Sanctum Universum stores. (Can’t be combined with any other religion Trait.)
- Raised Universal – You grew up as a member of the Sanctum Universum.
- Gain a significant discount at Sanctum Universum stores. Lose access to Enlightened stores. (Can’t be combined with any other religion Trait.)
- Serpent’s Embrace – You grew up worshipping the Great Serpent.
- Grav jumping temporarily boosts your health and endurance, but if you don’t grav jump often, you’ll experience reduced health and endurance. (Can’t be combined with any other religion Trait.)
- Spaced – Your body has become acclimated to space.
- Health and endurance are increased in space but decreased when on the surface. (Can’t be combined with Terra Firma.)
- Taskmaster – You’re an excellent Commander of your crew.
- Trained crewmembers in certain ship systems will automatically repair those systems when they fall below 50%. However, hiring crew costs twice as much.
- Terra Firma – You’ve never acclimated to space.
- Health and oxygen are increased on the surface but decreased when you’re in space. (Can’t be combined with Spaced.)
- United Colonies Native – You were born and raised in the United Colonies.
- You gain special United Colonies dialogue options and gain better rewards from United Colonies quests. However, crime bounty from other factions is greatly increased. (Can’t be combined with any other faction allegiance trait.)
- Wanted – Bounty hunters are after you.
- Gain increased damage when low on health, but bounty hunters will appear randomly and attack you.
Top 10 traits in Starfield, tier list
Screenshot: Bethesda
By experiencing the different Traits that Starfield has to offer, we know what the best Traits are. I can confidently tell you what the top 10 Traits are in Starfield, and then I’ll provide a tier list of all the Traits so you can see for yourself how everything ranks.
Here are the top 10 Traits in Starfield:
- Terra Firma
- Extrovert
- Wanted
- Empath
- Taskmaster
- Dream Home
- Kid Stuff
- Hero Worshipped
- Freestar Collective Settler
- Alien DNZ
The three best Traits in Starfield are Terra Firma because 90% of the game takes place on land, Extrovert because you’ll likely always be adventuring with a companion, and Wanted because you get free XP when bounty hunters come for you and extra damage when at low health.
From there, Empath is excellent, as long as you know what each companion likes and dislikes and especially when paired with Extrovert. Taskmaster is also a good one with very little downside.
Dream Home, Hero Worshipped, and Kid Stuff are all fun Traits that actually reward your character with different things in-game. My favorite is Kid Stuff because the parents are really cute, but Hero Worshipped is really funny and Dream Home is awesome because you get a home really early.
I’m biased and think Freestar Collective Settler is the best of the three faction Traits because I like the Freestar Collective the best and end up doing their quests the most. Pick whichever faction Trait you like — they are all relatively the same in terms of rewards. Lastly, Alien DNA can be really good but you heal a lot in Starfield which makes this Trait tough to select because it reduces your healing in exchange for greater health and endurance.
On one hand, this ranking is subjective — every Trait can be good in Starfield depending on your playstyle. However, there are some objectively good and bad Traits in Starfield that are worth knowing about when you’re selecting your three.
If you want to make an objectively good build in Starfield, I’d recommend Terra Firma, Extrovert, and Wanted. These Traits are the best combination for combat, but they aren’t the most fun in terms of roleplay. I really like Adoring Fan and Kid Stuff as the roleplay benefits of those Traits are really fun. Religions shouldn’t be ignored either as all three religions in Starfield are very interesting.
S-Tier Traits in Starfield
- Terra Firma
- Extrovert
- Wanted
The best Traits in Starfield are Extrovert, Dream Home, Terra Firma, and Wanted. I think the majority of players will recruit a human companion to initiate romance options. That said, Extrovert gives you better endurance with a human companion.
At first, I picked Spaced because I thought I would be spending a lot of time in space, but as you can read in my review, Starfield kind of ignores space. I started another playthrough and selected Terra Firma and realized it’s one of the best, if not the best, Trait in Starfield. You’ll spend 80% of your time on land, so the bonus oxygen and health you get from Terra Firma is much appreciated.
Dream House is an excellent Trait, especially for those who need to get their feet wet with Outpost building. You can continue to build more Outposts, but Dream House gives you a place to stay right off the bat. Plus, the mortgage payment isn’t that much in the grand scheme of things.
Wanted is a great Trait because you get a great bonus to damage when your health is low, and you also get to get attacked by bounty hunters. That’s a cool fantasy as it is, but these bounty hunters are free XP that come right to your front door.
A-Tier Traits in Starfield
- Empath
- Taskmaster
- Dream Home
- Hero Worshiped
- Kid Stuff
The next best Traits in Starfield that aren’t exactly S-Tier are Empath, Hero Worshiped, Taskmaster and Kid Stuff. Empath is a solid option that pairs nicely with Extrovert. You just need to know what every companion likes and doesn’t like. Empath isn’t S-Tier because it doesn’t provide a constant buff.
Taskmaster is a solid Trait that keeps your ship health high if you recruit the right crew members. However, recruiting crew members costs more, but those are one-time expenses so it’s not too bad.
Another great Trait is Hero Worshiped. Yeah, you’ll need to put up with your “Adoring Fan,” but it creates a lot of fun scenarios and basically has no downsides since your “Adoring Fan” will bring you gifts. I loved having Adoring Fan around; I think he’s hilarious.
Kid Stuff is a sweet Trait in Starfield that opens up more roleplay possibilities because you have parents that you can visit. You’ll lose some credits every time you get credits, but it’s worth it to know there’s someone in the galaxy who’s always thinking about you.
B-Tier Traits in Starfield
- Alien DNA
- Freestar Collective Settler
- Neon Street Rat
- United Colonies Native
- Raised Universal
- Raised Enlightened
The Traits that are just okay in Starfield are Alien DNA, Freestar Collective Settler, Neon Street Rat, United Colonies Native, Raised Enlightened, and Raised Universal. I recommend you pick one faction Trait, but these Traits aren’t necessary as they don’t offer the best benefits. They do provide a lot of good roleplay possibilities, though.
Alien DNA is a really cool Trait for roleplaying, but having healing items be less effective is a major bummer. You do get better endurance and health, but I don’t think it’s a worthwhile trade-off because you will be healing often in Starfield.
Freestar Collective Settler, Neon Street Rat, and United Colonies Native are basically the same except they allow you to roleplay in completely different ways. If you’re not sure which faction you want to join or be associated with, then I would save picking a faction Trait for a different playthrough. If you’re ready to decide, I think picking a faction Trait is a good idea, but they are just average compared to other Traits. Freestar Collective is the frontier, space-cowboy type, Neon is basically Cyberpunk 2077, and United Colonies is more civilized and militaristic.
Another “just average” Trait are the religion Traits: Enlightened and Universal. You can pick these Traits if you feel particularly drawn to a certain philosophy or you can pass. You won’t get amazing bonuses for picking a religion Trait.
C-Tier Traits in Starfield
- Spaced
A Trait that belongs in C-Tier is Spaced. Since you’ll primarily be exploring planets and moons, Spaced isn’t a good Trait to pick because you’ll have less health and endurance when on land. While there are a handful of combat scenarios in space, I think Spaced does more harm than good.
D-Tier Traits in Starfield
- Serpent’s Embrace
Lastly, the worst Trait in Starfield is Serpent’s Embrace. Unless you really want to roleplay a religious zealot who worships the Great Serpent, I would avoid this Trait. While getting a temporary health and endurance boost after grav jumping is cool, receiving reduced health and endurance when you haven’t grav jumped in a while is really bad.
This Trait is a little too demanding in my opinion and will make you do something you might not always want to do. Watch speedrunners prove me wrong, though.
Those are the best and the worst Traits in Starfield. If you’re just starting out, you should check out what the best starter skills are.
