These Skills are BUSTED... Tech Skills Analysis & Tier List | Starfield Handbook

so many skills in Starfield have completely missed the mark and just have zero wow factor thankfully the tech tree has some great skills that unlock critical features of the game or make you a force to be reckoned with across the Galaxy I've been hard at work in the lab and the results of all 17 Tech skills are in and we'll see just how useful they really are so that your hard earned skill points don't go to waste on a garbage skill or worse yet a bugged one that could ruin space combat for you until it gets patched so strap in enjoy the ride and share your thoughts on the tree and anything I might have missed in my research along the way let's get into it first on our list today is ballistic weapon systems the ranks 1 to four benefits on this skill are quite similar to all other ship combat skills we'll see in the tech Tre today so I'll only explain the more nuanced details here once I think it's important to clarify what these skill descriptions specifically mean as there are a couple of important distinctions to make on the wording the first parts of rank 1 to three are very clear-cut just a pure 10% damage boost per rank the descriptor costs 20% less to use in targeting mode however specifically means how much of your targeting bar gets consumed for every action you perform with a certain weapon type this is not related to how much of your weapon meter gets consumed with each attack that will always be the same and you can only increase the rate at which it recharges which is what ranks 2 and three of ballistics provides here granting 15% per rank the final rank causes ballistic ship weapons to do 50% more damage to individual systems but this only takes effect while in targeting mode to validate this I've tried doing tests firing 50 shots each at the same ship with and without rank four outside of targeting and the damage is identical so you know it has to be during targeting so keep these specific wordings in mind when we discuss future weapon system types now the ballistic bonuses are fairly in line with other ship weapon system skills but I'd say it's the weakest of the bunch and I think ballistics as a weapon type is the weakest by a mile on ships I wouldn't recommend running these on any custom ship so I'm going to throw this into D tier which may seem brutal but you'll hopefully agree with me by the end of this video a quick note regarding any of the ship combat type skills is that while none of them are explic licitly necessary especially on Lower difficulties most are generally useful for their respective weapon type and undoubtedly make this aspect of the game much easier on higher difficulties boost pack training is an absolutely essential skill for any Starfield player unless you're role playing as a ground peasant that doesn't enjoy the warm embrace of fiery propellant singing your rear end as you launch yourself across an unexplored Moon a single point is pretty much the bare minimum for all players that I'd recommend as it's a requirement to use boost packs in the first place I ran some tests and the numbers are kind of interesting Rank 2 uses only around 10% less Fuel per boost while rank four is 100% more efficient and then in terms of regeneration rank three is 20% faster and rank four is 69% faster this will end up being a matter of preference for how many points you decide are worthy of investment but I've got to say having Four Points invested here has felt 100% worth it and I have zero regrets on maxing it first in my playthroughs it makes exploration so much easier and at rank four you can stay off the ground maintaining maximum forward momentum almost perpetually without a doubt this is an S tier skill that should be one of the very first skills you drop a single point into while being a very easy four-point investment to justify s tier allaround a quick tip if you aren't already using one but the Balan boost pack is easily the best pack type with the skip being marginally more useful in select cases next up is without a doubt a top ranked s tier Contender but it's not for the tech tree we're talking about the mobile game tier list and sitting right at the top is none other than the sponsor of today's video raid Shadow Legends you know I do my due diligence and I've got to say that raid has no shortage of content to offer while also being 100% free to play with its refined turn-based combat hundreds of Champions to choose from and literally billions of ways to customize them it's no surprise that raid has well over 80 million downloads already now my current research assignment is to find the perfect Champion for the categories kiss Mary and kill and I believe I found just the right candidates for this project kiss was a tough one but allur certainly fits the bill here she's a fiery demon spawn with a strong kit but she's just a little too hot to handle to be marriage material and she's only an epic Champion Mary was a no-brainer and Leandra the legendary high elf is taking this spot thanks to her immensely powerful time manipulating skills finally for kill we're going to put husk out of his misery as he's fought enough battles for 100 lifetimes and deserves to rest I wonder what the higher-ups will be doing with this info speaking of info I've got two important news updates you'll definitely want to know everybody likes free stuff right especially when the free stuff in question is a legendary champion check out Sun Muk Kong raids Take On The Monkey King from Chinese mythology he's made his Grand appearance of the game and it couldn't be easier to get him simply log in on seven different days between now and October 23rd to get your hands on him no demons to slay your Journeys to the west to undertake here just log in to get this awesome legendary champion for free this month also sees the return of prime gaming drops in game so Amazon Prime members can earn themselves some special in-game goodies with all this exciting stuff and more coming to raid if you haven't started playing yet then what are you waiting for use my link in the description or scan my QR code to get insane bonuses we're talking the Epic Champion Drake From The Lizard Man faction and other useful things like energy refills skill Toms and XP boosters once you're in and crushing your enemies come find me under the name uncle and if you're fast enough you can join my clan and we'll be Legends together back to the tech tree we've got piloting which has got to be one of the most critical skills to rank up in the game for anyone spending even a small amount of time and space and even then it's got great benefits for you surface dwellers as well rank 1 and two are quite basic unlocking the ability to properly utilize your ship thrusters and general maneuverability respectively I feel like a ton of people don't even know how to use their thrusters and are confusing it with Boost so if you're on PC make sure to hold spacebar and give your WD a tap and you should see something like this pop up and I believe it's holding one of your triggers respectively on Xbox as well this is pretty much Essential tech for performing actual hairpin turns during space combat ranks three and four are where the skill becomes truly outstanding as it's the only way you can pilot Class B and C ships while Class A ships are certainly fine for making it through the game they don't hold a candle to what you can create on Class B and C ships more size power storage customization options pretty much everything is better on the higher classes other than being slightly less maneuverable but they more than make up for it with the other Pros if you steal a ship or even purchase a ship that is above the class you can pilot it ends up being completely useless and will just sit in your hanger so keep that in mind as well piloting is easily an S tier skill as so much space content is gated behind this and unless you want to fly dinky Little Ships like the frontier across the Galaxy you'll definitely want to invest points here as ship building is an expensive Endeavor I would recommend holding on to those points for ranks three and four until you're ready to dump some credits into a Class B ship or grader security is pretty much a must have skill for anyone who doesn't want to find themselves locked out of potentially interesting rooms or highquality loot that you'd otherwise be unable to access now I fully understand and agree with the criticisms on how bad the loot quality consistency is with lockpicking as you'll often find yourself opening Master locks only to be rewarded with 30 credits and a beef chunk while a novice lock can sometimes net you a beautiful legendary weapon and thousands of credits but this shouldn't take away from the general utility and value of the skill itself there are in fact small bits of handcrafted sections of the game that are either only accessible from lockpicking or you have to be Keen enough to ensure you picked up the right key card along the way to open these otherwise locked off rooms you can also completely skip Quest steps by picking locks that require NPC interaction or a stolen key card to unlock or you can pick locks to vents to sneak through Quest steps as well so this is a legitimate benefit that enables alternative play Styles without any points in security you can only hack novice locks while ranks 1 2 and three allow you to additionally hack Advanced expert and Master locks respectively for anyone who wants to ensure they never miss out on a potentially interesting subsection of the handcrafted areas of Starfield I'd recommend the three points of investment I found a few extra data slates locked behind doors and I hated missing out on locked off areas early in my first playthrough because I didn't have security at rank three yet Rank 2 makes lockpicking significantly Easier by highlighting the rings that the currently selected pick are able to slot into while rank four allows you to expend a Digi pick to eliminate all picks that aren't needed to solve the puzzle personally I think rank four is a little Overkill and it doesn't save that much time and I go over this in my lockpicking strategy video but if you find these puzzles frustrating then it's a solid nice to have and is by no means useless check that video out later if you want a more consistent and faster solve rate on higher tier locks finally each rank allows you to bank an additional Auto attempt which is nice when you first start a higher tier lock to speed things up overall I think security is a useful skill despite the inconsistency and loot that lets you enjoy a reasonably well-made miname in between your natural gameplay I'd say it's a fair a tier skill with a rank four perk that's entirely optional based on your puzzling proficiency targeting Control Systems is another exceptional skill that adds some of the greatest benefits to space combat of any skill in the tech tree rank one is an absolute musthave as it unlocks the ability to Target specific ship systems which you'll certainly want for taking out enemy engines which is a prerequisite for boarding them further ranks make locking on faster slow down time or increased damage which are all welcome benefits with the right weapons many of which have increased performance during targeting you can obliterate just about any enemy spacecraft regardless of difficulty while taking limited damage in targeting mode because targeting also works with every weapon type I would say it's more valuable than any of the weapon type specific skills as you have the flexibility to use whatever you want whether you need all four points invested is going to be up to you and your difficulty level will probably be an important factor in that decision but this is also an S tier skill in my eyes that every player should 100% be throwing a single skill point into at a minimum energy weapon systems AK laser type weapons are solid for opening up space combat engagements as energy weapons are designed to deal additional damage to Shields compared to he each Progressive rank from 1 to three increases damage and decreases targeting mode cost while the fourth rank recharges energy weapons 30% faster Unfortunately they suffer from being relatively low-range compared to the more powerful and longrange missiles and particle beam weapons and I'd say they easily get outclass by PB weapons even when it comes to Shield melting there isn't anything inherently wrong with the skill and lasers certainly have a place in the game as they'll greatly speed up cracking through enemy first lines of Defense giving you easy access to more critical ship systems to wipe out using weapons with stronger Hall damage however I'd probably advise against heavy investment here knowing that particle beams are where the best of the best damage dealers are at since lasers shine at Shield cracking this makes the skill a touch better than ballistics so I'll say this is a c tier all around Engine Systems is a bit of a mixed bag as I don't find the first three ranks to be especially compelling as top speed is useful but not crucial to space combat and the ship boost duration and decreased cooldown is nice but again not necessarily game-changing based on my test you can boost for 25% longer and you regenerate your Boost 20% faster at rank two when combining the rank two benefits with the rank four perk however you end up with an amazing combo that really boosts survivability especially in space encounters with multiple enemies at rank four while boosting all enemies disengage from you and they'll only reacquire you after you stop boosting this is extremely useful for gaining positional advantage on your your enemy where you can boost while you're in their line of sight lose the targeting from them swing behind them and blast them without taking any fire of your own normally boosting would only Shake missile Target locking but otherwise you're fully open to all other fire and anyone who's fought more than three ships at once knows you can get blown to bits pretty darn quick when they're all raining fire on you so I want to call it an a allaround where ranks 1 to three are really only C or B tier at best but the rank four perk is easily a standalone s you just need to cough up the extra three points to get to this first payloads is a decent skill that you space truckers will probably get more value out of than the average player extra storage capacity is always welcome but ranking up payloads isn't an absolute must once You' built up a reasonable Class B or C ship with a few cargo containers if you're planning on hauling a huge amount of mass you may want to consider investing an extra point or two here but otherwise I think most people will be able to get by without it you really don't need to carry 100,000 kilos of chunks on your ship but I'm not going to tell you how to live your life this can also be quite handy early into New Game Plus Cycles where it'll take longer to spin up a solid custom ship I'd say this is a fair B tier skill that does have some reasonable utility as it allows for more sizable amounts of cargo to be hauled at the same level of mobility and jump range as a lighter build but again I wouldn't say it's an absolute must it'll just come down to whether all your Treasures stay on your ship or they get offloaded to the lodge or your Outpost over time also if you're in a real bind and you have a couple thousand kilos of a specific resource you want to transport on your ship you can always just toss it on the ground all at once as a single item and pick it back up again if it was going to exceed your caral hold limits so there are ways to circumvent this albeit they're kind of inconvenient Shield systems is a weird skill that I've seen a bunch of people experiencing issues with and many of you may unknowingly be suffering from a bug shield value if you put any points into this skill as well normally you're supposed to get 20% more Shield capacity from ranks 1 to 3 which can be relatively useful if you're running a strong Shield however there are numerous reports of people having their Shield values cut down instead of increased it's suspected to be something related to crew members or hijacking a ship at some point in the game but no one has an exact culprit pinned down yet at the time of this recording if your save is bugged you'll notice your Shield value is significantly lower than normal in most cases however this can also work the other way around with it instead enhancing the effect so it's a complete mess here hopefully if you're watching this the bug has been patched but otherwise the only solution is console commanding a new Shield value in I put a link in the description to a steam thread that provides a workable solution for PC players but sorry Xbox homies you're out of luck until this gets patched back to the actual skill ranking we've got the rank four perk that provides a chance to ignore damage while shielded and I've ran a good few tests and it feels like it doesn't proc any more than about 10% of the time so nothing crazy but it's still useful considering you can't really boost your hul strength by significant amounts past the low 14 to 1500s without adding a shitload of components for five Hulk contribution each this is one of the only reliable ways to increase your space combat survivability from a numbers perspective that said once your Shields are cracked if you are in active combat you need to high tail it far away from enemy fire before your Shield regeneration kicks in that's not quite as strong not to mention the fact that anyone who's racked up a modest amount of ship parts will have no problem keeping themselves alive while they pop two or three of these in a pinch if the skill is working as intended I'd say it's worthy of a be but there are other means of flat out avoiding damage or just is making fights shorter with more offensive options that just diminish the usefulness of this skill missile weapon systems are your heavy hitter solution for space combat and nothing packs more punch in a single shot than them however like ballistics and energy weapons they just don't hold a candle to the raw DPS of particle beam weapons they do have a few selling points for taking one of your weapon slots such as being extremely long range and you can just run a single point of reactor power in it and still launch your full Salvo of missiles at Max damage to open up a fight while reserving more reactor points for the the rest of your ship if you want it even so you're probably better off just running double particle beams instead as they have almost equivalent range Progressive ranks give you the same old damage increases and targeting cost decreases as other weapon types with a little bonus to Range travel and reload speed at rank four but it's not enough to justify dumping Four Points into in my opinion they're far from useless but they take way too long to reload to be worth putting any higher than C tier and I'd say choosing between this or energy weapons is equally fine if you're not going to run double particle beams and so we finally made it to the king of space combat particle beam weapon system these bad boys absolutely on anything and everything even some of the most basic PB weapons pack a huge punch while boasting insane ranges of over 3,000 M making it easy to lay out just about any enemy any time during a dog fight they do equivalent Hull and shield damage making them the perfect multi-purpose weapon and they outdps all other weapon types even though specialized in huller Shield specific damage ranks 1 to three are a run-of-the-mill bonuses and rank four in increases crit strike chance for even more lethal damage it doesn't seem to proc very often but honestly it probably won't matter because once you slap a couple of these onto your ship you'll be turning pretty much anything into swiss cheese in a matter of seconds regardless of difficulty this legitimately trivializes almost all ship combat assuming you have some of the other skills like targeting and Engine Systems ranked up for time slowdown and damage mitigation it's honestly questionable to a degree if you even need skill points in this skill given how op the weapons themselves are but whatever we'll give this an S since it makes something amazing even better I'd say grab a few PB weapons see if the DPS is to your liking and if so spare the points in favor of something else in this tree that actually unlocks part of the game gated behind skill points first robotics isn't entirely useless but I've got to say that robot type enemies are easily the least common I've encountered in this game and this makes it hard to justify putting points into the skill you get 10% more damage against robots with each rank from 1 to three and every rank from 1 to four unlocks a different one of the influence type skills we saw back in the social tree this is basically xenos so iology but for robots with some damage bonuses so yes there are tangible benefits to the skill but the lack of robot encounters really hurts its overall usability so it's only going to grab a spot in the C tier Starship design is a goated skill that you pretty much have to put points into if you want to access the best of the best ship components it's pretty clearcut each rank unlocks access to more and almost always stronger components now this isn't always the case but generally this holds true if you're into ship building and want a badass ship this is where the points should be going in most cases putting the Four Points into this skill will almost always provide a greater benefit than maxing any of the individual combat ship skills by unlocking stronger weapons while also having a total net benefit that is immensely greater when you factor in all the other components you get access to like reactors Shield generators and engines that are also typically more mass efficient per unit of benefit added Nob brainer s here probably one of the highest Roi skills in the game Starship engineering is a neat skill that I've only found situationally useful typically during longer fights where major systems are likely to be damaged over the course of a battle with this skill you unlock the ability to repair systems faster mitigate damage against specific systems and at rank four sometimes repair all damage to a particular system after a single block of health is repaired this actually seems to happen around 25% of the time which is pretty nice when you need it now Ship Repair only takes place if you allocate enough reactor points to cover the redline system damage and the repair goes faster for each point of reactor investment in the system up to a point reducing repair time to only a couple seconds per Point as you get closer to the top depending on the system engines are horribly slow to repair so don't count on much happening there while in combat and if you're actively taking fire this halts the repair process as well honestly though if your ship systems are getting damage to a critical level of barely being usable then you're either running a crappy starter ship with tiny reactor allocations and you need to upgrade that sucker or you're in an extremely long fight where you've used repair kits to heal your max Health multiple times over and you probably also need some stronger weapons to cut down that battle time now of course it never hurts to have some repairs take place in combat but you're realistically not going to be in Dire Straits if you lose a couple of Points of Power here and there you'd be better off tossing more points into any of the other defensive ship skills before this and so I'd say this is probably a c tier skill at best we finally made it to our final Master skills and automated weapon systems is an easily warranted s tier skill which brings me great joy considering the Abominations that are wholly Unworthy of the title that we've seen over the course of this series the title of this skill is quite deceiving as there are a ton of additional benefits baked into this skill to make it an incredible investment for any space fairing individual for the parts that are related to the skill name your automated weapons gain increased damage from ranks 1 to three and at rank four they recharge of whopping 40% faster and also do 20% more damage in targeting mode automated weapons are great for brain off space combat you just need to be mindful that they will show no mercy and will continue to rain hell upon your foes until you pull the reactor points off them so make sure to do so if you have plans of boarding an enemy vessel or they will just be blown to bits another thing worth mentioning is that if there's only a single Target to attack typically turret weapons will not fire on it in targeting mode if there are multiple targets around they seem to work fine but I actually don't know which is the intended Behavior honestly so I wouldn't recommend running only turret weapons with that considered now the additionally op perk of this skill is that ranks 1 to three reduce targeting cost of all weapons not just automatic ones which when comes combined with weapon specific skills and targeting allows for an insanely long time to blast enemies to a point where you can kill just about anything in a single targeting sequence rank two reduces the damage you take during targeting also excellent and finally you gain 20% crit chance while targeting at rank three this is what I expected from every single Master skill at least and ideally from more skills in general in the game this is a plentiful multi-benefit skill that elevates your space combat prowess by a significant margin you should be feeling notably more more powerful when you reach the end of a skill tree and automated weapon systems provides exactly that s tier without a doubt and one of the best skills in the game second last is Boost assault training and honestly it's insanely powerful when used correctly I also appreciate that each rank of this skill brings something unique to the table so another thumbs up to Bethesda on this one the first rank has a chance to set enemies on fire at around a 10% proc rate with each boost doing 10 damage on contact and if it sets them on fire it burns away 10% of their Max HP nothing remarkable here and it's probably only useful for some nuts boost packed only playthrough which admittedly would be pretty hilarious to watch I may have to try this one at some point rank two has a chance to knock down enemies which is a bit higher than 10% but again it's not amazing though it is a nice little bonus when it procs especially if you're doing a melee or CQB playthrough as it effectively translates to 100% damage mitigation while they're recovering from the knockdown rank three allows you to hover in place while Bo boosting which helps with accuracy while maintaining a vertical position which is nice but it's rank four that really makes the skill shine so bright during this hover aiming at rank four you slow down time by 70% which is kind of insane as you can hover for up to 10 seconds at rank four and pick off enemies that would normally be hidden by cover all while time is for all intents and purposes at a standstill you can also jump then immediately aim to activate the hover time slow while barely being off the ground the only drawback here is that your inair accuracy is not as good as with feet on the ground but it's still fine from medium range and has next no impact at close range this is is so strong and the fact that you can consistently activate this is the perfect recipe for another s tier skill albeit it's only the rank four perk that makes this an S I'd say ranks 1 to three are really a c or B but rank four outweighs those shortcomings so much that I'll call it overall an S this is definitely worth the points we have finally made it to the last of the 82 skills in Starfield but worry not the journey is not over there's still lots of this game to pick apart our final skill is em weapon systems and it's a pretty nifty skill for anyone who has an interest in boarding ships we have our usual increased damage and decreased targeting time on ranks 1 to three which is always welcome and the targeting is actually especially important for em weapons as you always want to be in targeting mode with these guys as their entire purpose is for disabling specific ship systems rank four provides you with a chance to instantly disable engines as well and this is obviously very generally useful but more so if you plan to board an enemy ship since this is a requirement if you haven't used em weapons I highly suggest giving them a try and consider always making your third weapon saw em if you have any interest in boarding at all with a powerful em weapon a single targeting session after breaking an enemy Shields will let you disable every single ship system they have most in a single shot each effectively making the ship a useless Sitting Duck free for boarding or destroying if you so choose it may not be the perfect option for offensive purposes but you could always break Shields shoot a targeted shot at an enemy's core weapons once each with an em weapon then finish them off entirely and that would probably be the most efficient way to minimize damage while fighting I'd say this rightfully warrants an a as it really pumps up the effectiveness of em weapons more than the other weapon type skills particle beams aside obviously and it provides you with a new approach to mitigating damage in combat while making boarding extremely easy and so we've got one final skill tree wrap up here and like the master skills have spelled out this tree was the opposite of ass while the weapon system skills were mostly unremarkable particle beam weapons are disgustingly strong and EM weapons have a special Niche use case at least one point in boost p training should be a must for all players with all ranks being useful piloting is a must have security can provide good loot despite its inconsistency though it does unlock completely inaccessible areas that can enrich your experience of handcrafted parts of the games while also Expediting Quest STS targeting Control Systems is extremely valuable for space combat and you 100% should invest at a minimum a single point in the skill Engine Systems is a decent skill that is carried heavily by its rank four perk payloads is useful to the right player but by no means necessary Shield systems is useful but is a buggy mess at the time of this recording so be warned ranking it may create unintended outcomes until it's patched robotics is whatever and will rarely be used but it's not useless Starship design is another must-have skill that is massively beneficial for any space enjoyer and ship building Enthusiast Starship engineering is okay but you're better off investing in other defensive skills first before considering this automated weapon systems is amazing and what more Master skills should have been like in terms of what it brings to the table and finally boost assult training is another great example of what designing an interesting skill with wholly unique or enhanced perks looks like at every rank with one of the most powerful combat perks in the game baked into this skill this is easily the highest average ranked skill tree that we've looked at and it mostly falls short only because of the ship combat skills you will definitely get your skill points worth if you invest in the right skills in this tree and you frequently take part in space related content in Starfield thanks for making it to the end of the series I had a ton of fun picking these skills apart and learned a lot from all of you after after each release in the coming weeks I'll be looking into Mods legendary gear perks ships Outpost and all that good stuff with the same level of rigorous investigation and testing so you definitely won't want to miss out on those a huge shout out to all the new mumblers on patreon and the channel you all rock seriously check out the signs stre next if you haven't already and don't forget to use my rage Shadow Legends Link in the description or scan my QR code to get some amazing new player bonuses including a free epic Champion I'll see you in the next one peace

Channel: UncleMumble

Views: 263,744

Keywords: Starfield, Starfield news, Starfield rumors, Starfield weapons, Starfield Outposts, Starfield Crafting, Starfield Story, Starfield Lore, Starfield Quests, Starfield Spaceships, Starfield Traits, Starfield Skills, Starfield Backgrounds, Starfield Economy, Starfield Research, Starfield Planets, Starfield Factions, Starfield Crew, starfield direct, bethesda, todd howard, skyrim, fallout, goty, star, field, premium, settled systems, handbook, constellation, bgs, starfield handbook

Id: OmjBgP0y-24

Length: 26min 24sec (1584 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 14 2023