This Skill is AWFUL... Social Skills Analysis & Tier List | Starfield Handbook

I put all 16 social skills in Starfield to the test and some of these skills do not deserve your hard-earned skill points. Here are the results, complete tier list included.
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The Starfield Handbook is your ultimate guide to everything Starfield. Each entry is the result of hours of thorough research, testing, and analysis to bring you accurate and reliable information that will help you on your journey through the Starfield universe.
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Starfield is the first new universe in over 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next-generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity’s greatest mystery.
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0:00 Intro
00:41 Commerce
01:52 Gastronomy
03:22 Persuasion
05:13 Scavenging
06:24 Theft
07:45 Deception
09:26 Diplomacy
11:22 Intimidation
12:38 Isolation
13:59 Negotiation
14:34 Instigation
15:35 Leadership
17:15 Outpost Management
19:07 Manipulation
20:40 Ship Command
21:26 Xenosociology
22:25 Conclusions/Recommendations
23:06 Outro

[@dh8203]

The way I play Starfield, Diplomacy is always done with bullets so I invest my diplomacy points in the Combat tree.

[@unclemumble]

A fellow fan of aggressive negotiations!

[@Arkangilos]

One benefit of diplomacy is it allows you to sneak by people. There was one mission where I was trying to sneak through. There was a guard facing the direction I wanted to go, I diplomacied him and then snuck right past.

[@unclemumble]

Great point!

[@ATigerShark]

My signature move is picking someone in the enemy line to temporarily win over so that they're too busy shooting him because the AI dictates he's the easier thing to shoot I move in and flank.

[@TheVoidWanderer]

It also doesn't alert enemies if you fail, which is great.

[@lokizeme7342]

Really good to know ty, wow learn something new all the time. Starfield truly gets better and better 😊👍

[@dominicanastasi200]

I know exactly what mission you are referring to also. I had to stun that guy unfortunately. Didn't have diplomacy unlocked at the time

[@wessel6491]

Manipulation also has another (kinda niche) use: when you kill someone and want to take their clothing, but it doesn't show in their inventory, you can manipulate someone else to loot their bodies. If you kill the manipulated looter, they will have the clothing you liked in their inventory... its very strange, but it works. This is how I got enough swimsuits for my entire crew lol.

[@medovk]

interesting, that’s good to know. i stole the swimsuits from the beach houses in paradiso so got like 3 but could probably use more when i level up ship command and hire more playmates for my party pirate ship 😂

[@blackvx]

😂👍

[@medovk]

@@blackvx gotta get them proper uniforms when on board, less is more

[@yittmashups]

Well you can do it their way, or you can just sleep/wait 24 hours planet time on Venus, which believe it or not (physics of Venus' spinning/orbiting around the Sun) is 243 days Universal Time, and most areas/items in the game reset after about 7 days, so wait/sleep 24 hours on Venus then go back to Paradiso and all items you stole should be restocked and ready for more looting. @@medovk

[@rolf565]

I wish the Trade Perk would also increasse the Traders max Money. Maybe about 25-50% per Rank. Sucks to wait 10 Times because you have Weapons you can sell for about 14k 😮

[@MrZlocktar]

Why? I don't even need to wait, that's a chore. Just BUY stuff from them. I use minigun with 7.7mm and 11mm minigun, which results in over 11k of credits to buy all needed ammo. This puts every trader at about 16-18k credits. And then you have Trader Authority with over 20k credits because of that. I never wait, i am making them money during gameplay, by buying ammo, resources, anything i need. Money are certainly not an issue, so i don't really care that i can't get more than 5 or 11k of credits from traders pool. If we take Neon, i can get there about 11x3 + 5x5 credits. That's a whopping 58k credits per one run without waiting. And then of course i will buy shit as well. So i can sell well over 500 mass of shit from my ship in one go if i really want. You want to start using traders? Use minigun. That's the MOST fun weapon in game in my opinion. It's just absolute DAKKA gun.

[@lobow0]

I think the better option is that rank 4 should let you invest in traders permanently increasing the max money of a trader for example a trader has 10k you can use a one time option to invest 5k credits then from then on the trader has 15k credits

[@bronkula]

This only works if you're trying to dump mass. but if you're trying to make money, this still will only leave you with a net positive of the seller's original money.@@MrZlocktar

[@MrZlocktar]

@@lobow0 Once again - why? It's the first Bethesda game where you actually has reason to buy shit from traders. You can't craft ammo, so the only way for you to buy the best ammo for best gun - is to buy it. You can't craft medicine, so again - buy it. And i am not talking about med packs. Isn't it simple enough to generate money for them by buying shit from them? Just use the goddamn traders.

[@axelarnaud7547]

@@MrZlocktarI have -50% weapon weight, +160kg carying capacity. When I come back from one mission with hundreds of guns, I need to wait around 4-5 times while going to 3-4 vendors. So yeah that’s actually a huge problem, why sell higher price if I need to sell less items? Also, at end game, most legendary weapons will sell for about 20-30k. No vendors have such money so you just loose a lot of money if you sell it

[@raphlin7]

Also on the ship command ability, he referenced sarah morgans ability to lower fuel costs, but in her unique case, her own leadership ability allows you to assign her to your ship regardless of your crew capacity or crew member limit. Have 3 crew slots on your ship that are full? You can still add sarah to make 4 crew members. So if you have max ship command and 8 crew slots on your ship filled with 8 crew members, sarah can still be assigned as your ninth crew member

[@raphlin7]

@@zeroone8800 vasco provides 1 free reactor power, sarah doesnt take up any crew slots as well as lowers grav jump fuel costs. Test for yourself. Get a 3 crew capacity ship, assign 3 crew, and then add sarah to make 4. It will let you. Vasco always takes up one crew slot when you assign him to your ship.

[@jacobwilliams9438]

Wait, so that's not a bug? That was 'bugging' me.

[@justadudewithopinions6209]

@@jacobwilliams9438 not a bug. every ship skill on a crew member can "stack" with your own to an extent. how much depends on the skill. the shield skill for example if you get the one guy with 3 shield skill and yours is maxed he still buffs the shield and gives you one free power in shields. Vasco with 2 in his shield skill buffs by the same amount but doesn't give the free power in the shield. but Vasco also gives 1 free power to place wherever due to another skill

[@za3bloot]

okeey thats why i can't put more crew in my ship even though i have space for 9 crew lol and i've been wondering why ... why this skill is not in pilot tree ?!

[@JSAVGA]

Ship Command is a great skill and most people want it. Unfortunately you have to spend so many other skill points in the Social Tree on junk skills just to unlock the ability to spend skill points in Ship Command.

[@csfelfoldi]

The main issue with social is to find enough reason to invest into lower lever skills to unlock leadership, outpost management and ship command.

[@JPRussell297]

FYI, you don't have to dismiss your companion for isolation's bonus to kick in, it turns on just from telling your companion to wait. So even if you don't like having a companion in normal gameplay, you can have one with you as a pack mule and just tell them to wait somewhere when you don't want them getting in the way.

[@unclemumble]

Oh that's really interesting and makes it even viable to use both isolation and leadership in tandem. Great share!

[@hahahadeath1974]

So just to make sure before I invest in it I can still have crew in my ship and the perk will be active, just can’t have companions following me?

[@Citizen5101]

Be careful with waiting, they'll still follow you into new places like ships and need to be told to wait again.

[@JPRussell297]

@@hahahadeath1974 Correct. The description for the skill is inaccurate in more ways than one. I can only guess they were going to design it that way originally, but opted for more lenient restrictions and forgot to change the text.

[@chadharger9323]

Thanks for the info. Hate that we get stuck with followers during main and major quests when we want to play solo.

[@twocentsthenuisance1131]

For me, persuasion was an incredibly useful skill because I played the entire game every major side quest, and then did a speed run to new game + 10 and persuasion was incredibly valuable. It’s giving the last boss battle which would be incredibly repetitive and take another 15 minutes per play

[@unclemumble]

It's funny I purposely reloaded my save the first time around because I succeded in preventing the final fight because I wanted Eternity's Gate but I would also opt for your angle in the subsequent NG+ playthroughs

[@jjfajen]

The way npc influencing skills work in Starfield is a massive downgrade from Fallout 4 where all you had to do was aim your gun at someone to initiate the check.

[@XoRandomGuyoX]

Yeah, flipping to the scanner is annoying. On the flipside you could invest in lasers and heavy weapons in the combat tree and just fight with the laser Cutter.

[@lop90ful1]

Wtf no

[@onandonandomnom]

It's so you can use the skills with melee

[@JodieEdits]

Just....dont carry a cutter

[@MrGhosta5]

The problem with illusion spells in fallout 4 is they only work on enemies lower then your level and not on enemies equal to your level. The highest tier enemies in fallout 4 are always equal to your level so you can never affect them. A lv 58 super mutant Primus isn't going to do anything to a lv 100+ warlord except distract him for a few seconds. Also can't be used with melee/unarmed weapons.

[@bobrobrules]

You can get Manipulation rank to max if you do the Ryujin questline 4 times through NG+. I think it's also worth mentioning that you CAN have crew members on your ship with isolation. The "crew" mentioned in the skill description refers to temporary followers during quests.

[@TruFalco]

Yep, saves you a *TON* of XP!

[@Citizen5101]

They probably say crew because there is a distinction in game between crew members and companions and both can follow you around.

[@Pico52]

Thank you for explaining the distinction. I was wondering that about crew.

[@vincer7824]

Speak for yourself. In my first playthrough the second to last Ryujin mission was bugged and soft locked. In NG+ fixed it with console commands and then next and last Ryujin mission was bugged. Haven't been able to fix it despite trying many different methods and as a result have never seen the end of that quest line.

[@Artemi22]

​@@vincer7824the average Bethesda experience (my game softlocked in a dungeon and I had to load a save I luckily made from 4 hours ago)

[@wanderingmaniac5934]

The enemy influencing skills are better paired with stealth, similar to how you’d use illusion magic in Skyrim. They’re still not amazing just because stealth in general is rather lackluster, but you can get some decent use out of them in those situations.

[@unclemumble]

This is a really good point. I think I should have added a short comment about how opening an engagement from stealth can make these skills a little easier to weave into your playstyle. Of course you could instead just stealth attack those same targets but the option is at least there to mix things up

[@I_recommend_suicide]

@@unclemumble Manipulation sometimes trivializes stealth attacks that would otherwise be difficult/impossible by letting you single out and move targets one at a time. In particular, the play pattern where you manipulate some high health or otherwise inconvenient target (at up to 30m of range) to just walk to where you are and take a melee sneak attack instead of a ranged one is very powerful. This synergy with concealment (a broken skill) alone raises it to obligatory tier for specifically the stealth use case in my opinion

[@loomzoom]

So as i saw it manipulation works different and it really depends on situation - if you will use it on enemy that is near another enemy they will attack manipulated, if you will use it in a stealth missions like in rujin and use manipulation on a lone enemy then other enemies won't attack you while you have manipulated enemy active. Npc can open locked doors if they are novice and advanced only.

[@BrKnOblivion]

Stealth and these skills are all far longer than a XM2311 silenced shot to the head. When it's putting out 400+ Damage it doesn't really matter how much health the target has any more.

[@thrawn82]

@@loomzoom what it does specifically depends on what you click on with the cursor after it succeeds.

[@KinkajouOneTwo]

You are doing god’s work breaking down all the skill trees, thank you!

[@uctt24]

Facts came across my feed instantly subbed

[@johnnyarm3181]

Especially without constant spoilers, thank you

[@peasantblacksmith3969]

God's work!! agreed👍

[@ViridianFlow]

Yeah that guy's so lazy, always getting other people to do their work for them, but at least we have people like this to pick up their slack

[@elusivelectron]

I didn't know Billy Corgan was a youtuber.

[@jakinbandw]

I main diplomacy, and I find it really useful. Let me put it like this: It's an 85% chance to instantly take an opponent out, that can be used before combat starts without agroing anyone. It doesn't use ammo, require a specific drop, or break stealth. It can be combo'd with control starborn abilities that don't deal damage. And of all the social command skills, it's the easiest to use with a simple F, E, E button press. And as others have stated, characters hit with it don't break your stealth. And, to add on even more, If you hit targets with diplomacy, leave and return, they will remain under it's effects, but you can retry on any targets you didn't get the first time. Make entire pirate ships you board peaceful for the luls!

[@unclemumble]

Great point, there's definitely more use to diplomacy than I had initially thought!

[@happyaccidents156]

As someone who has spent 2.6 Billion of their total 3.1 BIllion on ships, Commerce is a must.

[@unclemumble]

I'm scared to ask how big your ships are 😂

[@dylanbolton5592]

​@unclemumble probably at the build limit

[@b130610]

What vendor does one use to get that many credits? I've tried selling crafted goods at the key then waiting 48 hours for a reset, but it would have taken hundreds of hours to earn that much using that method, and the bottleneck is how long it takes to wait, not how much I can sell my infinite crafted goods for.

[@MISTAKEWASMADE4live]

​@@b130610Hu? Just sell every now and then at New Atlantis, the only way you can have top much is if you're looting 10+ outposts in a row. And if you're just grinding money through outposts, you're always gonna have too much and fly around to different cities to sell.

[@MISTAKEWASMADE4live]

It's really not, the most expensive ships will only cost you around 1billion credits at most, you're obviously just maxing out the build limit with absolute rubbish that wrecks your ships performance. And if you have 3 billion credits you are obviously outposts grinding, so you have easy infinite credits, so credits aren't an issue. You're just stupid no offense.

[@justinbutler591]

Makes the experience much better the less you have to save scum therefore I personally love the persuasion skill and find it to be one of the first skills I try to max out. My character is also a space scoundrel.

[@MrGhosta5]

True but you could just keep a dress and a couple bottles of wine on you.

[@kgmkr800]

And the persuade pills

[@willroth7521]

@@MrGhosta5 yeah but even those will altogether only get your success chance up by like 20% or so, persuasion gets it up by 50%

[@MichaelRicciardella]

I'd love to see a video on how companion skills actually impact gameplay. For example, what does adding someone with outpost management or outpost engineering to an outpost actually do? It's very unclear and I can't find the answer anywhere.

[@Foxymus]

Outpost engineering increases inorganic production, I believe. Management should give more crew stations to assign people but both seem to be bugged.

[@achong007]

With so few point per level, you have to be super careful of what benifits your game play. I think they need to give more skill points per level and an option to reset with like one time payment with credits at the med center that changes your character.

[@torstenwinkler8610]

Finally someone keeping it real with the commerce skill. Almost everyone tells you to take it, but I don't get it. Money is not the problem, if you don't buy guns all the time and don't waste too much on ship development. The real issue is vendor credit limits and commerce makes it kinda worse: You are full with loot and want to load it off but the vendors don't have enough money to buy everything (so you have to wait for the vendor inventory refresh and trading your real life time for in game money - this sucks!) But with commerce you sell less loot for the same amount of money (=vendor credit limit) meaning you will have to wait longer to get rid of the loot (but you get a bit more in game money - still I value my real life time way higher than in game money). Great video. I can't wait for the next skill tree! :)

[@unclemumble]

Dude 100% on the waiting to sell loot because I sell it for MORE is the funniest part. I don't even have points in commerce and I'm still holding onto around 600k worth of survey scans and millions of credits worth of random crap sitting in my storage 😂

[@adamcline4320]

Didn't one of the skills in Skyrim boost the amount of gold the merchants had?

[@Citizen5101]

​@@adamcline4320Fallout 4 as well. I think you could do the same in Fallout 3 and NV with perks

[@Citizen5101]

I mean if your only goal is to clear out the merchant's gold, you could just jettison items after draining the merchants in the system you go to. Commerce just gets you there faster. Probably still not worth it, but don't create problems for yourself that you don't need to. No need to wait around for the inventory to reset. Commerce skill is about the only way to make ship stealing worth it, which isn't profitable but it is fun.

[@torstenwinkler8610]

@@Citizen5101 stealing ships seems fun until you realize that in order to do so the crappy, broken ship you just stole became your home ship and you now have to fly that garbage can to the next ship yard to sell it, hoping nobody is attacking you on the way (coz you have a highly optimized main ship that can handle anything, but for some reason you're sitting in the garbage can - wtf!?) And for some reason any decent weapon is more worth than a great space ship (if you include the registration fee). Until they change that system somehow I wont steal ships and stick to looting spacer and pirate hideouts :)

[@dixieboyz1]

Isolation is great for NG+ especially since at least one of the unique NG+ universes makes constellation companions unavailable

[@unclemumble]

How many skills have you maxed out to rank 4? Which was your first? For me it was boost pack training and it was 100% worth it CORRECTION: Accidentally wrote A instead of D tier for Xenosociology, but the full round up correctly shows the D (blurred it out now). My dumb ass also mistakenly put D instead of B on the round up for Theft. Apologies for any confusion! Additions: 1. If you're really serious about ship building I can understand why you'd rank commerce A/S tier, that's definitely fair! 2. @nicholasperry2302 shared that Diplomacy can make enemies like guards fully ignore criminal actions which is a great additional feature that can certainly come in handy in certain scenarios. I'd say this makes Diplomacy actually push closer to a low B tier rather than D knowing this. Thanks for sharing! 3. You can use manipulation on a dead npc to have it looted and in some cases this will take the clothes they are wearing that would normally not be in the loot pile. I just tested this on quite a few npcs and it's extremely inconsistent so I wouldn't rely on it. It's neat in any case.

[@BrianKotarski]

Ballistics always ends up being my first skill to rank 4 because it just seems to benefit more situations than anything else.

[@shanesutton336]

Commerce was my first to four. My thought was that the faster that gets up, the more compound benefits it will give. Boost was my first skill I got at lvl 2, and haven’t put another into it since.

[@nickcann4320]

I put it into my oxygen. Super useful for people who like to carry a full load too their ship an run back for more. I wasted 4 skills on pickpocketing thinking it was fun. But its fun too steal named npcs guns, they are so overpowered when you have them with combat upgrades, i am level 34 in level 40 an up because i am too strong.

[@dh8203]

I think Boost Pack was my first 4 point skill, and Weapon Modding was my second.

[@hoo2042]

Boost Pack followed shortly by Ballistics. Agreed that Boost Pack was 100% worth it. I also use the "press and hold" ini setting tweak, and combined I feel like I can almost fly forever with a ton of precise control. On low-G moons like Titan, you absolutely can fly forever, although you'll get hypothermia if you go too high 😂

[@DugHoles1]

Love that you do this for the skill trees. Can’t wait for the full collection. Keep up the great work!

[@teddibearslam]

i could definitely see Instigation being potentially useful for chaotic stealth builds, like causing a distraction to pull enemies away from where you’re trying to sneak

[@thevoxdeus]

I think Persuasion is either a 0 or 3-4 skill. Either you do a lot of side quests with a lot of persuasion checks, or you don't. In the long run it will save you time and get you access to options you wouldn't have otherwise, but you can complete the entire game without persuading anyone. Ultimately, it's a single skill instead of a whole suite of skills, and it can be an enormous time-saver, so I say A tier. It's one of the most valuable social skills.

[@WarMonkeyPlays]

I'm inclined to agree. In terms of QoL alone, I feel it warrants an A or B, then bumped up to A when you consider the times it can bump up payouts or down prices.

[@unclemumble]

Yeah it's such a playstyle dependent skill that it's pretty much impossible to have a consensus on what the right ranking is. Successful persuasion is either important to you or you take them as a bonus and that dictates a ton of the perceived value of the skill

[@goatlord7310]

The manipulation implant almost nullifies the need to level persuasion.

[@thevoxdeus]

@@goatlord7310 Manipulation implant?

[@goatlord7310]

@@thevoxdeus attained by completing the ryujin industries faction quest line.

[@JavierGomezX]

Heck yeah. For real, I was searching your channel this morning looking for the sequel of your Physical Skills tier list and was sad it wasn't finished yet. Then BOOM. Like you read my mind. I appreciate this, no other KZbinr has covered the skills in such a critical and analytical way. Thank you

[@unclemumble]

Cheers, glad you're enjoying!

[@iftheshuafits4268]

You have become the first Starfield channel I turn to when I'm looking for info. Keep the guides coming!

[@unclemumble]

Means a lot, thanks!

[@steevenseagull8345]

Your guides are great, keep it up! Loved the physical tree one and was waiting for more.

[@unclemumble]

Cheers!

[@Mor4me]

Yep, 👍👍

[@SassyPants34]

agreed.

[@adithefox]

I want more too!!

[@DatMageDoe]

On Crew Command: Crew skills in general don't stack. For example, if you have both Amelia Earhart and Sam Coe on your ship, which both have the Piloting skill (increases ship movement speed), you will not get twice the benefit - just the benefits of the highest leveled version on your ship. In addition, a lot of the benefits are rather minor. A crew member with ranks in a ship weapon skill will reduce the cooldown of the weapon by 10% - so if a pulse laser takes 5 seconds to recharge from empty, the crew member will lower it to 4.5 seconds. In addition, Sarah Morgan's Leadership skill gives you an additional +1 to crew capacity just having her on - she's effectively "Free crew" With this in mind, Crew Command isn't very useful. Especially with how many non-Constellation crew members only have 1-2 low level perks shared with a Constellation member. It's mostly a roleplay/aesthetic perk for people who want a ship with lots of crew in it. In addition, Isolationist also applies its damage buff to ship weapons if you don't have any companions, as it's a universal damage up. This even applies if you have crew on your ship. And alongside that, it only checks for Human companions - Vasco, being a robot, does not invalidate Isolationist.

[@SweetieViaPony]

I put a point into Intimidation, Diplomacy and Deception, just to add conversation options. Sometimes they gave better options during persuade but sometimes they'd let me skip the persuade all together. I was just putting points in to reach the big crew perk, and I don't regret my single points in the level 2 skills.

[@MrArchilus]

Yep, they're useful for chatty characters

[@alexsnewhandle]

Deception gives speech interactions?

[@SweetieViaPony]

No, sorry. I thought it did.@@alexsnewhandle

[@jessiehogue.]

@@alexsnewhandle Many of the Social skills give speech interactions. In fact, many skills in general do. As do Backgrounds, Traits... I love Starfield dialogue options for that reason. Depending on the character you build, you can say a ridiculous amount of fun stuff to people.

[@trucid2]

One thing to keep in mind is even if you only put one point into a skill, it still opens up dialog options you would not have had otherwise. Putting 1 point into each skill might not be a bad idea. Gastronomy - there is a food you can cook that gives you +15% movement speed. Useful if you're doing a lot of running. Theft - I put one point into it just to see what NPCs have. Once in a while you can steal a mission item like a keycard or a quest item that you would otherwise have to get in some other way. It's very underwhelming and the small benefit is that it gives you more options as to how you want to complete a quest.

[@colekoger]

Really enjoy these deep dives into the perk trees. Looking forward to seeing the rest!

[@aaronmarkham7657]

Literally watched most of this series so far. Even recommended you to a friend!! Keep it up

[@stefan465]

I have no idea how you’ve tested all these skills so soon but it’s greatly appreciated

[@eclipserider1486]

You dont have too go alone for isolation, you just tell your companion too wait and instantly activate the bonus and they will come fight anyway

[@BrianKotarski]

I love this insight. I hope Bethesda watches videos like this because they could really improve the game with little changes to things like this. I have a video request. I play RPGs for a great story and I'm curious which traits have the most impact on story. I know some have a major impact like adoring fan and kids stuff, but I can't seem to find any story about alien DNA. I'd love video breaking down this sort of topic.

[@unclemumble]

I'll have to consider a short video on the traits that goes into more depth than my other video on character building from a few weeks ago

[@Slugbug]

Granted I haven't put as much time into the game as the people posting videos, but so far I think you're right. I have seen my background and other traits come up a few times, but the only NPC who mentioned alien DNA was a doctor who offered to "cure the affliction" and remove the trait. I also have the Wanted trait and my head canon is that I was experimented on and left to continue my life on the same world, but was (unknown to me) still under observation. When I started planet hopping I was no longer a subject in a controlled environment, if the experiment makes me dangerous I'm a liability. So I think of each encounter with bounty hunters as related to Alien DNA, but they are two separate things and so far no one mentions the experiment.

[@mr.nuticus7821]

Well alien DNA isn't worth it I wished the they allowed you to change with new game plus you get more health but your items don't heal as much making it kind of useless

[@DragonHybryd]

​@mr.nuticus7821 Alien DNA is objectively one of the best traits you can start with, adding a permanent 50 oxygen to your meter(50 hp too but as you level that becomes ignorable at 20 hp per level). The hp is whatever as food is trash for hp unless you do a super low level challenge run (food is a single point so healing 5 hp goes down to 4). An the med kits and such lose a single % per second going from 40% hp recovered to 30% which seems like a lot but even "end game" med packs will still heal for half health. There's only three other ways to get improved oxygen levels. tera firma (which stacks for a permanent double oxygen level of 200 when on a planet, does nothing in space so back to 150 with Alien DNA) spaced is just tera firma but for (what a suprise) space, and the fitness perk which adds a flat 30.

[@mezzyy4445]

These videos are exactly what I’ve been looking for. Skill placement is so important and there are for sure some that look great on paper but simply aren’t. I appreciate you validating my own opinion on persuasion. Can’t wait for the next one

[@jdorrbremme]

THANK YOU, UncleMumble, for this awesome video series. I love how much time and effort you've put into analyzing these things. You are going to help me so much to build the right kind of character for me. I've subscribed and am eagerly awaiting your next videos. Keep up the great work.

[@Smurffies]

These skill video breakdowns are actually very informative and which is nice and you do look at them extremely objectively unless they're used and specific circumstances like melee builds for example in the last video and that's kind of a separate section which is nice and these are really good with the breakdown in my opinion. So thank you

[@Everfrost9]

In regard to Gastronomy, the rank 4 benefit of occasionally not using up resources when you craft food items seems to be extremely low. After I ranked it all the way up and learned the recipes, I crafted around 50 or 60 food items and it didn't proc once. I specifically crafted items one at a time to see if it would happen.

[@shanesutton336]

I think the problem with giving the skills tier lists like this, is most skills are totally subjective worth. I am level 65, and have five skill points on combat. 2 in ballistics, 2 in pistols, and 1 in reload. I don’t die in fights, and almost nothing I can’t put down in 3 to 6 shots. Though it helps that I found an Advanced Magshot at like level 18 or some such. At this point, adding any more to combat would make me OP. Lots of social skills are nice just to mix it up. But I feel one of the upsides to Starfield is all of the skills are there to enhance how you like to have fun, as opposed to must have skills like lots of other games.

[@unclemumble]

You're totally right, it's actually very difficult (and in some cases impossible) to give an objective rating for most skills. I do think there are some skills that stand above (or below) the rest regardless of playstyle that warrant the ratings. It's a fun exercise nonetheless and I enjoy hearing differing opinons!

[@shanesutton336]

@@unclemumble Yeah, it is a fun exercise. I always find it interesting where people put their skill points in games. Actually says a lot about the person I find. Anyways, love your videos, and looking forward to more of them to come.

[@unclemumble]

Cheers!

[@goatlord7310]

Like me and my val'ruun plasma shotgun. I have maxed shotgun, plasma, maxed ballistic and almost maxed sniping and they all give damage benefits to that one weapon, its damage in the description is close to if not over 1500.

[@abraxis59]

Great coverage! Two notes - 1. I think it is extremely appropriate that you rankings for the top tier skills spell out BAD 2. Persuasion: I have points in this and I have to say I feel like it is utterly useless. The persuasion minigame feels like it is completely in conflict with the actual conversation you are having. In almost all cases, there seems to be a "right answer" based purely on dialogue and if you don't pick it, the NPC will react negatively no matter what your skill level is or what the difficulty level of the comment is. I THINK it is helping me when I pick a more "difficult" response that is the right one, but it is very hard to see the real results with out rigorous testing in a way that is counter to how I want to play the game (I am not save scumming for this playthrough)

[@MerlinsBeard91]

Love these guides! I can't wait for the rest of these.

[@makaylaspade848]

Can't wait for the other skill reviews/ranking, Great Job! XOXO🥰

[@unclemumble]

Thanks, combat in the works now!

[@makaylaspade848]

Yay!@@unclemumble

[@benjamintodd2618]

Subscribed bc I like these kinds of videos. Great info, your Physical Perks video was spot on. Now time to start this one....keep up the good work.

[@unclemumble]

Welcome aboard!

[@JeremyHannaford]

I'm on level 53 and have a few more skill purchases in the bank but I'm holding off on waiting for the next two videos. I dumped everything into Tech happily but I have one skill purchase in Combat and a few in Science. I'm super apprecitive of the level of detail you are doing with these videos.

[@ScottTroiano]

Another GREAT video! You keep us engaged, the info is good, and I love the content. Can't wait for the rest of the skills!!!! Keep up the good work!

[@kahiaugaming7399]

Notice that the highest levels in the social tree spell bad. That should pretty much tell you everything you need to know😂👏

[@SarcasticTaurus]

On the Diplomacy one… I found it really useful, in combination with Stealth when you have to break into businesses and/or areas… you can scan them with Diplomacy and sneak around them easier and stay hidden. Only found useful in one quest line so far though… so very niche I should say… a lot of the skills are that way, they work better in combo of something at a certain time in the game….

[@JPRussell297]

I was also thinking about its usefulness for stealth, but mainly its use in stealth combat where you can calm enemies that you accidentally get seen by, then re-position yourself so you're hidden and kill them with a sneak attack.

[@buster7618]

I have over a hundred hours in this game and haven't used stealth once

[@loomzoom]

​@@buster7618there are few stealth missions

[@loomzoom]

Its better to use diplomacy - when they are under it they just won"t care if you are there or not

[@paladinlancer]

Great videos, very concise and thorough! Staying tuned for the rest.

[@Firechub3229]

awesome guides man, well done. looking forward to the next one!

[@brianschwarm8267]

Love this skill list. I play the diplomat, I talk so many people down from bad decisions. Having points in it is cool for leadership and ship captain too

[@DuVtrell]

Best Starfield CC out there. Been waiting for this one. Love these breakdowns. So helpful.

[@unclemumble]

Glad you're enjoying! Working on combat now!

[@thesmfb8723]

These vids are great man. Good job on this and can’t wait for you to complete them all.

[@jamesmcshane1914]

Been waiting for this ever since I saw the physical one. Just as good. Just as concise and well explained. I saw a video recently that claimed to have a breakdown of all skills. It somehow had over 200k views yet it was total trash. It was mostly just reading them all out loud, something anyone could do. Keep going with the excellent content. Hope your channel blows up like it deserves to do.

[@unclemumble]

Really appreciate that. I'm definitely trying to add more than verbatim reading of the skill descriptions and I make a point of spending hours testing each tree in different scenarios. I definitely don't catch everything but I sure get close! All in hopes of giving something genuinely useful to all of you! Cheers

[@jamesmcshane1914]

@@unclemumble Well you're doing a great job. Thank you.

[@yupyup3042]

Actually surprised to hear that diplomacy has more speech options for persuasion! 100% worth that first point alone and thats it Cant wait to see your combat skills video. Im level 56 and have put 0 points into combat lol the vast majority are in tech. Tech is king

[@ravynbr]

Yeah, I've kinda leaned into the "1 point in social options" method to ensure that IF there's a dialog option that it can benefit me with, I have it there, but honestly even for the quest where you're SUPPOSED to use Manipulation, I found it very lackluster and the fact that Constellation companions hate that you use it was both a turn off for the ability AND for keeping them around as companions.

[@kcolloran]

Me too. I love persuasion options but didn't put a point into it because the listed skills seem so awful. Oh well,when I do my next NG+ replay I'll start by putting points there I guess.

[@logang6935]

Commerce is also a double edged sword if you go full in. At rank 4 commerce, you can barely sell one weapon to a merchant. It's great if you buy a lot, but a pain if you sell a lot.

[@Andrew85or]

There's a mod on Nexus that randomly increases merchant credit totals by 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50%. It's just a bat file you run through console once you load into game. Had the trade authority merchant in the well have 360k last night. The UC surplus vendor had about 3500, instead of his usual 1500. Mod is an absolute must.

[@goatlord7310]

What I do is buy out all the ammo, resources or meds to increase the amount you can sell. Even buying 30ks worth of ammo I get my money back and then some. Aswell as always going to the trade authority first, as they start with 11k in their pocket.

[@DivinePenguin00]

Great video and great commentary! I think the Ship Command skill is in fact bugged as it should not control how many people you can have at an outpost. Looking forward to you next deep-dives!

[@Chewbacca0678]

These vids are very thorough and helpful. Thank you :)

[@TheUniversalEclipse]

Man you got another 4k+ subs so quick, the work you’re putting into making these videos quality is paying off.

[@monev44]

Im so annoyed they made the crew skill a master skill. There are so few skills in the social tree that are viable but you need a huge number of them to go from 3 crew to... 4

[@saprone8885]

I agree, I would say it is not worth the investement. There aren't that many amazing crew members in the game anyway, so 3 max is plenty to get the best ones. If you want to improve your ship skills from the tech tree is more efficiënt in terms of perk distribution. Isolation is great though, because it works for both your character and ship dps.

[@monev44]

@@saprone8885 I don't even care about "the best crew" and what not. I have a massive ship with a dozen beds and 40+ chairs. I just want butts in seats!

[@MISTAKEWASMADE4live]

I found that same issue, so the ideal tree order is 3 points in Scavenging, 1 in Theft, 4 in Isolation(you will definitely want it even if you use companions), and then either leadership or outpost management.

[@MISTAKEWASMADE4live]

​@@saprone8885Nah you definitely need 8 for a maximixed build, you can always hire generic 1 star guys for shields or whatever, although ideally weapon guys are the best.

[@TigonIII]

After watching your first insight video, I have been eagerly awaiting this and it so great to see someone go through each skill and weigh the pros and cons. Really looking forward to the next ones.

[@unclemumble]

Glad you're enjoying the series!

[@null6634]

This is the first of your videos that I have come across. You did a great job breaking them down by use case and showing how different play styles may or may not value the skills. I would suggest maybe changing your ranking system from S-F to 0-4 denoting how may points you think should be in a skill. Scavenging gets 2, Deception gets 0, Outpost gets 1 or 4. Just a thought. You're doing great. Thanks for the breakdown. I hope they come out with a way to respec our characters. Of course they may have one and I just haven't found it yet.

[@parmesanzero7678]

The fact that it doesn’t show you your success rates for each option and just shows colors makes it really hard to tell if things are working. Compare to pick pocketing, where I can see the specific chance of success. Great video and explanations with some in-depth when appropriate. It’s clear you understand the game and gaming in general. I’ve seen far too many KZbinrs jumping on the Starfield bandwagon with criticisms based on a complete lack of understanding the history of games like this or how to test things.

[@Andromalius]

Deception is weird because I feel like they mixed up the contraband scan effect with the payloads perk instead, there's even a tooltip on loading screens claiming that payloads increases your chance to evade contraband scans. Might be worth testing.

[@XoRandomGuyoX]

Well, in a manner of speaking. Payloads increases your cargo by a percentage, which should include shielded cargo. Scan detections are based on the size and value of the contraband measured against the total shielded cargo capacity and whether a scan jammer is present.

[@goatlord7310]

^^ this, so they stack together, increased shielded cargo capacity means that contraband takes up a lower percentage of space, making it harder to scan, then the deception further increases the chance to pass a scan.

[@pisuoxide]

I think scan percentage is based on conteband to total cargo capacity ratio. If so it would decrease the chance

[@bepopepo9982]

I cant wait for the whole series!!

[@GremlinSciences]

You can use Manipulation on the same target multiple times to give more orders as long as it's still within the original timeframe, but it runs a check _after_ each action that might block you from further actions. It's actually really useful for sneaking around, not only because you can make people open doors for you but because you can send them off to start fights and draw attention elsewhere or have them turn off an alarm to lower guard alertness, or just have them run off into oblivion. Sometimes you can even get NPCs to steal valuables for you, in which case they pick them up and hand them over to you without you getting any bounty when they get caught.

[@Citizen5101]

These are really good videos so thank you for making them. I think Ship Command is S tier if you have rhe Taskmaster trait so rhat you can get enough crew to cover all of your parts, though there is a lot of overlap from the good named crew members and companions. For the social manipulation skills they are definitely better on a stealth build because they don't break stealth and something like Intimidate, Instigate, or Manipulate can clear a room so you can steal what you want. Diplomacy can be used to pause an enemy so you can pickpocket their weapon but that's a lot of RNG to get lucky on without save scumming. I do think it's probably best to focus on only one of the manipulation skills if your plan is to use it in combat situations. It can be hard to open scanner, click on an enemy, and select your desired social skill all while being shot at. It is too bad the range on these skills isn't longer or affected by the Scanner skill in science. And unless you want the 4th tier, tiers 2 and 3 are probably not efficient uses of your skill points if you're going to eventually get to a really high level.

[@unclemumble]

All solid points! And glad you're enjoying the videos, I love hearing other people's perspectives on the skills as there are so many ways to play

[@Zayphar]

OK...but all kinds of No. In actual gameplay(as opposed the theoretical status implied by the written description of this trait), this repair buff only very rarely procs in ship-to-ship combat, and only then when you are one bad hit away from losing a ship fight. It just doesn't come up that often, so it's kind of a waste of one of your 3 traits. Also, when you need a new crew member, that ship crewman will be more expensive. It is not a Terrible trait, but you can do better. Try Alien DNA, Wanted, United Colonies Native, Empath(for good playthroughs), Terrra Firma, Kid Stuff, Extrovert, Dream Home and even Hero Worshipped. All of these are more useful than Taskmaster with fewer downsides.

[@Citizen5101]

@@Zayphar having played with Taskmaster, Wanted, and Worshipped Hero I would say that Wanted is the only clear winner over Taskmaster. Worshipped Hero is a waste unless you're playing an Extrovert evil character. His added carry capacity is that useful and otherwise he's just dead weight compared to most Companions and crew members. The higher price of crew members from Taskmaster isn't really an issue. Until late in your progression with Ship Command your ship is going to be overloaded with free crew members. By the time you have spots to fill, you're overflowing with credits. I probably wouldn't get the trait again, but it's way more useful than others like Dream Home. I would take Taskmaster over any of the Roleplay traits (except maybe Serpent's Embrace), but there are probably 3 better traits for any play style.

[@Citizen5101]

@@Zayphar Taskmaster is probably about B tier, but only Alien Blood, Wanted, Extravert, and Terra Firma would be S or A tier and 3 of those could be terrible depending on the play style.

[@liammcfadden8713]

The speech skill is heavily needed for the ryujin quest line due to them wanting you to be sneaky and not kill so you end up having to either sneak or pass speech checks to get the full pay during quests but other than that it’s not crazy important

[@silentbilly7971]

It's not really important even for that just quick save before persuasion attempts just spam the highest fill eventually it'll work only mission it might have been useful for is the last one where you have to steal from the place on jemison which I forgot about manipulation and just killed everyone inside after not being able to sneak even with max stealth and the suit I continued the quest after work and forgot I has gotten a skill either way I still got paid a ton

[@universal_wisdom3416]

I set this to watch later for when I’m about to sleep, but I just wanna say ALMOST 20k SUBS BRO!!?? It’s great to see you blow up like this man, 2500 to 20k.

[@unclemumble]

Welcome back my dude, hope you've been enjoying the game. It's been going well, there's so much to cover just in gameplay aspects, let alone lore and interesting quests to stumble across

[@universal_wisdom3416]

@@unclemumble I’ve heard rumors about a rogue terrormorph attack that completely boiled over and wiped out a large facility. I’ve also heard about a dungeon of sorts with an entire underground forest of alien life. Dude… I got my own complaints with the game so far, but it’s really amazing most of the time and I’m just as locked in as I thought I’d be.

[@unclemumble]

@@universal_wisdom3416 yeah the game is definitely far from perfect but I'm thoroughly enjoying it despite the flaws. I've stumbled across some pretty crazy stuff as well. Hopefully will find some time to make videos on them soon

[@AbolishYTHandles]

These two videos you've made on skill trees have been the best for helping me determine what skills I want to get on my playthrough. I eagerly await the upcoming videos

[@rawbfjpc]

Something worth mentioning about persuasion is that after completing the Ryujin faction questline… ***SPOILERS*** …you’re gifted the neural implant that allows you to manipulate NPCs during persuasions. It’s always a green colored option that gives +4 to +5. Lowkey broken lol

[@nomenclator4339]

It's mentioned in the video...

[@leakyabstraction]

You probably put more time into analyzing the skills than people at Bethesda put into "designing" them in the first place

[@jnorth3341]

Love seeing these, thank you very much. Good for figuring out what to get now and what once I start +1.

[@Zayphar]

THEFT: If you steal something while crouched, with no one in the room, or nearby, and no one in line-of-sight, you still have a high chance of alerting security to your theft. Yes, you read that right. When you leave the building, you will be met on the street by local security guards. This is highly variable, and unlike Stealth, there is no Theft Meter. Even when you max out this skill you will only have about a 4 out of 5 chance of success each time you steal/pickpocket. NOTE: You will not be able to know if a particular theft attempt will work until after you try it. Always save your game before attempting to pickpocket or steal. Most NPCs in cities have only about 80-100 credits in their pockets. Not really worth the effort. Some specific NPCs have quest items that can be stolen that will make a particular quest easier, but this is a relatively rare occurrence, and you will always have another way to get the quest item.

[@AGBolish]

Great guide, very in depth! Earned a follow!

[@frontstreetdon6398]

Nice breakdown ! Newly subscribed 👍🏾

[@Mazzy774i]

Dude great work with this series!

[@jcsharp86]

On the opening inventory comllaint. I found I had stacks of food and stims, added the two most useful/most I had to my quickbar and found myself using them more often, even clearing out full stacks. I'm a full on stim addict now.

[@yutterh9153]

This guide is wonderful. I subscribed on this one alone and I'll be sure to check out your other ones. Also something you can test but from my understanding is that Vasco doesn't count as a companion and isolation may still work with Vasco. If you can test that out and give a update on the skill would be cool.

[@unclemumble]

Glad to hear! I'll have to give that one a try though I have a feeling he will still count unless Bethesda put in the extra effort to treat him as a non-companion/crew for this unique purpose. It would definitely be cool if this is the case though and if it is I'd expect leadership to similarly not work with him which would only be fair

[@yutterh9153]

@@unclemumble Well I suspect it works because I I heard that Vasco works with the introvert trait. But that only works cause the con specifically says human companion. Was curious if it also applied for perk.

[@nicholasperry2302]

You slept hard on diplomacy. Rank 4 essentially reads (75% chance to instant kill an enemy) you can walk into a room with 10 people and isntantly "kill" 7 enemies. It doesnt just stop an enemy from attacking you, it makes an enemy completely unaware of your Actions. You can break the law right in a pacified NPCs face and they do not care. You can stealth around a room using diplomacy before a fight starts so when you start engaging the enemy, most of them just won't care or help their friends. Its honestly super broken and the jankness of the scanner can be worked around by only taking 1 of those social skills so you can quickly hit the A button and not have to cycle through options. Its really really really good

[@nicholasperry2302]

Also should be mentioned they all have BAse success rates and diplomacy is the highest at base 60% the only on I've yet to test is intimidation

[@unclemumble]

Great points! I didn't realize that this makes them ignore criminal actions, I would 100% upgrade this now knowing that. It's also nice that it's the first option on the list of influence skills so it's easiest to execute. Thanks for sharing! Definitely a niche use case, but a very good one! My gun will still do the talking in most cases 😅

[@nicholasperry2302]

@@unclemumble definitely character dependent (or player) but I'm using a melee Jedi kind build and so having a ranged option to eliminate an enemy with a click of a button has made the build feel whole. Recommend for melee for sure

[@MrJeChou]

Top tier youtube content my bro. you earned my sub, keep it up

[@unclemumble]

Glad you're enjoying, cheers!

[@distelmarc]

I do a lot of looting, and I generally don't abuse credit glitches. So I maxed out Commerce pretty quickly because I pick up a LOT of weapons and sell them. I try to empty all vendors as often as possible. The other perk to weapon looting is I find real good weapons real fast, so rooting through pockets and chests and locked rooms garners a ton of weapons I can then go sell. Ammo gets expensive REAL fast for the few weapons I use so having a ton of guns to sell to pay off the ammo AND take the vendors credits is always a plus. Maxing commerce means I can have a greater buffer on stored income (i.e. weapons, ammo, resources, components, and ships).

[@yosharian]

Eagerly awaiting the next video. Great content.

[@cameronattardo2347]

Keep up the good work! These are awesome

[@Zayphar]

PERSUASION: To succeed at a Persuasion check mini-game you will need to acquire a number of points from 2(easy) to 8(very hard) via the Persuasion dialogue system. You're given 3 turns to acquire the number of points needed to fill the Persuasion meter. Each turn will require a RNG roll based on your choice of dialogue options. You will be presented with 3-5 options, each worth a number of points(usually from +1 to +6), and color coded(Light Blue[very high chance of success], Green[medium], Yellow[hard], Red[very hard] based on the relative difficulty of the roll that is required in order to successfully use that line in your attempt at Persuasion. Reaching zero(0) turns while being unable to fill up the Persuasion Meter will result in failure.

[@pelidesachilles824]

I think he left us a hidden message about Social skills in the 4-th row.

[@waylander73uk18]

Really enjoying this series, cannot wait for the Tech one.

[@lokizeme7342]

Omg finally! I've been checking my notifications for days!! 😂 jk Unc. I love you're content brother! And can never wait for the next Ty✌️❤️

[@thehubbleton]

This series is great, man. Thank you.

[@metalgod19]

If you invest a couple of points into ship design, you can just buy a multi frequency scan jammer from either Crimson Fleet (The Key) or The Red Mile. I've used that with shielded cargo and my evasion went to around 89% with no points used in deception.

[@Widderic]

The persuasion skill, if anything, is a TIME SAVER. In many instances it helps to avoid the "go talk to this guy for me and then I'll help ya out" which in some quests can save you a whole hour or two of gameplay. I'm looking at you Kelton Frush from "A Tree Grows in New Atlantis". That quest sucked! I'm hanging with companions on my first play through but will definitely be doing Isolation Rank 4 on the next one. That's a sick perk.

[@unclemumble]

100% persuasion has some legitimate benefits but it's all about perceived value. I'm someone who willingly does every silly little task that gets asked of me in quest lines because I'm looking for every possible dialogue line and quest interaction for lore collection purposes. Obviously there will be many people like yourself who would sooner high five an ashta than collect those silly probes for Kelton so you'll put this much higher. Very much a to each their own skill so I'm not surprised to see lots of opinions here which is totally cool!

[@Widderic]

And that is exactly why these games are so wonderful! You can literally play it any way you want! Back in the Fallout 3 days when I had lots of free time I would 100 percent everything. Now that I'm 36 and juggling a career I try to squeeze in what I can, having said that I've dedicated 90 percent of my gaming time to Starfield. Having a blast! Excited for your Science and Tech tree vidoes! @@unclemumble

[@Kodasa_Sinclair]

"If you're sick of your companions getting mad at you for doing something slightly morally questionable..." I felt this. I had the entirety of constellation turn against me because of an errant shot FROM A TURRET, hit a freestar security ship during a scuffle I jumped into, and then defending myself against the security ships counted as murder. Also Sarah is like "We're all from different backgrounds here. Just don't bring security to our door. Otherwise, I don't care what you do." But when I commit stealth murder for the purposes of taking a ship, suddenly she does care, they all do. Even though I didn't bring security to their door.

[@JoshCowley]

Great video. Question, why is the Theft icon blurred out during "Conclusion/Recommendations"?

[@rambokills2750]

Just amazing, ive been tempted to use the skill tree thank god you made this

[@JamesRT1291]

9:22, Deception in my opinion is meant to be paired with the shielded cargo and sensors jammers to make it almost impossible for contraband to be detected. But if you’re save scumming I can see how it could be pointless. So D for a no SS smuggler build, F tier other ways

[@EdwardAmarille]

Yes, you don't need the sensor hammers if you have this skill... And the piracy part DOES work but apparently only has higher value the further away you are from the major systems..... And many of these skills are beneficial to sneak builds. Using intimidation etc while hidden against groups is quite helpful...

[@unclemumble]

It's basically impossible to be detected anyways though. My tests were at 98% shielded cargo capacity (literally had 126 harvested organs on the ship) and every single rank was exactly the same. It simply does nothing. I wouldn't even care if I got caught with contraband though because if I did it means I forgot to just bring it to the key/den where I wouldn't get scanned

[@gstlynx]

Really thorough and well presented. Thanks.

[@ADF_Cable]

Subbed mate! Awesome vid! I'd love ya to do the the @projectfarm "very impressive" callsign for all the S skills! 😉😎

[@TREEKO978]

Pickpocket: if you need to take an item from someone, but you don't want to kill them, you can defeat them with EM while sneaking, and then automatically succeed pickpocketing. Diplomacy: I assume it's the same effect as the "calm" spells in Skyrim. If you use it on someone while sneaking, they won't be alerted when they see you and you should be able to steal anything (or do anything that would otherwise considered a crime)around them and they won't be considered as witnesses. Also because they don't look for you, sneak attack should automatically work as well. I really want to try this on my next run, I wonder if it works the same in starfield as it did in skyrim. It's OP skills for stealth.

[@chetmanley1885]

Boy did I find this out the hard way. For my diplomat I ended up with 2 commerce, 1 persuasion, 2 scavenging, spreading one point through influence skills for speech checks, 4 in leadership and 4 in ship command. It's kind of a slog but spreading one point across multiple skills doesn't make it too painful and you could in theory be done with the tree at level 15.

[@GrandTickler]

persuation is THE most important skill in the game imo. theres literally hundreds of chances to put this skill to the test and with it maxed out u never fail anything, save yourself the trouble of reloading saves a thousand times, breaking your own immersion and max this out as soon as possible to always get what you want in a conversation with a npc, defuse aggression that may be life saving not only to yourself, but also to npcs to get a happy conclusion to a quest, haggle to get more money from quests, and many other benefits. for a game where u probably spend more time talking to npcs than actually playing, you'd be crazy not to max this first

[@thepyrokitten]

1. Gastronomy still has beneficial effects - imo worth it but most food recipes aren't worthwhile. 2. You can't steal most equipped weapons that are worth a damn. 3. You called it exactly right on the Influence etc skills though. 1 point is enough. But even if 1 ability would unlock ALL those skills together, it would only just be worth it. Even if you throw manipulation in. (like how Xenosociology works) I'm working on a social/stealth build but yeah most times I can still gun enemies down with 0 physical and 0 combat skills.

[@hugolicea2489]

Amazing work, life saving information you are sharing!