Can you skip the final boss fight in Starfield?

An interesting discussion around Starfield pertains to the question of skipping the final boss fight. After all, players are given a wealth of interesting tools as they explore the stars, one of which is the power of Persuasion. Depending on the situation they are in, not every background will be successful at this. However, after doing some research and exploration of the game, we’ve stumbled upon something quite interesting, and it pertains to the Emissary and the Hunter.

Towards the end of Starfield, you’ll wind up encountering one or both of these final bosses. But do you have to fight them? It turns out that you can skip this battle completely. However, it’s not a guarantee and may require a bit of save scumming to make it work.

Note: This article features spoilers for the ending moments of Starfield.

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It is possible to skip the final boss fight of Starfield entirely

It's possible, but challenging, to skip the final encounter. (Image via Bethesda)

As you reach the final moments of Starfield, depending on what you’ve chosen previously, you’ll either fight the Hunter, the Emissary, or even both. You will see both of these Starborn in the final moments of the game, and you’ll have a few options: two that lead to combat, and one requiring Persuasion.

When dealing with the Emissary, after a successful Persuasion, you’ll be given a few options, each with a + next to it. There is one +2 and a pair of +6’s. One of these, however, requires you to Manipulate the enemy.

Successful manipulation of the Starfield final boss leads to another series of dialogue choices where, among other things, you can gaslight them. In the instance where the manipulation worked, the player joked, “I win in this universe, you win in the next. Seems fair.”

The Emissary and Hunter can both be avoided in the end (Image via Bethesda)

The Emissary will then give you the final Artifacts, completely skipping the final battle. Sure, you miss out on some incredible gear, but since the end is coming anyway, it won’t be relevant. You can’t take it with you, after all. It’s worth pointing out that these choices may not be the only answer that leads to avoiding a fight.

The Hunter can also be manipulated in a similar manner, but it appears, due to storyline reasons, that the Emissary is the easier target. The unfortunate thing is, all of this appears to be quite random and dependent on how you perform this Persuasion before the final boss.

You can also talk the Hunter down (Image via Bethesda)

However, it is not that you have to give up on the satisfaction of fighting completely if you choose to skip the battle the first time. The game features a New Game+ run where you can choose to skip the final boss in your initial playthrough and then go into combat in a later playthrough.

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This is one of the things that makes Starfield such an interesting game. You can avoid many dangerous situations with a smooth-talking character. This makes characters like the Diplomat incredibly powerful. Starfield is available now in early access, and the full launch is on September 6, 2023.