Starfield best Explorer guide: Starting skills, traits, and more

Starfield’s Explorer class is ideal for players who simply want to see new life forms and travel the cosmos. There are so many planets to explore and interesting things to survey. While not the most hardcore combat class, it does start with laser access so one can at least defend themselves. As a member of this background, you’re likely going to travel far and wide, from planet to planet, and that’s an exciting prospect on its own.

We’ll go over what the ideal skills, traits, and weapons are for this exploration-based class. No matter what background you pick in Starfield, there’s plenty to do and a wealth of experiences to have. Here’s what we know about the Explorer.

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Starting skills for Explorer in Starfield

Travel the stars and see unique sights as the Explorer (Image via Bethesda)

Starting skills

• Lasers: You deal increased damage with your laser weapons.
• Astrodynamics: Increase the Grav Jump range by 15%
• Surveying: Adds an optional zoom to the hand scanner, and the scan distance is increased by 20m.

Two out of three of the Explorer skills in Starfield are focused on travel and exploring the space you get to. It’s fitting for the roleplay of this class on top of that. Astrodynamics lets you Grav Jump farther, and Surveying allows you to zoom in deeper and scan ahead while you explore planets.

You also have a self-defense skill: Lasers. Simply put, it adds more damage to your laser weapons, which will be key to your success in battle. There’s never a bad time to have a little more damage.

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Best traits for Starfield’s Explorer class

Trait	Pro	Con
Alien DNA	Bonus to starting Health and Oxygen	Healing Items and Food do not work as well
Spaced	Health/Oxygen increased in space	Decrease to Health/Oxygen on the planets
Raised Universal	Special item in House of Enlightened	Lose access to Sanctum's chest/other religions

Alien DNA remains one of the best traits in the game (Image via Bethesda)

All traits in Starfield are optional, but it is the only way to join a religion in the game. While many classes, like the Bounty Hunter benefit from Neon Street Rat, a religious choice is better for the Explorer.

It’s worth highlighting that if you don’t want to take one of these, you don’t have to. For example, you can choose Raised Universal for the Settler Poncho Outfit, which gives +10 HP and resistances to Physical, Electromagnetic, and Corrosive damage types.

Alien DNA is another valuable option, but it’s good for almost everyone. You lose out on some healing from items/food, but the Health/Oxygen bonus is very nice. Since you’re going to do a ton of space travel, Spaced is also a good pick for the Health/Oxygen bonus while in outer space.

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Best skills to pick first in Starfield’s Explorer class

• Astrodynamics
• Astrophysics
• Starship Design
• Scanning
• Surveying
• Lasers
• Rifle Certification
• Pistol Certification
• Scavenging
• Persuasion
• Manipulation

The tech tree is home to many important skills for this class (Image via Bethesda)

As this class really doesn't have a lot of default combat options, most of the skills are built around traveling the stars. Astrodynamics, Astrophysics, Starship Design, these all make your Starfield exploration just a bit easier.

However, we’re still going to get into fights. Lasers will pair perfectly with Rifle and Pistol Certification, as they all enhance damage depending on what you’re equipped with.

If you have room in your build for Persuasion and Manipulation, they can’t hurt either. Anything that can help you skip a sticky situation, like the final boss, for example.

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Best weapons to pick as Explorer in Starfield

Unmitigated Violence is an appropriately named weapon (Image via Bethesda)

Since this class starts with Lasers, it stands to reason we’re going to pick up a few laser pistols and rifles. It might not be a bad idea to have a melee weapon too, like the Combat Knife.

There are a few excellent laser weapons in the game, too. Unmitigated Violence and Ember are the ones that can be worth focusing on and with good reason. These are far from the only laser weapons worth having—just two powerful examples.

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The Explorer is a fun class but may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Check out our tier list of the most powerful classes in Starfield should you want to try something else.

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Discover more about all Starfield Traits and find the best Starfield Traits to suit your gameplay.