Starfield best Industrialist build guide: Starting skills, traits, and more

Industrialists took to space in Starfield the same way others did. They just had much more money to play with. While the human condition may have changed, megacorp executives and businessmen play the same games, only with different stakes. This background is all about making money. While the planets you build and grow on may change, the end result is still all that matters. You aren't a background that demands combat, but you should always keep something on hand - just in case.

We’ll go over one of the more interesting backgrounds in Starfield today, the Industrialist. We’ll highlight important skills to have, traits you should consider picking up, and what weapons, if any, you ought to consider carrying.

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Industrialist starting skills in Starfield

Starting skills

• Persuasion: +10% increased chance of persuasion success.
• Security: You can attempt to hack Advanced locks. 2 auto attempts can be banked.
• Research Methods: Resources to craft items/research projects goes down by 10%.

Industrialists aren’t an especially combative class in Starfield. It’s all about talking your way out of problems, and worst case, having your ally deal with a problem. With that in mind, you start with Persuasion, one of the most powerful skills in Starfield.

Security allows you to do hack more - and thus, more thievery. For a more roleplaying flavor, you have Research Methods, which is also quite important. Resources for your crafting/projects will go down.

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Best traits for Starfield’s Industrialist class

Extrovert and Empath combine to be very powerful (Image via Bethesda)

Trait:	Pro:	Con:
Empath	Actions your companion likes gives temporary combat buff	Actions your companion dislikes debuffs them in combat
Extrovert	Traveling with an ally decreases Oxygen use	Traveling alone increases your Oxygen use
Taskmaster	Occasionally, crew trained in certain ship systems will automatically repair itself to full when damaged below 50%	All crew cost double to hire

As I said earlier, this isn’t a combat class in Starfield. When traveling, you’ll want an ally to help you out. This means you want them to be as efficient as possible - thus, Empath. Extrovert’s another no-brainer for the same reason. You want to use less Oxygen, so travel with a friend.

Taskmaster is an interesting pick too. This one’s just about saving time and resources. Sure, you pay more to hire people, but you don’t have to keep paying them. It’s not like you won’t be rolling in credits, anyway. It’s one of the best traits in the game, for sure.

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First skills to unlock for Industrialist in Starfield

Social skills are of the utmost importance in this build (Image via Bethesda)

• Commerce
• Persuasion
• Manipulation
• Research Methods
• Security
• Special Projects
• Surveying
• Outpost Management
• Gastronomy
• Outpost Engineering
• Astrodynamics
• Astrophysics
• Payloads
• A weapon certification

Investing in Commerce, Persuasion, and Manipulation are among your most important skills in the game. Since you’ll be doing lots of crafting, Gastronomy and Special Projects are also quite important.

With that in mind, the Outpost skills are also handy when it comes to farming up resources for your industry of choice. I don’t know if Astrodynamics/physics should be focused on early, but points in them will help traveling the stars to pick up more resources.

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Best weapons for the Industrialist class in Starfield

Stay strapped, or get clapped - Industrialist's manual, probably (Image via Bethesda)

Just because you don’t fight much, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. I’d pick a weapon type and keep one on hand, like a melee weapon and/or a pistol. In more cases than not, you’ll probably try and talk your way out of danger, but that’s not always possible. Keep a heater, just in case danger arises.

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Starfield is now available on both Xbox consoles and PC. Discover more about all Starfield Traits and find the best Starfield Traits to suit your gameplay.