When you think about Starfield, you imagine futuristic guns, heavy DPS, and laser rifles. While all these weapons make up the majority of the game, you can still pull out the sturdy old fists to surprise your foes. Bethesda knows that a huge player base enjoys punching their enemies to death. So, they provided even more ways to bring down heavily-armored foes with your bare hands. If you are interested in such thrills, this article provides the best unarmed build in Starfield, polished to perfection just for you.
The only problem with unarmed builds in Starfield is that you mainly rely on the skills, powers, and consumables to get stronger. Moreover, the game doesn’t have a dedicated spot for fist players. Worry not; this article will guide you through the whole process in easy steps.
Table of Contents
Best Unarmed Build in Starfield:
Unlike other Starfield builds, the unarmed warriors don’t rely on the most powerful weapons. Instead, they focus on muscle strength, brute force, and consumable items to charge their attacks. However, your journey to create the most powerful unarmed character starts from the background selection and lasts until the endgame sequence.
Furthermore, you can also fuse two builds to get completely different results. For example, take a tank build and remove all weapons to get a Superman melee build. If you are up for such dedication, this unarmed build will show you a whole different side of Starfield.
Best Background for Unarmed Build:
The first step in creating any Starfield character is to choose the background. This step requires great attention as it makes up the foundation for your future build. Once you choose a background, you must stick to the default traits until you unlock additional character points. In case of an unarmed build, you must choose an option with Boxing as the main skill.
So, you can either go with the Bouncer background or start the game as a Gangster. For our build, we selected the Bouncer option as it offers Boxing, Security, and Fitness as the key skills. All of these skills lay the foundation of any melee build, making it the perfect choice.
Best Traits for Unarmed Build:
Traits are equally important as the character background for any build. You can choose up to 3 optional traits before starting the game. These traits provide various buffs, boost your stats, and even give you material benefits. The catch is that you can only choose three of them, so choose wisely.
For instance, you can start with Terra Firma to get higher hp and reduced oxygen consumption on land. As most of your conflicts will take place on the ground, this trait can drastically improve your battle strategies. For our unarmed build, we started with the following traits:
- Terra Firma
- Wanted
- Alien DNA
Alternatively, if you don’t want random bounty hunters coming after you, replace the Wanted trait with Introvert or Extrovert. However, the Wanted skill will definitely give you an advantage when you are cornered in a conflict.
Best Skills for Unarmed Build:
We can’t ignore skills, the bread and butter of any Starfield build. You can unlock various skills for your character by investing in skill points. The only problem is that there are about 86 skills categorized into various trees, and you can’t unlock them all in a single playthrough.
Fortunately, you don’t need to upgrade all skills fully for this build. To make things simpler, here is a list of the best skills for your unarmed build and how much you must upgrade them before the endgame sequence:
- Boost Pack Training: Rank 3
- Boxing: Rank 4
- Concealment: Rank 3
- Gymnastics: Rank 4
- Rejuvenation: Rank 3
- Martial Arts: Rank 4
- Neurostrikes: Rank 4
- Pain Tolerance: Rank 4
- Spacesuit Design: Rank 3
- Stealth: Rank 2
- Wellness: Rank 3
If you earn any spare points after completing your build, you can invest them in Gastronomy and Medicine to increase your HP regeneration efficiency. In short, feel free to experiment with your character build until it hits the sweet spot.
Best Powers for Unarmed Build:
You won’t have any weapons to boost your damage output with this build. So, you must rely on throwables and Starborn skills to aid you in hard times. These powers grant you godly skills that can even melt your foes with a single blow. However, acquiring these powers requires solving hard puzzles and finding artifacts (See Into The Unknown Guide).
Here is a list of the best powers that you will need for your build:
- Anti-Gravity
- Inner Demon
- Particle Beam
- Personal Atmosphere
- Phased Time
- Reactive Shield
Best Armor for Unarmed Build:
Armor selection is another important step for your build. You won’t have any extra protection to save you from incoming ballistics, and there will be a ton of them coming your way. So, you should wear any armor that protects you from all forms of damage, giving you time to reduce your distance from the enemies.
Basically, you should choose an armor set with added protection from poison, physical damage, and bleeding. Secondly, you must also consider the armor’s weight, or else it will slow your mobility in the combat area. For the best result, you should get legendary armor with a Beast Hunter perk to reduce damage from alien form by up to 15%. Otherwise, you can use the workbench in your shipbuilder to modify your gear with simple crafting resources.
Some Tips & Tricks:
If you follow this guide, you will end up with the most powerful build in Starfield. However, you must maintain a sound battle strategy to survive until you finalize your build. These tips and tricks will help keep you alive in battles:
- Stock up on your medpacks and other health regeneration items, as you will need a ton of them.
- Use simple weapons like a combat knife and AA-99 Rifle or any Sniper Rifle until you feel comfortable with melee combat.
- Use Hit & Run tactics and keep moving around the arena to minimize the damage and maximize your efficiency.
- Consider other build options to combine with your unarmed build.
- Try sneaking behind your enemies and killing them with a knife to avoid unnecessary attention.
- Make sure to grind as many XP through side quests and optional activities as your build relies on skills.
- Unlock as many Starborn powers as you can to improve your build.
Conclusion:
Starfield builds give you complete freedom to live your dream life in a futuristic universe. However, such freedom also requires you to actively make decisions and polish your build throughout the playthrough. In the case of unconventional builds, a single miscalculation can ruin the final product. Therefore, this article provides a complete guide to creating the best unarmed build in Starfield.
