Starfield: How to Farm XP?

Grinding for XP is fairly easier in Bethesda’s new space RPG. Starfield will reward you with a bunch of experience points for pretty much everything. For instance, you can farm XP by completing main quests, side missions, challenges, exploring new planets, surveying, hunting, and even sleeping. However, most of these activities can take loads of hours and even a couple of real-life days to rise through the levels.

If you have played Skyrim, you are probably familiar with the iron dagger trick. Basically, you needed a bunch of iron ingots and a workbench to craft unlimited iron daggers, gaining XP each time. The same trick can be applied to farm XP in Starfield, but with a few improvements. This article provides the best way to farm XP in Starfield and even reach level 100 in just a few hours.

How to Farm XP in Starfield?

Starfield will reward you with a bunch of XPs for completing simple tasks. However, these rewards are often too microscopic to make a difference in your character progression. For example, you can earn XP by hunting down deadly aliens on various planets. While the XP outcome is significantly higher in this method, you must invest Credits to buy ammo and other supplies.

Similarly, you can also earn XP by exploring new systems, planets, and their moons. Once you have reached a planet’s orbit, take out your scanner and survey the planet for its resources, Flora and Fauna. Again, this method is quite tedious as there are over 1,000 planets and even more moons in Starfield. Lastly, you can build your own Outpost to farm XP without doing anything dangerous. Here are more details on how to build your own XP farm in Starfield:

Starfield: Farm XP with Outposts

Building Outposts is one of the most rewarding activities in Starfield. You can create your own colonies on various planets to extract precious resources like Aluminum, Iron, Helium-3, Caelumite, and many others. However, you won’t gain any XP for such farms. The real XP farming starts when you use your harvested materials to craft items. Even simpler goods like Adaptive Frames can yield up to 100 XP per 99 Frames, excluding any buffs and status effects.

The XP yield of this farm is so high that you can easily reach character level 100 and beyond in under 2 real-life hours. For this method, you will need to build two Outposts in the suggested locations and build suitable infrastructures to start the process. So, without further delay, let’s get started on how to reach character level 100 in Starfield in just a few hours:

Collect the Supplies:

You can start farming XP with an Outpost as soon as you reach New Atlantis. However, you will need a couple of skills in the Science Tree to increase your efficiency. Therefore, it would be best to use this method after you reach character level 15+. Furthermore, you must have enough Credit to buy the necessary supplies and enough cargo hold on your starship to transport these resources.

Here is a list of everything you need to build your first XP farming Outpost:

• Skills:
  • Outpost Engineering Rank 1
• Research Lab:
  • Power Generation 1
  • Resource Extraction 1
• Ship Cargo: 2500 to 3000
• Resources:
  • 124 x Aluminum
  • 99 x Iron
  • 30 x Copper
  • 24 x Tungsten
  • 24 x Beryllium
  • 18 x Adaptive Frames
  • 2 x Fiber

You can buy pretty much all of these components from the vendors in Jemison. If, for some reason, you deplete the merchandise, simply head to the nearest bed and rest for an appropriate time or wait for the vendor to restock. Lastly, you don’t need everything in your inventory, so if you feel overburdened, just transfer the goods to your ship. Once you fulfill these requirements, you are ready to create your first XP farm Outpost.

The First Outpost: Level 50

With the required resources in your inventory, open the Starmap and follow the HUD to zoom out all the way to the Galaxy view. From here, look for the Narion star system and zoom in to find the planet named Sumati. Again, zoom in on this planet and look for its moon called the Andraphon.

Next, zoom in on the moon and look for an area where Aluminum and Iron are in close proximity. Usually, Aluminum veins are found in craters, and Iron veins are located in mountains. So, you should look for a landing spot where the mountains meet craters (flat ground). Check the image to see the exact landing spot where we found the veins.

Once you touch the ground, start boost packing toward the mountains with your scanner out. You are looking for a place near the foot of the mountains so that a single outpost can generate both these resources. The next step is to set up the Outpost beacon and start building the necessary infrastructure.

Shift to the building menu and change to aerial view to place them. Don’t worry about your resources, as the amounts that we provide are strictly calculated. Finally, you must install the following structures in their designated spots:

• 6x Extractors on Iron Veins
• 6x Extractors on Aluminum Veins.
• 3x Storage Tanks Solid near Aluminum
• 3x Storage Tanks Solid near Iron
• 10x Solar Arrays
• 1x Bed
• 1x Industrial Workbench

Farming Technique:

Once you complete the building setup, exit the Outpost build mode. Next, hover to an extractor, say Iron, and link it to the nearest storage tank. Next, repeat the process for the remaining extractors and link them to the same tank. Finally, select the first tank and link it to the second and the second tank to the third one. This way, all the collected resources will be deposited in all three tanks. Repeat the whole process for the Aluminum extractors, and your work is pretty much done.

With your basic infrastructure in place, it is time to start harvesting your resources. Head to your bed and choose to rest for the maximum duration, i.e., 24 hours, as 1 hour is equal to 6 hours UT. When you wake up, collect your harvested resources and use them to build more storage tanks for both resources. Also, don’t forget to link them up before taking another nap.

Again, sleep for 24 hours and wake up to collect your collected resources. This time, go to the industrial workbench and use them to craft Adaptive Frames. You will gain up to 100 XP for crafting frames, and unlimited resources mean unlimited frames. Repeat the process until you reach level 50 and throw out the crafted frames, as they aren’t worth selling.

The Second Outpost: Level 100

Once you reach character level 50 with your first Outpost, you are ready to speed things up. However, before you head for your second destination, there are some skills to upgrade. Fortunately, by now, you have enough skill points to unlock almost any Starfield Skill. Here’s what you need for your second XP farming Outpost:

• Skills:
  • Outpost Engineering Rank 3
  • Planetary Habitation Rank 3
• Research Lab:
  • Power Generation 2
  • Resource Extraction 2
  • Manufacturing 3
• Resources:
  • 600x Adaptive Frames
  • 1000x Aluminum
  • 1200x Iron

Once you have gathered these resources, open the Starmap and set the course for Venus in the Sol System. Again, scan the planet for a landing spot where you can harvest both Nickel and Cobalt.

Farming Technique:

Once you reach Venus, bring out the scanner and look for deposits of Ni and Cb in close proximity. Next, set the Outpost beacon and start building the extraction infrastructure. Simply shift to the aerial view in the Outpost building menu and create the following structures:

• 1x Landing Pad (to transfer the ship resources)
• 6x Extractors for Nickel
• Storage Tanks Solid (As many as possible)
• 6x Extractors for Cobalt
• Storage Tanks Solid (As many as possible)
• 15x Wind Turbines
• 1x Bed
• 1x Industrial Workbench

Also, don’t forget to link the extractors with the storage tanks and the tanks to the remaining storage containers. Once everything is set up, go to your bed and sleep for 24 hours, as 1 hour LT is equal to 100 hours UT. So, you will always run out of storage space when you wake up.

Finally, collect your resources, head to the workbench, and start crafting Isocentered Magnets. You will gain XP 5 to 10 times faster than crafting the Adaptive Frames. Repeat the process as many times as you like and throw away the magnets or sell them to the nearest vendor to earn some credits. Eventually, you will reach character level 100 and beyond in just a couple of hours.

How to Boost XP Generation?

If you get tired of waiting around and repeating the crafting process hundreds of times, you can shift to other XP farming methods to boost your XP gains. Firstly, you can add various buffs by sleeping, consuming edibles, and even sleeping with a Companion that you romance. Similarly, you can shift to other activities instead of sleeping and return to collect your collected resources. Here are a few ways to boost your XP generation in Starfield:

• 10% bonus for Well Rested.
• 15% bonus for sleeping with a romancing companion.
• 2-3% bonus for consuming teas (Alen’s Tea) and other items like Steak.

Note: You can only have two XP buffs active simultaneously. For example, you can have either the Well Rested buff or the romancing buff. Similarly, buffs gained from consuming edibles are also updated, and they don’t get stacked with more consumption.

Hunting Aliens:

Another fun way to pass your time while waiting for the resources is to go on a hunt. You can earn loads of XP by hunting down exotic aliens and deadly beasts. However, this method involves combat, so make sure you have enough ammunition, medical supplies, Stealth, and combat skills. Here are the best hunting locations for farming XP in Starfield:

• Strix-1: Flocking Nautiloos Filterers
• Schrodinger III: Exocrawlers and Foxbats
• Beta Marae I: Abundant Fauna for your game.
• Celebrai II: Flocking Roundshell Grazers
• Fermi III: Swarming Cockroaches
• The Red Mile: Red Mile Maulers

Destroying Ships:

If combat hunting isn’t your thing, you can shift to other fun activities besides completing quests and solving the Brown Out Problem in New Atlantis. However, you should avoid joining the Crimson Fleet for this method; otherwise, get ready for a massive bounty. Furthermore, you will need to find a powerful ship like the Renegade III to get the upper hand.

With this settled, fast-travel to The Key, where fleets of enemy ships will be waiting for you. The good news is that you will earn massive packages of XP for destroying each ship besides the precious looting goods. Similarly, you will always find a couple of enemy ships orbiting every planet in the Serpentis System.

Conclusion:

There are countless ways to farm XP and level up your character in Starfield. Besides the conventional quest completion, you can rely on hunting, ship dogfights, crafting goods, and even exploring other planets. However, most of these methods are pretty time-consuming and random. Therefore, this article provides the best way to farm XP in Starfield to quickly ascend to level 100 and beyond.