These Starfield side quests are well worth your time because they give you cool gifts and let you make a lot of money.
Not only will Starfield have a lot of NPCs who can help you with quests, but so will any other good RPG. It’s not often that these side quests are that important or difficult, but these stand out. Some will give you a big prize, tell you an interesting story, or make or show a change in the game’s world. Of course, some are just plain fun.
Because the Starfield galaxy is so big, there are a lot of side stories that happen in the systems that aren’t important to the major story. You can join the Crimson Fleet, the United Colonies, or the Freestar Rangers. Each has a great storyline on its own, but here are some of the best tasks we’ve seen in the settled systems that you can do on your own.
Space Frog From Outer Space
![a space frog poster visible on the wall in the colony](https://static1.thegamerimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/mission_space_frog_1.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&dpr=1.5)
Mars’ Cydonia is not the nicest city in the world. It is a mining town. It’s old, mostly underground, and shakes every so often when particles detonate. Renee Shelby is a young girl who spends her time drawing a figure called Space Frog from Outer Space in the colony’s living areas because the outpost doesn’t have enough money.
As a miner in a remote colony, she will ask you to hang up six of her drawings around the building to make people feel better. When you return to Renee after doing this, you’ll get a huge 12 points, even if you don’t try to get this child to pay you money. You’ll also be able to put up Space Frog posters in your outposts, which is a much more real benefit and a huge plus because they’re awesome.
Run The Red Mile
![a player approaching the starfield red mile](https://static1.thegamerimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/starfield-red-mile.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&dpr=1.5)
The Red Mile is a hotel and casino on the creatively named Porrima III in the Porrima system. It gives a unique way to have fun. If you’re really brave or stupid, you can offer to run “The Red Mile,” a task where you have to kill or avoid a bunch of scary animals to get to the end of the path and a signal tower.
If you make it back with all of your limbs still attached and working, you’ll get some credit and the fame of finishing this famous challenge. You can run The Red Mile again and again to try to make more money because the game can be played again and again. If you keep doing this, you’ll soon be rich and the casino will probably go out of business.
Overdesigned
![The Kepler R in New Atlantis](https://static1.thegamerimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/the-kepler-r-in-starfield.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&dpr=1.5)
As a member of Constellation, Walter Stroud gives this task. He is like Scrooge McDuck in that he funds a lot of Constellation’s work. The starship magnate will trust you enough after you’ve done some work for him that he’ll send you to settle a design disagreement in the company. Your job is to get the design team back on track, which is harder because the designers don’t like you because you’re obviously new.
As with most of Walter’s missions, this one is all about diplomacy and persuasion. If Walter can convince the project leader to raise the budget, the Kepler R will be built. The Kepler R is a huge, ugly ship that tries to incorporate every team member’s ideas. It’s a clear sign that you should never be allowed near a design office again. As long as you finish the task, though, you’ll get one for free, which is at least a very expensive ship.
Tourists Go Home
![starfield the monster costume](https://static1.thegamerimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/starfield-monster-costume.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&dpr=1.5)
Everyone agrees that tourists are the worst thing that could happen to someone who isn’t on vacation. There are a lot of these tourists at New Homestead on Titan in the Sol System. They are there to look at one of the first cities built by humans outside of Earth. Many of the locals like having regular guests because it’s good for business, but Dr. Giuliana Lakota would rather not have them there.
If you go to see the good doctor, she will quickly let you know how she feels about tourists. She thinks they act so carelessly that she spends most of her time taking care of them instead of the people who live in the settlement. How to solve it? To dress up as a real monster and scare some tourists, of course! The job is easy, but you can do it again and again, and each time you do, you’ll get credit. On your third scare, you’ll get your own costume.
Juno’s Gambit
![Juno's Gambit Starfield](https://static1.thegamerimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/juno-s-gambit-starfield.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&dpr=1.5)
Bethesda has a lot of options for side quests that are based on classic science fiction because of where Starfield is set. So who can blame them for the side quest Juno’s Gambit, which is a moral dilemma about whether or not an AI should be able to exist? The quest can start in a number of different systems while you’re orbiting a planet and seeing an Ecliptic ship fight a ship that just seems to be drifting.
Getting rid of Ecliptic will let you dock and board the ship, where you’ll find a huge computer and two Ryujin Industries workers talking quietly to each other. Behind them, a third person is lying motionless. When the workers are told about the situation, they learn that Juno is a NASA AI that they found in space and that killed a technician who was trying to put a control board on her. It doesn’t matter what choice you make; you’ll have to deal with the consequences later. Isn’t that what science fiction is all about?
Mantis
![Mantis spacesuit in a cage in Starfield](https://static1.thegamerimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/mantis-spacesuit-starfield.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&dpr=1.5)
You’ll first see the Mantis side quest early on, during the second main story task called “The Old Neighborhood.” As you and Sarah Morgan fight through what seems like an endless line of spacers, you’ll find a note that says “Secret Outpost!” Which you’ll probably put aside because it leads to a star system whose level requirements are much higher than yours.
What if you go for it early on? You will be rewarded for your bravery because that secret outpost turned out to be the home of the famous vigilante The Mantis. After making it through more waves of spacers and The Mantis’s traps, you’ll reach the core of the den, which is an underground base that looks like the Batcave. You can get the vigilante’s famous armor and a starship called The Razorleaf here as rewards for your hard work. These will help you for a lot of Eggy Car.
Groundpounder
![starfield groundpounders in a desolate looking area](https://static1.thegamerimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/starfield-groundpounders.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&dpr=1.5)
Groundpounder is a big side quest that starts with a harmless encounter. It takes you to the Altair system, where you’ll hear a call for help from Freestar Private Mahoney. When you answer the call, you’ll land at a research station full of spacers. As soon as you step off your ship, fighting starts.
Finding Private Mahoney shows that a group of Marines from the United Colonies have also heard the call and are working to help their enemy group, which they didn’t expect to do. You’ll meet Lieutenant Torres and Captain Myeong after you’ve saved everyone. These squadrons that are working together need your help twice more before the big fight back at the research base. This long task gives you a lot of loot, credits, and XP and tells a story about how the different sides of the colony war can be kind and caring to each other.
First Contact
![Astronaut Posing In Paradiso in Starfield](https://static1.thegamerimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/paradiso.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&dpr=1.5)
If you go to the Paradiso Resort on Porrima II, you’ll see a big, strange ship floating above it. Paradiso resort security wants you to talk to whatever is working on the ship, whether it’s a person or something else. Docking with the ship is stressful until you get on board and learn that it is human-operated but closed off, and that it is staffed by the descendants of a group that left Earth two hundred years ago because their leader correctly predicted that a terrible disaster would happen to humanity.
You’ll then have to be a mediator between the innocent people of the Constant and the cunning businesspeople of Paradiso. You’ll be put in situations where you have to make tough choices that could cost you your morals or your money. But one thing is certain: you’ll never forget how important your grav drive is again.