Erlkönig: Starfield: Tips Mostly Spoilerfree

• Which Skills: Most skills that only add a percentage to something are far less important than those that add new abilities. I have a level 166 that still hasn't taken Fitness, Wellness, Weightlifting, etc, but fought to get instead the top skills in that tree, Concealment, Neurostrikes, and Rejuvenation (e.g.). Commerce only would matter if it increased vendor credit supply, but instead it reduces the number of objects they can buy from you ... subtle.
  • A number of backgrounds are less valuable for the same reasons
  • A test I did locked on level one showed that probably no skills are required, since I already know two were optional.
  • On any run, the skill I'd miss most is Stealth (followed by either Targeting or Boost Pack Training)
• Ship Capturing w/o EM: Once you have Targeting, especially, you can pretty often capture ships even without EM weapons. I have been shocked at how often I've been able to capture ships from my Starborn Guardian (at level 166), often more than one in a given combat (there's a theory this could be a side effect from a mod), and almost always one in any combat (this was mostly on lower level ships while on XP+75% Extreme settings)
• Ship Ground Captures: When capturing ships on the ground, leave the NPCs outside until after you capture, otherwise attacking them will often cause the ship to leave
  • If you're on the ship when it leaves, hope it doesn't get into combat with enemy (to it) ships
    • If that happens, you better be quick in finalizing capture, otherwise the ship, and you, may get turned into space trash
• Starborn Guardian Captures: You can steal Starborn ships if you run up the wing while they're landing and activate the door (from just below the door) - even in pre-NG, and (when in NG+) they may be higher tier than what you start with.
• Skill Magazines are the most important finds during play, being one of the few things where the effects are permanent for that character, even into NG+. Currently there are 105, IIRC.
• Starship vendors have the most money, selling high-level ships to them is a great way to bulk up on credits, especially when all the normal vendors are broke (I personally hate doing the wait for vendor restock)
• Hold the Trigger: Some weapons require you to hold the trigger down before you release for greater effect
• Difficulty and Followers: Followers are invaluable on higher difficulty settings at low levels in particular, especially if you upgrade their armor and weapon
  • The Fan is especially great, since he never judges you
  • You can have extra followers, sort of, by not finishing quests that add NPCs to your party, like the questchain to become a Ranger in Akila.
• Single Best Mod Feature: The most important possible mod to have is one that lets you sell an entire category of inventory at once - clicking to sell off hundreds of trash items for minutes on end after selling a bunch of ships will prove it.
• Extra Cargo Space - Sortof: You can move things from your ship's cargo into a built chest - or just to the floor - to free up cargo space, although you'll have to put it back into cargo to have it show up for crafting.
• The Sit to Add Ship Mod: When capturing a ship in space, either have the Sit to Add Ship mod, or, if they haven't fixed it, you can get back to your original ship by starting a jump in the new ship, cancelling it, (I'm leaving a lot out), but you should still find your original ship there, and dockable.
• Ship Locker: The Captain's Locker is ship specific, and the contents do not follow you as you change Home Ships.
• High Tier Ship Parts at Low Level: You can buy and steal ships with parts on them you can't buy yourself (due to level, credits, or unlocks) if you just have a pilot skill high enough to fly them - a great way to get bigger reactors and so on relatively early
• GalBank Credit Tanks will start appearing in POIs and the like if you do the Crimson Fleet quest line and keep a certain key from it. Nice on any run where you plan on staying in the current universe for a while.
• Missile Magazine Size: This hidden stat on ship missile launchers is the magazine size, and if you have a set with large magazines, you can put just a smidge of power in them and still be able to fire all of them (but regen will take forever if you don't add power). Great for short fights, but tricky in longer ones.
• Open Sesame, err, Solar Flare: Not only is the power amazing at high power level, but at any power level lets you unlock Emergency doors, even from the wrong side.
• Sunless Space is amazingly useful.
• Gravity Well can pull things out of enclosed shelves.
• Moon Form is great, but might not be 100% effective against Horrors on Va'ruun'kai (still testing).
• Vectera Boost Pack: You can find one above the Vectera mine, and squeeze it out through the locked door, which is handy on Kreet.
• Selling Contraband at no Risk: You can easily sell contraband - without risking being scanned - in the Den, the Red Mile (be careful not to steal the glass thing in front of her), obviously in the Key if you're in the Crimson Fleet, and to Trade Authority ships, notably around popular space shipyards, which tend to have ships but not scanning (e.g. Deimos)
• Sneak Contraband via Ship Switching: You can pile contraband on your ship's floor, switch ships, fly to New Atlantis, switch ships back, then gather the contraband to go sell to the Trade Authority.

Other random things:

• The main questline can be finished on full Extreme despite:
  • No Weapons, although it's more fun with just the cutter, blades, and/or (in NG+) powers
  • No Armor/Bootstpack/Clothing, if the extreme environmental hazards are turned down a notch, and you have Personal Atmosphere (PA) to survive the deep artifact cave (very tight, use Creator's Peace and fast travel out, IIRC) and the Barrett post-power gain discussion (very, very tight for PA), and about 20-40 essences to survive NASA if you only have a low level of PA
  • No Vendor Use, although it's harsh to also exclude Ship Vendors.
• Huge Questline Skip: It is possible to go from Vectera to Kreet to the Lodge to Hyla II's Scorpion Puzzle, skipping a vast swath of questlines and opening up Nishina at stunningly low level. You do need to know exactly where to land on Hyla II by sight though, which classically meant having been before while doing the questline normally.