Starfield 100% guide

Starfield currently has 82 achievements worth 1,470G on its shared Xbox Series X|S and Windows Xbox Play Anywhere achievement list.

The list is split into:

• Base game: 50 achievements / 1,000G
• Shattered Space (paid expansion): 12 achievements / 200G
• Terran Armada (paid expansion): 10 achievements / 140G — Lost Luxury, Into the VOID, Battle of the Unifier, Incursion Fighter, Incursion Exterminator, Incursion Eliminator, Overclocked, This for That, Greater Than, Less Than
• Free Lanes (free title update, April 7, 2026): 10 achievements / 130G — Half the Battle, Stay of Execution, They’re Not Toys!, Contract Killer, Fully Equipped, Top Tier, Just Like Grandma Used to Make, Master of Magnetism, Riddle Management, Quantum Hoarder

There are no online or co-op achievements. Every achievement can be earned in single-player, and there is no multiplayer population or server dependency to plan around.

There are no difficulty achievements. Use whichever combat difficulty and normal gameplay options make the route comfortable.

CURRENTLY CONFIRMED UNOBTAINABLE: none as of 2026-10-15.

CURRENTLY CONFIRMED DISCONTINUED: none as of 2026-10-15.

The latest official Starfield patch verified for this guide is Update 1.16.244 from 2026-06-11. Patch-sensitive guidance below is evaluated against that build and player reports available through 2026-10-15; no newer patch had been released by that date.

The 115–160 hour estimate assumes normal luck. A fully natural action-figure set (54 random-loot variants) and the two random Cruise Mode encounters can push completion well beyond it.

A practical full-completion run is one complete first universe followed by entering the Unity once. You do not need a full second campaign unless a bug forces recovery. Free Lanes adds Quantum Hoarder, so the cleanest route deliberately saves the Unity transition for last.

Keep several manual saves instead of relying only on autosaves. The important checkpoints are before your first visit to Anchorpoint, before High Price to Pay, before the deciding sections of Help Wanted, before Delta's final Power Struggle challenge, and immediately before entering the Unity.

Before High Price to Pay, obtain the guaranteed Sarah Morgan action figure at Anchorpoint and show it to Sarah, and finish Starcrossed. That mission always kills one of Sarah, Sam, Andreja, or Barrett, and your romance partner is usually the most likely victim.

During Help Wanted, protect both Free Lanes missables in the same quest. Use the magnet to destroy Ivica's robot, then make sure Caruso is exonerated and stop Bernhard before he kills Caruso.

When the random Cruise Mode riddle encounter appears, answer all three riddles correctly the first time. When the Old Woman encounter appears, accept and actually eat her questionable food. Both are RNG-heavy encounters and should never be dismissed once found.

The Terran Armada Delta challenge chain is CURRENTLY COMMUNITY-FLAGGED / BUGGY. Keep a save after each Delta challenge and especially before Power Struggle. Do not use console commands as a workaround because Bethesda's developer console commands disable achievements on the affected save.

Disable any Creations (mods) that are not tagged Achievement Friendly before you start. Non-friendly Creations disable achievements on Xbox and Windows, and an affected save may stay flagged.

Do not enter the Unity until the entire first-universe checklist in this guide is complete. Ships, outposts, ordinary inventory, quests, faction progress, and most world state do not carry into the new universe.

From the beginning, play in a way that makes the cumulative achievements finish naturally.

• Harvest plants whenever you pass them. Life Begets Life counts organic resources gathered from flora.
• Mine exposed inorganic resources with the Cutter while exploring.
• Pick digital locks instead of walking past them.
• Open and access computers and workstations as you encounter them.
• Pick up every new skill magazine you find. You need 20 unique issues; the Skill Magazines section in Phase 8 lists 20 fixed pickups, most of them in cities you visit anyway.
• Loot weapon mod materials and use weapon workbenches instead of waiting until the end.
• Craft useful components and consumables whenever convenient.
• Accept Activities and mission-board work between larger questlines.
• Kill hostile humans and creatures instead of avoiding every encounter.
• Recruit named companions when the opportunity is cheap and obvious.
• Keep one romanceable Constellation companion (Sarah, Sam, Andreja, or Barrett) with you for long stretches so affinity conversations and their personal quest can progress.
• Visit new systems and land on new planets whenever the route takes you nearby.
• Kill Starborn on foot whenever they appear after powers enter the story. War of Angels is reported to track 20 Starborn killed (Status → Combat → Starborn Killed), not the Quantum Essence in your inventory.

Follow the opening on Vectera, create your character, take the Frontier, and complete the forced first trip into space.

Follow The Old Neighborhood setup until the Lodge becomes your base of operations.

Do not grind yet. The campaign, four faction questlines, two expansions, Incursions, and exploration will supply most of your levels and cumulative progress.

At the first convenient Ship Services Technician, enter the ship builder, make a legitimate change to your active ship, and save the modification.

These should come automatically while following the route.

Continue Constellation's early artifact missions. The early Lodge assignments have some flexibility, so complete The Empty Nest, Back to Vectera, and the early Andreja branch as they become available while keeping your chosen companion with you.

When Into the Unknown becomes available, make it the priority. Follow the quest through the first temple and obtain Anti-Gravity Field.

Anchorpoint Station is free Free Lanes content in the Algorab system; you do not need Terran Armada to visit it. Algorab needs a grav drive with roughly 27–28 LY of jump range, which early ships usually lack. As soon as your ship reaches that range (buy a ship such as the Rambler or upgrade the grav drive), go there — and in all cases before the main story reaches High Price to Pay. One working route is Alpha Centauri → Olympus → Volii → Bolivar → Alchiba → Zelazny → Marduk → Algorab. After the jump, select Anchorpoint in the system view and use Cruise Mode/autopilot for the last leg.

Make a manual save before your first Anchorpoint visit, and make a hard save while docked. Anchorpoint has been reported vanishing from the map and becoming unreachable on some saves (possibly after fast traveling while docked), with no achievement-safe fix, so take everything you need from the station on this first visit and avoid fast traveling while docked.

Anchorpoint holds the only five guaranteed action figures in the game. Collect all of them now:

• Commander Sarah Morgan and Freestar Mech Pilot (unsealed): enter the Engineering Bay (also called the Maintenance Bay), go left onto the upper catwalk to its end by a crate, jump onto the ceiling pipes, and open the wall vent near the ceiling. This Sarah figure is the reliable trigger item for her dialogue.
• Terrormorph (unsealed): the seized-items container in the security office. The gate has a Novice lock and the inner door needs an Expert-level Security terminal hack; if you lack Expert Security, come back once you have it.
• Sealed Kaiser: the shelf beside the bed in Rishi Saint's bedroom (Novice-locked door).
• Sealed Terrormorph: the defunct safe near the merchants, found by turning around from Darcy Weber's shop. Its terminal needs five keycard clues, handed out in sequence: (1) under the blue bucket in the dumpster in the right-hand corridor off the dock; (2) at the broken TV above the bar; (3) in a hanging net in the storage/trash area behind the curtains between the vendors; (4) taped to the ceiling above the pull-up bar in the Engineering Bay; (5) on the floor between the bed and nightstand in Rishi's room.

Station figures you pick up are flagged as stolen, so take the Sarah figure straight to Sarah rather than carrying it through contraband scans.

Have Sarah available, pick up the vent figure, then speak to her. If the conversation does not appear immediately, leave the figure on the ground, talk to Sarah, pick it back up, and talk to her again. Do not sell or discard the station copy until the achievement has unlocked.

All four base-game faction questlines can be completed in the same universe. None locks out the other three.

The order below is a CompletionLab route for consistency: UC Vanguard first, then Freestar Rangers, Ryujin Industries, and Crimson Fleet. The main practical dependency is that completing Vanguard work gives you a clean path into the UC SysDef/Crimson Fleet story. Otherwise, the faction order is flexible.

Keep your preferred romanceable Constellation companion with you through the law-abiding questlines and take every affinity conversation. If their personal mission appears, complete it before returning to the faction route.

In New Atlantis, enlist with the Vanguard at the MAST district and complete the introductory probationary work.

Travel to Akila City and resolve Job Gone Wrong, then follow the Ranger recruitment chain.

Use a Ryujin Industries application kiosk and follow Back to the Grind into the Neon corporate questline.

With the Vanguard path already established, follow the UC SysDef entry into the Crimson Fleet storyline. Progress through Deep Cover until you are sent into the Fleet proper.

By now you should have accumulated substantial affinity with at least one romanceable Constellation companion. Complete their personal quest, choose the romance path, propose Commitment, and finish the wedding quest.

Return to Constellation and continue the artifact campaign. When Walter's Neon mission opens, complete it normally.

Continue the main quest as Constellation starts sending you after additional artifacts.

Before starting High Price to Pay, verify that Half the Battle and Starcrossed are both already unlocked.

High Price to Pay always kills one of Sarah, Sam, Andreja, or Barrett. Who dies depends on companion affinity and whether you defend the Lodge or go to the Eye: reportedly, the highest-affinity companion stays at the Eye, and defending the Lodge kills that companion, while going to the Eye kills the second-highest-affinity companion instead. If Starcrossed is somehow still unfinished and you must proceed, go to the Eye to protect your highest-affinity (usually romance) companion, then complete Commitment afterward.

Make a manual save before the High Price to Pay sequence.

Continue the main story into the Starborn revelations.

Shattered Space is a paid expansion that becomes available after One Small Step. Bethesda recommends entering it around level 35. To trigger the opening, make a grav jump into an orbit that is not already occupied by another mission or encounter and respond to the Oracle distress call.

Complete the Oracle sequence and follow the story to Va’ruun’kai.

Follow the first Dazra objectives, complete the ritual and political introduction, and finish the next main mission.

There are five required grenade types, all crafted at an Industrial Workbench:

• Binding: 1 Vortex Shard + 1 Dark Vortex Cyst
• Charged: 1 Vortex Shard + 1 Glowing Vortex Cyst
• Lure: 1 Vortex Shard + 1 Vortex Cyst + 1 Dark Vortex Cyst
• Phasing: 1 Vortex Shard + 1 Vortex Cyst + 1 Glowing Vortex Cyst
• Unstable: 1 Vortex Shard + 1 Vortex Cyst

In total you need 5 Vortex Shards, 3 Vortex Cysts, 2 Dark Vortex Cysts, and 2 Glowing Vortex Cysts. Shards drop from any Vortex enemy. Cysts drop only from Vortex Horrors and Horrorlings — Phantoms do not drop them — and Horrors become scarce once the story is over.

Craft the set while the story is still supplying Horrors. The Anomalous Cave during The Other Side is the best cyst source and seals afterward, so loot every Horror there and craft as soon as you have the materials.

After The Promised, Broken, Aligning the Houses lets you take the three Great Houses in any order, but only one at a time:

• House Veth'aal — Conflict in Conviction (starts in the Keep Armory)
• House Dul'kehf — Exhuming the Past (starts with Hasmak in the Halls of Healing)
• House Ka'dic — Zealous Overreach (starts with Razma Ka'dic)

This route begins with Conflict in Conviction, but any first house works; the order does not change achievement eligibility.

After you complete your first Great House quest — whichever one it is — The Other Side triggers and runs alongside Aligning the Houses. Clear it when it appears rather than trying to force the remaining houses first. Loot every Vortex Horror in its Anomalous Cave for cysts.

Return to Aligning the Houses and complete the other two house-specific questlines in either order.

Before the final Shattered Space story mission, begin a deliberate sweep of Va’ruun’kai. Investigate undiscovered map icons, keep killing Vortex Horrors and Redeemed, and complete the Va'ruun'kai side quests.

Savior of the Promised has no visible counter and its trigger is inconsistent. Community reports point to ten side quests (all of the list below except The Missing Groats) as the usual requirement, but some players needed more and some fewer. The safe checklist is all eleven. The checklist opens progressively after the ritual in The Promised, Broken; some quests have their own prerequisites, noted below. Do them before The Scaled Citadel where possible.

• Scientific Method: overhear two citizens just outside the elevator into Dazra, then go to Hamadi Station (the lab on the rocky hill west of Dazra, reached by the freight elevator at its base) and speak to Azad Dubas.
• A House Divided: on your first visit to Jarek Plaza, overhear the citizens and talk to Qisrani Dul'kehf in front of the Halls of Obedience. Protect Qisrani during the assassination scene; she can die there.
• Lost and Found: talk to Vassilis Voria on the first floor of the Halls of Healing in Dazra, then check on Reigen Ueda's house at the crossroads between Jarek and Jinan Plaza. Only the first tier is needed. Keep the Music Box you find.
• Fallen Footsteps: after finishing Lost and Found, wait or sleep at least 24 in-game hours, then return to Vassilis Voria (with Breanne Ibaka) at the Halls of Healing. If it has not appeared, wait another day. If sleeping does not trigger the quest, continue normal gameplay for a while, then return to Vassilis Voria at the Halls of Healing. Reports suggest elapsed play time may also matter. The orphanage is outside Dazra's southern gate, southeast of the Scaled Citadel.
• Legacy of the Fang: enter the Tomb of the Fang on a hill southwest of Dazra, clear the Spacers, and heal Maaliya Hajtal with a Med Pack. It is outside the city, so it is easy to miss.
• The Missing Groats: talk to Malik Vosh at the Ivasir Groat Farm outside Dazra (sources disagree on direction; use the map marker). Probably not required, and reported as missable, so do it early.
• Path of Redemption: talk to Vijun Ahkmav at the Wayshrine of Redemption north of Dazra and visit the four wayshrines from his riddles.
• Sympathy for the Living: talk to Nalada Bradi at the Va'ruun Depository near the Dazra spaceport and choose "Perhaps I could help you locate Quasim?" The quest only starts if you pick that line.
• The Courier: talk to Lijana Dul'kehf outside the Halls of Healing (up the stairs by the Goods Exchange) and make her three deliveries.
• The Duel: walk up to brothers Borhal and Amila Adlam arguing in Jinan Plaza. If it will not advance while The Scaled Citadel is active, finish The Scaled Citadel and return.
• Twice Reformed: watch Orahim argue with a guard in the refugee camp beside the spaceport, follow him, and agree to meet at his shack southwest of Dazra.

Companion's Belongings is a base-game quest and does not count. Use the achievement itself as the confirmation that the requirement has registered.

Once all three houses are aligned, The Scaled Citadel begins.

During its final choice, do not declare that House Va'ruun is dead and should remain so while any Va'ruun'kai side quests are unfinished. That answer gets you banished from Dazra, which would cut you off from the remaining quest givers.

The final story mission is not where you should abandon Va’ruun’kai. Finish any side missions from the list above that were still unavailable or incomplete, then drive through unexplored areas with the scanner active to expose undiscovered locations.

Terran Armada is a paid expansion; Bethesda recommends level 50 or higher. You must have visited Akila City at least once. Listen to the emergency SSNN broadcast at the Akila City kiosk (left of the main plaza) or at Cydonia to receive Attack of the Terran Armada, then travel to the Nirvana system and hail the ship Olokun near Nirvana I. Follow the quest into the new storyline.

Follow the campaign through its first major mission. Incursions begin appearing after this mission.

Continue directly into the next campaign mission. Into the VOID sends you to Algorab and requires clearing three Major Incursions for their black boxes.

The Delta upgrade you receive during Going Haywire does not unlock Overclocked. After the mission, return to Anchorpoint with Delta in your party and speak with Roxane in the VOID hideout. Bring at least 5 X-Tech from Terran Armada combat and loot, and buy Delta's remaining upgrade. Reports of the exact cost range from 1 to about 5 X-Tech, so carry the safe amount. Keep the X-Tech in your personal inventory, not your ship's cargo hold; upgrade options are reported to grey out when it is stored on the ship.

Once Roxane is back at Anchorpoint after Going Haywire, the other VOID members at Anchorpoint offer three faction outpost contracts: Quid Pro Quo, Give and Take, and Favors for Favors. You only need one. The contract's marker takes you to an Outpost Beacon next to a supply chest, and the Faction X-Tech Core is provided. Build one powered X-Tech Extractor and four powered defensive turrets (Ballistic Turret Mk 1 works), plus enough power (about three solar arrays). The chest does not hold enough materials, so bring roughly 30 Iron, 20 Aluminum, 14 Beryllium, 12 Lead, 9 Copper and 6 Tungsten. Then follow the quest markers back to Anchorpoint to hand the outpost over.

Before the Terran Armada finale, clear the achievement-sensitive Free Lanes side quest Help Wanted. It starts by talking to Bernhard in the Anchorpoint bar, but the decisive sections happen at New Babylon Outpost on Shoza III, reached after investigating Shinar.

At New Babylon, choose to hear Caruso's proposition. Killing Caruso at this point fails both achievements.

Make a manual save before committing to the robot solution and another before the final Caruso vote.

When Ivica asks about the Model A robot, tell him you'll scrap it (lying or agreeing both work) and take the New Babylon Power Cell he gives you. Insert the cell at the robot container, use the computer to deploy the robot, then run to the magnet's red button and press it as the robot walks underneath. This completes the optional objective "Use the Magnet to Permanently Disable the Robot".

Speak to the Arbitrator at Anchorpoint and accept target contracts whenever they are available. For achievement credit, personally kill the marked target rather than resolving the assignment through a nonlethal or deceptive alternative.

Interleave these contracts with Incursions so you are not waiting around Anchorpoint solely for job refreshes.

Terran Armada adds repeatable Incursions marked in star systems. In Gameplay Options, set Incursion Chance to Increased while farming them. This is an in-game option and does not create a difficulty-achievement conflict because Starfield has no difficulty achievements.

Use these 30 clears as your central 2026 cleanup loop:

• Board and loot enemy ships instead of racing straight to the objective.
• Check captain storage, boss chests, and major reward containers for action figures.
• Loot X-Tech.
• Watch for spaceship equipment module schematics.
• Kill human enemies and creatures for base-game cumulative progress.
• Open locks and computers instead of skipping them.
• Run Arbitrator contracts between Incursions.

If an individual Incursion fails to advance, leave it and use another rather than sinking time into one broken marker.

Equipment-module schematics can drop from Terran Armada enemy ships and Incursion rewards, with major Incursions being the best place to keep checking. The drop is random, so 30 Incursions are an efficient opportunity rather than a guarantee.

Once you obtain a schematic, take your home ship to Ship Services, open the ship builder, place the corresponding newly unlocked Equipment module, and save the ship.

Terran Armada's X-Tech system lets you build up equipment with Legendary Effects. A Rank 4 effect can only be added to an item that already carries Ranks 1–3, and applying it costs credits plus X-Tech with no random roll.

Save 8 or more X-Tech and plenty of credits during the campaign and Incursions, and carry the X-Tech in your personal inventory when you use the workbench. A common helmet is usually the cheapest base; community estimates put the full path at about 7–8 X-Tech, so confirm the costs at the Spacesuit Workbench before spending. Apply the Legendary Effect upgrades in sequence until Rank 4 is installed.

They’re Not Toys! covers the Colony War Action Heroes: 27 designs, each existing as a separate unsealed and sealed item, for 54 variants. Plan to hold all 54 distinct variants; that is the only route that satisfies every reading of the requirement. The full list is in the Collectibles section at the end of this guide.

You already took the five guaranteed Anchorpoint figures. Every other figure is random loot, and none are sold by vendors or given as quest rewards. Sources:

• Captain's Lockers on boarded ships, especially Terran Saladin captain ships. Disable the ship, save before boarding, check the locker, and reload if nothing new dropped.
• The Battle of the Unifier space battle spawns a steady stream of Terran ships; farm their lockers before finishing that mission, because the battle is gone afterward.
• Boss chests at the end of points of interest (save outside, run to the chest, reload to reroll), bounty reward chests, and Major Incursion end chests.

Sealed variants are reportedly rarer. There is no in-game collection screen: check your inventory, keep every variant in one container, and optionally build an outpost display case (sealed) and Colony Wars playset (unsealed) as a visual checklist. Each design also gives a small permanent bonus the first time you pick it up.

Two Free Lanes achievements depend on random Cruise Mode encounters, both reported in or around the Algorab system (Anchorpoint). Farm these before the Unity transition, and create a separate manual save before beginning the grind as a general precaution against long-session problems.

A practical method is to enter the system, make a clean save before new event icons populate, then cruise until Ship or Asteroid events appear. Unique events can appear under either icon type. If an event is an irrelevant derelict, reload the clean save rather than filling the system with endless derelict markers. Fast traveling out and back also resets ship spawns. When a unique non-achievement encounter appears, complete it, then update your clean save before continuing.

You need the Old Woman event, not the separate Grandma encounter. Scan ships for one identified as the Old Woman. When her event appears, save before approaching in case the ship fails to render; players report you only get one chance once the interaction starts.

Board when invited, talk to the Old Woman, agree to her meal, sit down, and actually eat the questionable food she offers.

When the hostage/riddle event appears, save before answering if the game allows it. Answer all three riddles correctly:

• What has an eye but cannot see? A needle.
• What goes to school but not to class? A school bus.
• What is light as a feather but nobody can hold onto it for very long? A breath.

Return to the Terran Armada campaign and complete its final main mission after your Anchorpoint and Incursion work is stable.

After the Terran Armada story is complete, use fully upgraded Delta as your active companion and begin his four-part challenge chain:

1. The New Space Race — lift the Apollo lander on the Moon. One rank of Weight Lifting is enough.
2. WIN.slate — hack the encrypted laptop first.
3. The Instruments of Life — make the dead man speak.
4. Power Struggle — fight Delta in the lab under the Santos Homestead.

If Delta has not brought up the Moon landing, exhaust Roxane's dialogue about Delta and wait about 24 in-game hours.

CURRENTLY COMMUNITY-FLAGGED / BUGGY: Delta's later challenges, especially the transition into Power Struggle, can fail to trigger on the current version.

Protect yourself:

• Keep a manual save after each completed Delta challenge.
• PATCHED: Update 1.16.244 fixed Delta appearing at the wrong size. If Delta still looks shorter than your character on an older save, reload an earlier save where he is normal height.
• After each challenge, spend real play time with Delta in your party (travel, quests) instead of only waiting or sleeping; about two real-time hours before Power Struggle has been reported to help.
• Avoid entering the basement during The Instruments of Life.
• After challenge 3, leaving Delta at Anchorpoint, sleeping about 72 hours, and swapping ships are community-reported fixes.
• Let normal travel and time pass with Delta rather than forcing dozens of hours on a stalled state.
• If the next challenge does not appear, dismiss Delta, remove excess crew, switch to a low-crew ship, grav jump, wait a few in-game days, then return to Anchorpoint and recruit him again.
• If Delta becomes visibly abnormal or the chain remains dead after reasonable troubleshooting, reload the newest save from before the stall instead of continuing deep into the save.
• Do not use developer console commands on an achievement save. Bethesda warns that console commands disable achievements.

Once Power Struggle finally starts, make a dedicated manual save before confronting Delta. You need both mutually exclusive outcomes, and a save reload is the clean one-universe solution.

Return to Constellation's endgame route. In Their Footsteps opens the late-game artifact objectives in a flexible order. Complete Unearthed before the final Buried Temple push.

Continue Final Glimpses until the distress call draws you into the Nishina Research Station quest.

Proceed to Revelation and the Buried Temple. Kill the hostile Starborn on foot during the mission instead of persuading away every possible confrontation if War of Angels is still outstanding.

Now finish the base-game systems that are easiest to control before the Unity reset.

Land on a resource-rich planet or moon and place an Outpost Beacon.

The displayed Shipping Magnate description says to connect five outposts, but current 2026 behavior still requires a practical six-outpost setup because each connection links two endpoints.

Build six outposts in reachable areas, place one standard Cargo Link at each, and create three pairs: Outpost 1 to 2, 3 to 4, and 5 to 6. Confirm each pair at the Cargo Link terminal so the connection becomes active. You can check progress under Status → Crafting → Cargo Links Established.

Use the remaining exploration sweep to finish both resource achievements.

Return to mission boards, abandoned facilities, cities, or other dense interiors if normal questing did not finish these.

Set up at a settlement with workbenches or at your preferred outpost and spend the resources accumulated during the run.

If normal questing left either counter short, use the Activities list and mission boards in major settlements to finish them.

The story recruits Sarah Morgan, Sam Coe, Barrett, Andreja and Vasco, and Back to Vectera offers Heller and Supervisor Lin for free. If you missed those two, Heller is later at Homestead on Titan and Lin at the Broken Spears bar in Cydonia. Reliable extras:

• Ezekiel (free) and Lyle Brewer (fee): Aggie's, Akila City.
• Omari Hassan and Rosie Tannehill (fee): The Hitching Post, Akila City.
• Andromeda Kepler (fee) and Moara Otero (free after The Old Neighborhood): Broken Spears, Cydonia.
• Marika Boros, Gideon Aker and Simeon Bankowski (fee): The Viewport, New Atlantis.
• Mickey Caviar, Dani Garcia and Sophia Grace (fee): Astral Lounge, Euphorika and Madame Sauvage's in Neon.

Magazines count when you pick them up; each new issue goes to Inventory → Notes, which shows which issues you have. For the running total, check Status → General → Skill Magazines Read. An issue you already own cannot be picked up again. With the scanner active, magazines show a blue outline.

These 20 issues sit at fixed locations. Grab them whenever the route takes you nearby and use this section to finish the set before the Unity:

• Constellation Guide 01 — the Lodge, New Atlantis: on the railing around the artifact display in the main room.
• Nova Galactic Manual 03 — MAST tower, New Atlantis, top floor: Office of Interstellar Affairs, Deputy Elisabeth Macintyre's end office, coffee table.
• Cyber Runner's Cipher 02 — Apex Electronics in The Well, New Atlantis: table by the window just right of the door.
• The New Atlantian 05 — Kay's House in The Well (restaurant, second building on the right): through the kitchen and upstairs, table in the living room.
• Peak Performance 01 — The Eye station orbiting Jemison: Facilities F01, Physical Training room, left corner on a red cloth.
• Nova Galactic Manual 02 — Nova Galactic Staryard orbiting Luna: workroom above the Control Room, table beside a whiteboard.
• Mining Monthly 09 — New Homestead, Titan: just inside the mine entrance on the right, on a cable spool (flip the door switch).
• Mining Monthly 07 — Cydonia, Mars: Deimos Miner Quarters, on the table near the entrance.
• Va'ruun Scripture 03 — Akila City, The Stretch: collapsed shack between Aggie's and Honest Earl's Alien Extravaganza.
• Gunslinger's Guide 01 — The Rock, Akila City: up past the bar to the top floor, table in front of the Marshal's office.
• Gunslinger's Guide 02 — Sinclair's Books, Akila City: small table to the right of the entrance.
• Solomon's Adventures 01 — Coe Estate, Akila City: main-floor bedroom nightstand (opens after The Empty Nest).
• Freestar Captain's Log 03 — Freestar Collective Consulate, Akila City: round glass coffee table.
• Trackers Primer 05 — Argos Extractors mining outpost, Vectera: power the right building's airlock, then the living quarters on the right.
• The New Atlantian 01 — Tau Gourmet Production Center, Tau Ceti II: first building's main room, right side.
• UC Defense Manual 02 — The Den, Wolf system: sleeping quarters, metal shelf between two beds.
• Constellation Guide 04 — The Clinic orbiting Deepala: waiting room, small table opposite reception.
• Gunslinger's Guide 03 — Freestar Rangers office in Hopetown, Polvo: white table just right of the entrance.
• Gunslinger's Guide 04 — Freestar Rangers outpost, Neon Core: upstairs nightstand beside the bed.
• Neon Nights 02 — Astral Lounge, Neon Core: take the elevator, first VIP booth on the right, small round glass table.

Fallbacks if any of these are already read or unavailable: UC Defense Manual 03 (UC Marine Barracks, Cydonia residential area, large white table) and Mining Monthly 03 (Lizzy's on Gagarin, coffee table by the rear couches).

The two enemy totals usually complete naturally across the base game, Shattered Space, Terran Armada, and 30 Incursions.

Acquire contraband (Aurora, sold in Neon, is a reliable choice), use a ship with shielded cargo capacity, place the contraband in that shielded cargo, then enter a jurisdiction that performs a contraband scan. Contraband in your personal inventory or an unshielded hold is always detected. Shielded cargo modules and scan jammers become available through the Crimson Fleet, and the Deception skill helps. Save before the jump so you can retry if the scan detects you.

By this point you should own several ships from quests, purchases, or captures. Fleet Commander counts ships you have acquired cumulatively, and sold ships still count, so you do not need to hold 10 at once. If your total is still below 10, capture eligible hostile ships or buy inexpensive ships until it reaches the requirement.

Turn the final exploration sweep into two achievements at once. Open the Starmap, grav jump into every system you have not visited, and land on new planets as you go. You need a grav drive of about 28 LY to reach every system.

Questing and the two expansions should carry you through the middle milestones naturally.

Level 100 is the largest base-game time sink if ordinary play leaves you far below it. The reliable non-exploit route is industrial crafting at an outpost.

Build extractors for common crafting resources, feed them into storage, sleep or wait to refill production, then mass-craft inexpensive industrial components at an Industrial Workbench. Adaptive Frames and similar low-cost components work well because each batch gives XP and also contributes to Replicator if that was unfinished.

Use the Well Rested XP bonus whenever convenient. If you prefer combat, high-level fauna planets are a slower but straightforward alternative.

Before building the final Unity handoff, confirm that everything except the two endgame achievements below is unlocked. If The Stars My Destination is still locked, recheck small and overlapping stars such as Van Maanen first; entering the Unity has unlocked it for some players and is the fallback.

Your first-universe completion should now include:

• All four base-game faction questlines.
• Shattered Space story and cleanup.
• Terran Armada story, 30 Incursions, faction outpost, Delta upgrade, and both Delta duel outcomes.
• Free Lanes Anchorpoint missables, Arbitrator targets, both Cruise Mode random encounters, action figures, equipment module, and Rank 4 Legendary Effect.
• All base-game cumulative, exploration, companion, ship, crafting, resource, enemy-kill, and level achievements.

If They’re Not Toys! is still missing because the storage shortcut did not work, finish the natural action-figure collection now. Whether progress survives the Unity is unknown, so do not enter Unity with the set unfinished.

Once you have finished the Armillary with all artifacts, the Free Lanes quest Before You Go: Quantum Entanglement Device appears and directs you to your room in the Lodge, where the device is built.

Craft the device using 10 Quantum Essence, 1 Adaptive Frame, 1 Isocentered Magnet, and 1 Tau Grade Rheostat. Everything except the Quantum Essence can be bought from Cornelius Townard in the New Atlantis Commercial District. This device genuinely consumes Quantum Essence as a material requirement, separate from War of Angels progress.

Place at least one item you want to carry forward into the Quantum Entanglement Device according to the quest instructions. Use equipment you can immediately recognize in the next universe so retrieval is easy to verify.

If Before You Go: Quantum Entanglement Device does not appear after the Armillary is finished, removing and rebuilding the Armillary is a reported workaround that may trigger it; it is not guaranteed.

Make a final manual save before entering the Unity.

Proceed to the Unity. You can still walk away from the final transition if you need to return to the current universe, so do not treat merely reaching the Unity as the achievement trigger.

When you are satisfied with the checklist, walk into the central light and commit to becoming Starborn.

Let the new-universe transition finish. If Quantum Hoarder has not already registered during the transition, continue until you can access the Quantum Entanglement Device inventory in the new universe and retrieve the stored items.