Back to Vectera is the third main story quest in Starfield. In this mission, the Constellation requires you to find Barrett, who was last seen at Vectera. You will be going back to the start of your adventure at Argos Extractors Mining Outpost on Vectera to look for clues.
You will be rewarded 350 XP and 7200 Credits, and potentially get 2 new crew members, Lin and Barrett for completing Back To Vectera. This will depend on your choices during the mission.
When to start the Back to Vectera mission?
After retrieving the Artifact during The Old Neighborhood quest, you will unlock three missions: The Empty Nest, Into The Unknown, and Back To Vectera.
You can complete them in any order but we recommend completing either the Back To Vectera or The Empty Nest first. This is because Into The Unknown is more relevant to the main storyline compared to the other two quests. To ensure you have the best experience, complete Back to Vectera then The Empty Nest, and lastly, Into The Unknown.
There have also been issues related to starting Into The Unknown first where some players may not get to play or have problems while playing the other two missions.
How to complete Back To Vectera in Starfield
To complete the Back To Vectera mission in Starfield, you need to first head to the Argos Extractors Mining Outpost on Vectera, Moon of Anselon, in the Narion star system. Upon landing, you will find Lin waiting for you at the landing pad.
Talk to her to know more about Barrett. She shares that pirates attacked soon after you left the Mining Outpost and took Barrett and Heller with them. She can ping their location but the Comms Computer is broken. The sooner you restore power to it, the sooner you can track the missing Constellation members down.
Fix the Comms Computer
Follow the marker to the unit with the Orange Hatch, this is where the Comms Computer is. Activate the panel next in front of the building to unlock the door. Go inside the office on your left and grab the Vectera Control Room Key from the desk. It is next to a small computer and can be easily missed.
After grabbing the key, follow the marker to the Vectera Control Room. Use the Key to get to the Comms Computer behind it. You can alternatively unlock it with Digipick, but it requires Expert Lockpicking skills.
The Comms Computer in Back to Vectera quest can be fixed by inserting three power cells. If you have the power cells from previous missions then they can work here as well. You can find plenty of them in the area if you don’t.
Optional: Find three Power Cells
You need 3 Power cells to fix the Comms computer. Below is a list of all the power cells and their locations in the Back to Vectera mission in Starfield.
- Follow the marker on your map to go outside the building and interact with the robot to get the first power cell.
- Talk to Lin to get the second power cell. She will be sitting near the robot where you found the previous cell.
- Go back inside the building and interact with the med bay marked as the source of the power cell on your map. Investigate the med bay to obtain the third and final power cell.
Though you only need three power cells to make progress during the Back To Vectera quest, here are a couple of alternative locations where you can find these cells.
- On the shelf in the room right of the entrance, there is a Power Cell. It is the same one where you found Heller’s Cutter
- There is an Emergency Power Cell on the table next to the Robot
- There are two cells in the area where you begin the game. One cell is in the Quarantine Table in the east room of the Outpost. The next one is on the table through the second door in the west section of the Outpost.
- Before you enter the Quarantine Table, turn left into the Storage Room. There is a Power Cell on the shelf labeled ‘8’
Recruit Lin
After fixing the Comms computer in Back to Vectera quest of Starfield, you will see an SOS transmission by Heller and Barrett. This message contains their location.
However, before you go to rescue them, make sure to talk to Lin. This will allow you to recruit Lin as a crew member in Starfield. Unfortunately, Lin is just a crew member and cannot join you in adventures like other companions.
Once Lin has been recruited, you will be assigned to travel to a random planet to save Heller and Barrett.
Find the Crashed Ship
Travel to the random planet you were assigned to find the crash site. For us, it was it was Gryphus. Nearby your landing spot, you will come across a shipwreck. There will be an injured Heller in the rubble.
He will share how the Crimson Fleet attacked and took Barrett away. He will also give you a disk that contains “Emergency Transmission 02”. It will reveal Barrett to be held by the pirates on Bessel III, your next stop.
Optional: Recruit Heller
Now, you have an optional objective to recruit Heller. Recruiting him doesn’t have any great story implications. However, we recommend bringing him along as there is no harm in bringing extra allies and he has some unique companion skills to offer.
Find Barrett
Land on the destroyed Research Outpost on Bessel III in the Bessel system to find Barrett in Starfield. The outpost is packed with pirates, and you need to clear them all to reach the end of the Outpost where you will find Barrett.
Barrett can be found with the Pirate Captain Matsura in the last room. Both look friendly and on good terms, but Matsura will not be willing to give Barrett up for free.
Should you pay, persuade, or attack Matsura for Barrett?
There are multiple ways to deal with Matsura and save Barrett during Back To Vectera in Starfield.
- You can shoot Matsura and take Barrett, but be careful, as there are multiple bodyguards in the room. Barrett will try to calm you down if you choose this track.
- You can pay the 4000 Credits ransom money yourself.
- You can convince the Capitan Matsura to release Barrett for free. However, you need to have decent persuasion skills for this to work. Failing it will result in a fight.
- If you have Sarah Morgan as your ally, she pays the ransom money out of Constellation Kidnapping Insurance.
All the choices do not impact the outcome of your mission but we recommend using Sarah Morgan to pay the insurance. This way you can skip persuasion checks or fights and not pay anything out of your own pocket. Matsura will also inform the rest of the Fleet to leave Barrett alone, resulting in a peaceful resolution.
Report to The Lodge
Now, make your way to New Atlantis and visit the Lodge. Talk to Barrett in the Library to conclude the Back To Vectera mission and get Barret as a companion in Starfield.
Back to Vectera mission bugs and fixes
Players have unfortunately encountered a couple of bugs while playing through the Back To Vectera mission in Starfield. Here are a couple of solutions we recommend if you have come across these problems.
Return to Vectera objective causing the game to break
This is the most common bug during Back To Vectera where landing on Vectera will make you get stuck in a rock or remove any future objectives and markers of the quest.
If you can, try using the ship editor. This will allow you to make changes to the lost ship and you can respawn it this way. Another way is to fast-travel out of Vectera and return to the mission after completing other pending quests.
The last resort is to reload an old save or use console commands. Use this command if you want to want to teleport to another planet without using fast travel.
coc CityNewAtlantisLodgeInt
You can also skip the Back To Vectera quest entirely and move to the next mission using this command.
SetStage 000160A9 1 or SetStage 000160A9 10
Missing Heller
There is also an issue where Heller is missing from the crash site during the Back To Vectera mission in Starfield. The cause of the bug is unknown but can be caused by leaving the mission incomplete for a long period of time.
You can resolve this issue by quicksaving and reloading the save to refresh the system. Another way is to revisit the quest after completing the other two in the set, The Empty Nest and Into The Unknown.
