Starfield may offer you a lot of planets to discover, but you may experience the environmental damage in some of these if you are not careful. This damage is based on different factors, and you must come prepared to deal with it, as it will deplete a significant portion of your HP. Therefore, overcoming it is necessary to survive longer on different planets in space.
Starfield environmental damage explained
Extreme environments in Starfield cause you to take tons of environmental damage over time. An orange gauge denotes this type of damage, unlike any standard damage caused by weapons. You must have a proper plan if you want to survive in rough conditions like traveling to severely hot and cold planets.
After stepping on planets with such harsh environments, your suit will automatically alert you about the upcoming environmental damage. This happens when you receive an integrity alert alongside a pop-up notification regarding your spacesuit.
Therefore, you must wear your spacesuit, helmet, and pack immediately to protect yourself from any damage in an exposed condition, which can cause death. Also, you must note that you cannot build an outpost in an extreme environment until you upgrade your Planetary Habitation skill in Starfield.
All Environmental Damages in Starfield
Environmental Damage comes in various forms in Starfield. Each type of environment is known to cause severe damage when you are exposed to it. This damage is so lethal that it is known to lead you to your death. Below we have explained all types of Environmental Damages in Starfield
1. Thermal
This Environmental damage is caused by extreme heat or cold temperatures on different planets and moons. For example, when you select a planet in a specific system, you can check its Temperature to determine its Thermal damage in Starfield, i.e., Deep Freeze, etc.
2. Airborne
Airborne damage results from the damage you sustain from contaminants and diseases you come in contact with in Starfield. Many factors may cause you to suffer Airborne (environmental damage), and these include:
- Contaminants (planet’s atmosphere)
- Flora (Plants on the planet)
- Fauna (wildlife on the planet)
- Throwables (items used by enemies on the planet)
You must be extra careful and avoid contacting Airborne damage at all costs as it may activate a debuff. Moreover, this environmental damage can result in you losing a lot of HP in Starfield.
3. Corrosive
Like Airborne damage, Corrosive is another environmental damage that can affect you immensely. This environmental damage is more deadly because it includes both the environmental aspects and has passive effects.
Moreover, you can come in contact with the Corrosive damage through the flora and fauna on that specific planet. This way, your HP starts to decrease immensely in Starfield.
4. Radiation
Radioactive items can cause damage if you are within a radioactive radius of a particular area in Starfield. However, this time around, this environmental damage will target your max HP, and you will also lose a significant chunk of that.
How do you fix environmental damage in Starfield?
As you progress into your main story in Starfield, you must dale extreme damage by visiting Mars. This is one of the worst planets to land in Starfield due to the Environmental Damage it causes. Therefore, in cases like these, below we have prepared the best way to remove Environmental Damage in Starfield:
1) Venture during nighttime
When facing the environmental damage of Mars in Starfield, it is best to travel at an alternate time. While Mars is at its peak when dealing with environmental damage during the daytime, you can easily prevent the damage of the scorching heat wave during the night.
2) Put on a suit
However, regardless of the time zone, you must always equip a spacesuit in Starfield when visiting such planets. Spacesuits are designed to prevent any environmental damage from damaging you. Considering how heatwaves are known to cause death in Starfield, it is best to have a suit each time you visit any planet with a traditional thermal environment.
However, if you want protection from thermal radiation while staying in your normal attire, you can even do that. Head over to the Spacesuits menu and activate the Hide Spacesuit in Settlements and Hide Helmet in Breathable Areas settings. This will allow you to explore Mars with standard gear while staying in protection from the rays.
3) Upgrade your spacesuit
Over time, your spacesuit will suffer severe damage due to constant radiation damage. It will lose its protection thus, will be unable to protect you from environmental damage. Therefore, you must upgrade your spacesuit to gain better stats to ensure that you are out of danger. Alternatively, you can head over to the store and purchase a new spacesuit
How to Increase Environmental Damage Resistance
Being resistant to environmental damage in Starfield can be useful as it provides enough life to survive another day on planets such as Mars. Below, we have arranged three of the best ways to increase Environmental Damage Resistance in Satrfield:
1) Use resistant Armor and Gear
You can avoid Environmental Damage by increasing the resistance factor against these in your spacesuit. You can use different armor and gear options to increase radiation and Cold Resistance in Starfield.
Also, check your HUD in Starfield, as it will display the areas where you will suffer damage. Before moving towards those marked areas, change into the required gear.
Furthermore, you can use the following options in terms of spacesuits to increase environmental damage resistance:
- Mercenary Spacesuit (against Airborne and Corrosive Damage)
- Explorer Spacesuit (against Airborne and Radiation Damage)
- Navigator Spacesuit (against Thermal and Corrosive Damage)
- Constellation Spacesuit (against Thermal, Corrosive, and Radiation Damage)
2) Crafting Projects in the Research Lab
If you are looking for another way to increase environmental resistance, visit the Research Laboratory section in Starfield. There, you will find projects that you can craft.
Using the required resources, you can craft research projects for Pharmacology, etc., which will result in you gaining temporary resistance to Environmental threats.
3) Rank up Skill
To Increase Environmental Damage Resistance, you can work on upgrading your skills. Below, we have arranged the best skills For Environmental Damage in Starfield.
| Skills | Effect |
|---|---|
| Environmental Conditioning | Rank 1: Provides additional 10% resistance to Airborne environmental damage.Rank 2: Provides additional 10% resistance to Thermal environmental damage.Rank 3: Provides additional 10% resistance to Radiation/Corrosive environmental damage.Rank 3: Decreases the possibility of dealing with any disease from environmental damage |
| Planetary Habitation | Rank 1: Allow you to build 4 additional outposts on planets with extreme temperatures.Rank 2: Allow you to build 8 additional outposts on planets with extreme pressure.Rank 3: Allow you to build 12 additional outposts on planets with toxic/corrosive atmospheres.Rank 4: Allow you to build 16 additional outposts on planets with extreme gravity. |
Starfield environmental damage bug
You can face an odd bug when exploring planets with extreme environmental damage in Starfield. Usually, these planets and locations are found to be Jovian Moons, Io, Callisto, and Europa. The bug occurs after landing on these damaging locations.
However, instead of dealing extreme environmental damage, you can freely walk around without your spacesuit. This Starfield environmental damage bug can be fixed by suffering from the status effect and death. You can do that by visiting Earth and falling to your death. Once you land on the planet again, you will deal environmental damage in Starfield.
