Earth has been destroyed for over 200 years and everyone who survived migrated to whatever planets they could find however some unlucky people are still stranded in the universe with no sign of communication in the First Contact side quest in Starfield.
The First Contact quest tasks you to work as a mediator between a capitalist CEO present at the Porrima System and a few surviving members of the long-lost planet Earth. As much exciting as it sounds it isn’t as the quest asks you to make a few difficult decisions.
How to unlock the First Contact mission
“First Contact” is a mission that you have to trigger. There are no prerequisites here for you to complete.
What you need to do is orbit Porrimma II in the Porrima System until you hear a distress call from the surface.
Initiate communications with the unidentified ship to speak with its commander, Diana Brackenridge. That will start the First Contact mission in Starfield.
How to complete First Contact in Starfield
After you’ve made comms with Diana, she’ll explain to you that for 200 years she and her team have been floating around the space due to some technical problems and not having a Grav jump in her ship.
She recently found the Porrima II to be perfect for her however it is owned by a corporation that wants to turn Porrima II into a planet-wide resort.
After hearing that head over to the Paradiso Resort in Porrima II to speak with the CEO of the corporation Oliver to report to him about the ship.
Negotiate with Oliver
Oliver is a capitalist and sees nothing other than profit. He puts ahead three choices for you to make which include:
- Keep them as Indentured servants
- Buy a new Grav Jump for them
- Blow up the Ship
Option 1: Keep the survivors as indentured servants
If you choose the first option, you’ll be required to build a small place for the survivors. That will require the following materials:
- 40 fibre
- 80 iron
- 10 lithium
- 20 sealants
Go back and persuade Commander Diane in her ship about becoming indentured servants for Oliver in Porrima II. Diane will be a bit hesitant and accept the proposal.
The items necessary for the crew’s quarters can either be borrowed from Captain Brackenbridge on the ECS ship or you could go ahead to any nearby store in Paradiso and purchase the items.
If you choose this option, you’ll be rewarded with an XM-2311 pistol in Starfield.
Option 2: Buy a new Grav Jump
The second choice you can take in the First Contact mission is to buy a grav jump for the ECS ship in Starfield.
It’s the most straightforward option which requires you to meet with Bennu St James at Hoptech on the Palvo planet and purchase the Grav jump for 40,000 Credits. You will need to pay for this yourself because the board members of the Paradiso Resort won’t provide you with a penny.
However, if you have your persuasion skills in check you can get it at a discounted rate of 25000 Credits.
Once you’ve acquired the Grav Jump head back to the ECS ship and speak with the engineering officer Amin Kazemi about installing it.
Amin will instruct you to take the following steps in order to install the grav jump:
- Reroute the power from the port turbopump to the auxiliary cryogenic radiator.
- Turn the Plasma run off inhibitor to 5%
- Decouple the magnetic flange pipe enclosures from the auxiliary module assembly.
All three of these steps need to be done in the same order as we’ve written above. There will be computers present on the ship just select the ones that need to be changed and you’re good to go.
If you do this correctly, you’ll be rewarded with a few high-value antique pieces from Earth which surely compensate for the huge purchase you made for the ECS ship in the First Contact side quest in Starfield.
Option 3: Blow up the ship
This choice is considered to be the worst, Oliver will introduce this offer to you by describing it ‘Hypothetically’. Once Oliver is done speaking, make your way to the ship and pickpocket the override key from Amin instead of speaking with him.
Once you have the key, go to the reactor computer and insert the key. Select the Emergency Overload option after doing that head to Captain Brackenbridge’s command bay, log in to her computer, and click on confirm the request.
You’ll have a short time duration to exit the ECS and return to your ship. The ship will explode as you exit the orbit killing everyone on board.
Head back to Oliver and take your rewards of 6500X Credits and a lifetime pass on Paradiso Resort.
The best choice in First Contact
All of the three choices present in the First Contact will complete the quest in their own respective way in Starfield. The first choice may seem a good initiative but gathering all the materials for building the Crew’s quarters will be a hectic task and waste a lot of time.
What we recommend is choosing the second option where you purchase a grav jump for the ECS ship. This choice will be costly but compensation will be provided through the antique items of Earth that you can sell to a vendor for a tidy profit.
The last option shouldn’t even cross your mind because it’s inhumane and you’d be killing innocent people for a capitalist who could’ve left them in the Porrima II planet.
