Juno’s Gambit involves dealing with a rogue AI on a mystery ship lost among the stars in Starfield. Juno, the AI, has killed a technician on the ship and your objective will be to get to work with the Ryujin Operatives on the ship and get to the bottom of the case.
The quest involves a major choice where you need to either save or shut down Juno. Your decision will be irreversible and your reward can differ depending on which route you go down to.
How to start the Juno’s Gambit quest in Starfield
You will come across Juno’s Gambit quest randomly while exploring different planets in orbit. It commonly takes place around:
- Tau Ceti III in the Tau Ceti System (most common)
- Khayam II in the Khayyam System
- Shoza III in the Shoza System
While orbiting you will come across an Ecliptic ship targeting another unnamed one. Clear out the pirates and hail the mysterious ship to board it, starting Juno’s Gambit mission in Starfield.
Talk to the Ryujin Operatives
After docking onto the ship, you will find two Ryujin Operatives, Khambatta, and Collins, who will explain the situation to you.
The ship’s AI, Juno, has gone rogue and killed a scientist on the ship. To prevent her from causing further harm, they request you to install a control board onto it so they can turn it back to its normal state.
Talk to Juno
After conversing with the operatives, you will get a chance to speak with Juno. She will request you leave her alone without altering her systems. This is where you will have to decide which party to side with, you can either side with the Ryujin Operatives or Juno. Each decision you make, results in a different ending. Therefore, choose wisely.
Bad Ending Choice: Destroy Juno
While talking to Juno, you can choose the dialogue option “Sorry, Juno, I’m doing this.” to install the control board as instructed by the Ryujin Operatives. This will make Juno initiate the shutdown sequence while Khambatta and Collins will be grateful for your aid.
After you leave, Juno will disable the ship’s life support and Grav jump away, killing the operatives.
Neutral Ending Choice: Kill the Ryujin Operatives
If you follow Juno’s request, you will need to kill Khambatta and Collins in cold blood. Juno will have her freedom and will be thankful to you. She will ask you about what you to do next and you can answer how you see fit.
After you undock with your ship, Juno will say her last goodbye by letting you know that she has decided to jump into the deep space to explore alone.
Good Ending Choice: Save everyone (Ryujin Operative only)
If you are part of the Ryujin Industries faction in Starfield, you will have an additional dialogue option unlocked during Juno’s Gambit. Let Juno live by not attaching the control board and leave to talk with the operatives.
Choose the dialogue with [Ryujin] prompt, to convince the others. You will offer to take on the desk work while paying for their drinks in exchange for them not being concerned with Juno again. It results in a peaceful resolution with both the operatives and Juno, alive.
Once you leave to drop off the operatives at Neon, she will go on to explore alone like in the second choice.
Best Choice: destroy Juno, kill the operatives, or let them both live?
The best choice during Juno’s Gambit in Starfield is to choose the faction’s exclusive choice and set Juno free while keeping the operatives alive. You will also get 4300 Credits after taking the operatives back to Ryujin Tower in Neon, the highest among all the choices. So we recommend taking a few minutes to complete the short entry mission for Ryujin to make the most out of this.
Destroying Juno also kills the operatives but pays you 3500 Credits in return while granting Juno her freedom only amounts up to 2000 Credits. The choice mainly comes down to whether you value money or life.
Starfield Juno’s Gambit mission bugs
Juno’s Gambit is a unique and arguably one of the most interesting missions in Starfield. However, there are quite a few bugs that players can encounter during the quest which can hinder their playthrough.
Unable to dock onto Juno’s ship
The bug appears at the start of the mission where after taking out the Ecliptic ship, you are unable to hail or dock onto Juno’s ship. There is no solution to this glitch as of yet but you can work around it with console commands.
To do this, create a manual hard save before the final conversation with Juno and enter the following command in the console:
- setstage 001a03d4 600
After this, you will not have the Ryujin operatives follow you to the ship despite having the quest to drop them at Neon. To resolve this, go to Neon and enter this command to complete the quest:
- setstage 001a03d4 950
Mission not progressing after choosing to save Juno
Each choice you make results in a different ending during the Juno’s Gambit quest in Starfield. However, siding with the Ryujin Operatives causes a bug to occur. Once you decide to shut down Juno, you will be stuck in an endless screen of the last conversation with Juno.
As of now, the best way to fix this bug is by deciding to kill Ryujin Operatives. Thus, fixing the bug in the process. You must wait for a patch to complete the mission with an alternate ending.
