Persuasion is a skill in Starfield that lets you persuade people and change the outcome of a dialogue in your favor. This, however, is not going to be possible all the time because you have to be able to pass certain speech checks first.
For example, you can use Persuasion to get your hands on sensitive information, unlock new missions, obtain rare rewards, save yourself from falling into a messy situation, and such.
Dialogues that lead down the Persuasion route are generally tagged with “persuade” so you will know if the option is on the table.
The art of Persuasion is not only complex but will take some time getting used to. In this guide, we will talk about how you can unlock Persuasion in Starfield and cover the conversational nuances that stack the odds in your favor.
How to unlock Persuasion in Starfield
Persuasion can be unlocked in Starfield in two different ways. The first one is simply choosing your character’s Background that offers Persuasion in its Skill Set.
Backgrounds offering this skill are Industrialist, Sculptor, Space Scoundrel, and last but not least Diplomat. Selecting any one of these will equip you with Persuasion from the get-go.
If you haven’t chosen any of the Backgrounds mentioned earlier, don’t worry. You can still acquire this skill by unlocking it from the Skill Tree under “Social Skills.” However, you will need to upgrade your character and earn Skill Points first.
How Persuasion checks work in Starfield
For Persuasion, you will first need to select dialogue with the “persuade” prompt in Starfield. Choosing this option will open a new responses menu you can select from.
Note that right and wrong answers are arbitrary and it depends entirely on the situation which answer will lead to a successful outcome. If you feel unsure, you can save the game prior to the conversation so you can reload if it ends poorly.
The options within the responses menu will be color-coded with a number beside them. The color represents the difficulty of your choice: Green is easy, Yellow is medium and Red is the Hardest choice to select.
It will also denote the likelihood of a choice to succeed with easier ones having a higher success rate. The number denotes the points you will receive for each option, more points are rewarded for harder difficulties.
Points are important because a correct choice will add them to your Persuasion Bar present at the bottom left of the menu.
With each correct answer, the bar fills up and a full Persuasion Bar will lead to winning the conversation. It also denotes how many points you have and how much more you will need to win, if you fall short on the points, you will lose.
There is another number next to the Persuasion Bar that will denote Turns which are the chances you have left to earn points.
Failing to choose the right option will reduce the Turns by 1 but the good thing is that the opposite of this is also true meaning you can earn another chance if you choose right.
Another important bit to know here is that reaching zero (0) Turns while being unable to fill up the Persuasion Bar will result in failure.
How to use Auto-Persuade
In the bottom right of the Persuasion responses options, you will find the option to Auto-Persuade in Starfield. It is a rechargeable ability that gets energy from successful choices while you persuade, generally, 6 correct ones will do the job.
When Auto-Persuade is fully charged, you can select it to fill up the Persuasion Bar essentially decreasing the time and effort you would need otherwise.
It can also lead to a direct win if you are only a few points behind. Using it will also reset the charge back to zero so you would need to charge it again.
How to get a Critical Success
While choosing from Persuasion responses in Starfield, choosing the correct choice will lead to a successful outcome.
Once in a while, you will encounter a choice that will do the trick leading to a guaranteed win. This event is known as “Critical Success” which will basically max out the Persuasion Bar completely, winning you the challenge.
How to increase your Persuasion chances in Starfield
You need some luck and skill to succeed in Persuasion but there are some ways to tilt the scales in your favor. To increase your Persuasion chances in Starfield you can opt for different options depending on your needs.
If you would like a more permanent increase then the best way is to use Skill Points to increase the Persuasion Skill under Social Skills Tree.
Each rank will improve chances by 10% with maximum upgrades increasing the success rate by 50%. To climb up the ranks you will also need to triumph over the Rank Challenges of Persuasion as well.
Temporary items that will increase Persuasion will be Hippolyta which grants a 20% increase to Persuasion Chance for the next 5 minutes and Paramour is just its upgraded version that increases the duration to 10 minutes with a 25% increase.
Other than this Sparkling Wine, Pinot Noir, Velocity, and Supernova can also provide small boosts to your odds.
Certain Outfits will also give increased Persuasion Chance like the Neocity Cropwear outfit in Starfield that grants a 5% increase when equipped. You can also find business attire like Fitted Business Suit, Fashionable Suit, and Corpo Sleek Suit with this ability as well.
Some Traits and Skills will also play into your Persuasion dialogues in Starfield. Skills like Manipulation and Intimidation will open up new paths like Negotiation can enable bribing your way through some difficult people.
