Having true freedom while exploring the vastness of space in Starfield is a great concept. For those itching for some evil deeds in their playthrough, you can actually go the route of a space pirate in Starfield by joining the Crimson Fleet. However, just joining Crimson Fleet isn’t enough. Your character needs to have the proper Starfield Space Pirate build to strike fear in the hearts of others.
Character setup for Starfield Space Pirate build
Starfield doesn’t offer a lot of variety when it comes to builds as there is no stats or attributes system. That being said, with the right equipment, appearance options, and skills, you can still complete your dream of being a Space Pirate in Starfield.
Best background for Space Pirate
The best background for a pirate build in Starfield is the Bounty Hunter. As a Bounty Hunter, your character gets to have Tech skills and you will unlock three of them from the start
- Boost Pack Training
- Targeting Control Systems
- Piloting
This gives you an edge in combat from the get-go, especially in space as you are flying around. With Targeting Control, you can disable parts of ships to easily board them like a real pirate. Boost Pack allows you to dash around, especially in Zero-G with ease.
Best starting traits
Traits are an optional character investment but the right traits can play a vital role in being a space pirate in Starfield. Here are three traits that we would recommend you to pick for your space pirate build.
The first trait is Freestar Collective Settler. This mainly unlocks new dialogue options in conversations but considering that Freestar Collectives are the gunslinging bounty hunter type, the trait works well with a space pirate.
The second trait is Bounty which puts a price on your head, that the bounty hunters will try to collect and kill you but being aware gives you the benefit. There’s also an additional bonus of doing more damage when you have low health.
The third trait is Spaced which helps you to increase your oxygen and health when you’re in space but it gets lowered when you’re on a planet. If you want, you can forgo this trait as your statistics of being on planets is far more than on space stations or boarded ships.
Best skills for Pirate build in Starfield
After the initial character creation is done, you need to polish the build by leveling up your character and unlocking the right skills as you progress in building your pirate legend. Considering the massive amount of skills and their upgrades to unlock in Starfield, you can’t afford to waste skill points. For that reason, we have recommended the best skills to pick for your pirate build in Starfield.
Bulk of our investment will be in the Tech skill tree so we will be focusing on that in this section
Firstly, we have the Ballistic Weapon System skill for space pirates in Starfield. By rank four, we will have our ballistic weapons damage on our ship rise by 30%, the recharge rate of these weapons will also be 30% faster, and in the targeting mode, they will cost 20% less and will do 50% more damage to individual systems which primarily helps us to stop fire back on our ships.
We already have Boost Pack Training unlocked through our background and it will allow us to use boost packs and lower their fuel cost which also regenerates more quickly.
The third skill would be Piloting, another unlocking through our Background. The piloting skill is essential as all four ranks of Piloting are significant for this Space Pirate build and hence improves our functionality with ships by allowing us to fly Class B and Class C ship in Starfield.
The next skill required by us is Security as it allows us to unlock advanced and expert locks. Can’t be a pirate if you can’t steal stuff right? As you dock with ships and try to loot them, you will find many locked doors and loot crates which will require higher-level lock picking and digipicks.
And lastly, the final skill we would recommend you to acquire is the Targeting Control Systems. You should already have the first rank of this if you choose Bounty Hunter background. With Targeting Control Systems, each rank helps to reduce the time to lock onto enemy ships and the target-locked ships fire at you 25% slower, which is extremely important for the effective damage output. Since you can easily disable ships now, you can easily go on a piracy streak in space and rack up a massive bounty on your head this way.
There are other skills you can unlock based on your preference but my recommendations are shown in the image above.
Best gear items for space pirate
The gear section would be broken up into mid and late-game segments. In the early game, the first thing you need to get is a spacesuit that actually represents pirates. You have to look scary! Killing Brogan during the One Small Step can get you a really nice armor set.
For apparel, initially, you can choose any apparel that fits your vibe but once you join the Crimson Fleet faction to actually become a pirate in Starfield, you will be given the Swashbuckling apparel. That should complete your whole pirate look.
In terms of weapons, Maelstrom is a good choice for a reliable rifle. Keelhauler and any shotgun for close-quarters encounters.
In mid-game ideally, I would recommend you to get the Corsair Pirate Helm and Corsair Armor. Then you need to get your hands on the Mag Shear Revenant which is our primary signature weapon to complete your Starfield pirate build.
