The Hammer Falls is the concluding mission of the Freestar Collective faction questline in Starfield. After dealing with Paxton Hull in the First to Fight, First to Die quest, you will now be confronting the President of HopeTech, Ron Hope, for his role in the Montara Luna Farmers tragedy.
During this mission, you are going to ask him to come clean and accept everything he did. What happens afterward, and what will you need to do in certain situations? This guide will discuss every possibility regarding the mission.
How to complete The Hammer Falls in Starfield
To complete The Hammer Falls faction mission in Starfield, you need to make your way to the HopeTech facility in HopeTown on Polvo in the Valo star system.
Enter through the door left of the reception desk to reach the assembly section. Go up to the elevated platform towards the west to find Ron Hope and Brigit McDougall
Confront Ron Hope
Head up and talk to Ron Hope. He will ask you about the ongoing investigation and will ask you for an update. This is where you will tell him that you know everything.
From how he colluded with Paxton Hall and exploited the poor farmers of Montara Luna. The whole mystery that started during the Deputized mission.
He will first deny, but since you have the “Details of Arrangement” slate from Paxton, he will not be able to put up a show anymore.
He will tell you about his mining operation and how his experiment made soil useful for him but killed all the crops. At this point, he will try to silence you, and you will be presented with three choices,
- Accept a Bribe of 20000 Credits and Stay Silent
- Keep Ron’s secret
- Ask Rob to turn himself in.
Should you keep Ron’s secret, accept his bribe, or turn him in?
Dealing with Ron Hope during The Hammer Falls is tricky as your choices will impact the rewards at the end. Note that you will become a Ranger regardless of your decision here.
The first option is to kill Ron Hope. You can do this by selecting the Attack dialogue. It will lead to a small fight that can be dealt with easily. This will unlock an exclusive objective where you have to inform about Ron Hope’s death to Birgit McDougall.
The second option is to accept Ron’s bribe. He will initially offer you 20,000 Credits as hush money. This can be raised to 60,000 if you have the Negotiation skill. All you have to do is lie to the Marshal at the end to complete it.
The last method is to keep Ron’s secret. This is the worst of all three options in The Hammer Falls as Ron gets to walk free and you receive nothing extra for putting your integrity on the line.
You can achieve this by first choosing one of the two dialogue options:
- I understand your position, but I have to do my job.
- You’re going to turn yourself in, and I’ll be telling the Marshal everything.
Then when he starts getting aggressive, choose the following option instead of attacking him.
- For your employees’ sake, I’ll keep your secret, but your scheme ends now.
Lastly, lie about the situation when talking to Marshal Blake.
Best Choice: Spare or Kill Ron Hope
Killing Ron Hope during The Hammer Falls is a more moral choice and is also more favored by your companions in Starfield. It is also the one we chose as we wanted to bring him to justice.
If you need some quick cash, then we recommend at least pursuing the higher 60,000 amount for the bribe. This way you can at least get handsomely compensated for your troubles.
Become a Freestar Ranger
After dealing with Ron in your preferred method, report back to Marshall Blake at The Rock in Akila City. At first, he will not believe you but will trust you when you show him the Slate. He will feel sorry for Hope and commend you on your bravery.
Then he will turn to Emma Wilcox, who will be standing nearby. She will ask you if you want to join the Freestar Collective Faction. If you say yes, you’ll be promoted to the rank of Ranger from Deputy. This will be the end of The Hammer Falls mission in Starfield.
The Hammer Falls mission rewards
You will receive the 150 XP, Star Eagle Starship, Ranger Spacesuit, Ranger Space Helmet, Ranger Power Pack, Ranger Duelwear, Freestar Ranger Badge, and Justifier Shotgun as rewards for completing the Hammer Falls mission in Starfield.
You will also get 12400 Credits but the total amount can differ depending on if you took the bribe or not.
Completing The Hammer Falls earns you “The Hammer Falls” Achievement as it marks the end of the Freestar Collective storyline.
The Hammer Falls mission bugs and fixes
There are a couple of bugs in Starfield that the players have encountered while playing through The Hammer Falls mission. Here are a couple of
Not getting the Star Eagle ship and the achievement
Some players have reported a bug where they get all rewards after completing the mission, except the Star Eagle ship. Furthermore, you will be unable to talk to NPCs and won’t get any achievements.
Fortunately, there is a fix for this bug in The Hammer Falls missions. All you need to do is reload a save game before talking to Hope. Reload this save and go through the conversation again, and you should be able to get all rewards and fix this bug.
If this doesn’t work out for you, you can use console commands to spawn the ship. Use the following command for the Star Eagle:
- player.placeatme 001322D8
Not getting the quest marker for Ron Hope’s location
While it is rare, some players are not able to find Ron Hope since his location is not marked by The Hammer Falls quest marker. While the cause of this is unknown, you can fix this by simply visiting the HopeTech factory in HopeTown. He will be in the assembly room and you can simply talk to him to continue your mission.
Have an incomplete objective even after completing the quest
This bug causes an objective to remain unmarked even after The Hammer Falls quest is completed. It can result in not getting the achievements or the additional rewards like the spaceship.
Unfortunately, there is no official patch for this problem. PC users can use the following console commands for The Hammer Falls mission
- To reset quest: resetquest 001A54F9
- To start quest: startquest 001A54F9
