Top of the LIST is one of the longest and most tiring miscellaneous missions in Starfield. You will be working for an agency that provides new settlement options for its clients but to look for these new planets they need a surveyor.
This is where you will come in for finding suitable biomes, doing extensive surveys, and collecting the data onto a slate.
The job is demanding but don’t worry as we have some suggestions that will make your job a lot easier by skipping a few steps ahead. Let’s get into surveying some planets for random citizens.
How to unlock the Top of the LIST mission
Head to Mars in the Sol System and speak with Phil Hill at the Broken Spear bar to unlock the Top of the List mission in Starfield.
Fortunately, there are no pre-requisite missions for you to complete. After your conversation with Phil, your Mission HUD will be automatically updated and you can start Top of the List whenever you want.
How to complete Top of the LIST in Starfield
Start by traveling to Cydonia on Mars and entering the Mining Colony. Go past the plastic blinds and you will find the Broken Spear bar on your right. You may remember visiting the bar a few times for the Runaway and Red Tape Reclamation missions.
On the table near the stairs, you will find a man named Phil Hill, wearing business clothes. He wants to talk about the L.I.S.T or the League of Independent Settlers.
This is an organization that helps applicants find new worlds to settle on. He is looking for someone to search for a suitable planet who has a ship and basic people skills.
Once you volunteer, he shares the details he wants you to look out for like Oxygen, Water, and signs of life.
Lastly, he directs you to some potential clients and also hands over a LIST Recruiter Guide in case you find someone qualified and willing to join the team.
Sign up the settler for the L.I.S.T
The potential client Phil mentioned will be on his right, at the table in the corner, who you need to speak to.
It turns out that the client is not happy with life in Cydonia, so it is going to be easy to convince him to join the L.I.S.T and reap their services.
To persuade him you need to pass a 6-bar persuasion check during the Top of the LIST side mission in Starfield. Start with the dialogue with the [Persuade] prompt, choose the +2 green option, and end it with a +4 orange option.
Just get his signature to seal the deal and you will be rewarded 3000 Credits instantly for the sign-up.
Survey a planet
Starfield will pick out a random planet for you to survey during the Top of the LIST mission. To check if the planet is inhabitable, you need to look at the system information when you hover your cursor on a planet.
It should have a high level of O2 in its Atmosphere, should contain water, and have decent signs of life like flora and fauna.
After a planet passes the initial assessment comes the heavy lifting. Land in a biome and start scanning everything, and by everything, we mean every little thing from plants to rocks in caves, oceans, land, and even in the air.
After the area is complete, go to the next one till all the resources on the planet are scanned. This will be indicated by the hand-scanner marking items as Biome Complete for 100% scans.
Since there are so many planets in Starfield you can scan to complete the Top of the LIST side mission, we have added a few suggestions that will prove to be relatively easier to scan.
- Eridani I and Eridani II of the Eridani Star System
- Tau Ceti II of the Tau Ceti Star System
- Procyon III of Procyon A Star System
- Leviathan IV of the Leviathan Star System
- Arcturus II of the Arcturus Star System
You can also scan multiple planets if you are up for the task and take back the multiple data files once you are done.
Report back to Phil
After you are done with the grueling process, go back to Phil Hill at the Broken Spear bar in Cydonia. He will purchase the planetary data from you depending on how much you scanned.
Starfield – Top of the LIST mission rewards
Completing Top of the L.I.S.T miscellaneous mission will reward you with 200 XP, 3000 Credits for persuading a settler into joining LIST and you will earn more by selling the planet data you collected to Phil in Starfield.
