After your talks with the Emissary on Scorpius during the mission In Their Footsteps, you will be directed to visit the Moon of Old Earth, Luna to search for another artifact. This leads you to the mission Unearthed in Starfield.
How to unlock the Unearthed mission
Unearthed is a main story mission that is automatically presented in Starfield after completing the In Their Footsteps mission.
How to complete Unearthed in Starfield
Unearthed is a rather long mission to complete in Starfield. Your first objective is going to be to visit NASA’s old base on the moon. Land at the Nova Galactic Research Station on the Earth’s moon in the Sol System.
Simply access the research station using the Moon Base key you got from the Emissary. Inside the research station, there is not much to do.
All you have to do is interact with the Nova Galactic Research Station terminal here. The terminal, or computer has some log files that players can read to get insight about what happened around here.
After players read the entries, players need to then exit the research station and then get to the roof of the research station.
Here, players can interact with the biggest antenna and they will get an old recorded message from Lan Hsu and Victor Aiza, both of which were scientists at NASA in their HQ down on earth. As such, the next location you need to visit is the NASA HQ back on Earth.
Entering the NASA HQ
On Earth, players need to land on the NASA Launch Tower’s landing zone. After landing, climb the tower to get to the elevator that can take you inside the NASA HQ.
As you are climbing the tower, make sure to explore it as much as you can, since there are a number of power cells that are lying around on the tower. You need these later on in the Unearthed mission so don’t miss them in Starfield.
Since the earth has been abandoned and all lies in ruin, the Elevator is without any power and players need to find a power source to get the elevator running.
From the console near the elevator, places can find a large yellow cable that they need to follow. This cable will lead the players to a generator near the elevator. Use one of the power cells you picked up on your way to the top of the tower in this generator and this will activate the elevator.
Exploring NASA HQ
The next objective in the Unearthed mission is going to be to explore the NASA base in Starfield. Interact with one of the computers here and read the logs between Judith and Victor.
Your objective markers take you through the ruins of the NASA facility. Do explore as you progress to get any power cells you find as you’d need them.
You learn about Judith and Victor working on the Martian Sample, and you find an audio recording further discussing the topic. As you hear the audio, players proceed further deep into the NASA facility.
Head into the cave opposite to where you find the audio tape and continue along the corridor. At the end, players can find a rock slope with a red light on it. Go over this slope onto the steel balcony and into the next set of corridors.
At the end of these corridors, there are a few doors, all of which are locked. You need to get to the last door here and inside this room at the end, players can interact with the power switch to open all these locked doors.
After the doors of these corridors are unlocked, players need to access the red door that has ‘Secure Access’ written on it. I strongly recommend you save your game here since you are going to be jumping into a difficult fight ahead.
If you die, you will have to do everything all over again to reach this point of Starfield’s Unearthed.
As you progress through the new area, you will enter another control room with a generator in the back. You need to use another of your emergency power cells and then continue through the next Secure Access door here.
Hit the small switch here and head up the metallic stairs. Here, through the giant doors, there is a robot and some turrets that you need to defeat. Use the covers here as there are multiple turrets here.
After players have defeated the turrets, they need to find the Emergency Turret Controls. To find them, head to the end of this assembly area and head into the door to your right. Players need to use Digipick to unlock the console.
Once players have unlocked the console, they can interact with the power switch next to the console and bring power back to the assembly line in Starfield.
With the power returned to the assembly line, players can exit the control room, and interact with the switch on the main gate to unlock it and progress deeper into the NASA facility.
In this new area, explore all the rooms and take what you want. The path leads you to the storage area of NASA facility. Interact with the computer in the main storage area and read the logs here.
After you have read all the logs, players can head deeper into the storage area to find the artifact here.
Find the Artifact
Things are going to be heated from here on in the Unearthed mission of Starfield. There is a deeper basement under the storage area. Use the stairs to descend further and you will start noticing some abnormalities in the gravitational force.
The first door you come across can be unlocked using Digipick. After you unlock the door, continue through the halls, looting whatever you can and exploring as you want.
After you open the obvious red door, players can enter the central sanctum where Victor’s lab is located. Here, next to Victor’s Body, players can find the artifact locked inside a box.
This is where things get interesting.
After players get the artifact, true hell is unleashed. Since artifacts are powerful items that allow people in Starfield to reach the Unity, all Starborns want it. Since you have unleashed the artifact, all of them now know of its location and they start storming you.
We recommend that players save even before unleashing the artifact, which can be used to control gravity. Once you have the artifact, the gravitational abnormality will be corrected, and you need to then get out of the NASA facility.
The way out, although simple now, is a long way as you will be continuously under attack by multiple Starborns at all times. Players can choose to just ignore them and keep on running away to the exit as fast as they can.
We still recommend that players kill some Starborns to not get overwhelmed at any point during their escape. Just fight if you start getting overwhelmed and run away if you can. Be smart as you will be burning through ammo during these fights.
Hunter and Emissary choice decision
As soon as you exit the NASA facility with the artifact, players will find them in front of the Emissary and the Hunter, and you need to choose who to side with or to reject either one of them.
Whatever option you choose here will have consequences in the game later on, so make an informed decision.
Starfield – Unearthed mission rewards
- 4500 XP
- 10200 Credits
