So I am currently on my first playthrough in “Starfield“… yes, I’ve been playing it since it first hit Xbox Game Pass in early September, I’ve been taking my time to get to the endgame. Anyway, I made a single choice along the way, and kinda messed things up. A lot.
I mean I messed up really badly. To the tune of seven days in UC prison, and becoming Wanted by the Freestar Collective. So, what did I do to virtually ruin my playthrough?
Well, I’m not going to go into a lot of details here, because I want to avoid spoilers, and this happened during what turned out to be a rather pivotal moment in the main storyline. So, I’m going to be a bit vague here, but those who have played this far will understand, and those who don’t will hopefully learn something, for when they hit this point in the game.
Anyway, I’m just chilling in the Lodge, hanging out with the Constellation gang (which means there is a lot of Serious Talk™ going on. Cutscenes and whatnot, you know?)… Regardless, I’m just playing my part, when comes a loud bashing, as if someone is smashing their way through the Lodge’s door.
Nevermore?
Well, this Dude shows up and starts wrecking the place, so I whip out the ol’ Pew Pew of Doom™, in an effort to ruin his day. It worked, sort of anyway, but ended up ruining mine a bit more. We exchange fire for a while, and the fight turns into a chase scene through parts of New Atlantis, culminating in our escape on my ship.
At least that’s how it should go. But I have been avoiding spoilers, and didn’t know one, vital piece of information about this particular quest/event: Once you leave the Lodge, you stop shooting.
Now this seems rather counterintuitive to me, as the Dude in question is extremely badass, and possibly the most dangerous being in the Universe (or so he claims). By my reckoning, the only answer to his aggression is a bunch of well-placed Pew-Pew to the face. Turns out, this does work rather well in slowing him down, actually.
The problem is, no matter how good of a shot you might be, sometimes you will miss. Unfortunately, sometimes there will be civilians running around like chickens trying and failing to not get their heads shot off.
In short, I think I shot a civilian.
How do I know this? Well, I went from “Running gun battle with Dude” to “Running gun battle with Dude, and a bunch of UCSEC officers, all intent on killing me dead”.
No bueno.
But hey, eventually we made it to my ship, and launched into space, because we had to go to a specific place in the system, to conclude this quest. Again, no spoilers, but you’ll know it when you get there, because it becomes extremely vital information, that your Constellation buddies will share in abundance.
But I was not yet in the clear, for the consequences of my mistake followed me into orbit. There was a veritable swarm of hostile ships waiting for me, and they weren’t demanding my surrender… at least, not then, anyway. I tried to race to my destination, but it was no good – the Grav Drive was down, somehow, despite my shields being fully up and undamaged.
I assume that’s part of this quest. Kind of rude, if you ask me.
Anyway, I tried to make it to my destination, but no matter how hard I pushed my engines, I never got any closer to it. Again, kind of rude on Bethesda’s part, but okay, they left me no choice:
I went full Pirate.
The space battle was fairly one-sided, as my ship is extremely tough, and bristling with weapons. So I whittled them down to one two or three left on their side, when I finally got offered the chance to surrender… which is all I wanted to do in the first place… and so I took them up on it.
Boarded. Arrested. Jailed for a week of in-game time.
I won’t really go into the aftermath of this questline, since it is pretty pivotal to the story and your character, and I want to avoid spoilers here. Suffice it to say that I failed to save the day, but life goes on… after a fashion.
Anyway. After all of this mess got cleaned up, I returned from space back to New Atlantis, to pick up some quick quests from the Tracker’s Alliance kiosk in the Viewport Bar. While I was there, I checked the Bounty kiosk, just to see if anyone besides the UC might be angry with me. Keep in mind that I was a little preoccupied during the running gun battle through the streets of New Atlantis, not to mention the starship fight over Jemison, and I wasn’t keeping track of the names of my targets, outside of Dude. I have never had a bounty on my head before in “Starfield”, either, to this point.
So you can imagine my surprise to find that the Freestar Collective has a bounty on my head for 255,000 credits. I didn’t even know I’d upset them, let alone shot one of their people or ships. There were too many civilians running around to know who was who, and all of the ships were just angry red gnats that needed squishing. But, that all said, I had a plan to deal with this:
As previously mentioned, I was able to surrender to the UC forces, do a little time in jail, and walk away clean, at least as far as the UC were concerned. So why not do the same with Freestar? I’d just hop into my ship, bounce on over to Cheyenne, and give myself up to the tender mercies of the Freestar Rangers, right?
“Wait. What do you mean I’m ‘Wanted’? Of course I’m Wanted… I’m here to turn myself in! Okay, you can stop shooting me like that, it isn’t polite! Well, damnit, I forgot to turn off power to my turrets, and they just blew up one of the FC fighters (Note: My ship is indeed Badass)! Okay, I guess you all have to die…”
So this has been my existence ever since the Incident. I roam around the galaxy, trying to do quests while dodging FC forces, guys like the Dude (if you know, you know), and all of the other hostiles running around in space. It has put a serious cramp in my style, which is being the Big Stereotypical Hero Guy™, and frankly, I don’t like it! Also, in case you are wondering… Yes, I did check to see if I could jump to a previous save point, and avoid all of this Pain. The problem was, my Saves list offered me the option of going back to the autosave where I got out of jail (level 55), and the next closest save was from level 26.
Yeah, I saved dozens of times between these two points, but they were just… gone. Thanks, Bethesda!
Anyway, I have found an Out, as it were. I have pressed forward with the main storyline, and will focus on that until it is done. Then I am going to Do The Thing™ at the end (no spoilers), and play through the game again.
… and this time, I’m just going to run for the ship.
