How to level up fast in Starfield
Level up fast in Starfield with these XP farming strats
Looking for a Starfield leveling guide? If you're after any of our best builds in Starfield, then you'll need to know how to level up fast. There are over 80 skills that you can get, after all, and those wanting to get most of them quickly will need a Starfield leveling guide or a reliable XP farm. If that sounds like you, then you're luckily in the right place!
In this Starfield leveling guide, we'll cover 6 tips on how to level up fast in Starfield. We'll then cover a reliable XP farming method, so that you can quickly earn plenty of XP.
How to level up fast in Starfield
Here are the best ways to level up fast in Starfield:
- Sleep to get the Well-Rested bonus
- Get married to a companion
- Drink alien tea
- Complete missions
- Explore new areas
- Bonus: Use cheats!
Sleep to get the Well-Rested bonus
As is the case in previous Bethesda games, sleeping in a bed in Starfield for any amount of time will grant you the Well-Rested bonus. This bonus grants you 10% extra XP for a short amount of time after resting, making it an obvious - and quick! - way to boost your XP before clearing out an enemy base.
Get married to a companion
After playing plenty of Starfield, you'll start to develop relationships with your companions. If you are lucky enough to go all the way and get married, through a companions "Commitment" quest, you'll get an upgraded version of the Well-Rested bonus, known as Emotional Security. This buff increases your XP gain by a total of 15% for a short period of time whenever you sleep in a bed. If you need a little help, check-out our guides on marrying Sam, Andreja, Sarah and Barrett.
Drink alien tea
For another XP boost in Starfield, you can drink the Alien Tea beverage. Alien Tea, which you can craft using Distilled Water x1 and Fiber x1, grants +1% XP for 15 minutes. While that's a tiny amount in comparison to the boosts above, every little counts. It might seem like nothing, but that additional 1% will add up over the hundred-or-more hours you're likely to spend roaming Starfield's universe.
Complete missions
It goes without saying, but quests are the best way to earn XP in Starfield. Completing a quest will net you a huge XP bump, and blitzing through the main quest will send you up plenty of levels with ease. When that runs out, you can use the in-game mission boards to generate infinite radiant quests, so that you can earn loads of XP while delivering cargo and hunting pirates across the universe.
Explore new areas
Starfield is huge. Huuuuge. There are over 1000 planets! And, each time you wander into a new location, you'll get a nice little chunk of XP. That means simply exploring the universe and visiting each system and planet will help you level up plenty.
Even better, this only demands that you explore in the simplest sense. You won't need to spend hours rooting around each planet for XP, as simply warping into it's orbit or landing on the planet will net you some XP. Of course, you can also scan wildlife and plants on a planet's surface to complete survey data, which will grant further XP (and is also a good way to get rich quick in Starfield).
Bonus: Use cheats!
Those playing on PC can also use Starfield cheats to technically get XP very fast, by changing their player level using console commands. If you just want to skip to level 100 or higher without slowly gathering Experience, then simply hit the ' key (on the @ key) or the ~ key on your keyboard (it was ' for us, but some have reported that ~ activated the console on their game).
After bringing up the command console, type in player.setlevel 100 to instantly hit level 100. Of course, you can change the value at the end to any other whole number to instantly hit that level. There's no level limit in Starfield, so feel free to go as high as you want!
Best XP farm in Starfield
To quickly farm XP in Starfield, you should head to high-level planets that have the Abundant Fauna stat. On these planets, you'll find plenty of powerful creatures that you can kill for lots of XP. More importantly, you can just kill them with the Laser Cutter, which deals a surprising amount of damage, so that you don't need to waste ammo for your proper weapons.
You can see the level of the planets in a system by hovering over that system in the starmap. Zoom in on that system to then hover each planet and see their respective stats, which includes the Fauna rating.
As we mentioned, you're looking for a planet with Abundant Fauna, such as Serpentis IV in the Serpentis system (which you can see in the picture above).
Once you arrive at such a planet, land and turn the difficulty down to Very Easy in the game's settings. This will adjust enemy difficulty, making them deal less damage so that they're easier to kill, without adjusting their level or the amount of XP that they'll award upon death. Then, simply head out (preferably with a companion) to hunt down some creatures.
Of course, make sure to get all of your XP bonuses from the above list first! The Well-Rested or Emotional Security bonuses, especially, offer significant boosts that make leveling far faster.
That's more less everything you need to know to start leveling up as fast as possible in Starfield. If you're still making your character and want some help, take a look at our list of Starfield traits and all Starfield backgrounds. Once playing, check out our guides on how to get a boost pack and how to fast travel in Starfield to traverse the universe quickly. And if you get into any trouble with the law during your adventures, then our guide on how to remove a bounty will come in handy.