If the immediacy of mods available for Starfield recreating Boba Fett’s iconic look is any indication, a lot of folks want to play a bounty hunter.
Now, let me preface with this: We’re not doing a “true” Boba Fett build here. Instead, we’re focusing on maximizing ship-based combat ability while still being very viable when on the ground.
With that out of the way, let’s get started with the build!
Starfield Bounty Hunter Build: Background, Traits & Skills
Since we’re focusing on getting as much space-based combat ability right from the start, we’ll want a proper background for it. Thankfully, we have one that matches this build’s namesake: The Bounty Hunter background gives you the first 3 skills you’d invest in ordinarily right off the bat (Piloting, Target Control Systems, Boost Pack Training). Additionally, this is 3 of the 4 skill investments needed to unlock the second tier of the Tech tree, which is where a LARGE number of your skill points will go.
For traits, there really isn’t much that is critical. Avoid Introvert: You’ll want to have companions manning stations on your ship, even if you don’t end up investing into social skills (more on that later).
Skills-wise, as I noted earlier, you’ll be putting a lot of points into Tech, but that doesn’t mean you should skip the other skills.. Especially for ground combat.
In order to reduce the necessary skills to ensure high damage output, you’ll want to focus on one weapon: Shotguns. Ballistics shotguns, in fact. While shotguns are a little limited early on, you won’t be as worried about having a good shotgun in the beginning; Just focus on the ballistics skill first and use whatever you prefer in that regard.
Once you’ve maxed ballistics (be sure to not just focus on ballistics – you’ll have the tech tree, plus some in science, to invest in too) you should be able to get your hands on a good, high-powered shotgun outside of the Coachman (which is good for general alpha damage output, but it’s just a 2 shot wonder). Eventually you’ll be using either the Breach or Rapid Shot.
You’ll find that shotguns – even with a light skill investment – can rival snipers in raw alpha damage.
Anyway, max out shotguns as you go just to keep your combat skills up to snuff, and then you have one final point to invest in combat skills: Rapid reloading. Since you’ll spend more time reloading than other builds, a single point here will help immensely.
For the science tree you’ll be grabbing a handful of skills; Astrodynamics and Research Methods are worth putting 2 points each in initially (you’ll later max these) so you can unlock Weapon Engineering (max this to maximize your shotgun’s damage output). Eventually, you’ll want to max Aneurotic Fusion (hence why we’re maxing Astrodynamics and Research Methods), and can even toss a point or two into Special Projects if you’re feeling frisky.
The tech tree is where it’s really at, however, so let’s break it down into it’s own section.
Tech Tree Skills
For the first tier, you’re going to want to max Boost Pack Training, Piloting and Targeting Control Systems. I also suggest putting at least 2 points into Security just so you can bypass the most common locks. Boost Pack Training is just fantastic, especially since you’ll need to get in close with shotguns to be at peak efficiency. Piloting maxed lets you pilot the best ships, and Targeting Control Systems gives you more opportunities to disable & board enemy ships (which can be nice for easy cash turnarounds as high as 10k-15k from the only vendor with effectively unlimited cash).
For the second tier, put 3 points into Engine Systems and 3 into Shield Systems; You could technically max these, but their usefulness is fairly limited even on harder difficulties, and you’ll be rocking serious enough hardware to be able to worry much less about those limited situations.
Next up in tier 3 is Starship Design, which gets all 4 points. This is so you can get the best of the best for ship modules. Also, pop 2 points into Starship Engineering; The last 2 points are low-value just because all they do is save you time outside of combat (unless you’re really, REALLY bad at ship-based combat).
Now, if you want to boost your overall damage output, take a look at Particle Beam Weapon Systems: These are going to be the biggest bang for the buck, and even without the investment they do solid damage.
You’ll also notice I basically skipped social here; that’s because it requires a large amount of investment before it even becomes useful to this build, and with your own investment here in tech having more than a couple companions on your ship is less useful than you might think.
Alright, let’s move on to the spoilers section, shall we?
Bounty Hunter Build: Spoilers Ahead!
If you haven’t beaten the main story or done the Vanguard questline, and want to avoid spoilers, stop right here! Just know that both are worth doing, but doing the Vanguard questline before you finish the main story is a good idea.
Alright, still reading?
The Vanguard quest line opens up some nice ship parts, but the most critical of them all is the Vanguard shield generator: It is seriously a beast and well worth grabbing, even if you don’t finish the quest line (although I will note that it is one of the better ones, and also has some decent rewards and a good randomly generated quest after the main one to take out enemy ships – a fast way to get XP, a little money, and a lot of ship kills for skill challenges).
As far as Starborn powers go, you won’t really need too much. Personal Atmosphere and Sense Star Stuff are always useful. Phased Time isn’t bad if you get swarmed, but otherwise, it’s dealer’s choice. You’ll be worrying much less about these since they don’t impact you while you’re on your ship.
Companions-wise, just take whomever you like. Barrett will provide a nice boost to particle beam weapons, so definitely at LEAST have him around (just make sure he doesn’t die during the main story progression).
Finally, for getting easy money and utilizing your awesome power in space combat, I recommend regularly hitting the Serpentis system; nearly every time you jump in you will get attacked by Va’ruun zealots, and they frequently have some nice ships to flip. I suggest having at least 50k in credits to register one of the larger ships to flip.
That’s it, folks! Happy hunting!