Best stealth build in Starfield

Starfield doesn’t have classes, but you can make a great stealth build that rocks in combat and allows you to roleplay as a mysterious space rogue. Here is how to create the best stealth character build in Starfield.

Note: If stealth isn’t really your thing, you can also create one of the other five best character builds in Starfield.

How to make the best stealth character build in Starfield

While you can make a great stealth build in Starfield by combining it with melee weapons to create the ultimate stealthy assassin, the best stealth build that I’ve found involves sniping enemies from afar. With this build, you’ll sneakily eliminate every enemy before they even know you’re there.

Here is the best Stealth build in Starfield:

• Best Background for stealth build
• Best Traits for stealth build
• Best Skills for stealth build
• Best Weapons for stealth build
• Best Armor for stealth build
• Best Companion for stealth build

Image: Bethesda

Best Background for stealth build in Starfield

The best Background for the best stealth build is Cyber Runner. I find that not only does Cyber Runner give you the coolest roleplaying flair, but it also gives you Stealth, Security, and Theft. These three skills are essential to the best stealth build, so unlock them from the get-go with Cyber Runner.

If you want to be a stealthy ninja, the best Background is Ronin since you get Dueling, Stealth, and Scavenging, and [FILE NOT FOUND] could be a fun Background for space rogues to roleplay and it gives you Wellness, Ballistics, and Piloting.

Best Traits for stealth build in Starfield

The three best Traits for the best stealth build in Starfield are Terra Firma, Wanted, and Neon Street Rat. The Terra Firma trait gives you more stamina when on solid ground which is 90% of combat in Starfield. The Wanted trait works as a cool roleplay Trait but also gives you free XP when enemies come and find you. The Neon Rat trait is excellent because it allows you to unlock better rewards on Neon and gives you additional dialogue options. And if you go the Ronin route, this is where you will be spending most of your time since you will want to unlock the best melee weapon in the game: the Wakizashi.

Alien DNA could be a cool one to substitute because it is really cool to roleplay and gives you more health at the expense of healing items not being as effective. You could also choose a faction or religious Trait if you want, and I recommend the Kid Stuff Trait because it’s endearing.

Best skills for stealth build in Starfield

Image: Bethesda

All the best builds in Starfield focus more on the Physical, Social, and Combat skill trees, but if you really want to engage with the modding, researching, space flying, and outpost building, you should look into putting points into Science and Tech. Here are the best skills for the best stealth character build in Starfield.

• Physical
  • Fitness, Wellness, Stealth, Energy Weapon Dissipation, Pain Tolerance, Gymnastics, Concealment, Rejuvenation. Maybe Martial Arts and Neurostrikes.

In Physical, we’ll want Fitness to give us more stamina and Wellness to give us more health. Energy Weapon Dissipation means we take less damage from Energy weapons and Pain Tolerance reduces the physical damage we take. Rejuvenation means you heal out of combat, which is great because Med Packs can be hard to come by.

Gymnastics is a great skill that unlocks the combat slide, which is really fun and effective when sneaking. Concealment is necessary as you won’t set off enemy traps anymore and your ranged sneak attacks deal 2.5x normal damage as your melee sneak attacks deal 4x more damage.

If you’re making a melee or unarmed stealth build, you need Martial Arts, which increases your melee and unarmed crit chance by 15%, and Neurostrikes, which gives you a 10% chance to stun an NPC with an unarmed attack.

•  Social
  • Scavenging, Theft, Negotiation, Isolation, Commerce

Scavenging just fits for the stealth build — you’ll get more credits when searching containers. Theft allows you to pickpocket enemies. Negotiation unlocks the bribery option in dialogue, which feels very rogueish, and Commerce allows you to buy and sell items at better rates, which helps you make money in the long run.

If you’re playing without a companion, Isolation is amazing because you’ll deal more weapon damage and have higher damage resistance for just wearing a helmet and spacesuit without an active companion around.

• Combat
  • Ballistics, Rifle Certification, Marksmanship, Rapid Reloading, Sniper Certification, Armor Penetration, Sharpshooting. Maybe Dueling.

To make the stealthy sniper build, you need Ballistics to make your Ballistic weapons deal more damage, Rifle Certification to make your Rifles hit harder, and Sniper Certification to have your scoped weapons sway less. Marksmanship is also excellent as it’ll give your snipers an increased critical hit chance, Armor Penetration is great to deal more damage to armor, and Sharpshooting increases your headshot critical hit damage by 50%.

The Combat skills selected above focus primarily on making the stealthy sniper, but you can create a ninja by speccing into Dueling, which allows you to do 25% more damage with melee weapons and take 10% less damage while holding a melee weapon.

• Science
  • Medicine, Research Methods, Weapon Engineering

The only necessary Science skills for this build are Medicine to give you faster and better healing with Med Packs, Research Methods to make your research projects go faster, and Weapon Engineering so you can add a suppressor to all your weapons.

• Tech
  • Boost Pack Training, Security, Robotics

Boost Pack Training is a must so you can jetpack around. Security is also a must to play into the rogue archetype by allowing you to pick locks better. Robotics allows you to deal more damage to turrets and robots, which is nice but it isn’t absolutely necessary.

Best weapons for stealth build in Starfield

The best weapons for the best stealth build in Starfield are the Beowulf and Lawgiver rifles. These two guns are the best snipe rifles in Starfield. You can also use a great melee weapon like the Wakizashi if you’re going that route. Note: The Va’ruun Painblade has a bug that causes the weapon to damage you as you swing it while fighting enemies.

Best armor for stealth build in Starfield

The armor you’ll want to use with this build is anything that is light but still has good stats. If your armor is too heavy, it’ll be harder for you to sneak. Equip something light but also look for Legendary armor that grants good buffs through perks.

Best companion for stealth build in Starfield

I recommend you don’t have an active companion for the best stealth build, but if you really want a companion, then Andreja is the best companion for this build. Andreja not only lets you get away with more “evil” stuff, but she also is a pro at stealth, so she won’t hold you back in that regard.

Author’s Note: I wrote this guide while playing Starfield on PC and Xbox Series S.