What do Companion skills do in Starfield?

The experience of meeting new people throughout the galaxy is a big part of Starfield. During your journey through the stars, you’ll make alliances, create new enemies, and even pick up talented individuals who become Companions. If you’re wondering what’s the point of having companions in Starfield, it’s all about their skills.

What do Companion skills do in Starfield?

Companions are significant because they each have unique skill sets you can apply to buff your ships and outposts. A scientist type might boost your ship’s grav engine jump distance or improve your research capabilities. Likewise, a pilot or soldier will bring skills to help with firepower and technology.

Image: Bethesda

You can find out precisely what their skills do by navigating the skills menu and matching their skills to the descriptions. Each Companion also holds different skill levels, just like your character, so check what extra perks they possess.

A Companion can provide a significant buff to an area lacking your skills. For instance, if you’ve neglected your ship skills, you can recruit a Starfield crew member specializing in those skills. The buffs become a serious game changer once you can assemble a multi-companion crew.

How to assign your Companions as crew in Starfield

Companion skills need to be assigned to a specific ship or outpost as a Starfield crew so their skills can be applicable. This is done in the ship menu, which is accessible from the character menu and then within the crew submenu. Select a crew member and assign them to the desired ship or module. Their skills will auto-apply depending on relevancy, and you’ll see the skills highlighted to show as active.

Image: Bethesda

There are also some conditions for if and how many Companions you can assign as crew to a ship or outpost. Ships and outposts must have Crew Stations to assign the Companions to. You can expand your crew capacity by adding more modules to your ship or outpost. You can further expand the number of active crew members with the Ship Command skill, so level it up early. One last thing to remember is that you can only assign crew to landed ships and deployed outposts with Crew Stations.

Now that you know what Companion skills do in Starfield, make the most of your crew’s potential by learning how to recruit new crew members and how many crew members you can have.

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