The Shattered Space Exhuming The Past mission in Starfield sees you exploring an old dam in search of a code for a science experiment. This is all in the service of House Dul’kehf, who want you to act on some secret information they’ve got regarding Vortex Interlocks – devices that were integral to the House Va’ruun cataclysm. At times this can be an especially tough errand to run in Starfield Shattered Space as you’ve got to scour the dam and read through all sorts of terminal for clues. To make the mission clear, this walkthrough for the Exhuming The Past Starfield mission explains the major sticking points, including what the experiment code is and how the final choice works.
How to access the dam in Starfield Exhuming The Past
Once you reach Ma’leen Damn a way off from Dazra, you’ll find you must have a specific keycard to open the main secure access door into the dam. And how do you get the dam keycard for this Starfield mission? A conveniently placed child, of course. Explore the exterior gantry and you should eventually find a kid called Comrak Abbas – speak to him and he’ll direct you to a man called Kaviil who resides in the Abbas Seaweed Farm in front of the dam.
When speaking to Kaviil, you might need to perform a Starfield persuasion attempt to get the keycard off him, but if you chose the Serpent’s Embrace Starfield Trait, you can choose a highly convincing dialogue option to get the keycard immediately. However you get the keycard, head back to the ID card reader next to the dam’s secure access door to get inside. Then, keep moving through Ma’leen Dam until you find a large, flooded room full of pipes.
How to drain the water in Starfield Exhuming The Past
In this flooded room, you’ll be directed by a blue waypoint to reach the pump control room computer. Using the computer reveals that the modulator needs to be disabled (shot at), so head out the control room and look towards the new blue waypoint that points out the glowing modulator high up. Find a good vantage point and shoot the modulator until it explodes.
Next, go back to the pump control room, use the computer, and press the “Sub Pump Control” button to drain the water, which reveals a new door that lets you proceed further into the dam – although, the drained water also reveals a few extra loot crates in this room too. The door is locked, however, so you need to open it by using the door control computer in the security room nearby.
As you go further into the dam, you’ll find a Vortex Phantom called Karija Ma’leen who insists that you leave and then fights you. Defeat them and carry on until you reach a door that requires a keycard to get through, at which point you’ll be prompted to “complete the teleportation experiment”.
Starfield Exhuming The Past experiment code
The teleportation experiment in the Starfield Exhuming The Past mission requires you to enter the code 335 into the console to teleport the required keycard to you, letting you open the door blocking the way. If you want to know how to get the 335 code, you can figure out by reading the documents on the nearby computer. One tells you that that the power level for the last keycard experiment was 235, while another tells you to add 100 to whatever power level you input; 235 + 100 = 335.
Use the keycard on the door and press on, then you’ll eventually run into Karija and another phantom called Vedrasa – you need to defeat both of them to safely get on with the next step which is to grab a Vortex Interlock from the console, but you can’t do this without diverting the dam’s power first.
How to divert power to the Interlock Console in Starfield Exhuming The Past
For this step, you need to head through a door opposite the Interlock Console into some pipe-filled corridors that eventually lead down some steps to a seemingly dead end with a bunch of crates stacked up. You can spot a red emergency cuttable wall above the crates, so shoot the pins to bring down the wall and open the way to the next room – make sure you save here too!
In this room, you need to shoot another modulator just like before, but almost as soon as you walk in, you’ll be forced into a conversation, and then a fight, with three phantoms – Karija, Vedrasa, and new guy Draqir. You can defeat them and then just shoot the modulator and head back to the Interlock Console, but I was able to get into the room and stay far enough back that I was not forced to talk to the phantoms, letting me snipe the modulator and avoid the fight – this might not work for everyone but it’s worth trying.
Starfield Exhuming The Past remove the remaining Interlock or exit the dam choice
Back at the Interlock Console, you just need to press the three control levers and grab the Vortex Interlock. However, when you do this, you’ll be forced into another conversation with Karija, who tells you that you just killed Vedrasa because the Vortex Interlocks are actually powering the pods for the phantoms and the entire dam – oopsie! The choice ahead of you is to either remove the second interlock, killing the phantoms and “dooming the farmers on the surface”, or just escape the dam with only one Vortex Interlock, but you must make your decision while an invincible Karija is trying to kill you.
- To remove the second Interlock, you must open the door to the left of the original Interlock Console using the keypad, shoot the modulator, then activate the second Interlock Console to grab the Interlock. Karija will die and the bodies of Vedrasa and Draqir will appear too, letting you loot them all.
- To exit the dam, you must unlock the doors at the opposite end of the room to the Interlock Consoles and then run back the way you came all the way out the dam, though the phantoms will pursue you until you get back to the surface.
Your choice here has no real impact on the rewards (350 XP, Credits, and a Va’ruun Penumbra – one of the new Shattered Space weapons) for telling Ekris about the Vortex Interlocks back in Dazra, and there are no bonuses for bringing him a second one. However, if you do take the second Interlock the seaweed farm you visited earlier will now be flooded, which also has no overall effect aside from maybe making you feel a bit sad.
And with that, you will have completed the Starfield Exhuming The Past mission, which is part of the Shattered Space questline where you need to unite the houses. As part of that, you’ll also need to complete the Starfield Conflict in Conviction and Starfield Zealous Overreach missions too.
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