Starfield Shattered Space Zealous Overreach hostage choices explained

For the Starfield Zealous Overreach mission in Shattered Space, you need to help House Ka’dic rescue the scientist Sahima and negotiate with some Zealots. It’s a quest that involves a lot of talking to various Starfield Shattered Space characters and factions, and can feature a lot of combat too, but there are some key choices here that can affect how the quest closes out. Here’s everything you need to know about all the choices in the Zealous Overreach mission in Starfield, including dealing with Djimal’s deal, Sahima, and the Zealots during negotiations.

How to talk to Mirek in Starfield Zealous Overreach

Having spoken to House Ka'dic elder Razma, your first task is learning where Sahima, the scientist that the Va’ruun zealots have taken hostage, is being kept. Conveniently, Razma has a person on the inside called Mirek who knows the location, but they won’t give the information up easily to avoid blowing their cover.

Head up to Mirek on the floor above and begin the conversation. Regardless of how you approach it, your talk will always reach a point where you must be direct about the hostages, leading into either a persuasion or pickpocketing opportunity depending on how you respond:

• [Persuade] You really should rethink your position on the hostages: This Starfield persuasion attempt is quite easy and you should be able to get the location just from picking the easy +1 or +2 responses to Mirek
• Fine. I’ll find the location on my own/When I find the location…: If you decide to find the location yourself, you need the pickpocket Starfield skill to grab Mirek’s passcode from their inventory. Then you can head downstairs and go into Mirek’s room and log into their computer to read log 5.8.

Eventually you’ll find out that the hostages are being kept at Shadow Station Epsilon and you can return to Razma with your learnings and organize the hostage negotiations. But you need to speak to Djimal Ka’dic once you’re done.

Should you accept Djimal’s deal in the Starfield Zealous Overreach mission?

When you speak to Djimal, she’ll reveal that Razma is only going through all this effort to prevent the Council finding out that she’s lost control of a group of Zealots she was trying to exploit for political gain. Djimal suggests that cutting ties with the Zealots entirely should be the next step for the greater good of the house, and the best way to do this is to kill the hostages and frame the Zealots. The dialogue options that follow won’t lock you into any specific course of action, so you can say what you want here and change your mind later.

From here, you can head out of Dazra and wander over to Shadow Station Epsilon to find Sahima. While the outpost is heavily guarded by Zealots, you just need to wind your way through the facility, going down to the basement levels until a waypoint guides you to a cell holding Sahima.

Talk to or kill Sahima in Starfield Zealous Overreach

When you come face-to-face with Sahima, you can either start a conversation and learn what has happened to her or you can follow through on Djimal’s plan and just kill her. Be aware that this is largely a moral choice that doesn’t affect the quest very much but can affect your rewards:

• Talk to Sahima: Sahima escapes Shadow Station Epsilon, agreeing to meet you later, though she also tells you to rescue a few more hostages in the basement cave of the station. Fight the Zealots and their terrifying Redeemed super soldiers, then rescue the hostages and escape via the lift. You’ll immediately bump into Sahima where you can tell her to meet you at the Ka’dic and Zealot negotiations at the Badlands Power Station.
• Kill Sahima: Murder Sahima, loot her body, then head down into the cave and kill all the hostages and any Zealots that get in your way. Once you’ve done that, you can just leave the station and head to the negotiations. This choice gets you fewer Credits in the end, so it’s not worth it.

Starfield Zealous Overreach negotiations

When you head inside the Badlands Power Station, you’ll interrupt the negotiations between Razma Ka’dic and Zealot leader Mihael Dziri. Depending on your choices in the previous step, you can tell Razma that the Sahima and the hostages are safe or frame the Zealots. If the hostages are in fact safe, Sahima will dramatically interrupt too, telling Mihael that she’s implanted a virus in the Zealot’s systems that will blow up their base and their ships. If they’re dead, Razma will be livid.

Regardless, the negotiations will usually end up with you having to choose between persuading Mihael and the Zealots to stand down or killing them – telling Sahima to release the virus will also lead to a fight. Here’s what can happen because of these choices:

• Successfully persuade Mihael: The Zealots don’t die and leave
• Fail to persuade Mihael: A shootout starts and you must kill the Zealots
• Sahima releases the virus: A shootout starts and you must kill the Zealots
• If you have Andreja as your companion or your have the Serpent’s Embrace trait: An extra dialogue option allows you or Andreja to easily and peacefully convince the Zealots to stand down without a persuasion attempt.

Essentially, the best outcome is to not kill Sahima and then peacefully negotiate with the Zealots, resulting in minimal bloodshed and the greatest Credit payout.

After this, speak to Razma and you can demand your payment (15,000 if you followed the above choices). You’ll then be given Sahima’s research – assuming you don’t already have it because you killed her – and can take it to Ekris back in Dazra to wrap up the Starfield Zealous Overreach mission in Shattered Space. If you’ve not united the other houses, you’ll also need to complete the Starfield Exhuming The Past and Starfield Conflict in Conviction mission too.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.