The Starfield Constellation questline explained

Starfield backgrounds lin and heller
(Image credit: Bethesda)

The Starfield Constellation questline sees you joining the not-so-ragtag space exploration club, and serves as the game's main story. That means this quest is literally impossible to miss as you're forced to meet the group at the start of the game. On your star-system-spanning journey with the likes of Sarah Morgan, Sam Coe, and other Starfield companions you'll begin to uncover the secrets of a set of mysterious alien artifacts, eventually culminating in the end of the game! Here's the entire Constellation questline in Starfield broken down mission by mission.

Obviously, big spoiler warning here for basically all of it. 

One Small Step

The first mission in Starfield is a lot of work and covers most of the tutorial stuff as you start off as a miner, find your first artifact, then go through character creation, fight off pirates and eventually travel to Jemison to meet Constellation.  Along the way you'll have to make a choice between whether to lie or attack the Pirate in Starfield and explore a planet called Kreet a little before you can finally reach Constellation's Lodge in Jemison. 

The Old Neighbourhood

This is basically a guided tour around our own, now abandoned, solar system. You'll see Earth, Mars, Neptune and so on, and eventually save Moara in Starfield after defeating the enemies attacking him and learning  how to dock in Starfield and board ships to meet him. It'll earn you another artifact. 

The Empty Nest

This mission will introduce you to Sam Coe, one of the main Starfield companions as you travel to Akila, home of the Freestar Collective. You'll complete a few objectives here including dealing with a bank robbery and getting an introduction to the Starfield Freestar Rangers questline. Eventually you'll get a map from Sam's family that will lead you to another artifact.  

Back to Vectera

In this mission you'll return to the mining outpost where you started and begin tracking down Barret for a rescue attempt. You'll be able to recruit Lin, your old boss, and find and recruit Heller her co-worker along the way, so you'll get a few new Starfield crew options. Eventually you'll find Barrett and be able to rescue him. 

Into the Unknown

At this point you will have collected a few artifacts. Into the Unknown will now have you collecting one more before travelling to locations they identify in search of Starfield powers. To do that this mission will see you following Starfield scanner distortions, solving a Starfield temple puzzle, and then returning to Constellation to show them what you've learned. As you go you'll meet a new companion called Andreja and visit The Eye, Constellation's space station.  

All that Money can Buy

All that Money can Buy will take you to Neon, where Constellation member Walter Stroud is investigating the purchase of another artifact. This is a heist style mission where you'll have to do a lot of talking and investigating to case out the various parties involved. If you haven't already, now is a good time to join the Ryujin faction based here and begin the Starfield Ryujin questline.

Starborn

This mission will see your pursuit of artifacts unlock what's really going on, and introduce a new faction to the game. No, spoilers, just follow the prompts and let it all unfold. 

Further into the Unkown

This will let you collect more Starfield powers, with every artifact you collect as you play revealing a new location you can explore. Visit the Eye to talk to Vladimir and see where to go each time you find a new artifact. 

Short Sighted

This is basically a chance to hang out with the team as you upgrade and improve the Eye to make it better at finding the temple locations you can uncover with the artifacts you collect. Help everyone out, have a chat and you'll be done in no time. 

No Sudden Moves

It's time for a proper robbery here as you visit an eccentric collector called Petrov who has an artifact. There are a range of ways of getting it, from releasing all the pet aliens and stealing it in the chaos, or finding a secret way into the vault and taking it that way. You'll raise an alarm whatever you do so the best way is just to talk your way into a tour, take the artifact and then beat Petrov into submission inside the vault. At that point he'll tell everyone to stand down and you'll have the run of his ship uncontested. 

High Price to Pay

There's no good ending here as you'll have to decide if you should you protect the Lodge or go to the Eye in Starfield when the Starborn attack. Whichever you choose to protect, the other suffers and there's no way to avoid it, so check our guide and see what price you want to pay. At the end you'll also have to decide where to place the Starfield Armillary to store your artifacts - on your ship, or in an outpost.  

Unity

This mission will finally start to unravel the mystery of the artifacts as you first speak to representatives of all the main religious factions - Enlighted, Sanctum Universum and Va'Ruun. Then you'll visit a few locations to find out even more, encountering the Starfield Pilgrim's computer locked door, and the Starfield Scorpion's Sting puzzle. 

Missed Beyond Measure

This will see you attending a funeral, based on the outcome of previous decisions. Be careful here because there's a time limit involved and you can easily miss it. 

In their Footsteps

Here you will meet two Starborn face to face and finally get some answers. Let's just leave it at that so you can discover it for yourself. 

Unearthed

You'll go back to Earth here to find another Artifact and discover some uncomfortable truths about the past. I won't say more because it's all spoilers, so just follow the prompts and prepare to be shocked. This will also lead to you having to choose between the Starfield Emissary or Hunter.

Final Glimpses

This is another artifact collection mission and will see you finding them on Indum III-B and Freya III. 

Entangled

This is a big chunky mission that takes place in the Nishina Research station where some scientists' experiments might have broken reality a little bit. Ultimately, you'll  have to make the Starfield Entangled choice but not before exploring the base and meeting all the key personnel there. 

Revelation

Revelation is the penultimate mission and leads into a series of protracted battles between you, mercenaries and Starborn to locate the final artifact. You'll have to fight to the center of a base filled with enemies and ultimately confront the Hunter and the Emissary one last time. However you resolve that, you'll end up in possession all the artifacts and are ready to finish the main story.   

One Giant Leap

Completing One Giant Leap leads into the Starfield ending, but only if you want it to be. If you haven't built the Armillary on your ship, you'll need to do that first - with all the artifacts finally in place the next grav jump anywhere will activate the ending, BUT it effectively also activates Starfield new game plus in the process. So if you want to finish up existing missions, you might want to hold off on this. Check our ending guide for more but, technically, finishing the main story starts a completely new game. 

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

Leon Hurley
Managing editor for guides

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for guides, which means I run GamesRadar's guides and tips content. I also write reviews, previews and features, largely about horror, action adventure, FPS and open world games. I previously worked on Kotaku, and the Official PlayStation Magazine and website.