How Starfield persuasion works in dialogue

Starfield persuasion uses a minigame where you try to meet a score when talking to someone, to win them over. To do that you have to choose certain dialogue responses, balancing their odds of success and score to try and get what you want.

There's a big element of risk and reward to the system, with limited chances and some responses offering a low chance of success but plenty of points to help you meet that score. It's basically a tactical gamble as you balance the points you need to win with the risks of what you can say.  

However, success in persuasion attempts can be incredibly useful in Starfield, unlocking new mission options, additional rewards, or even save you money. Mastering it is therefore quite crucial depending on how you want to play, so here are the essentials to help you master Starfield's persuasion system and dialogue.

How the Starfield persuasion system works

Talking to an NPC in Starfield will occasionally let you choose a dialogue option marked ‘[Persuade]’ which then launches you into the persuasion minigame. You can try to complete this even if you don’t have the Persuasion Skill but obviously having it improves your chances immensely. (There's more on how to improve your Starfield persuasion abilities further down.)

The objective of the Persuasion minigame in Starfield is to fill all the Persuasion bars visible in the bottom-left corner of the options. These bars are filled by the points attached to the dialogue responses you choose if they're successful. You’ll notice each one has a number next to it (+1 or +3, for example) which denotes how many part of the bar will be filled if the option works. If it doesn't, you'll get no points and will potentially have to take riskier options with the turns you have left to try and win.

Every persuasion reply has a traffic light color representing how likely it is to succeed in your attempt. Green dialogue options usually have a high success rate but are only worth one or two bars. In the middle, you’ll find moderate orange responses which strike a balance of risk and reward. You'll get a bit more here but it's still a semi safe play. Finally red dialogue options have a low success rate but will fill a lot of the Persuasion bar if they're successful. So they're very risky but sometimes enough to complete the entire persuasion attempt in one go, which can make them extremely tempting.

When choosing an option, there’s also a very low chance of scoring a critical success which will fill in extra persuasion bars!

You have a limited number of turns to fill all the Persuasion bars, so you need to weight up every response. Fail to fill the bars and the attempt ends, but fill them all before you run out of turns and you’ll successfully sway whoever you’re talking to. If it’s impossible to fill all the persuasion bars on your final turn, but you choose an option that succeeds you get a free turn, potentially allowing you to win the persuasion attempt. This is where saving the reliable green options until the end can be a good strategy, instead of using them early for easy points.

How to improve Starfield Persuasion skills

While any player can attempt to Persuade NPCs in Starfield, you’ll have mixed results unless you find ways of improving your Persuasion skills. This is how to do that:

1. Unlock and upgrade the Persuasion Skill: The Persuasion Starfield Skill increases your chances of success during persuasion attempts by 10%, capping out at a 50% bonus at Rank 4. Unlocking this Skill should be a priority if you want to get better, and four Starfield backgrounds offer Persuasion as a starting Skill.
2. Pay attention to what the NPCs say before and during the persuasion attempt: The things character say can give clues as to what sort of approach you should take. For example, I successfully persuaded the Cydonia bartender during the Starfield The Old Neighborhood mission by guilt-tripping him into giving me information about Moara for free – because he specifically says he thinks you’re going to guilt-trip him when you start the persuasion attempt.
3. Consume alcohol: Alcoholic drinks, such as wine, beer, and cocktails generally come with a small and temporary buff to your Persuasion. Chug a beverage or two before an important conversation to maximize success. If you want to mix your own drinks, investing in the Gastronomy Skill and research will help.
4. Take chems with Persuasion boosts: Both Hippolyta and Paramour offer generous but temporary buffs, though Paramour’s buff is both stronger and longer lasting. These aren’t the most common chems, but crafting in Starfield using a Pharmaceutical Lab will let you make them yourself. Just make sure you invest in the Research Methods and Chemistry Skills in the Science category first.
5. Unlock and upgrade the Negotiation Skill: This Skill allows you to pay bribes during speech challenges. It might not be the most ethical way of getting what you want, but it can get results if you’re desperate. Upgrade the Skill further to reduce the cost of bribes.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.