Want to get out of the opening tutorial in Starfield as quickly as possible? Our Starfield One Small Step quest walkthrough has got you covered, so you can race through the tutorials and start exploring.
The One Small Step quest begins as soon as a new game is started, introducing you to the world of Starfield. In the quest, you'll learn about some of the key mechanics in Starfield, as well as an introduction to what the main story will contain.
For more on the game, why not check out our guide on how to get XP fast, or how to invert flight controls in Starfield? This and even more space exploration content can be found in our Starfield hub!
Starfield One Small Step quest walkthrough
Introduction and character creation
One Small Step is the opening quest of Starfield. You start on the moon Vectera in the Argos Extractors Mining Outpost, with two of your colleagues: Supervisor Lin and Heller. To start, you follow the two through the mines.
After a short walk, Supervisor Lin will instruct you to pick up a cutter and get to work. There are five separate mineral deposits you need to extract, marked with individual quest markers. Firing at the wall with the cutter will extract the Beryllium, which is added automatically to your inventory.
After you complete this task, Supervisor Lin calls you back to continue walking. As you continue through the mines, Heller will flag a problem in a cavern up ahead, citing a "spike in gravity readings." Supervisor Lin instructs you to investigate it alone.
Ahead, you'll find some unidentified deposits. Break these using the cutter to extract them. After extracting the deposits, you will be sent into a hallucination, and upon waking up you will enter the character creation screen to customise your character.
In the character creator, you have the option to customise your character's body, face, background, and starting traits. For more on creating your character, check out our character customisation guide.
Defeat the pirates
Once you've finished creating your character, you'll have to follow Supervisor Lin again through the med bay. As you follow her, you'll meet Barrett, the buyer of this mysterious new find. However, a ship full of pirates has been on his tail, and they will land to ambush you.
To fight against the pirates, you'll need to grab a weapon. There's a pistol called the Eon in a weapons case by the meeting point, which you'll need to use here. Once you have defeated the pirates, you can pick up one of their Maelstrom weapons, an SMG with low damage but a high fire rate.
After overcoming the pirates, speak to Barrett, and he'll invite you to come with him to Constellation to learn what the Artifact actually is. However, he then subsequently offers to stay behind, so you'll have to make the journey to Constellation alone. Nevertheless, he gives you a fancy watch for your troubles.
Learn how to fly your ship
After your conversation with Barrett, board his ship along with the mech Vasco. Head to the cockpit and take off. You can do this by sitting in the pilot seat, then holding Y to launch.
Next, a tutorial begins for ship flying, led by Vasco. In this tutorial, you will be guided through how to control your ship and allocate power to different systems. You'll test the ship's weapons out, before taking out a few Crimson Fleet ships that are pursuing you.
After looting the destroyed ships, Vasco directs you to travel to the moon of Kreet to take refuge. To travel to Kreet, you have to go to the Starmap, then press B to see the wider system. Select Kreet to travel there, and then again using the same menu to land on the surface.
Wipe out the remaining pirates
Now that you're on Kreet, there's a Crimson Fleet captain to deal with to get them off your back. As you make your way to their base, you'll have to defend yourself from the local wildlife. At the same time, you'll be introduced to the scanning mechanic, used to identify flora, fauna, and minerals.
When you arrive at the Crimson Fleet base, you'll be attacked by the Crimson Fleet gang members. Deal with them and continue to progress forwards. As you go deeper into the base, you'll encounter an optional safe. Inside it is a Med Pack and a Synapse Alpha.
As you come to the end of clearing the base, you'll end up on the roof. Here, you fight the Level 6 Crimson Fleet Captain, Brogan. He's a lot more formidable that your previous opponents, thanks to his three health bars. However, it shouldn't provide much challenge to whittle them down with your SMG and pistol. Once defeated, Brogan drops the Technician's Navigator Spacesuit, 78 credits, ammo, and a Modified Grendel, which is another SMG.
Now that you've cleared the base, travel back to your ship and Grav Jump to the planet Jemison, before heading to the city of New Atlantis. After you arrive, you'll need to walk through the city towards the MAST District.
Then, head to the Lodge and go to the library, where you'll meet Sarah Morgan from Constellation. She'll ask you to place the Artifact on the table, where the Constellation members react together and hint at the adventure ahead to make sense of all the Artifacts.
One Small Step quest rewards
That marks the end of the One Small Step quest. Upon the completion of this quest, you'll receive 8,000 credits, a key to the Lodge, as well as the Constellation Pack, which grants you some damage and environmental resistances, as well as containing a Boost Pack.
That's all there is for our One Small Step quest walkthrough in Starfield. For more guides and walkthroughs on the game, check out our guides on where to go first in Starfield, what the best early upgrades are, or even how to join the Freestar Collective.