The Starfield Wanted trait is an aggressive perk that increases your damage when you’re at low health, but has bounty hunters come after you. The question is whether this makes the trait worth taking, or if the mercenaries are too frustrating to deal with across your playthrough. That’s a good question, since you only can take up to three traits during character creation and you can’t change traits (though you remove them). Here’s whether you should pick the Wanted trait in Starfield.
Is the Starfield Wanted trait worth it?
Yes, the Wanted trait is one of the best perks you can take in Starfield.
As explained in our best traits guide, it is one of our six recommendations for what to pick. While the bounty hunters are supposed to a downside, they can be easily turned into a positive.
When you take the Wanted trait, every once in a while when you jump into a system, you’ll meet bounty hunter ships that come after you. You can intimidate them if you wish if you have that social skill or you can pay them off with a few thousand credits, but push comes to shove, you’ll enter a firefight with them.
It may be difficult to fight them off if you’re not great at ship combat or if your ship isn’t levelled. But if you have the skill, you can destroy them for extra loot and add them to the skip count for the Piloting skill that’s difficult to progress. That’s not a bad trade-off really.
If you don’t want to have the Wanted trait, though, you can talk to a bounty hunter and get it removed with some credits. You can find a bounty hunter near the entrance of the main city of Cydonia on Mars, which you’ll need to visit as part of the main storyline anyway.
Starfield Wanted trait FAQ
A: The Wanted trait in Starfield is an aggressive perk that boosts your damage when your health is low. However, it also attracts bounty hunters to pursue you.
A: While the bounty hunters are intended as a downside to the Wanted trait, they can actually be beneficial. Every time you enter a system, bounty hunters might chase you. You have options to either intimidate them, pay them off, or engage in combat. If you’re skilled in ship combat, defeating them can yield extra loot and contribute to your Piloting skill progression.
A: Yes, if you decide the Wanted trait isn’t for you, you can have it removed by speaking to a bounty hunter. There’s one located near the entrance of Cydonia’s main city on Mars, a location you’ll visit during the main storyline.
