Starfield perfectly captures the essence of marriage—especially when it comes to money

A Starfield player discovered today that bad financial decisions can and will earn you some flack from your spouse in the game.

Redditor _sharkweek shared a Starfield experience of theirs on Oct. 4 in which they were finally getting around to taking the optional tour of Mars that most players did early on in the game. They were doing it so late, in fact, that they already had time marry Andreja—the mysterious and edgy Constellation member introduced early on in the game’s main storyline.

When this player took the tour of Mars, they had more Credits than they knew what to do with stockpiled, and decided to be a bit generous by selecting the highest tip option for the tour guide. That highest option only resulted in a 500 Credit tip, but that was more than enough to set Andreja off, apparently.

When the high tip option was selected, the player’s dialogue camera immediately snapped to Andreja, who with folded arms and rolled eyes scoffed, “why not just throw away our whole Credstick?!” Hilariously, the player remarked in their Reddit post that this is the most realistic thing they’ve ever seen in a video game.

In a comment on the post, another redditor pointed that Andreja will also dislike it if you give too many Credits or too few Credits to an NPC during a Crimson Fleet mission, which other commenters also found to be a realistic element of marriage.

To provide a little context on how much 500 Credits is in Starfield—an item in a vending machine costs 100 Credits, and a new ship habitat module costs 600 Credits. In fact, the economy in Starfield makes no sense to us at all. We tipped a street urchin 1000 Credits for simple information on Neon, and Andreja didn’t feel any sort of way about it (although we were still in the “talking phase” when that happened).

I think my personal favorite part of this interaction is that it happened directly in front of the tour guide who just received the tip. Anyone who has done hospitality work is no stranger to feeling deeply uncomfortable while a married couple argues directly in front of you. If you are, I envy you.

Personally, I’m not married—so thankfully I can’t corroborate the realism of this scolding. However, I have it on good authority from our resident married editor here at Dot Esports that allowing and trusting your spouse to make their own decisions is a key part of a healthy relationship.

Editor’s note from Adam, the “resident married editor”: That is correct, and my wife would like to add that you should also maintain an open dialogue about money with your partner. She does not, however, have any comment on how much you should tip for a tour of Mars.

It’s refreshing to know that not ALL married players found this encounter hitting a little too close to home.