Starfield: How to complete the Background Checks mission

Progressing the Ryujin Industries faction quest line in Starfield sees you go from a coffee delivery person to an operative engaging in significant corporate espionage.

At one point during the quest line, it’s revealed there is a mole inside the company who has been helping rival competitor Infinity Ltd steal information on the top-secret Project Dominion.

When this is revealed, you must engage in some stealth to remain undetected and discover who the mole is. This leads to the start of the Background Checks mission in Starfield, which requires you to sneak into your place of employment and steal information off of a computer to learn about the mole.

Meeting with Dalton to enact Directive Theta

Your first task in Background Checks is to meet with Dalton Fiennes, the head of security at Ryujin. He will tell you that to extract data about the mole, Security Directive Theta successfully must be enacted.

This directive clears out the building except for security guards and requires you to go in undetected to get information off Ularu Chen’s computer.

Ularu Chen is a special case in Ryujin Industries, as she’s too skilled of an operative to trust given the circumstances. So, to prove whether she is the mole, you need to steal data off her computer so she doesn’t have a chance to alter anything in the scenario that she is the mole at Ryujin.

To do this, you must go into Ryujin Tower and sneak past the security guards to access Ularu’s computer. Even though you are an employee, guards will be hostile towards you if they catch you sneaking around. Before you can sneak in, though, you need to meet with a contact of Dalton’s who will give you some much-needed help.

How to persuade Nyx at Madame Sauvage’s Place

The contact you’re meeting is a third-party hacker named Nyx, who will give you a program to run on Ularu’s computer to gain access to any decrypted files she might have on there. However, Nyx requires a hefty 2,500 credit as a seller’s fee to gain access to the program.

Luckily, you can persuade him relatively quickly down to 1,000 credits. I could do this by selecting all of the plus one and two options in the persuasion check and didn’t encounter much resistance from Nyx.

Once you obtain the program, you can leave Madame Sauvage’s and return to Nyx once you have run the program on Ularu’s computer. He will decipher anything you find so you can return to Dalton with the most accurate data.

Once you’re out of Madame Sauvage’s, you must head up several flights of stairs in the Ebbside area of Neon. This leads you to the roof entrance to Ryujin Tower, and now your stealth abilities will come into play.

How to sneak past the guards in Ryujin Tower

Upon entering Ryujin Tower, you will find yourself in a vent. From your starting point inside the vent, keep going and take your first right, which drops you into a room. In the room, climb up the boxes and shimmy yourself into the vent opening.

Follow the vent until you find a control console, which will shut off all the lights in the area when activated. This makes it much easier to sneak around guards. Go past the control console and take the first left, which leads to an opening that drops you into another room. Quicksaving here and periodically is suggested.

The room has a door that leads out into one of the floors of Ryujin Tower. When you leave the room, a guard will be in front of you, looking in the opposite direction. While crouching, move silently past the guard toward the right side of them, behind the pillar.

Once you’re past the guard, you will eventually see a door on your left. Enter the door to find yourself in the room. Again, go past the guard ahead by sneaking past the pillar. Head toward the right to find a door that leads into another room.

Head up the staircase in the room and go up every flight of stairs. You should see a white hallway at the end of this flight, which leads into a brightly-lit area of Ryujin Tower.

Here, you will see a guard ahead, and you need to wait for them to move in another direction so you can go past them. Once they move, follow your quest marker straight to find another door that leads into a room with a vent panel. Open the panel, shimmy up into a ceiling opening, and straight up a ramp in the vent.

Climb up to another vent opening, take a right, and then drop down into a small room. Open the door that leads out of the room and head directly straight, which goes past several guards on your right. This might take a few tries, as the guards tend to turn around randomly.

Enter the door on your left at the end of the room and follow it to reach another brightly-lit tower area. Go left from the tree in the middle of the room to enter the R&D department of Ryujin. Save before entering this room.

Next, actually get caught. Doing this allows you to persuade a guard to let you in the R&D area, which crawls with security. Successfully persuading the guard allows you to walk around freely, which enables you to head up into a vent at the end of the room.

Enter the vent and take a right to go up a ramp. A vent panel on your right will be near the blue lights at the top of the ramp. Open the board and then take a right along the catwalk. Go straight across the catwalk and then go through another vent, which leads you into the area with Ularu’s office.

Head straight to your quest marker, avoiding any guards along the way, and run Nix’s program on the computer.

Once you run the program, you need to head out of Ryujin Tower, and it doesn’t matter if security guards spot you during your escape. You can escape by following your quest marker, which takes you through the vents and back onto the roof.

After leaving the tower, use the scaffolding on the top and head to Nyx’s apartment in the Ebbside area of Neon.

Running the program at Nyx’s and returning to Dalton

This part of the quest requires you to speak to Nyx and wait for him to run the program you used on Ularu’s computer. Once he does, you can return the program to Dalton at Ryujin Industries. This is not before Nyx reveals who the mole at Ryujin is. I won’t spoil that part of the quest, as it’s shocking.

Upon returning to Dalton, he will speak to Masako about the next steps the company will take to find the mole and stop Infinity Ltd from stealing Project Dominion. With that, the Background Checks mission is complete.

All Background Checks mission rewards

For completing the Ryujin Faction quest, players will receive 250 XP and 9,000 credits.