Who are the Starborn in Starfield?

Starfield is full of interesting characters and groups, and one of the most important you will encounter are the Starborn. Who are these people, and how did they get their name?

In Starfield, your first missions for Constellation will involve tracking down mysterious Artifacts found in caverns and caves across the settled systems. It is not until the ‘Starborn’ mission that you learn who exactly these Artifacts belong to, or what purpose these Artifacts might serve.

The first Starborn you encounter is named The Hunter, who warns you to cease your hunt for the Artifacts. Later on, the same Starborn vaguely describes a concept called The Unity. While the members of Constellation are left to speculate exactly what the Starborn are, we later discover the nature of these beings. Be warned, there are huge spoilers for Starfield ahead.

What are the Starborn in Starfield?

The Starborn are humans who have transcended by entering The Unity, an abstract place between time and space located at the center of the universe. Aside from having gravity-altering powers and sleek spaceships, Starborn are free to traverse across the multiverse.

As you will later learn from both The Hunter and The Emissary, Starborn do not act as a collective but instead as individuals. While most Starborn seek to revisit The Unity by collecting all known Artifacts, The Hunter and Emissary disagree over who should be permitted to enter into The Unity and become Starborn.

In my first playthrough, I was loathe to trust either The Hunter or Emissary. Since you will have plenty of time to choose all three paths if you decide to become Starborn, I recommend you test out all three options at some point.

Ultimately, the final choice of Starfield is whether or not you decide to become Starborn yourself. While entering into The Unity gives you extremely high-value armor and one of the best spaceships in Starfield, you will completely forsake your previous universe in exchange for a new one. I highly recommend wrapping up everything you want to do in your current universe before venturing through The Unity, since you won’t be able to return.

Though the majority of your interactions with the Starborn are hostile, you can actually side with either The Hunter or Emissary to actualize their plans for The Unity. Of course, if you ever want to side with the other, or neither, you can just always enter The Unity again to hop into a new universe.