Manipulation Skill Rank Up Guide

Manipulation is a Master Social skill that makes NPCs follow your commands in a given time period in Starfield. Read on to learn the effects of the Manipulation skill, how to unlock and rank up the Manipulation skill, and the backgrounds that know it.

Manipulation How to Unlock and Overview

Manipulation Skill Overview

Manipulation Skill
	Skill Tree: Social
	Tier: Master
Recent studies have shown that suggestion is not an art, but a science, and as such can be weaponized to exert control over the susceptible.

How to Unlock Manipulation

Spend 12 Skill Points in the Social Tree

As Manipulation is a higher-tier Master skill, it is unlocked by spending a total of 12 skill points in the Social skill tree before it can be learned.

How to Farm Skill Points Fast

Backgrounds with the Manipulation Skill

There are no backgrounds that start with the Manipulation skill.

List of All Backgrounds

How to Rank Up Manipulation Skill

All Rank Challenges and Effects

Manipulate People in Major Cities

To complete the Manipulation rank up challenges, you have to successfully manipulate a certain number of people for each rank. An effective and fast way to complete the Manipulation rank challenge is to manipulate every person in a major city.

As there are no negative consequences to manipulating regardless of whether you fail, it is best to complete the challenge by manipulating every person you encounter in any major city.

Before you start manipulating targets, you can save the game to load that savepoint if a manipulation attempt fails.

Note that NPCs named "Citizen" cannot be manipulated, but other generic NPCs like "Customer" or "Patron" can be manipulated.

How to Manipulate People

Use the Social Prompt from the Hand Scanner

While having the Hand Scanner pointed at NPCs, press E to open the Social Skills menu. This menu shows all of the other possible social skills you can use against NPCs, such as Diplomacy, Intimidation or Instigation.

Use the Up and Down Arrow Keys or the Mouse wheel from the Social Skills menu to highlight Manipulation. Then, press the E key to attempt the manipulation.

Manipulation has up to a 30% chance to succeed and will have the manipulated target fight with you for up to 1 minute.

Starfield Related Guides

List of All Skills

Skills Guide

All Skill Trees

List of Social Skills

Commerce	Gastronomy	Persuasion
Scavenging	Theft	Deception
Diplomacy	Intimidation	Isolation
Negotiation	Instigation	Leadership
Outpost Management	Manipulation	Ship Command
Xenosociology