Best Unarmed Build

This is a guide on how to make the best Unarmed Build in Starfield. Read on to learn more about the best Unarmed background, skills, and traits, as well as how to play!

Unarmed Best Background

Bouncer

Unarmed Starting Skills
Boxing	Security	Fitness

The Bouncer background synergizes well with an unarmed build because it has all of the skills you would use most of the time. Boxing will increase your unarmed damage, and Fitness will lessen the stamina needed for attacks.

Security is a great additional skill to access locked areas in the game where you can get items to use or sell.

Best Bouncer Build

Unarmed Best Skills

Best Physical Skills

Skill	Rank
Boxing	★★★★
Fitness	★★★★
Stealth	★☆☆☆
Wellness	★★★★
Energy Weapon Dissipation	★★★★
Gymnastics	★★★★
Pain Tolerance	★★★★
Martial Arts	★★★★
Neurostrikes	★★★★
Rejuvenation	★★★★

Unarmed build is focused on maximizing unarmed damage and stamina management. Boxing and Martial Arts are your bread and butter skills. These will increase your unarmed damage and provide game-changing effects to your attacks.

Take Fitness and Gymnastics to reduce oxygen usage and improve movement to easily close the gap between you and your enemy. You may also acquire Stealth, which is a great general skill to have in and out of combat, but especially if you want to just sneak up on enemies and knock them out with a single attack.

Finish off with defensive skills such as Wellness, Energy Weapon Dissipation, Pain Tolerance, and Rejuvenation, as you will be taking a lot of hits while running towards your target.

Note that n this Unarmed build, your offensive skills will solely come from the Physical tree because you wouldn't benefit from any weapon damage boosts from the Combat tree.

List of Physical Skills

Best Social Skills

Skill	Rank
Persuasion	★★★★

The only skill you'll need from the Social tree is Persuasion. This is extremely valuable in a lot of scenarios, from avoiding combat to turning an NPC's decision in your favor.

Best Science Skills

Skill	Rank
Medicine	★★★★
Spacesuit Design	★★★☆

There are two valuable skills coming from the Science tree, namely, Medicine and Spacesuit Design. Medicine will help you survive enemy attacks through improved healing from aid items.

On the other hand, Spacesuit Design can help improve the equipment you're wearing to even further increase utility and survivability.

Best Tech Skills

Skill	Rank
Boost Pack Training	★☆☆☆
Security	★★★☆
Targeting Control Systems	★☆☆☆

One of the most important skills in the game is Boost Pack Training. This will allow you to use booster packs, which greatly improve mobility in and out of combat. Then you would also want to rank up Security in order to get inside locked areas that will contain valuable items to use or sell.

Lastly, include Targeting Control Systems in your skills in order to destroy enemy engine systems in combat, allowing you to board and take over their ships.

List of All Skills

Unarmed Best Traits

Best Unarmed Traits
Terra Firma	Wanted	Neon Street Rat

You would want to get Terra Firma to increase Oxygen and Health because unarmed combat is often limited by the management of these stats. This will have a high uptime, as you will spend most of your unarmed combat on planet surfaces.

Wanted seems like a negative skill in the beginning, but it actually has a lot of benefits for the Unarmed build. Not only do you have increased damage when you have low health, but you will also be able to get tons of items whenever you defeat the mercenaries chasing you.

Get Neon Street Rat not only for the benefits that come with the trait but also for the role-playing aspect of the build. As someone born and raised in Neon City, you learned to survive by relying on your fists!

List of All Traits

How to Play as an Unarmed

Unarmed Playstyle
Hit and Run Stock Up on Aid Items

Hit and Run

The best way to approach combat unarmed is to master a hit-and-run style. As you run towards an enemy, it is expected that you will be hit a handful of times. The best way to mitigate damage is to take cover once again before proceeding to each of your targets.

Stock Up on Aid Items

Aid items not only recover your health but can also significantly increase your damage reduction and movement speed, which are highly valuable in unarmed combat. Make sure to stock up on these items, as you will find yourself often utilizing them!

Best Heals and List of All Aid

Starfield Related Guides

List of All Builds

All Background Builds

Other Builds