Starfieldis the sort of game where players can fly to a random star and discover a new side quest waiting for them. This is the case when players head off to Eta Cassiopeiain the upper-left corner of the star map. The whole system is under siege by Spacers, and it’s up to the player to help the locals.
“Failure to Communicate” is an especially good mission for players who want to reach a high Piloting skill because it includes a lot of space combat. The fights are difficult but possible to handle with the starting ship, so players who just beganStarfieldcan head over early. Just be sure to bring plenty of spare ship parts and a few banked skill points because extra ship kills don’t count until after players upgrade their Piloting skill.
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How to Start Failure to Communicate
The first time players enter the star system Eta Cassiopeia, they’ll hear a distress call from someone named Alban Lopez. To get more information, players should land next to his hydroponic farmstead on Cassiopeia II. The man himself will be standing in front of his compound, gun in hand, but he’ll lower it quickly when he realizes the player isn’t a Spacer.
According to Alban, a group called LIST sent him and three other families to colonize the system, but it’s up to the families to defend themselves from invaders like the Spacers. The families each have a LIST satellite they can use to communicate with each other on a secure network, but the Spacers found them and are using them as bait to attack family ships. Thus, the first part of this mission is to repair all four LIST satellites so Alban can convince the other families to meet.
Where to Find the Satellites
The LIST satellites are in a solar orbit around Eta Cassiopeia, which means they’re nowhere near any of the planets. To reach them, players must enter the system view and select the satellite directly. Once there,players must defeat a set of three Spacer shipswho are guarding it. After that, target the satellite, fly to within 500 meters, and then repair it. Alban should then tell players to repair the other three satellites, which will appear in the system view.
Players can visit the Banda, Lemaire, and Wen satellites in any order. The Banda satellite has another set of three guards, the Lemaire satellite will have three ships jump in as players get close, and the Wen satellite has no guards at all. Once all four satellites are working, players must head to where the three surviving families are meeting, which is also a random point in space.
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How to Convince the Families to Join a Defensive Pact
Once at the family rendezvous, fly to within 500 meters of the J. Lemaire shipand dock with it. The heads of the three families are deep in discussion, so wait for them to finish talking before speaking to Alban. He’ll give the player a level-adjusted amount of credits for the satellite job, but he needs more help to convince Jacquelyn Lemaire and Chanda Banda to join a defensive pact.
Chanda turns out to be fully on board, but Jacquelyn needs more convincing, thanks to Alban’s rotten behavior in the past. Players have two ways to get her on board: eitherconvince her with a six-step Persuasionor pay her 2,000 credits to make up for Alban’s transgressions. If the Persuasion attempt fails, players can’t then pay the credits, so be careful when choosing between the two options.
Whether Jacquelyn agrees to join or not, the next step is to remove more Spacers from the system. Specifically,players must fly to Cassiopeia III and IVand clear out the Spacer ships waiting there. Each Spacer group includes four ships instead of three, and they both have ships with higher levels than the ones around the satellites. Players can get friendly reinforcements for each fight (and more reinforcements if the Lemaires are on board), but getting more help for these fights will mean less help during the final stage of the mission.
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How to Clear the Spacer Station
After visiting both planets, head back to the Lopez farm to meet with the heads of the families again. Alban has discovered the location of the Spacer base in the system: a derelict Starstation in orbit around Cassiopeia II. Players will need to select the Starstation directly from the map to approach it so it’s safe enoughto leave the system and resupply if needed.
The station has no weapons of its own, buttwo waves of four Spacer shipswill show up to defend it. Players should have the main Lopez and Banda ships on their side for this fight, and they may have more if Jacquelyn joined the defensive pact and players took on the last two fights on their own.
Once the ships are down, dock with the station to clear out the last of the Spacers. A fight between the families and the Spacers is already underway when players enter the station, and the number of allies depends on whether Jacquelyn is on board. During this initial fight, players can flank the Spacers by entering a vent on the left wall of the hallway.
After the fighting ends, players must continue alone into the upper level of the station. This area has plenty of routes to take, vents to climb through and loot to gather, so be sure to have a look around once all the Spacers are down. The most dangerous enemy is the Spacer captain, who waits in the room overlooking the control station.
When all the Spacers are down, players should head back the way they came in to meet with Alban Lopez one final time. He’ll give playersanother credit reward (double the last amount)and 100 XP. Players can keep looting the station and exploring Eta Cassiopeia after this, but the mission is over.
Starfieldis available now on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
