InStarfield, there are spacesuits, and then there arespacesuits. Plenty of your available armor will keep you alive - if barely. But some gear’s so good, you’ll hardly feel a thing, even at relatively low levels. And some of it’s available so early, you’ll think you cheated the system equipping it at level ten like you will.
We’ve included our picks for the strongest, most capable suits overall, plus a couple of nominees for quirkiest and most memorable. One of those is still solid. The other is… er, more watery.
7Monster Costume
If damage protection is your goal, Starfield’s Monster Costume isn’t your destination. It’s the only entry on this list that isn’t going to save you from a hail of bullets in a pinch. But it’s atardigrade costume, and how cool is that? There’s nothing else in the game quite like it, and it’s bound to turn plenty of NPCs' heads. Indeed, you’ll trigger unique dialogue on occasion, all because you’re dressed up as a water bear.
Finding the Monster Costume means taking a trip to New Homestead, the colony on Saturn’s moon of Titan, and agreeing to a doctor’s request to scare off some tourists. You should probably carry through with your promise, but technically speaking, you can waltz on out of New Homestead and she’ll be none the wiser.
6Mantis Spacesuit
The Mantis Spacesuit offers a high level of physical damage protection, solid enough levels of energy and EM protection, and a high likelihood for fantastic modifications to form one of Starfield’s finest sets of gear you’re able to acquire anytime remotely early on. You’ll need to complete the ‘Lair of the Mantis’ side quest, at which point you’ll also gain access to the Mantis Helmet and Pack, not to mention the legendary vigilante’s own starship, the Razorleaf.
It might not be the most stylish garb in the Settled Systems, but if you can get it with something like the Bolstering effect, it will do a fine job keeping you alive.
5Gran-Gran’s Marine Armor
There’s lots to love about the optional ‘Kid Stuff’ trait, one of Starfield’s more memorable ones. You’ll get a ship (though it’s not much to write home about), you’ll get routine chats with your parents (though you’ll need to send them 500 credits a week), and you’ll get Gran-Gran’s Marine Armor. No parentheses this time; no questions asked. It’s yours.
Well, it’s yours eventually. At some point, your mother will leave a note at the Lodge asking you to swing by the apartment to come pick it up. It’s pretty good! Damage protection’s decent, but it tends to shine more as something to wear through hostile environments, with higher stats intended for keeping out harmful gases, radiation, and so forth.
4Mark I Spacesuit
Much as we love the Mantis Spacesuit, and while we surely hold Gran-Gran’s with sentimental esteem, the Mark I Spacesuit rather makes both less appealing from an early-game standpoint. You see, and while we dread the day Bethesda may patch this so it’s no longer the case, you’re able to acquire the heavily defensive Mark I armor within an hour of starting Starfield.
It’s locked up inside a display cabinet down in the Lodge’s basement, and it’ssupposedto require a third rank in Security, since the cabinet has a Master-tier lock. That’s all well and good, but if you crouch down and look for just the right spot along the edge of the glass, you can simply pop the thing right on open and snatch something with over 120 defense on all three core fronts, plus great thermal and radiation resistance. Yeah, uh, thanks for the late-game garb!
3Bounty Hunter Spacesuit
Oddly enough, we’ve only heard confirmed sightings of the Bounty Hunter Spacesuit within the ‘Lair of the Mantis’ quest’s, well, lair. That means, if true, there’s potentially a better bit of gear here than the much-hyped Mantis Spacesuit - it really depends how stacked your version of the latter ends up being. For our money, we could have sworn we found this thing elsewhere, so we’ll confirm if that’s the case in the future.
Regardless, the Bounty Hunter Spacesuit eschews traditional style points for something that looks mean and deadly, and we daresay it does a good job of it. Defense-wise, it’s about on-par with the Mark I Spacesuit, but the Bounty Hunter Spacesuit comes in ahead with a shared base resistance of 15 to all four environmental hazards. Up that with mods, and you’re looking at one of the best.
2Starborn Spacesuits Astra Through Avitus
Starfield’s got New Game Plus. That, in and of itself, is quite the statement; Bethesda Game Studios' RPGs aren’t exactly known for compelling you to hit credits in a big way, let alone telling you to do it again and again. That’s exactly how its NG+-exclusive spacesuits and starship function. You get the Starborn Spacesuit Astra (and the base model of the ship) upon finishing the main quest once.
Keep going, however, because you’ll get five tiers higher on that starship over time, and - get this -nine more tiersof spacesuits. The Astra kicks things off with a remarkable 147 on all three main damage protection modes, and 50 on all four environmental hazards. That 50 holds firm throughout, but things get better and better, culminating with…
1Starborn Spacesuit Venator
…Inarguably the best spacesuit in Starfield, the Starborn Spacesuit Venator. 246 Physical, 246 Energy, 246 EM, and straight 50s on all the rest, not to mention some handy perks that make killing and hauling all the easier. The Venator tasks you with finishing Starfield’s main quests a whopping ten times, and frankly, as much as we enjoy the story, we’re not going to blame anybody for refraining.
Maybe PC console commands are more your style here, and again, no shade. But if you do want to blitz through the ‘MSQ’ all ten times - and to be sure, you’ll be more powerful in every sense each time you do - you’re going to wear this thing with so much pride, even as Terrormorphs fail to tear through you, and galactic rogues can’t seem to hit you for all the credits in the universe.
