First Contact is one of the side missions in Starfield. A distress call has been sent from the planet of Porrima II, where the citizens ask for help in finding out about the mysterious ship that has just appeared in their orbit one day.
Read ahead as we go through the events of the First Contact mission in Starfield, as well as talk about how to reach its different endings.
How to start the First Contact Mission
The First Contact mission will immediately start once you get to Porrima II’s orbit in the Porrima system. You will receive a distress call that requests for any help down at Paradiso.
First Contact Mission Walkthrough
As you receive the mission marker in Porrima II’s orbit, make your way down to the planet and go to Paradiso.
Speak with Chief Sugiyama
Follow the marker to get to the Security Office, then talk to Chief Jiro Sugiyama. Talk about the distress call that he sent and then agree that you would not disclose the issue at hand to anyone else.
Chief Sugiyama will then tell you about a mysterious ship that has now been in orbit around Porrima II. He then askes for your help to find out more about the ship and what its passengers’ intentions are.
Hail the Unidentified Ship
Go up to Porrima II’s orbit and approach the unidentified ship. Send out a transmission to the ship to try and get someone to reply to you. After a few tries, you won’t be able to get any response, so you will have to board the ship.
Dock with the ship and enter
Approach the ship closer and prepare to dock it. As you board the ship, you will be greeted by the passengers of the ship who are in disbelief to see another human being. Captain Brackenridge introduces herself, along with two of her crewmates. She then briefly shares their predicament, stating that they just finished their 200-year journey away from Earth to colonize Porrima II. However, they were surprised to see that the planet has already been colonized. They tried to make contact, however they never got through.
Follow Captain Brackenridge
Talk to Captain Brackenridge some more and follow her to the bridge. She will share the story of her ancestor who was the brains behind the construction of the generation ship Constant, the one you are in right now, after learning about extinction-level events that could wipe out humanity.
They then set a course to Porrima II, however, because of how technology exponentially progressed throughout the years, Constant has been overtaken by another colonizers’ ship who got to the planet first, and established what is now known as Paradiso.
The passengers of Constant are now in a dilemma as they haven’t had any luck at establishing comms with the people in Paradiso, and now Captain Brackenridge asks for your help to be their diplomat and negotiate a solution with the people in Paradiso.
Negotiate with Oliver Campbell
Go back down to Paradiso and head to the Executive Floor to speak with Oliver Campbell. You will be greeted by Keavy the secretary first before you can enter the office. Once inside the office, you will meet Campbell and some of his board members, Sima and Balam.
The board is discussing on what they could do to the ship. Balam suggests to help them by getting a Grav Drive for their ship and updating their starmap to find another suitable planet to colonize. Sima suggests that they could be allowed to live on the planet, but they will have to work for Paradiso as its price. Campbell, on the other hand, would just want them gone as soon as possible through any means.
You then get to pick which option you would want to go for, which can turn out in three different endings for this mission; it would all depend on your story and how you would want to play it.
Overload the Reactor (Worst Ending)
If you choose to play the chaotic evil route in your playthrough, then Campbell may have a suggestion for you. Though it is not necessary, choosing the “Hypothetically, what could make a ship like that go away?” option will make Campbell talk about how old the ship’s reactors are, suggesting that they could be overloaded to blow up.
Even giving this thought a humor would make any of your companions abhor the idea, not to mention that plenty of lives will be gone. But, if you want to take this route, head back to Constant where you will have to do a bit of stealthy work.
First, make your way to Engineering and talk to Amin the head engineer. After exhausting your dialogue with him, he will walk away from where he is standing, giving you the opportunity to sneak behind his back and pickpocket the ECS Constant Reactor Terminal Key.
Next, head back to the niche opposite to where Amin was standing to access the Reactor Computer on the wall. Once you’re logged in, go to Reactor Computer and select Emergency Reactor Overdrive. It will then ask for a confirmation for the overdrive.
Make your way to the Command Bay and access the Captain’s Bridge Computer with the use of a Digipick. Then, in the computer, go to Urgent Actions and choose Confirm Request. As soon as you choose the option, alarms will start blaring and everyone in the ship will be hostile against you.
Immediately run back to the Docking Bay where your ship is to escape the ship before it blows up. Fly away from the ship as it explodes, then head back down to Paradiso to talk to Campbell and get your rewards. You will get 300 XP and 6,500 credits for the trouble.
Go for a Settlement Deal (Neutral Ending)
If you want to grant the Constant’s passenger’s wishes to still live in Porrima II, then choose the “I’ll convince them to take the settlement deal” option with Campbell. Campbell will then tell you that this deal will need lots of resources to build the infrastructure that will support the settlers.
To start, head back to Constant and talk to Captain Brackenridge about the settlement deal. You will then have to persuade her to spare some resources that will be needed for their settlement. If your persuasion is successful, she will point you over to Daisuke at the Mess Hall of the ship.
Talk to Daisuke over the materials that the ship will spare. He will give you just some of the materials, such as x30 Iron, x8 Sealant, x15 Fiber, and x4 Lithium. You will need to gather the remaining materials to proceed with the deal, and the total materials that you will need are:
- x10 Lithium
- x80 Iron
- x20 Sealant
- x40 Fiber
You can then gather these materials through any means, and once you have all of them, talk to Captain Brackenridge once more. They will then ask for your help to ferry her and some of the crew members down to Paradiso to talk about the deal. After landing, talk to the captain again to complete the mission.
You will receive 300 XP, a Modified XM-2311, some ammo, x2 Antique Earth Baseballs, x2 Antique Earth Soccer Ball, an Antique Earth Basketball, x3 Antique Earth Hockey Sticks, and an Antique Piggy Bank. These antique items can sell for a lot of credits.
Procure a Grav Drive for ECS Constant (Best Ending)
If you wish to help the Constant some other way, then choose the “I’ll buy the Grav Drive and convince them to settle elsewhere” option. However, it would be up to you to purchase the Grav Drive out of your own pockets.
To start, Campbell will point you over to a guy named Bennu over at Hopetech that will help you retrofit a Grav Drive to the Constant. Make your way to the Valo System, and then go to the planet Polvo where you will reach Hopetown.
Go to Hopetech and talk to Bennu. He will tell you about his plans on retrofitting the ship and says that the price for the parts and labor will be 40,000 credit. You can choose to pay the price outright, or you can haggle through persuasion and bring the price down to 25,000 credits if you succeed.
Head back to the ship and talk to Amin over at Engineering about the retrofitting. He will then ask for your help to get some things done in preparation for the Grav Drive. Amin will then tell you the steps on what to do. You can do them in any order:
- Head over to the Engineering Control Computer Alpha in the left side of the room and select Turbopump – Port > Cryogenic Radiator – Auxiliary.
- Head over to the Engineering Control Computer Beta in the right corner of the room and select Plasma Run-Off Inhibiter > Set to 5%.
- Head over to the Engineering Control Computer Gamma in the middle of the room and select Magnetic Flange Pipe Enclosures > Decouple > Auxiliary Module Assembly.
After doing all the tasks, talk to the captain once again to complete the mission. You will then be given 300 XP, a Modified XM-2311, some ammo, x2 Antique Earth Baseballs, x2 Antique Earth Soccer Ball, an Antique Earth Basketball, x3 Antique Earth Hockey Sticks, and an Antique Piggy Bank. These antique items can sell for a lot of credits.
You can still visit Constant as it can now be found within the Alpha Centauri system.