If there’s one thing we can all agree on when it comes to Bethesda’s Starfield, it’s this: the game is absolutely huge. It’s so large that the thought of fully finishing everything sounds quite overwhelming, right? Well, not to everyone. One dedicated player has spent over 200 hours scanning everything to completely survey all Starfield planets – bar a couple buggy ones – and now they’re sharing what they got from it all. If you’re hoping for something special, we have some bad news for you.
Taking to the Starfield subreddit to share that they’ve successfully scanned and surveyed 1,656 Starfield planets (if you count other celestial bodies like moons), ‘TeamasterTS’ reveals that “there aren’t any worthwhile rewards or anything” when you hit 100%. Cue that sad trombone sound, right? We know Starfield is one of the best RPG games out there at the moment, but you would like to think that a task as daunting and time-consuming as this would offer you something special when you complete it.
However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. As ‘TeamasterTS’ explains, “the idea of the [surveying] system is neat, but it ends up being extremely boring… [highlighting] the game’s shortcomings – rather than accentuating its strengths”. One thing we will say, though, is that you can actually sell your survey data to select Starfield characters – like Vlad in The Eye. So, by the end of your long journey surveying every single planet in Starfield, you should end up with well-over 1,000,000 credits to play with. If you’re trying to buy one of the best Starfield ships out there, that should be more than enough.
One thing that’s worth keeping in mind if you’re surveying planets yourself is that there are a couple of bugged ones. As per the extensive research of ‘TeamasterTS’, a wetlands fauna won’t spawn on Beta Marae I due to a water depth issue, a flying fauna is missing from Charybdis III, and an ocean fauna won’t spawn on Masada III. While this will frustrate any completionists out there, it does – in a way – technically mean that there could be a reward at the end of all this. Although, it does seem very – very – unlikely if there’s no hint of a special reward by the time you get 99.9% through it all.
Sure, you may stumble across some of the best Starfield weapons while you’re out on your travels, but there are quicker ways to make credits and easier ways to improve your gear. It is a shame, but Starfield just doesn’t seem to reward exploration as much as you’d like to think it would.
If you’re still hungry for more Starfield news, and not so hungry for Chunks Apples, you can find out more about why Starfield fans are losing it trying to work out what this Cube is right here. We also have more on the best Starfield outpost locations right here, and how you can loot any Starfield outfit you want using a rather unusual trick here. Sure, you might want to spend your Starfield days wandering around lifeless planets scanning rocks, but there’s so much more on offer here.
Still looking for more? While a good Starfield wiki can be a handy source of information, our new Starfield Database goes further, offering you daily news, searchable databanks, and even interactive tools like a New Atlantis map for exploration.