How do you join the United Colonies Vanguard in Starfield? The United Colonies is one of the many factions you can join in the game, and also likely to be one of the earliest you come across. But you don’t join just any old part of this faction, you get to enter the Starfield UC Vanguard, a talented team looking to protect the peace. But what do you get for joining the UC? Well, here’s everything you need to know about the Starfield United Colonies faction.
The UC Vanguard is one of the handful of Starfield factions you can join in your journey through the stars. Over the course of the Starfield length, you’re likely to encounter each one and perhaps even ally with them if they align with your character’s ideals. After all, not everyone wants to be a lawless pirate with the Starfield Crimson Fleet faction. Like previous Bethesda games, it’s the varied factions that offer a great deal of replay value that helps make them among the best RPG games of all time.
How to join the UC Vanguard in Starfield
To join the UC Vanguard in Starfield, you must speak to Commander John Tuala in the MAST in New Atlantis city on the planet of Jemison. Tuala will invite you to register with the United Colonies faction and complete a test before sending you on your first mission.
Commander Tuala can be found at the base of the MAST – the huge tower in Starfield’s New Atlantis city – standing behind a desk with a large Vanguard banner behind him.
While you can head here any time to join the UC Vanguard faction, you’re likely to encounter him during an early main quest mission alongside Starfield’s Sarah Morgan, one of the Starfield companions. If you didn’t get sidetracked with joining the United Colonies already, then head back and speak to Tuala.
From here, you will be sent downstairs to register with the UC Vanguard before heading through the United Colonies museum and completing a short orientation exam. While you don’t necessarily have to listen to all the displays in the museum, it doesn’t hurt to learn more about the UC faction and the deep lore of the game. In fact, Tuala will bring this back up if you listen to a few of the different displays.
As for the orientation exam, this involves completing a short space combat test. During this test, you must defeat at least three waves of enemy ships to succeed. Think back to the basics, remembering to distribute power to your shields and weapons, and you should have little issue defeating at least the first three waves.
Once you’ve completed these tasks, you will be officially inaugurated to the UC Vanguard and sent on your first mission: Grunt Work.
Grunt Work
The first quest for the United Colonies Vanguard faction sends you to Tau Ceti – the site of one of the Starfield magazine locations – to aid a settlement. While this doesn’t exactly pan out, with the settlement under the threat of a Terrormorph, completing it will move you up in standing with Tuala and the UC.
After completing Grunt Work, you will receive two new United Colonies faction quests – Delivering Devils and Deep Cover – credits, and a full set of UC Vanguard gear.
Delivering Devils
Following the story thread of Grunt Work, Delivering Devils sees the player tracking down a scientist to get to the bottom of the Terrormorph issue. This quest is directly related to the United Colonies, whereas Deep Cover is technically a Crimson Fleet quest.
Deep Cover
Recognizing your talents, Commander Tuala sends you on an assignment to report to the UC Vigilance and work with Commander Kibwe Ikande to infiltrate the Crimson Fleet. In your missions journal, this will be marked with a Crimson Fleet icon, despite it also being part of the United Colonies faction quest-chain.
All Starfield UC Vanguard quests
The Starfield United Colonies quests are:
- Supra Et Ultra
- Grunt Work
- Delivering Devils
- Eyewitness
- Friends Like These
- The Devils You Know
- War Relics
- Hostile Intelligence
- A Legacy Forged
These United Colonies faction quests are heavily intertwined with the Crimson Fleet faction, seeing you infiltrating this group of marauders. With that said, it’s not all about taking down pirates. For example, Grunt Work focuses on the horrifying Terrormorphs.
Starfield UC Vanguard rewards
The Starfield UC Vanguard faction rewards include:
- UC Vanguard Pilot Pack
- UC Vanguard Spacesuit
- UC Vanguard Space Helmet
- UC Antixeno Skip Pack
- UC Antixeno Spacesuit
- UC Antixeno Space Helmet
- United Colonies Mission Board
- Tempest unique rifle
- Mercury Penthouse
- Credits
- XP
Besides the flashy Starfield armor set and plenty of credits and XP, joining the UC Vanguard will also offer access to the exclusive United Colonies Starfield Mission Board in the UC Vigilance. This grants repeatable, radiant quests to represent the United Colonies. It’s worth noting that each faction has its own Mission Board, so the Mission Board mechanic isn’t exclusive to the United Colonies Vanguard.
Perhaps most excitingly though, completing the United Colonies faction storyline and siding with the UC Vanguard SysDef will reward you with the Tempest, one of the Starfield unique weapons. It’s not quite as powerful as the Revenant, which you’ll get if you side with the Crimson Fleet, but it’s still a great weapon to get for defeating the antagonist (though we won’t spoil who that is).
Similarly, during the mission Hostile Intelligence, you can also collect the UC Antixeno unique armor, which comes with stellar perks. It’s possible to miss this if you’re not paying attention to the optional objectives, so be sure to look around.
Completing the United Colonies mission A Legacy Forged will also reward you with a house – the Mercury Penthouse apartment in New Atlantis. In the lore, the UC offers citizenship to those who sign up. In fact, Commander Tuala notes that, due to your performance in the registration process, that it will be quicker than usual. As such, it makes sense that you get a fancy apartment – a good introduction to the Starfield houses system – from working for the United Colonies.
However, there’s also rewards that are available in the locations that you will visit during the United Colonies questline. While these aren’t technically UC Vanguard rewards, they are worth collecting. The video above by ‘LunarGaming’ will show you all the locations.
Starfield UC Vanguard lore
The United Colonies Vanguard is a civilian navy established in 2315 following the bloody Colony War against the Freestar Collective. The player can join this faction and undertake several quests with them to uncover more of its history and that of the Crimson Fleet, a band of dangerous pirates.
The Vanguard uses civilians with access to ships and combat experience the opportunity to aid in the protection of peace in the galaxy, putting a stop of piracy and other crimes. In the events players can take part in during the quest line, this largely involves taking down the Crimson Fleet.
Is it worth joining the United Colonies Vanguard in Starfield?
Yes, the United Colonies Vanguard is one of the most interesting questlines in the game, seeing you join up with the faction to infiltrate and take down a pirate organization. However, you can also choose to join and side with the Crimson Fleet, making for some great choices.
Furthermore, it’s worth pointing out that you can join all the factions at the same time, so there’s not really any downsides to joining the United Colonies. For example, you can even join the Crimson Fleet while also serving in the United Colonies Vanguard. So, whether you’re already a part of the Starfield Freestar Collective or the Starfield Ryujin Industries, don’t be afraid to also sign up to the United Colonies. After all, there are great rewards and an stellar set of Starfield missions related to the UC Vanguard.
So there you have it, everything you need to know about the Starfield UC Vanguard faction, including how to join the United Colonies and all the rewards for doing so. It’s worth noting that these quests can offer quite a bit of challenge. If you’re struggling, take a look at the best Starfield builds, as these will use the best Starfield backgrounds, best Starfield traits, and the best Starfield skills to great effect. No one ever said saving the galaxy would be easy.
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.