I entered the past weekend with the hope and expectation of completing a quest that less than 1% of all #Starfield players (All 13,000,000+ of us) have achieved: Shipping Magnate. To accomplish this I needed to use all of my Outpost Building skills and all my experience in game building.

I had the good fortune of being given some great tips from a master outpost builder who I’d met on X/Twitter. He even gave me a couple tips on planets where I could find some important resources.

So, I started the weekend with two fully functional outposts, both on Jemison. My centralized base located just across the lake from New Atlantis, and another not too far from the main base. Both of the Jemison bases produced some useful resources and both bases had human personnel working at the bases.

Below some photos of both of my Jemison bases.

Jemison HQ Near New Atlantis

I searched Jemison for months in order find a location on the lake near New Atlantis. There was no other reason for choosing this location, just proximity to the beautiful city. It is also within walking distance of the city. (BTW, this lovely location is tainted with glaring problem, creeping trees and that’s all I need to say.)

This photo is taken from the Jemison HQ starship landing site that sits right on the water across from the lake from New Atlantis. I simply wanted my main base on the water.

This photo is taken from atop my starship at Jemison HQ. It’s shows only one side of the vast outposts and its facilities. Notice that there’s two cargo link landing pads. Also, while there are a lot of resource containers, I’m in the process of increasing the capacity as more resources pour in.

COP Jemison 1

I name all my feeder outposts as Command Outposts (COP) because it sounds cool. Heh. I started out with cool names like, COP Sandstorm, COP Sandspur, and so forth, but I came to realize it’s more convenient to use the planet name. Anyway, there’s not much good stuff available to extract from Jemison, but in my early days of learning to build outposts I just wanted some place nearby. Below is a photo of COP Jemison 1.

This outpost was a learning experience because it’s the first base that I was able to successfully link to Jemison HQ. It’s not much to see but it has three outpost personnel stationed there. YES, it look very much like the same terrain as Jemison HQ but it is far enough away to be inaccessible by hiking.

COP Bessel 1

First things first: Tip of the hat to The Overboss! Thanks for the tip big fella! In Starfield, there are two vital resources that are required in large quantities: Aluminum and Iron. This location on Bessel has both and Nickel as well. So, my nick name for this place is The Motherlode. Yes, one site with all three resources! It’s not much to look at. It’s an ugly planet. It’s inhospitable and I don’t have any human personnel stationed there, but this is an extremely important outpost.

The location will challenge all of your exploration skills, and even teach you new stills in order to find it. But it is worth the trip. If I get requests I’ll provide a link to a video that another Captain created as a guide. My apologies, it’s a rather sloppy outpost that needs more work.

This is another photo COP Bessel 1, taken from above my buffed up Vindicator III starship. Again, this is a work in progress.

COP IO 1, A Moon of Jupiter

Many resources (Titanium, others) I wanted to harvest are apparently unavailable to me until I increase other skills. I’ll do this in time but as the weekend wore on I decided it would be useful to get a good supply of Helium-3. I finally found a supply of this resource on one of Jupiter’s moons, Io. Below is my minimal outpost, but it provides a rich supply of Helium-3.

This is the smallest and most minimal of my outposts. It produces only one resource, Helium-3.

Commentary on Outpost Building

I need to build one more outpost in order to complete the Shipping Magnate quest. Despite the fact that I have now completed and linked four of the outposts needed, it was exhausting.

The outpost skills are complex and withering with idocynracies and non-intuitive behaviors. So, for now, I continue to declare “NO JOY” on Outpost Building.

Once I complete this quest, I should have most of the skills needed to do this again.  And I know where to find many important resources. So, perhaps in a future NG, I’ll begin to feel enjoyment in Starfield’s outpost building.

BTW, there are reasons to be hopeful. When you see the builds from The Overlord and other great Starfield builders, you realize what can be done! This is what keeps me invested. I continue to hope I’ll find the enjoyment that comes from building activities.

Coming Soon: Completing The Fifth Outpost