If you finish Starfield 4 or 5 times, some seriously weird s*** starts happening

Woman standing with arms crossed
(Image credit: Bethesda)

There are plenty of weird sights in Starfield, from a zero-G casino to alien critters with exposed brains to Nicolas Cage's face in your flashlight beam. (To be fair, that last one was created by a modder.)

But some of the weirdest and most surprising stuff in Starfield is hidden pretty darn deep into the game. In fact, it's so deep you won't even find it until you've completed the main quest, and not just once but several times using Starfield New Game+.

NOTE: MAJOR SPOILERS from here on out! Because to explain this I'm gonna have to talk quite a bit about Starfield's main quest and how New Game+ works.

❗ Major Starfield spoilers below this line, turn back ❗


Here's the TLDR version:

  • Playing Starfield New Game+ will let you start over from the beginning while keeping your skills and powers
  • Each time you start New Game+ you are entering a new version of the universe
  • Sometimes a new universe will contain a wildly different version of the Constellation group
  • Those differences can include the entire Constellation team being dead or retired or some of them being evil.
  • You may even meet multiple versions of your own character
  • Despite those major differences to Constellation, you can still continue and complete the game again in that universe

Starfield's main quest

I won't go into every last detail, but the main story quest of Starfield involves collecting artifacts of unknown origin that have been scattered across the galaxy. When you collect them all you can enter The Unity, which is a nexus for accessing the multiverse.

Entering The Unity starts the game over in a new version of the universe, which is Starfield's New Game+. When you do this you keep your character, skills, and powers but lose all your belongings. Then you can play through the game again from the beginning.

Starfield's New Game++ (and +++, and ++++, etc)

(Image credit: Bethesda)

If you collect 6 more artifacts and complete the final mission of the main quest again, you can enter The Unity again, moving you from New Game+ to New Game++. And if you keep doing that you'll eventually find some truly bizarre things happening along the way.

You probably get the concept of the multiverse: there are infinite versions of our universe, and although they're mostly identical there are sometimes major differences. In Starfield, these differences can sometimes be seen when you visit Constellation in New Atlantis.

For instance, I walked into Constellation in New Game++++ and found it filled with… me. Different versions of me. For some reason, in this universe, various versions of my character kept winding up at Constellation. They all seemed pretty chummy, though since they'd joined different Starfield factions they all had different personalities. It's honestly hilarious:

That's not the only time I ran into multiple versions of me in Starfield's New Game+. In another version of the universe, I entered Constellation to discover Sarah Morgan mortally wounded. She accused me of killing the other members of Constellation, which of course I hadn't done—turns out it was the work of an evil version of me from another universe. Evil Me showed up a moment later, mocked me, and tried to kill me.

Different versions of Starfield's multiverse

Starfield alternate timeline

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Most of these I can confirm because they happened to me firsthand after save-scumming the start of New Game(4+) a bunch of times. A few others I haven't seen myself but have been documented by IGN, Gamerant, and Reddit. And there may be still more that haven't been discovered.

Here are some of the alternate versions of Constellation, and what happens when you visit them:

  • An evil version of Andreja and an army of House Va'ruun soldiers have killed the other members of Constellation. Andreja and her goons attack you.
  • An adult Cora Coe blames you for the death of her dad Sam Coe. Along with a small army of mercs, she attacks you.
  • Walter Stroud breaks bad, having bought out the other members of Constellation and hired a bunch of thugs. The money-hungry Stroud offers to sell you his artifacts for 100,000 credits.
  • An Evil You has killed everyone at Constellation, mentioned above.
  • Constellation consists of different (nice) versions of your character who have all joined different factions, as shown above.
  • The members of Constellation are all the same, though the miner version of yourself (as if you just started the game for the first time) is already at the Lodge delivering the first artifact. This version of you can be recruited as a crew member for your spaceship, too!
  • Everyone in Constellation are child versions of themselves—or so it first appears. Turns out it's just kids cosplaying as Constellation members: the real members quit the guild years ago.
  • Vasco is the only Constellation member left, the others having been killed a character called The Hunter.

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Except for the unusual things happening in that room, the game is otherwise the same. If the alternate Constellation members are friendly they will give you their artifacts; if they're evil you can kill them and take their artifacts. No matter what, you can still:

  • Collect the final six artifacts
  • Visit temples to collect new powers
  • Visit temples to upgrade the powers you already have
  • Complete the final quest again, fighting your way through the buried temple to collect the last artifact
  • Enter the Unity again and start over in a new version of the universe

If everyone at Constellation is dead or gone (and this includes Vlad) you can find artifact locations and new temple locations by operating The Eye space station yourself. (It's not as cool as it sounds, you just click on the big table).

How to get Starfield's alternate Constellation versions

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Whether or not you get these alternate versions of Constellation seems to be random. For me they didn't begin happening until New Game 4+.

A good (though time consuming) way to see them for yourself is to save scum. Save your game just before entering The Unity in New Game 4+ or 5+. Sit through the final cinematic and about 30 seconds of credits (until you can skip them by holding Tab) and then visit Constellation. If you don't see an alternate version of Constellation, reload that save and try again.

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Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.