Starfield has hundreds of planets and moons ready to be explored; every single one of them is different and has its own unique set of flora, fauna, resources, and traits. While this means that players have tons of possibilities when it comes to exploring, it also means that they will have to deal with all sorts of hazards.
This guide will show gamers how they can recover from environmental damage that they'll surely encounter while wandering through the various astronomical objects that they'll come across in Starfield.
How to Avoid Environmental Damage
While settlements, such as New Atlantis on Jemison, are inhabitable, and players can wander around freely without having to worry about protective gear to keep them safe, this is not the case on every planet in Starfield.
There are certain environments where not wearing a full suit will damage the player's well-being, and they will gradually lose health due to environmental damage. When this happens, the Suit Integrity Failure status effect will appear.
To avoid environmental damage, players must have their spacesuit, helmet, and pack equipped at all times while outdoors.
Fans who want to use their everyday wear in a protected environment can turn on the "Hide Spacesuit in Settlements" option in the Spacesuits tab and the "Hide Helmet in Breathable Areas" option. These options will automatically unequip the character's suit and helmet in safe areas.
How to Recover from Environmental Damage
Gamers might have to deal with environmental damage not too far into the Starfield main story. They'll have to visit Mars early on, and its atmosphere can deal quite a bit of damage if they go in unprotected. This is easy to identify since as soon as players suffer environmental damage, they will begin to slowly lose health.
Unlike when players are damaged by enemies, instead of their health temporarily disappearing, the damage taken will be marked orange on their health, and it cannot be recovered by taking medicine, eating, or sleeping. They can only recover health up until the bar reaches the orange marker.
In order to recover from environmental damage, players have to retreat indoors. Once indoors, the environmental damage indicator on the health bar will disappear, and they will be able to recover their health normally.
Thankfully, environmental damage from a planet's atmosphere is easily avoidable; gamers just have to make sure that they're properly equipped before leaving their ship once they've landed.
Starfield is available now on PC and Xbox Series X/S.