Quests in Starfield vary greatly in terms of tone and theme. Some may have players deciding the fate of entire colonies, while others involve simple errands for big people. The Overdesigned quest falls under the latter, and while it may seem like a boring job, the rewards from it are far from mundane.
This is one of those quests where Starfield players are forced to make a decision. Thankfully, lives aren't at stake here, and the entire job is more like running a favor for a friend. Either way, the choices players make here decide what reward they get at the end, and there's a lot to consider when picking between them.
Starfield: Overdesigned Quest Steps and Walkthrough
After helping Walter Stroud claim an artifact piece in Neon during the All That Money Can Buy quest, he will eventually ask players to visit his company's space station in the Narion system. Stroud-Ecklund is trying to come up with a new commercial starship design, but it seems like his team has hit a roadblock. This interaction kicks off the quest, which involves the following steps:
- Go to the Stroud-Ecklund Staryard
- Find and Speak with Jules
- (Optional) Speak to the team members
- Speak with Jules about market research
- Complete a passenger mission
- (Optional) Complete a bounty mission
- Speak with Jules one last time
- Speak with Walter
Solving the Budget Issue
The first concern Jules will bring up is budget — the team is trying to hit a balance between ship costs and the actual price point. Players can choose to be prudent with the budget or convince Jules to ask her superiors for as much money as possible for the project. This decision will affect the end reward for this quest, but more on that later.
Persuading Jules might be difficult, so either get some points into the Persuasion skill or pop some Hippolyta pills before attempting to pass the skill check.
Conducting Market Research
Next, players will need to complete a few bounties from the nearby job board in order to get data on ship performance. Grab a passenger and a bounty mission to cross off more boxes from the objective list.
These bounties are randomly generated, but they are very simple and easy to complete. Just follow the quest markers and return to Jules once both are done. Players don't need to do all the jobs in a mission board, but they're there for those who want a bit of extra Credits on the side.
Compromise or Team-Building Exercise?
The last part of this quest involves one more meeting with the design team, and players can choose to either compromise or lead a team-building exercise. If players go with a smaller budget and compromise with the team, then they'll get the Kepler S, an unarmed B-class ship with fast engines and a solid grav drive for long-range jumps.
On the other hand, if players maximize the budget and lead a very enthusiastic team-building exercise, they'll receive a hulking, overly-designed monstrosity of a ship called the Kepler R. This is a C-class vessel that looks and feels like a space-faring freight ship.
It's hard to tell which of these versions is better, though the Kepler R wins by a minuscule margin simply because of its selling price. Players need a maxed-out Piloting skill before they can pilot this thing, however, and reaching that point might take a while, depending on whether players have been engaging in space combat frequently or not.
Starfield is available now on PC and Xbox Series X/S.