Warning: This article contains late-game spoilers for Starfield.Bethesda has finally seen the fruits of its labors with the release ofStarfield, an expansive space RPG that tests the boundaries of what players thought possible. After a series of circumstances see fans being made to take up the reignsas captain of the Frontier, an entire universe opens up for them to explore however they want, whenever they want. Players can either become a strong force of good for the Navy or the police force, become a devious space pirate, or even work towards finding the center of all things in the universe. The latter may not be as optional and up to the player as the rest, but it serves as one ofStarfield’sbiggest and most important mysteries.
Everything inStarfieldkicks off when fans discover their first “Artifact,” which proceeds to expose them to an array of bright lights and sounds that only one other person, Barrett, has experienced. After joining Constellation, finding these Artifacts soon becomes the main objective of the game. While the little ragtag group of explorers wishes to find the truth, they and the player get a bit more than they bargained for, and soon learn that this information comes with huge complications. Just how a bunch of gravitational rocks mean so much is the center of the story behindStarfield.
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Starfield: What is the Artifact?
At the very beginning ofStarfield, the Artifacts are mostly known as strange rocks that the player has to track down throughout many of the game’s starting quests, most notably recognized by their strange gravitational pull that typically shows up as an anomaly on scanners. Some endeavors to claim these Artifacts can range from as dull as visiting a small planet with very little threats, to playing such a key role in the story that players will need todeal with the most successful people in Neon cityto get a hold of one.
However, there’s a peculiar reason why some of the Artifacts aren’t found in set locations. They’re actually randomized withevery playthrough ofStarfield, and the same goes for the power temples that they are eventually used to locate. This is due to the fact that each time someone makes their way throughStarfield, it’s considered an entirely different universe with differences all the way down to Artifact locations.
How the Artifacts Tie Into Starfield’s Multiverse
Once the player gains enough of the Artifacts, they’ll run into a curious faction called the Starborn who threaten the player to not get any closer to the truth. If fans continue to gather the items - and they eventually will have to if they want something to do beyondStarfield’s many side quests- they’ll come to realize that the Artifacts belong to an Armillary; an astrological tool that reveals the location of “the Unity.” The Unity is described as the center of the cosmos, and once players step inside, they’ll enter an entirely new universe, and also restart theirStarfieldplaythrough.
By the time fans are able to experience thisunique twist on New Game Plus, though, they’re well aware that the Artifacts aren’t toys to be played with, but the very thing that may have led to some of their companions - as well as Earth itself - to be destroyed in the face of their power. At the end of each playthrough, it’ll be up to the player just how many times they want to re-experience the game in an entirely new universe, with the changes getting more and more obvious as the runs increase in number. Whether this has any darker connotations, however, remains to be seen, possibly in the upcoming story expansion, Shattered Space.
Starfieldis available now on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
