Any exploration RPG like Starfield tends to come with the risk of fall damage. Are you on the top of a beautiful cliff? Be careful not to fall to the bottom or you could find yourself face to face with a death screen. Some games forgo fall damage entirely to let players traipse around to their heart’s content without any gravitational threats. Other games, though, punish you for risky leaps that would snap a real person’s leg in two. So, which one is Starfield?
Can you suffer fall damage in Starfield?
Yes. If you jump off a large ledge in Starfield you will take fall damage. You might even possibly break a bone or damage other limbs/organs, which will require special first aid or medical care to repair. Broken and damaged limbs have been a staple of Fallout titles for a long while, but Starfield also includes lung damage and more.
However, the amount of fall damage you take in Starfield — or if you take any at all — is heavily influenced by the gravity in a given area. Considering old Bethesda games used to be infamous for players tripping over too tall a rock and breaking their knees, Starfield’s fall damage feels particularly generous.
How does gravity affect fall damage in Starfield?
The lighter the gravity, the more you can get away with in Starfield. So, whenever you’re on a planet like Mars, you don’t have to worry about fall damage. The gravity is too low for that. However, be careful when you transfer to places like New Atlantis — hop off the walkways at the wrong spot and you’ll break a leg. Any planet with normal, Earth-like gravity will damage you.
If the thought of checking the gravity on each planet sounds exhausting to you, there’s a trick: if you can jump really high and far without any effort and are moving in a really floaty way, you’re likely on a low-gravity planet. Meanwhile, if your character is only managing little bunny hops and is stuck pretty close to the ground, the planet has higher gravity. So be safer with your leaping and bounding on those planets.
