Some games live or die on the strengths or their NPCs. Bethesda’sStarfieldis a vast game with dozens upon dozens of named NPCs populating its streets, ships, and stations - some of them friendly and compassionate, others… not so much. Many players' favorite characters are the ones they canrecruit to their crew or team, while others enjoy unique vendors, quest givers, or random NPCs.
But some of the most memorable characters in any game are the big bads, the down and outs, the villains. And that’s true inStarfieldtoo, as some of the game’s biggest personalities are found in its villains and morally questionable characters.
This article contains spoilers, so players should proceed with caution.
10Nicolaus Slayton
The CEO of Slayton Aerospace, whose ship parts many players use throughout the game, Nicolaus Slayton is also a man of questionable morals. His response to a little bit of corporate espionage is toseal up his building and have the player shot on sight, while also getting their ship impounded. Slayton even wants to have a former employee of his killed for stealing company property. All par for the course in the literally cutthroat corporate world of Neon megacorps, but still not very nice.
9Lucas Drexler
Lucas Drexler is the CEO of Ryujin Industries' competitor, Infinity LTD. Encountered during the Ryujin Industries questline, Drexler is shown to be a pretty bad guy all around.
As is standard in the dangerous corporate world ofStarfield, Drexler is involved in more than one thing that’s a little bit naughty. But Drexler is responsible for orchestrating anillegal human clinical trialof untested and dangerous Internal Neuroamp technology. Most of the subjects ended up dead, brain-dead, or comatose. And that’s without the mercenaries he sent to intercept shipments.
8Ularu Chen
Ularu Chen isStarfield’stake on corporate evil. A high-up in tech giant Ryujin, Ularu Chen is a scheming mastermind seeking to oust the company CEO, Masako Imada. Ularu Chen is perfectly happy to frame her trusted subordinates for crimes they didn’t commit, while also plotting to take down competitor companies after giving them insider information. Ularu Chen is the mastermind behind much of the Ryujin Industries questline, as it’s her actions that have caused many of the problems faving the company. She even backs the use of dangerous mind control technology against her own colleagues.
7Ron Hope
Ron Hope is a dedicated and generous business, a man who built a spaceship company from the ground up - along with a town. Ron Hope provides hundreds of well-paid jobs for many good people, family men and women who without Ron Hope would have nothing at all. Ron Hope sounds like a pretty standup guy.
Except in actuality Ron Hope hashatched a secret plotto con hardworking farmers out of their farms. Using an experimental fertilizer thatincreases the mineral content of soil, Ron Hope hoped to drive farmers out of business while increasing their land’s mineral content all so he could buy it cheap and use it in his spaceships. Using mercenaries and disaffected veterans Ron Hope sought to turn his plans into reality, only to be foiled by playersduring the Freestar Collective questline.
6Benjamin Bayu
The city administrator of Neon, Benjamin Bayu is neck deep in all the shady goings-on that occur there. Friendly with the Seokguh criminal syndicates, there isn’t a criminal pie in the city that Bayu doesn’t have his fingers in. Encountered several times by players in various quests, Bayu is alleged by manyStarfieldNPCs to have a habit of ‘disappearing’ people who public criticize or disagree with him. And he’s on the Freestar Collective’s Council of Governors, too!
5Naeva Mora
The second in command of the Crimson Fleet pirates, Naeva is a greedy, violent pirate without much of anything resembling morals. Naeva tasks the player character with all sorts of piratical missions including the destruction of ships and thievery and seems to revel in the violence and mayhem that come with being a Crimson Fleet pirate. Naeva is also responsible for sending Crimson Fleet pirates out to claim bases and footholds on other worlds from which they can be more effective pirates. And she doesn’t seem to show an ounce of regret.
4Delgado
Delgado is the leader of the Crimson Fleet faction of space pirates and general criminals that prey upon the people of the Settled Systems from their space station, The Key.
A bit of a dreamer, Delgado seems more concerned with finding a legendary pirate treasure than in running the day-to-day affairs of the Crimson Fleet. But make no mistake, Delgado presides over all the wanton killing, destruction, and piracy comitted by the members of the Crimson Fleet anddoesn’t even bat an eyelid.For Delgado, all this is part and parcel of being a space pirate, and he wants the legendary treasure to make things even easier for his pirates. He is part of apretty difficult boss battle sequence, though.
3Vae Victis
Vae Victis, also known as Francois Sanon, is a decorated United Colonies veteran, a commander once high up in the UC chain of command. During the Colony War Vae Victis destroyed the city of Londinion’s spaceport to prevent a terrormorph infestation from spreading.
Sentenced to death after the Colony War, for war crimes Vae Victis was secretly kept alive and hidden underneath New Atlantis, where he plotted to carry out terror attacks against New Atlantis usingterrifying aliens called Terrormorphs, all in a bid to get himself a bit more power.
2The Hunter
An enigmatic Starborn, the Hunter serves as a cautionary tale for players seeking the Unity. Jaded and bored by his countless trips through Unity into an endless procession of near-identical universes, the Hunter decides that the easiest way to achieve his goals is to simply… kill everyone and everything in his way.
The Hunter plays a major role in main story quest,High Price to Pay, where his approach to seeking the Unity is well and truly put on display to frightening effect. Easily one the most evil characters inStarfield, the Hunter boasts of being responsible forcountless deaths of innocentsand even appears to find it fun.
1Victor Aiza
Introduced to players in one of thefinal missions of the main story quest, Unearthed, Victor Aiza is the mastermind behind the Grav Drive technology that lets players and NPCs alike travel the stars. So far, so good. Right? But later on it’s revealed that Victor Aizaknew the Grav Drive tech would destroy the Earth’s magnetosphere, resulting in the extinction ofmillions of plant and animal speciesalong with costing humanity its homeworld. Victor Aiza kept all this secret from his employees and from NASA and other colleagues until it was far too late and the damage was done.
