How many outposts can you have in Starfield

One of the many cool systems in Starfield is the ability to build your own outposts. At a glance, the feature appears similar to the settlement building in Fallout 4. However, building outposts in Starfield is actually much more fleshed out and has a lot more purpose. You can create giant mega factory outposts spanning multiple systems, all working together. Or, you can even just create a bunch of comfy outposts to consider your vacation homes away from exploring the galaxy. Once you’ve picked the first spot for your outpost, you can begin building your empire. No matter what you decide to build, the only limit is how many outposts you can have in Starfield.

How many outposts you can have in Starfield

When first starting, you can build eight different outposts in Starfield. Each time you build an Outpost Beacon, the required first structure for your outpost that generates the field around it in which you can build, this counts as an outpost slot.

If you ever decide you no longer want a specific outpost, and want to free up your available slots, you can demolish existing outposts to do so. Simply head to the Outpost Beacon for the outpost you no longer want, look at it, and hold down the proper key. By default, you need to hold down the ‘R’ key to remove the Outpost Beacon. Doing so will completely delete the outpost and free up a slot. However, even though the action itself is permanent, you can always rebuild in the same spot if you want later.

Thankfully, there are also ways to increase the maximum number of outposts you can have in Starfield.

How to increase your maximum number of outposts in Starfield

Increasing your maximum number of outposts in Starfield revolves around the Planetary Habitation skill under the Science tree. Each rank of the skill adds four to the total number of outposts you can have. So with Rank 1, you can now build 12 total outposts. With Rank 4, you can have a total of 24 outposts. Unfortunately, Planetary Habitation is one of the last skills in the Science tree. This means you will need to place twelve other skills in the Science tree before you can build more outposts.

I personally chose other skills to aid in my outpost building. This included skills like Geology that increased my resource gains, as well as Scanning and Outpost Engineering.

Also, ranking up Planetary Habitation also allows you to build outposts on harsher planets. Rank 1 allows you to build on planets with extreme temperatures. Rank 2 unlocks planets with extreme pressure. At Rank 3 you can build on planets with toxic or corrosive atmospheres, and the final rank allows you to build on planets with extreme gravity.