Following June 9’s Xbox Showcase, Starfield finally got its Creation Kit and Creations suite, allowing PC and Xbox players to download official and community-built mods directly in-game. It’s still early days for sure, but there are already a number of great mods worth your time that you should check out ASAP.
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One twist, of course, is that both paid and free mods are available in the Creations hub. If you’re unsure what to spend money on, or don’t wish to pay for mods, however, there are some great free ones to get started with. I’ve rounded up six free mods that’ll subtly but meaningfully improve your Starfield experience. If you’re just looking for some gentle modifications or are new to modding in general, these are a great place to start.
Make the galaxy look better with Color Filter Removal and Darker Nights
I am absolutely digging a pair of mods that dramatically improves the visual look of the game on both PC and Xbox. The first is GTA_R0CKS’ “Color Filter Removal.” This mod peels away Starfield’s meh color filters pl, lending itself to a much cleaner image.
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“Color Filter Removal” pairs delightfully well with HopeFulWishing’s “Darker Nights.” This mod lowers the game’s ambient lighting to make for a darker, more imposing image that, during evenings on planets and moons, allows darkness to actually blanket and smother the environment. Everything feels notably spookier, and in my experience it hasn’t been too hard to see things. In fact, it makes the game more compelling. Spotting distant structures in the distance, for example, feels more ominous as you can’t necessarily make everything out.
What about “Pitch Black Nights?”
If you’re fishing around the Starfield Creation suite, you’ll likely come across another mod from HopeFulWishing: Pitch Black Nights.” This mod makes the environment even darker. In my experience, however, it’s too dark. If you want to go for some ominous, liminal, space photography of abandoned structures, it might be neat to turn on every now and then. But for regular gameplay, I recommend “Darker Nights.”
While “Darker Nights” is great on its own, the mod is made even better by a simple flashlight mod that increases the amount of light you emit.
“Vanilla Flashlight Improved” is a considerable improvement
Litbeep’s “Vanilla Flashlight Improved (VFI),” available on PC and Xbox casts way more light with your flashlight, making it actually useful for seeing further in dark areas. This combines really well with “Darker Nights” and the “Color Filter Removal” to make for some excellent night-time planetary exploration. The mod also removes the banding effect that the stock flashlight has, so it’s not only more light, it’s a cleaner flashlight texture too.
“Headshot kills any actor” makes for better combat and more realism
This mod from SKKmods not only improves the regular flow of combat in Starfield, it can also free up the rigid nature of many quests by letting you finally kill essential NPCs (yes, I know which one you’re thinking about right now, and I’ll answer that question in just a moment).
To activate this mod, you’ll need to use the item added to your inventory once the mod is installed. This item will give you a menu that lets you choose who can be killed with a headshot, from regular enemies, to friendlies, to yourself, and to essential NPCs.
On that note, if you kill an essential NPC, you will likely break any quest they’re associated with. So this is really best for sandbox play, or you can leave the “Essential actor headshots” toggle off and enjoy the benefits of headshot kills for regular hostile characters.
And yes, when “Essential actor headshots” is toggled on, you can kill the board of Paradiso. Is this the correct way to deal with this situation? Well I ain’t writing a guide on morality here, but I can say in my tests it sure did make me feel a certain way.
“Shade’s Stealth Takedowns (Knock-out or Lethal)”
Shadedness’ takedown mod immediately changed how I was playing Starfield, finally inching the game toward more immersive sim territory—which I am absolutely all about. This mod adds a new “Takedown” skill in the Physical Skills tree, with four ranks to ascend through. Now you can sneak into an enemy base and take down enemies from behind without much fuss. When used with the “Sense Star Stuff” ability, it almost feels like playing Dishonored…in space.
Do check out Shadedness’ other mods as well, as they address and improve a few critical areas of Starfield.
“Starshards” help you unlock new skills faster
“Starshards” by _Ravageron is a neat little mod that spawns various, well, starshards on planets for you to collect. Not only does this add an extra activity to planetary exploration, you’ll also get a skill point for every three shards you collect. This will come in handy if you’re planning on adding more skills to the skill tree.
The Creations mod suite is rapidly growing, so there will undoubtedly be more mods worth your time in the future. But improvements to the visual style of the game and its combat can go a long way to making Starfield feel nice and fresh again.
