How Starfield persuasion works in dialogue

Starfield persuasion manifests as a minigame where you've got to meet a particular score by choosing certain dialogue responses to get what you want. There's a big element of risk and reward to it, with limited chances and some responses offering a low chance of success but plenty of points to help you meet that score. It's basically a tactical gamble as you balance the points you need to win the persuasion attempt with the risks of what you can say .  

However, success in persuasion attempts can be incredibly useful in Starfield, helping you unlock new mission options, additional rewards, or even save you money. Mastering it is therefore quite crucial depending on how you want to play, so here are the essential details you need to know about Starfield's persuasion system and dialogue.

How Starfield persuasion works

Starfield conversations will occasionally let you choose a dialogue option marked ‘[Persuade]’ which will launch you into the Starfield persuasion minigame. You can try to complete persuasion attempts even if you don’t have the Persuasion Skill but obviously having it will help your chances immensely. (There's more on how to improve your Starfield persuasion abilities further down.)

The objective of the minigame is to fill all the Persuasion bars visible in the bottom-left corner of the interface. These bars are filled by the points attached to the dialogue responses you choose, and you’ll notice each one has a number next to it (+1 or +3, for example) which denotes how many Persuasion bars will be filled, but only if the response is successful, otherwise no bars are filled.

Every persuasion reply also has a traffic light color representing how likely it is to succeed in your attempt. Green dialogue options are usually worth one or two bars but have a high success rate. Conversely, red dialogue options have a low success rate but typically fill many Persuasion bars when successful – sometimes enough to complete the entire persuasion attempt in one go which can make red dialogue choices extremely tempting. In the middle, you’ll find moderate orange responses which strike a balance of risk and reward. When choosing an option, there’s also a very low chance of scoring a critical success which will fill in extra persuasion bars!

You have a limited number of turns to fill all the Persuasion bars, so you need to make every response count. Fail to fill all the bars and the persuasion attempt ends, but fill them all before you run out of turns and you’ll successfully sway whoever you’re talking to. If it’s impossible to fill all the persuasion bars on your final turn, choosing an option and succeeding gets you a free turn, potentially allowing you to complete the persuasion attempt. This means that saving reliable green options until the end can be a good strategy, as well as using them early on for easy points.

How to improve Starfield Persuasion skills

While any player can attempt to Persuade NPCs in Starfield, you’ll have mixed results unless you find ways of improving your persuasive abilities. This is how to do that:

1. Unlock and upgrade the Persuasion Skill: The Persuasion Starfield Skill increases your chances of success during persuasion attempts by 10%, capping out at a 50% bonus at Rank 4. Unlocking this Skill should be a priority if you want to get better, and four Starfield backgrounds offer Persuasion as a starting Skill.
2. Pay attention to what the NPCs say before and during the persuasion attempt: The things the character you’re trying to persuade says might give clues as to what sort of approach you should take. For example, I successfully persuaded the Cydonia bartender during the Starfield The Old Neighborhood mission by guilt-tripping him into giving me information about Moara for free – because he specifically says he thinks you’re going to guilt-trip him when you start the persuasion attempt.
3. Consume alcohol: Alcoholic drinks, such as wine, beer, and cocktails generally come with a small and temporary buff to your persuasion chance. Chug a beverage or two before an important conversation to maximize your odds of success – please do not try this in real life! If you want to mix your own drinks, investing in the Gastronomy Skill and research will help.
4. Take chems with persuasion chance boosts: Both Hippolyta and Paramour offer generous but temporary boosts to your persuasion chance, though Paramour’s buff is both stronger and longer lasting. These aren’t the most common chems, but crafting in Starfield using a Pharmaceutical Lab will let you make them yourself. Just make sure you invest in the Research Methods and Chemistry Skills in the Science category first.
5. Unlock and upgrade the Negotiation Skill: This Skill allows you to pay bribes during speech challenges. It might not be the most ethical way of getting what you want, but it can get results if you’re desperate. Upgrade the Skill further to reduce the cost of bribes.

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