The Cyber Runner background in Starfield really just makes me think of the excellent Cyberpunk: Edge Runner anime. The job means doing anything and everything to work jobs to score some credits. Stealth, hacking, stealing and a history with Neon and corporations. This background really is the choice to go for to play the Edge Runner experience in Bethesda’s newest game. In this guide we’ll be covering the best traits and skills to run with the Cyber Runner background in Starfield to really bring it to life.
Best Skills and Traits for Cyber Runner Background in Starfield
With the Cyber Runner background, you get three awesome starting skills:
- Stealth – You gain a Stealth meter with this skill and are able to sneak around while being more difficult to detect. You’ll also deal more sneak attack damage with things like silenced weapons.
- Security – This skill is all about being able to hack more and more advanced locks. You’ll also gain more attempts, which is always useful.
- Theft – This skill gives you the ability to pickpocket targets. More points in this skill gives you a better chance at succeeding.
Related: Todd Howard Reveals Why Starfield Doesn’t Have Ground Vehicles
Traits
Overall, traits are more about providing the right flavor for your character. Here are the traits we think fit best with the Cyber Runner background in Starfield.
- Neon Street Rat – You gain extra dialogue options around Neon and better rewards for certain missions. Your crime bounty by other factions is much higher, though. This trait fits perfectly with the background thematically.
- Introvert – You expend less oxygen when adventuring alone. It’s tough to be sneaky in this game with a companion around. They can easily give you away when trying to use stealth or simply pickpocket someone, so this trait fits the background better.
- Wanted – Occasionally armed mercs will turn up to try and collect a bounty on your head. In exchange, though, you gain a nice damage boost on lower health. Naturally, someone will want to come after you with all the stealing and hacking you’ll be doing against various factions.
Skills – Cyber Runner Build
- Stealth – Maxing out this skill will make you 100 percent more difficult to detect, and you’ll also deal 20 percent more damage with silenced weapons. Interacting with doors while in stealth will also not alert enemies any more. Amazing for sneaking around!
- Concealment – Maxing out this skill is awesome for the build. You no longer set off enemy mines, running while sneaking doesn’t affect Stealth, you gain a Chameleon effect while still in stealth, and you deal up to 4x more ranged sneak attack damage. This skill is absolutely wild for creating a stealth build. Enemies really won’t see you coming!
- Theft – Maxing out theft will net you a much better chance at stealing things and you’ll even be able to nab holstered weapons now.
- Deception – You’ll be able to get ships up to 50 percent stronger than you to surrender to you can hand over their loot.
- Pistol Certification – Get much higher pistol damage and crit chance. Nothing quite like 1 tapping enemies with a silenced pistol!
- Ballistics – This builds on top of the Pistol Certification skill. Much more damage from ballistic weapons to help take out tougher enemies.
- Armor Penetration – Some enemies will be hard to take down even with sneak attacks thanks to their armor. This skill helps use ignore some of their armor value for a better chance at taking them down quickly.
- Weapon Engineering – We’ve got to be able to make awesome parts for our pistol like cutting edge silencers. This skill allows you to do just that by unlocking more crafting capabilities.
- Security – Maxing out this skill is highly recommended. A lot of good loot and preferred sneaking routes are locked and having the ability to hack the locks and more chances to succeed is really nice.
Those are the best traits and skills to use with the Cyber Runner background in Starfield. If you want a stealthy character that can take down down enemies super easily, steal all the things and hack effectively then this is the background and build for you!
If you’re still in the early hours of Starfield and are looking for some advice, we’ve got guides on why you should do the Bethesda game’s main quests first and how to become a space pirate and join the Crimson Fleet.
