Should You Side With The Crimson Fleet or Sys Def?

Starfield’s conflict between the UC and Crimson Fleet factions eventually comes to a head, and you have to pick a side. But which one is better?

Summary

• Starfield players are forced to choose between joining the Crimson Fleet or United Colonies (UC) factions.
• Siding with the Crimson Fleet offers better rewards, including access to a pirate base and valuable ship components.
• The final decision should be based on the player character's interests and alignment, whether it's law and order with UC or power and profit with the Crimson Fleet.

Starfield may not restrict the number of factions players are able to join, but in the end, it forces them to make a definitive choice between the Crimson Fleet and United Colonies. The UC are basically space cops, and the Fleet are more akin to space robbers. More accurately, the Crimson Fleet is a loosely organized coalition of pirates, while the militarized UC regulates interstellar trade, punishing smuggling and theft severely. Each faction comes with its own reward, but one is clearly the better the option.

It's technically possible to join all the factions in Starfield, but eventually, their questlines may run up against each other. Nowhere in the game is that more readily apparent than in the conflict between UC and the Crimson Fleet. It's actually required to join both of these factions to progress in either of their quests, but during the Crimson Fleet mission "Legacy's End," the player character is finally made to pick a side. Their stories intersect in many places, and by the time that quest begins, the objectives for either side are more or less exactly the same. They only differ in their rewards and their impact on the wider galaxy, so that's what the final decision should be based on.

You Should Side With The Crimson Fleet In Starfield

In the interest of money, loot, and a well-equipped spaceship, it's better to side with the Crimson Fleet over UC SysDef in Starfield. No matter who they side with, the player character will be rewarded with 250,000 credits, 350 XP, and the unique weapon of whichever faction leader they had to fight at the end of the Crimson Fleet/SysDef quest line. Since the quests are largely the same, the only major thing this affects is which faction epilogue plays out during Starfield's ending.

However, each of those questlines also has a unique reward, and the Crimson Fleet's is much better. For completing the UC faction quests, the player character gets a free house in Starfield. For completing Crimson Fleet, they get access to the pirate base at The Key. Houses are fine, but the Well penthouse gained from UC quests is little more than two sad, bare rooms. Of course, these can be customized, but there are far better places on the market. It's also important to remember that houses have nothing on Outposts, which can make easy money in Starfield. They're also highly customizable - it's even possible to build a better house on an Outpost.

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A half-rusted space station housing a pirates' den of debauchery might not sound quite as fantastical or aspirational as the dream of homeownership, but The Key is a far more practical resource than the cramped, drab apartment offered at the end of UC's questline. It provides the player character with a reliable place to sell stolen goods and contraband in Starfield, which can be hard to come by in UC-controlled space. Also located on The Key is an NPC named Jazz, a Ship Services Technician. Jazz has access to some of the best extralegal ship components in the game.

Some of the wares players can get through Jazz include shielded cargo holds and scan jammers that let smugglers bypass nosy Customs agents.

Of course, it's theoretically possible to clear out Jazz's inventory in the early days of the Crimson Fleet mission, then turn coat during "Legacy's End." But completing either the Crimson Fleet or the UC storyline grants access to a perpetually-updating quest board with lucrative opportunities. It's possible to make more money with the Fleet by stealing whatever else is available at a quest destination and selling it at the same time. It'd be better to take on the Dream Home Trait's debt in Starfield and pay off the mortgage with acts of piracy than to complete the entire UC quest line for a measly two-room apartment.

It's worth noting that SysDef is different from UC Vanguard, which is the part of the United Colonies faction the player character can join. Simply put, Vanguard is a civilian volunteer wing, and SysDef consists of enlisted officers. However, betraying SysDef can still sour the people of Vanguard against them, and may put an end to their time with UC. Similarly, betraying the Crimson Fleet closes that chapter of the story, too.

How To Pick Sides In Starfield's UC SysDef & Crimson Fleet Quests

The conflict between UC and the Crimson Fleet begins before the player installs the game, but their first whiff of it can come in one of two ways. First, they can join the UC faction in Starfielddirectly by chatting with Commander Tuala in New Atlantis. From there, they'll have to continue until they unlock "Deep Cover" and the Crimson Fleet. Otherwise, it's possible to skip directly to that point by breaking enough laws to attract the UC's attention. Whether for smuggling, stealing, or murder, the player character will be arrested, and UC will offer a unique plea deal: Go undercover and infiltrate the Crimson Fleet to earn a pardon.

The Crimson Fleet is after Kryx's Legacy, the hidden treasure of its founder, which they believe contains information that'll help them eliminate the UC threat, eventually taking over the entirety of the interstellar trade industry. UC wants to prevent them from getting it at all costs. Whichever side they ultimately intend to choose, the player character will have to undertake the entire goose chase after the Legacy across the seven quests of the Crimson Fleet line. They finally obtain itduring "Eye of the Storm," and their next steps affect which side they choose.

Visiting either The Key or the UC ship Vigilance with the quest "Legacy's End" active will automatically force the player character to side with the relevant faction, so it's important to be careful when fast-traveling here. They'll hand the Legacy over to either Delgado of the Crimson Fleet or Commander Ikande of US SysDef, and begin the final quest of the line.

They'll have to undertake a series of space battles, then board the enemies' headquarters and fight their way to the control room. There, they'll find either Ikande or Delgado preparing to push the self-destruct button. In order to avert disaster, they'll either have to succeed at a Persuasion check or simply attack them, then shut the process down themselves. With that, the quest is over, and they can claim the reward, whatever that happens to be.

In the end, despite the Crimson Fleet's better rewards, the right choice of faction is whichever better suits the player character's interests. If they're a lover of law and order, they might have to swallow their greed and side with UC SysDef. If they're a desperado whose hunger for power and profit outweighs their sense of justice, then they'd be more at home with the Crimson Fleet. Choosing according to the character's standards can help ensure an appropriately satisfying ending cutscene in Starfield.

Starfield

Released

September 6, 2023

Developer(s)

Bethesda Game Studios

Publisher(s)

Bethesda Softworks