Watchtower

The main questline of Watchtower can be completed through to unlock the vast majority of features fairly early on.

After starting it, the questline will guide you through learning and unlocking the various systems and give you a chance to try them out. At around the half-way point, the main character will tell you you’re free to do what you please, and he’s sort of speaking for us here. 

At this point you’ll have access to 95% of the unlockables, and can engage with the mod as much or as little as you like. It’s designed to give you new threats, POIs, encounters, and rewards to pursue while you play the rest of the game.

Eventually though, you may decide it’s time to put an end to the Watchtower menace, clear out their presence, and you’ll feel as though you’ve done everything the Creation has to offer, but there’s still more to see!

To avoid spoilers, the below is written as vaguely as possible – for those of you who’ve played through all of Starfield, you’ll understand what it means, for those who haven’t – it should be enough information for you to proceed. If you’d rather avoid any potential spoilers, skip the rest of this section.

Due to the nature of the story, and the threat Watchtower is making a stand against, you’ll need to play through the Constellation quest line so that your character has the knowledge necessary for the rest of the story to make sense.

After completing the Constellation quest “In Their Footsteps”, and you’ve completed all of the Watchtower objectives, you’ll be approached by a courier the next time you are in a major city (such as New Atlantis). This will proceed forward with the Watchtower questline, and take you down a path to see some of the things you likely glimpsed in the trailer and were wondering where they were.

For those of you who take it to the end, and who enjoy Unity jumping, Watchtower has special handling and acknowledgement for you to experience.

Early in the questline, you’ll be given the ability to assign crew to your additional ships (those beyond your Home ship).

The first person assigned becomes the pilot, the others will become additional crew to that ship. Just like your home ship, a ship’s crew will provide their skills to benefit that ship. Which means that piloting and ship combat skills become exceptionally valuable when recruiting.

Initially, you’ll have the ability to assign crew to one ship, but as you engage more with the mechanics you can unlock additional and make your fleet larger and larger.

Once a ship is assigned with a crew it will join you in space. You can control how close the ship flies to you, and how they operate in combat from a Fleet Command Terminal.

This system gives you additional reason to fill out and customize those ship slots, and expand your crew to a much larger cast than your home ship alone can support!

As you engage in the systems of Watchtower, you’ll unlock new ship Equipment that allow your Fleet ships to provide support from orbit. These include things such as strikes to take on nasty enemy encampments, or more strategic elements like drop pods with robot support or additional ammo and meds for you to grab.

These strikes are called down by utilizing a special throwable called a Skydrop Flare. Activating it will bring up a menu of options, select the support type you want, toss the flare and your Fleet pilots will acknowledge and send down the requested support. These flares can be crafted using resources acquired from Watchtower battles.

Installing and unlocking additional Skydrops is done by speaking to Gren, who you’ll meet during the main questline and calls the starstation Stardock his home.

Skydrops can be recharged by B.A.B.S. (another character you’ll meet at Stardock) or Gren.

Throughout the traversable galaxy, Watchtower is monitoring for those with exceptional power or influence. Rack up enough fame or notoriety and you’ll find yourself on Watchtower’s list, the higher you rank, the more likely you are to be accosted as you make your way around the stars.

In the HUD, by hovering a system on the map, you’ll sometimes find an indicator in the top-right corner showing you the status of Watchtower Monitoring in the area. The border is color coded to show how big a threat you appear to Watchtower, which translates into the likelihood of an encounter with them. Encounters can be small skirmishes, or gigantic space battles you may need to grav jump away from to survive.

There are ways to fight back though!

Within most systems, Watchtower has a listening post and corresponding satellite array. Tracking down the listening post on the planet and plundering it for access to the central terminal can reveal the location of that system’s array. Destroying the Watchtower Array effectively renders you invisible to Watchtower in that system, allowing you to operate freely there going forward.

To help you find these, the character Harper can use her contacts to identify locations of listening posts for a price, or crack various intel you find during Watchtower encounters.

During the main quest, you’ll also learn about the Major Array system, which will give you a path to blind Watchtower across multiple systems at once. Be sure to read the in-game terminal presented to you at that time to learn more about how these operate.

One of the first places you’ll visit after starting Watchtower’s questline is a new star station orbiting Piazzi IV-C. It’s here you’ll meet with and interact with the outcasts that make up your best hope at surviving and taking on Watchtower.

Stardock acts as your hub for all of the new systems of Watchtower, as well as a place your fleet and crew can dock with and relax between missions.

At first glance, it’s not much to look at, but as you engage in the various quests and systems, Stardock will visually improve, open up new shops and services, and attract more patrons. You’ll eventually even be granted a customizable apartment of your own.

Within most systems, Watchtower has a listening post and corresponding satellite array. Tracking down the listening post on the planet and plundering it for access to the central terminal can reveal the location of that system’s array. Destroying the Watchtower Array effectively renders you invisible to Watchtower in that system, allowing you to operate freely there going forward.

For those of you who like to live outside the law, throughout Stardock, you’ll also find several containers you can safely stash contraband.

In addition to building your fleet, you can also outfit yourself, your companions, and your crew with some new gear.

Watchtower themselves have a new spacesuit and helm you’ll find for the taking as you fight your way through. Some will also have a unique skinned version of the Equinox gun.

Most strikingly, you’ll want to check out Cyberamps. These are a unique facial attachment that is unlocked during the main questline, with additional options and upgrades unlocked as you play more. These not only provide a unique look, but can augment yourself and your crew with enhancements to various piloting skills.

Dr. Laine is your contact for these. She will make her appearance at Stardock during the main quest.