The first story expansion Bethesda has planned for Starfield is called Shattered Space. Here’s everything we know about it so far.
Before Starfield’s market debut, Bethesda Game Studios confirmed plans to release a paid story expansion – Shattered Space. Access to the DLC upon release came bundled with the RPG’s Premium Edition, Premium Edition Upgrade (digital and physical), and Constellation Edition.
Details on the eagerly-anticipated expansion were scant until the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase, which featured the first trailer for Shattered Space and some information on what the story will entail.
Shattered Space trailer
The first trailer for Starfield: Shattered Space debuted during the Xbox Games Showcase on June 9, 2024. It sets a spooky tone for the expansion, featuring bright lights and ominous effects while confirming the story will relate to the mysterious House Va’Ruun.
Does Starfield’s DLC have a release date?
Yes, during Gamescom Opening Night Live, Bethesda confirmed Shattered Space will become available on September 30, 2024.
Director Todd Howard previously stated in an April 2024 interview with Kinda Funny that the expansion would arrive in the fall. Evidently, the team has held firm to this plan throughout the project’s development.
The Gamescom show also featured a new teaser for Shattered Space, seen at the end of the trailer for vehicles in the video below.
How much will Shattered Space cost?
Starfield players who purchased its Digital Premium Edition for $99.99 will have access to the expansion once it launches. Fans who purchase the DLC separately should expect to pay $29.99.
New content coming to Shattered Space
In a Twitter/X post celebrating the game’s first anniversary, Bethesda Game Studios revealed the Va’ruun’kai planet will house more than 50 new locations for players to freely explore.
A DLC Deep Dive briefly showed one such location, Dazra City, which becomes a retreat for inhabitants hoping to escape the planet’s new hazards. While here, players will encounter abandoned areas taken over by zealots, the Crimson Fleet faction, and the scavengers known as Spacers.
Previously unseen enemies like the Redeemed and Vortex Horrors will debut during the expansion as well, the latter being spectral-looking arachnids. These eerie creatures spawn from a tear in reality, which “disturbed the barrier between our world and theirs.”
Fortunately, devs have taken steps to ensure players can better defend themselves, specifically by improving close-quarters combat. The team hasn’t shared many specifics as of yet, but the Deep Dive noted that combat will feel “more aggressive.”
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In addition, users will be able to craft new grenades based on gathered organic material. Bethesda labeled the grenades as “gross,” though it’s unclear what this entails – unless the new explosives bear any similarity to those in Death Stranding, which were made from protagonist Sam’s bodily fluids.
Shattered Space DLC story & details
The first Shattered Space trailer confirms the story will focus on House Va’Ruun, a theocracy in the Settled Systems that worships a deity called the Great Serpent. This is one of the religions Starfield players can choose during character creation, though the base game reveals little about the organization.
Notably, the new story content will take players to Dazra, a city on House Va’Ruun’s hidden homeworld to investigate a cosmic threat.
A Bethesda blog post released alongside the initial trailer gives the following story description: “When a distress signal originating from a derelict star station leads you on a path to Va’ruun’kai, you’ll begin to uncover the secrets surrounding the followers of the Great Serpent.”
The trailer description confirms that “unique weapons, spacesuits, and gear” will be added in the DLC, though no specifics have been announced.
A preview on Xbox Wire describes Shattered Space as an expansion that subverts expectations by exploring new genres. Thus, players should anticipate a “horror-inflected mystery story” that finally addresses lingering questions about the base game’s House Va’Ruun faction.
If Starfield delves into humanity’s search for knowledge as Bethesda argues, the new DLC ponders what happens when that search goes a few steps too far. What players will find during the journey are the terrifying results of secret grav drive technology experiments conducted by The Great Serpent’s followers.
The experiment takes a turn for the worse about two weeks before players respond to the distress call. What the secret test unleashes is a tear in the fabric of space time, one that swallows up the planet’s capital city. Parts of the planet no longer have access to gravitational distortions called Vortexes.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Va’Ruun sect has gone missing in the seat of government known as the Scaled Citadel. Trapped in a bizarre field of energy, the leader’s absence creates a power vacuum that internal factions will fight to fill.
Starfield: Shattered Space will additionally see players inducted into Va’Ruun society, where they’ll help navigate the increasingly violent state of things.
That’s everything we know about Starfield Shattered Space, so far. For more on Bethesda’s space-faring epic, be sure to check out the Starfield hub.
