New Starfield achievements hint at unannounced secrets in its Terran Armada DLC

The second Starfield DLC, Terran Armada, is still a few days away, but we’ve just been handed some fresh clues to what we can expect in both the paid expansion and its accompanying Free Lanes update. The hints come courtesy of 20 new Steam achievements for the space game, several of which tie neatly into expected features that we already know about, but some of which do not. While there will probably be more additions that aren’t covered here, keep in mind that this article will include some potential light spoilers for the expansion as a result.

We’ve already had a pretty bulky breakdown of what we can expect from the Starfield Free Lanes update and Terran Armada expansion, but Bethesda loves to leave some secrets to discover. Dig through the list of newly appeared achievements, and you’ll find some obvious ones, such as three for completing five, 15, and 30 Incursions. This new system pits you in skirmishes of varying sizes against the Terran Armada, the DLC’s main hostile faction that believes themselves to be the “true” children of Earth.

Likewise, there are several achievements tied to new companion Delta, a reprogrammed robot from the Terran Armada who’s described by design director Emil Pagliarulo as “Not evil… but definitely not good.” There’s the ‘Overclocked’ achievement, granted upon fully upgrading Delta, which means we’ll definitely have some ways to increase the bot’s capabilities as the story progresses. One award looks to be earned by convincing them that you’re a worthy Captain, while another seemingly comes if you do not.

If Delta is Bethesda’s first concession towards offering more ways to attempt an ‘evil playthrough’ of Starfield, the ‘Contract Killer’ achievement might prove to be its second. It’s awarded upon killing ten targets for “the Arbitrator.” It’s possible they could be a paragon of justice, but they don’t sound like one to me.

Another achievement, ‘Master of Magnetism,’ talks about using a magnet to destroy a robot “in New Babylon.” This name hasn’t come up before, and is presumably a location we’ll visit over the course of Terran Armada. It could be a new city, a planet, or even a flagship for the hostile faction – it’s worth noting that there is currently a personnel spaceship called the ‘Babylon’ in Starfield, although the two don’t have to be related.

There’s also ‘This for That,’ with a description that reads, “Build out and hand over an outpost to a faction.” Starfield’s outposts have long been an element of the game that felt deserving of more attention, and this makes it sound like we’ll be able to get them up and running, then pass them off to various groups. It’s immediately reminiscent of a similar system in Fallout 4’s Nuka-World expansion, which lets you turn claimed settlements into raider outposts.

One of the new additions, ‘Just Like Grandma Used to Make,’ sounds as though it’s simply a check mark for the random encounter with the eponymous old lady that’s existed since launch. You can poke through the others yourself if you’re curious, although be warned that some do suggest potential story arcs that we’ll encounter in the DLC. ‘Stay of Execution,’ for example, directly refers to you preventing one named character from killing another.

Starfield Terran Armada will launch on Tuesday April 7, priced at $9.99, and it’ll be accompanied by the Free Lanes update, which will be made available for all players. At this point, you probably already know where you stand on Bethesda’s interstellar adventure, but if you’ve been tempted to give it one more chance then this will be the time to do it.