Bethesda’s next massive title,Starfield, is out and players have been enamored with the game ever since. The expansive solar system to explore, the depth of the ship-building,the number of different items to craft, and of course all those precious treasures to loot give players so many different things to dive into at all times. But, an aspect of the game that many players have held off of, at least for the moment, is the Outpost Building system.
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Outposts and building things in Outposts will be overwhelming at first, that’s just a fact. But, it quickly becomes easier to understand the more players interact with it. And, a big part of this system is building objects that power the important things, with Fueled Generators being the best available option players have. So, let’s go over exactly how players are meant to use this Power Source inStarfield.
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Tau Grade Rheostat
When players first start messing around with the Outpost’s Building Mode, they’ll notice that there aren’t a ton of options in the ‘Power’ Category, at least before heavily investing in certain Skills. Depending on the Planet, there are Solar Arrays, Wind Turbines, and of course, Fueled Generators. To give a brief list of the Outpost modules players will need Power from these things to use:
Now, compared to even the Advanced Wind Turbines the Fueled Generator is much better as it offers 20 Power (Turbines can sometimes go higher than 20, but on most planets sit between 6-10 Power). However, in exchange, it’s the only Power Supply that needs a resource to function. To be more precise, the Fueled Generators use around 1 unit of Helium-3 per Production Cycle (AKA a minute). And,based on the sheer amount of say, Iron, a couple of Extractors (powered by a Fueled Generator) can mine in 5-10 minutes, that Helium usage is more than worth it.
How To Use Fueled Generators
So, how exactly are players meant to use this Power Source? As any player who has interacted with this item in-game can tell,there’s no way to manually insert the Helium-3 needed to power it. While some modules in the Outpost crafting do allow players to manually insert resources, most don’t and instead ask that players build the necessary storage containers and then ‘link’ those to whatever is going to use that resource. Helium-3 is, of course, a gas, so they’ll want to build a Gas Storage Container in their outpost to hold it:
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Amount of Mass it holds
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Then, after this is built, players can either link their Helium Extractor to this Gas Storage Container or put their mined Helium-3 in the container themselves. Once the Helium is in the container, look at the bottom right of the screen.
Right between the ‘Build Mode’ and ‘Delete’ input prompts should be one for ‘Create Output Link’. Press this input, move the red link over to the Generator, and connect it. Once it’s connected, simply walk up to the Generator and interact with it to turn it on, and after a few short moments, it should start right up.
When Power Sources feed machines wirelessly, they seem to do so based on distance from themselves first. But, if players use the ‘Wire’ link, then they’ll know exactly where their power is going.
Thankfully,every Power Source has a pretty wide range around it where it’ll automatically power any nearby machines that need it, but players can also hold the interact input on the Generator and select the ‘Wire’ option to manually link the Generator to their module of choice.
Options For Players Low On Helium-3
While the Fueled Generators are pretty energy efficient with the Helium-3 they’re fed, if players find themselves short on Helium-3 or out of it entirely, there are still other options, such as:
Explanation
Option 1
Finding a nearby planet with Helium-3(or, preferably, setting up a Generator on a planet with Helium-3), and gathering it there.
Option 2
Using the other Power options such as Solar Arrays and Wind Turbines.
Option 3
Setting up a Helium-3 Extractor on a qualified Planet thensetting up a Cargo Link 2-way connectionback to the Planet with the Fueled Generator.
Of these three choices, Option 2 is by far the easiest alternate solution, Option 1 is still easy but is only a temporary fix, and Option 3 is the best overall but the most complicated dueto the amount of exploration needed.
Why Fueled Generators Are Worth The Effort
Finally, players might be wondering why they should even bother using Fueled Generators in the first place. Well, there are numerous reasons to use these over the other Power Sources, but the primary reason is simply the amount of power it provides.
To reach 20 Power with other sources, players would need to build around 2-4 Wind Turbines or 3-5 Solar Arrays.Of course, depending on the atmosphere of the planet or how close it is to the sun, this number can vary wildly, but most planets aren’t that advantageous. Additionally, Fueled Generators don’t depend on things like Temperature, Atmosphere Thickness, or sunlight to function, making them the most ‘consistent’ option.
Starfieldis available now on Xbox Series X/S and PC.
