Best Skills and Traits for Chef Background in Starfield

Fancy cooking yourself up a storm of healing and stat boosting food and drinks in Starfield? What you need is the Chef background! The starting skills you gain as a Chef can really be built out in to quite a potent and incredibly useful character. Here are the best skills and traits you can use to create an awesome Chef character in Starfield.

Best Skills and Traits for Chef Background in Starfield

You gain some really useful starting skills with the Chef background right off the bat:

• Gastronomy – This skill, which is one you naturally have as a chef, lets you craft specialty dishes with better effects and also learn new recipes from the Research Lab.
• Dueling – Got to be talented in the use of a knife as a chef. This perk grants increased damage with melee weapons, and you also take reduced damage from enemies while using your weapon.
• Scavenging – Chefs are known for being resourceful. This skill allows you to find extra credits when searching containers. Can’t go wrong with having extra funds!

Related: How to Join the Crimson Fleet in Starfield

Best Chef Build in Starfield

Traits

Traits are personal preference for the most part in Starfield, so choose what you feel will be more fun for you. I’ll simply be suggesting some that are thematically appropriate for the Chef background.

• Terra Firma – This trait gives you extra health and oxygen while on planet. You’ll have less health and oxygen in space, however. As a chef, you’re more likely to want to be on planet gathering ingredients and creating dishes than floating around in space.

• Taskmaster – Chefs have complete control of their kitchens. With this skill, you can run your ship just as efficiently. Crew members will be able to automatically repair the ship when it’s below 50 percent, but they will cost more to hire.

• Extrovert – As a chef you’d likely spend a lot of time around other people and this skill works in favor of that. You’ll exert less oxygen as long as you have a human companion accompanying you. Every great chef has a sous chef!

Related: Starfield Modders Have Fixed the Game’s Frustrating UI

Skills

You can create a really good charismatic and melee-focused character with the Chef background in Starfield by building out the following skills:

• Commerce – Being able to buy for less and sell for more is always useful to a chef. This skill grants you much better bang for buck with vendors.
• Gastronomy – Leveling up this skill will provide you access to use a wide range of ingredients and learn a ton of recipes. You’ll be able to make food and drinks to heal and buff you. There are some pretty amazing effects you can gain from high end dishes!
• Leadership – Your excellent leadership qualities as a chef shine through. Use this skill to improve your companions, giving them increased carry weight, health, combat, and physical skills. They’ll even start healing you when you’re low on health and picking themselves back up when downed. Now those are some inspired companions.
• Dueling – Leveling up this skill further will net you more melee damage, damage reduction, improved sprint speed, and even health recover on kill. Become just as good at cutting up your enemies as you are your food!
• Armor Penetration – This skill lets you pierce up to 50 percent of a target’s armor to deal more damage. Better stabbing with those melee weapons.
• Crippling – This skill lets you down enemies when you deal enough damage to them. With the other skills we’re taking, this will happen very often. You’ll also be able to deal twice the damage to downed enemies at max skill rank.
• Wellness – Increase your max health. You’ll need it as you rush at enemies to stab them.
• Nutrition – Take advantage of the amazing food and drinks you can make by using this skill to increase their benefits and duration.
• Martial Arts – Use this skill to take your melee damage to the next level. You’ll even be able to reflect damage when you block. Who needs a lightsaber when you can reflect damage with your chef knife!
• Rejuvenation – You can now regenerate your health inside and out of combat. You’ll become an unstoppable stabbing force with some pretty wild health generation.

Those are the best traits and skills for the Chef background in Starfield. You can use this background to build out a truly formidable melee focused character. Between buffs from your cooking, extra melee damage and health regeneration, even Gordon Ramsey wouldn’t dare criticize your cooking!

If you’re just starting Bethesda’s game and looking for more advice, check out our articles breaking down all of Starfield’s factions and how long the game takes to beat.