How to start Starfield Shattered Space DLC

Starfield Shattered Space lets players explore a brand-new planet to find out what happened to the followers of House Vaa’run, battle new enemies, and collect new gear.

While Starfield boasts tons of explorations across over 1,000 planets, the new Vaa’run’kai planet is “handcrafted” and built to feature the entirety of the expansion’s story. If you played Skyrim, it’s more like the Dragonborn DLC than Dawnguard.

Here’s everything we know about how to start Shattered Space including the requirements and recommended level.

Starfield Shattered Space requirements

Before you can begin Starfield Shattered Space, make sure you own the DLC. If you bought the Premium Edition you’ll already have access, but if not, you can get the DLC separately for $29.99 (Game Pass subscribers also get a nice 10% discount).

Once you’ve bought and downloaded Shattered Space, and updated the game, make sure you’ve completed the “One Small Step” quest. This is Starfield’s first main mission, so unless you’re starting a new save, you should have it ticked off already.

Where to start Shattered Space

1. Travel to any star system that isn’t being used for a quest.
2. Listen for the distress call from The Oracle.
3. Activate the “What Remains” mission in your quest log.
4. Look for the Oracle and fly toward it.
5. Despite being told not to, press the interact button when looking at the space station and dock to it.
6. Once aboard, follow the mission steps to kick off Shattered Space.

Fly to any system

Once you’ve completed the introductory mission, grav-jump to any system that’s not being used for a quest. Here, you’ll get a distress call and find The Oracle, a large star station.

Start the “What Remains” quest

As soon as you get the distress call, you can open your missions menu, look for the quest “What Remains,” and select the option “Show up” on the map to locate the Oracle. However, it should be on whichever quest-free system you grav-jumped to.

Board The Oracle

Once you’ve activated the mission, simply ignore Sirak Veth’aal’s warnings and dock to The Oracle. Once aboard, Shattered Space’s story truly kicks off and you’ll soon be on your way to Va’ruun’kai. You can check out our full What Remains walkthrough to find all the log locations.

How to fix Shattered Space not starting

If you’re grav-jumping from one system to the other and still won’t get the distress signal, there are two things you can do:

1. Ensure your console or launcher has downloaded the free Starfield update and the Shattered Space DLC. When my Steam download finished, I launched the game but couldn’t get the distress signal to show up. After closing Starfield, I noticed Steam started downloading a second 5 GB pack, which I assume was Shattered Space. Once that was done and I restarted the game, the distress signal popped up immediately.
2. If jumping to another system doesn’t do the trick, try traveling to different planets within the same system. Just make sure there aren’t any active quests on that planet. For reference, I went to Muphrid VII in the Muphrid system, and it worked for me.

Once you spot the Oracle, board it to get to Va’ruun’kai, where you can continue Shattered Space’s main quest, talk to the locals to kick off sidequests, or freely explore the new planet.

Recommended level

Bethesda recommends being at least level 35 “for the best experience.” However, it’s not necessary, so if you find Va’ruun’kai and its new enemies too difficult, you can always lower the difficulty.

Remember that playing on a low difficulty will slow progression following Update 1.11.36 so try to find the balance that works best for you. For some extra help, you can also arm yourself with the best weapons in the game before jumping in.

Should you start a new game or NG+ to play Shattered Space?

There’s no need to start over or start a new game plus to play Shattered Space – you can jump into it with your current save.

In fact, the NPCs in the quest will react differently depending on whether it’s your first playthrough or if you’re in a New Game Plus. So, if you want to get the most out of Shattered Space, I’d finish the DLC once in my regular save file and once in my new game plus save file.

Also, make sure you’ve got the REV-8 vehicle as it’ll make exploring Va’ruun’kai much easier.