Soon after landing on planet Akila and entering Akila City, you’ll come across your first Freestar Collective mission. Basically, some bank robbers have held up the local GalBank and have taken a bunch of hostages. The local marshal, Daniel Blake, needs someone to persuade the bank robbers to surrender. So, if you’re wondering how you can sweet talk those robbers into giving up the goods, you’re in the right place.
Persuading the Bank Robbers in Job Gone Wrong
When you first arrive on the scene, you’ll be tasked with negotiating with the bank robbers’ leader via a telecom next to the GalBank’s entrance. Depending on what dialogue choices you make, what your Persuasion skill is, and contingent on quite a lot of RNG, you’ll be able to persuade the bandits to leave without the need for bloodshed.
Potentially, you’ll have three opportunities to persuade the bandits, and each instance comprises of several separate questions. All you need to do is to fill up all eight points of the Persuasion meter in order to persuade the bank robbers by choosing the correct answers. To help you do so, here are a few tips:
- Make sure to save before speaking to the Shaw Gang bandits, just in case your persuasion attempts fail and you need to reload your save.
- If you have any Aid items that increase Persuasion — like Chandra Pinot Noir (+12% Persuasion chance for five minutes) or Hippolyta (+20% Persuasion chance for five minutes), we’d recommend consuming them before the encounter with the bank robbers. Also, investing skill points in the Persuasion Skill is also a good way to increase your chances of persuasion.
- During persuasion, we highly recommend selecting the more peaceful Green +1 dialogue or Orange +3 options. These gave us a much better chance at prevailing than the more aggressive Red +5 dialogue options. From our experience, being aggressive with the bandits mostly resulted in persuasion failures.
- Occasionally, you can luck out and achieve a critical persuasion attempt. This automatically bypasses the encounter, and nets you a persuasion victory. From our experience, it appears to be a dice roll, with your own personal stats affecting the chance of the outcome.
If you fail one question, your persuasion meter will be reset for the subsequent attempt. Fail all your attempts, your negotiation will be over. If this happens, Blake will give you a key to the back door of the bank and you’ll have to take the robbers out alone.
Should You Persuade the Bank Robbers or Kill Them?
While both outcomes result in netting yourself 150 XP and 3,000 Credits from Marshal Blake, killing the outlaws arguably grants the player the most rewards. Not only does doing this get you some extra XP for defeating the robbers, but you’ll also get a pretty snazzy gun from the leader’s body: an Orion Laser Rifle.
Do note, however, that if you do decide to go in all guns blazing, you must avoid shooting any hostages at all costs. If you do, you’ll receive a 650 credit bounty on your head and your companion — like Sarah Morgan or Sam Coe — will get angry with you.
On the other hand, if you’re roleplaying as a noble character, you’ll likely want to go for the persuasion option as that’s definitely the more “ethical” choice. Ultimately, however, the choice is yours and each one offers some welcome rewards.
And on that note, we conclude our guide on how to persuade the bank robbers in Job Gone Wrong in Starfield. For more, here’s how to target engines and some tips and tricks for those first starting out. And for everything else, stick with us right here at Twinfinite.
