What are Planet Traits & How to Find Them

As you travel across the vast galaxy in Starfield, you’ll notice that nearly all the planets you come across have an abundance of various things to find and acquire, from creatures to resources to outpost locales. On top of all that, many have a few strange geographical features known as ‘Traits’, which you can discover while on traversing the planet’s landscape. Each are unique to their own planet, and there are plenty of them to find. If you’re wondering how to go about it, here is our handy guide for what planet traits are and how to find them.

Starfield Planet Traits Explained

First and foremost, these are NOT to be confused with Character Traits you pick at the very beginning of the game for your space adventurer. So-called ‘Planet Traits’ are a particular aspect of on-site exploration that refer to unique geological or ecological features that are found in various random locations around a given planet.

To know how many ‘Traits’ a planet has, and how many you’ve found, simply refer to the scanner menu on the left side of your screen, as seen above. It’ll also be noted on your local Starmap, and your HUD while exploring the planet in question on foot, indicated right beneath the fauna/flora/resource list.

As to what these Traits are for, they don’t serve a practical purpose, and you can’t extract any organic/inorganic resources from them (that we’ve found so far). Rather, they contribute to the ecological history and lore of the planet, giving a bit more insight into its ecosystem. Also, to complete a 100% survey of a planet that has Traits, they must all be discovered on-site and fully scanned.

How to Find Planet Traits in Starfield

While they’re indicated as ‘Traits’ on the planet scanner, when you get in close proximity to one of them while exploring, you’ll receive a prompt that says ‘Unexplored Geological Feature’. With your handheld scanner pulled up, approach the unique feature and scan it when prompted on your HUD, just as you would with other flora and fauna.

The feature seen above was found on Jemison and required scans at two different locations in close proximity to one another. Your HUD will indicate how many spots you need to scan to get 100%, and then it’ll confirm what the feature actually is, in this case a Sentient Microbial Colony. Remember that you need to find all of these traits/features on the planet to fully complete your survey.

As for how to forecast where they’re likely found, the features tend to be indicated by these jagged symbol markers found on your local Starmap. Once a trait/feature has been discovered and explored, it will have its own symbol, as seen above.

That concludes our guide for what planet traits are and how to find them. We hope you found this helpful in your travels across the star systems, and let us know the most unique ‘planet trait’ you’ve found so far is.

Be sure to check out all of our other guides for Starfield, as well as our official review of the game.