Starfield ‘The Old Neighborhood’ quest walkthrough (2024)

Starfield may start you off in unfamiliar space, but it only takes until the game’s second mission — “The Old Neighborhood” — to bring you to the Sol system. Things are a bit different in Sol during Starfield’s time, but it’s still the same star and celestial bodies you grew up learning about.

Like most Starfield missions, your visit to Sol pertains to a lead on a mysterious artifact. You’ll need to track down a missing Vanguard recruit and help them out of a tight spot to get it.

In this Starfield guide, we’ll walk you through how to finish “The Old Neighborhood” main story quest.

Follow Sarah’s lead on the artifact

Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

Sarah has a lead on the location of another mysterious artifact. Talk to her and interrogate an acquaintance of hers to find it.

Talk to Sarah // Talk to Sarah’s Contact

Once you’ve fully acquainted yourself with the Lodge and its members, talk to Sarah about Constellation and she’ll tell you about a contact she has who can help you get a bit more information.

Leave the Lodge and follow the waypoint to the Vanguard signup center. Talk to Sarah’s contact about Constellation business and they’ll tell you to head to the Sol system and find a recruit named Moara.

Ask about Moara in Cydonia

Head back to your ship and travel over to Mars in the Sol system — home sweet home. Head into orbit around Mars and select Cydonia, a small mining town.

Make your way into the mining center by following the waypoint. Once you reach the watering hole (also known as the bar), talk to the bartender, Jack. You’ll have a few choices here on how to proceed. You can either pay him 2,500 credits to get the information on Moara, get Sarah to talk him down to 1,000 credits, or use Persuade to convince him to give up the information for free.

Jumping around the Sol system

Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

Moara seems to be in a bit of trouble. You’ll need to hop from familiar planet to familiar planet if you want to rescue him (and the artifact).

Go to Venus // Talk to Sarah

Once you get the information from Jack, head back to your ship and travel over to Venus. Once you’re in orbit, turn your ship completely off. You’ve got some Zealots to deal with here, but you can get around them with some spaceship stealth.

Sarah will teach you how to be sneaky in space (remove all the power from your ship outside of one or two power slots in your engine).

Examine the satellite

Alongside this quest step you’ll also get the “(optional) use minimal power to avoid detection step.” You can go guns blazing here, but the game is trying to teach you to stealth, and we recommend following the tutorial.

Basically you just want to lower the power on your engine, as previously mentioned, and slower putter your way over to the satellite. Once you’re within 500 meters, you can connect to it.

Go to Nova Galactic Staryard // Talk to Sarah

After you connect to the satellite, it’s time to get out of Venus’ orbit without dealing with the enemies — unless you really want to.

Travel to Earth’s moon, Luna. Note that if you travel to Earth’s orbit and try to fly to Luna, it will take way too long. You have to specifically travel to Luna via the star map. Once you’re in orbit, you’ll see the Nova Galactic Staryard in front of you. You can either go do this now, or listen to Sarah when she suggests taking a quick look at Luna’s surface.

If you do decide to go down to our moon, be warned that there are some higher level enemies in some of the research stations. However, we did find some excellent loot here after struggling against some difficult enemies. It’s a good way to kickstart your arsenal if you don’t mind getting a little frustrated.

Dock with Nova Galactic Staryard // Find any clues about Moara

Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

Once you’re ready to proceed with the quest, dock your ship with the Nova Galactic Staryard. You’ll need to take down a lot of baddies here, so ready yourself and take on the two warring factions: the Spacers and Ecliptics.

Progress through the station, following the waypoint. Eventually you’ll find what is essentially the shell of a spaceship. Go inside. You’ll find a log called “Vanguard Moara’s Slate” resting out on a table that will tell you Moara is in distress near Neptune.

Once the station is clear and you’ve looted all of the bodies for credits, head back to your ship.

Rescuing Moara and the artifact

Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

Now that you know where to find Moara, it’s time to rescue him and see if he’s willing to hand over the artifact.

Go to Neptune // Approach the ship

Travel to Neptune’s orbit and you’ll see Moara’s ship floating in space. Fly up to it and you’ll discover that the ship has been taken over by villains. This interaction will turn the ship hostile, and it’ll start shooting at you.

Evade fire // Damage Moara’s ship

This step is a little unclear, which also makes it a bit anxiety-inducing. Sarah tells you to avoid fire from Moara’s ship while also dealing damage to it. But, since Moara and a potential artifact are aboard, Sarah also doesn’t want you to blow it up. Instead you’re meant to damage the ship without destroying it.

How do you do that? You just shoot the ship until its health reaches zero — nothing to stress about. When the health bar reaches zero, the ship will stop shooting and shut down.

Dock with Moara’s ship // Clear Moara’s ship of hostiles

With Moara’s ship disabled, fly up and dock with it. Clear out the Ecliptic in here (be careful, as it’s a really crowded space). Once they’re all taken care of, you’ll be able to continue the quest.

Talk to Moara // Take the artifact

With the enemies cleared out, talk to Moara. Turns out he does have an artifact, and it’s just hanging next to his pilot chair looking tacky. As a thank you present for chasing him down and saving his life, Moara will gladly part ways with the artifact.

Pocket the artifact, loot the rest of Moara’s ship if you feel like making his day even worse, and head back to your ship.

Return to the lodge // Add the artifact // Wait for Sarah // Talk to Sarah

Another artifact down, it’s time to do four objectives in quick succession.

Head back to New Atlantis and the Lodge. Once you reach the Constellation clubhouse, add the artifact to the ever-increasing pile and watch as it joins the spinning orb above the table. Wait for Sarah to walk in and comment on your work. Have a quick chat with her to finish Starfield’s second quest.

With “The Old Neighborhood” done and dusted, you now have a choice of three missions to do: “Into the Unknown,” “Back to Vectera,” and “The Empty Nest.” While you can tackle these missions in any order (and you do need to do all of them before you can do the sixth mission), here’s our thoughts for which mission to do first.