Why Starfield's Crimson Fleet Is The Best Faction | Video Essay

Starfield has some of the best faction questlines since Fallout New Vegas; what makes them so great is instead of simply doing missions for an organisation that wants to rule the world like Elder Scrolls or Fallout.

Each faction has its own independent goals, which help to flesh out Starfield's universe; Ryujin deals with the corporate side of intergalactic society.

The vanguard is about protecting people from threats to their safety,

While the Freedom Rangers are about hunting down the criminals of the galaxy

But my favourite faction questline by far is the Crimson Fleet because they explore a facet of space that's rarely explored in media: space pirates.
#videoessay #bethesda #starfield

[adamlegros]

Actually im a Fleet member, and i do fleet bounties all the time- i just walk in with zero resistance, sneak around and assassinate the NPC, the walk out with no one aware- just be quiet and careful and you’re good. Plus it fits with the whole Pirates conspiracing against eachother vibe

[BlapwardKrunkle]

Your ultimate gripe is that you are punished like a pirate for being a pirate? I went in fully expecting to be enemies with the whole galaxy, except for my pirate mates. That’s the role playing aspect and I’m loving it so far

[johncoakley]

FYI you don’t even have to be a mole for SysDef if you don’t want to. When you initially meet them just act like you are going to work with them up until you are directly face to face with their commander on the second floor. After that if you select the attack option you can easily run towards the elevator go back to the first floor and then make a run for your ship. After that just grav jump away and then the mission will update telling you to seek out the crimson fleet on your own. Everything basically proceeds as it normally does with going to Mars and stuff from there only you will not have to deal with SysDef and can just be a pirate no strings attached. Also ensure that after you successfully escape from SysDef and grav jump away do not go directly to the key like I did. That was a mistake. You still have to go to Mars first and complete the initial missions to join up otherwise the fleet will still be hostile.

[Zayphar]

My plan is to play the game 95% of the way and then only join the Crimson Fleet questline just before the endgame. That way I can still kill pirates all during most of the game, and don't have to worry about them becoming friendly and losing access to all that sweet, sweet XP.

[BronnBlackwater]

You can voluntarily join if you escape UCsec. And never have to be a double agent

[alexandriasin]

You can't kill Del early, the choice doesn't branch out. It's just a plan you make that doesn't pan out because of how you have to leave that location. Same as how the character that suggested it backs off the plan if you say no. The only branches in the faction quests come in the form of final decisions. Overall except for a few minor choices effecting what you do in the moment the full story is actually very linear and set, it is very much not a BG3 situation.

[vglanteshz]

Despite being pirates, you've got to admire Delgado's determination. I'm a big fan of Jasper Kryx.

[samreddig]

Counterpoint, if I side with the fleet like 70% of the enemies suddenly become friendly and it makes getting xp a pain.

[DeadnotAlive]

My friend thought I was hyping up the fleet too much and he said he was ready to say the faction is mid but after an hour with them he agrees they are the best and we nicknamed Delgado big D lol

[LeBurns-]

Dark Brotherhood was IMO by far the best faction storyline in Skyrim, so not surprised they did pirates well.

[frutti_di_marius]

I love the idea of factions in Bethesda games, however it makes absolutely no sense to me that you can join all of them at the same time as they are actually opponent to each other. If you joined the UC you can literally snitch on them openly, destroy their gear and support the fleet and they won't give a shit and accept you still being a vanguard. The game should put more weight on your decisions.

Also I would've loved if you could immerse more into choosing the fleet with more social interactions and romance options.

[realname]

As a pure hunter killer player between the CF, Spacers, Ecliptic and Va'run my combat kills now are at 14500 and 2700 elites killed. So I want to thank the crimson fleet for their generous donation of thousands of bodies that met my bullets.

[deezo]

There’s more ways to join other than being good by joining the Vanguard and telling them that you’re going to be a double agent and then don’t be a double agent, you automatically join the suite or shoot in one of those space cops in Atlantis

[Michaelth]

There is a way to join the fleet without going in as a spy. If you refuse to take on Ikande’s mission you are then thrown in jail then invited to the fleet.

[IMRavnos]

I sort of disagree with almost all of the points made her. Not in an aggressive combative way, just I see things differently. I think the factions in Starfield are mostly pale imitations of TES factions, only with far superior animations and voice actors. Ryujin as far as a "Faction" is not really a faction, however, the writing and voice acting in it was the best I have seen so far and the ending was satisfying.

Having said that, the Dark Brotherhood quest line in Skyrim is superior to all the quest lines in Starfield IMHO. Also the Morag Tong in Morrowind is a close second.

The Crimson Fleet is just space pirates for the sake of having space pirates, I found nothing about their story or motivations or attitudes to be anything but generic. If you want to just attack neutral ships for loot, you can pretty much experience the exact same gameplay by betraying the Crimson Fleet and then attacking Spacer, Ecliptic, Crimson fleet and REDACTED for the same thrill and use the Trade Authority to smuggle and sell stolen good.

The way the Crimson Fleet is written is sort of why I find the faction to be just a bunch of low life's with zero personality or conviction aside from being a stereotype of gangbangers. Like the Crimson Fleet is one note as fuck. So is the UC but even in the UC there are multiple mini factions so not all of them are super fascist stereotypes.

If you want huge bounties and lame loot, sure, go full Crimson Fleet. I wish there was more of a Privateer style faction and less of a "Fuck you rook, we are Evil because fuck the UC!" Faction.

Also, I wish doing one bad thing did not instantly alert the entire Universe in less than 1 second. How does the UC know it was me if I am in an unregistered ship and destroy a vessel in under 5 seconds? Space Magic?

[purpledevilr]

2:37 you can refuse to work for Ikande, and walk up to a Pirate to ask to join.

They’ll let you in because they learn they refuse it.

[ORN]

I think it really becomes a hard decision when you do the UC vanguard, form an attachment to being the good guy, then get recruited thru the vanguard, to sysdef. Go undercover after saving the settled systems from terrormorphs

[nickbellomo]

I feel there should be a deeper dive into picking the crimson side where in very late game you can work your way into taking over command of the fleet.

[johnorson]

This guy has the voice of a small woodland creature

[taintedgoose]

I still feel that the sysdef and crimson fleet quest line, had a better climax than the main story. Hopefully we get a expansion on them