Starfield Companion Death – Can You Save All Characters?

You might be wondering if you can save your companion in Starfield. No, we’re not talking about anyone getting downed due to relentless attacks from alien beasts, or because they started floating around randomly. We’re talking about a more drastic incident that occurs in A High Price to Pay. Our guide discusses everything you need to know about this moment, as well as the workarounds we’ve tried. Likewise, please be reminded that this article contains spoilers.

Can you save your companion in Starfield

The Starfield companion in question is the one that dies in A High Price to Pay (we told you there would be spoilers). The quest itself requires you to choose between two locations: The Lodge or The Eye. A companion in the location that you didn’t choose will perish.

As of the time of this writing, we’re unable to confirm what actually affects the choice of companion. We do believe that it might be due to the affinity system–i.e. the companions with the two highest approvals/relationship levels will be chosen at that stage. One of them will die to make for a more impactful moment in the story.

Our writers compared notes in this instance:

• One writer had Sarah in The Eye and Sam in The Lodge.
• Another writer had Sarah in The Eye and Andreja in The Lodge.
• In those instances, they both had the highest affinity with Sarah (The Eye). Meanwhile, Sam and Andreja (The Lodge) had the second highest affinity in their respective campaigns.
• After making a fateful decision, the companion in the location that they did not choose died.
• Note that it might also be based on whoever we brought as a companion prior to A High Price to Pay (i.e. that companion will be the one left in The Lodge).

So, can you save your companion in Starfield? The answer is no–or, at least we haven’t found a working method that allows that. Here’s what we’ve tried so far:

• We tried to speedrun the whole thing: exit The Lodge, go to The Eye, rescue the survivor, then go back to The Lodge, all while ignoring everything else. One companion in The Lodge still died.
• The Starborn powers that we had at the time also didn’t work.
• As an aside, we also tried console commands, specifically “player.placeatme” with a companion’s ID. We did see character models with wispy smoke around them. We believe these character models had more to do with the ending scenes than this particular quest.

The companion death is tied to the story

Overall, we believe that it’s truly not possible to save your companion in Starfield, as it’s heavily tied to the story. We’ve added a few details that transpire near the end of the game, and in New Game Plus. Read the spoilers at your own risk.

• It’s revealed that one of the Starborn, the Emissary, is the dead companion, but they’re from another universe. In their universe, it was your character that perished, which motivated them to reach the Unity, eventually becoming the Emissary that you meet in your travels.

• If you decide to skip the main quest in New Game Plus, you’ll blurt out that you’re Starborn now. You’ll then divulge to your companion that they died in your universe.

That’s everything you need to know about A High Price to Pay and if you can save your companion in Starfield. After this part, there’s an emotional moment where Constellation says goodbye to one of their members. That also leads to Walter asking you to help his R&D team, which nets you a free Class-C Kepler ship. The next important main quest that we discuss is the Unity puzzle.