Into The Unknown Quest Walkthrough
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Your quest for the Artifacts in Starfield will eventually lead to the “Into the Unknown” mission, which takes you to multiple planets and a mysterious star station known only as The Eye. Featuring battles with deadly mercenaries and plenty of exploration across the galaxy, there are many objectives to pursue. However, there are some difficulties that can make this quest far more challenging than you might expect.
As of this time of writing, there are several bugs that could prevent this mission from ever showing up in your menu. Those playing Starfield on PC may have to skip the quest using console commands to keep progressing through the main story. Similar to Legendary weapon ID’s, the manipulation of the game’s systems are unavailable for anyone on an Xbox, who instead could have to wait for an incoming update.
Meet with Vladimir on The Eye
To begin the quest, travel to the Alpha Centauri system close to where you normally would go to reach New Atlantis, the city on the planet Jemison in Starfield. Landing your ship on the star station gives you an opportunity to meet with the NPC Vladimir Sall, someone who can help you in finding the mysterious Artifacts. This mission follows up “The Old Neighborhood” quest, which saw your character welcomed into the Constellation.
Be careful not to hit the somewhat small dock when selecting the “Travel” option toward The Eye station when arriving from space travel. The star station is fairly small, making it difficult to approach and land your ship without accidentally hitting something.
Once you’re inside, talk to Vladimir about a few leads on another two Artifacts in Starfield that have a chance to be out in the deeper reaches of space. You’ll have to check on these spots in person, with two Constellation members named Matteo and Andreja already on the worlds ahead of you. According to Vladimir, Matteo left fairly recently, but it’s been a worrying amount of time since Andreja has checked in.
Find the First Artifact
Although the locations where each Artifact will show up are random, the moon Tau Ceti VIII-B seems to appear often for a lot of players. This was where Andreja sent her last known communication, so one of the objectives here is to find the lost Constellation member in addition to the Artifact in Starfield. Travel to the Abandoned Mine area of the world, and enter the Deep Cave from the facility next to the landing zone.
Your character runs into Andreja almost immediately, with the fellow explorer defending herself from a Var’uun Zealot. After some tense introductions, you can travel with her into the depths of the tunnels below as she helps you much like a companion or crew member in Starfield. Continue forward and defeat all the enemies in the larger cave section ahead before going through a door on the other end near some stairs.
A computer in the first hallway of the Deep Cave actually has the controls to a Remote Robot that would normally be an enemy in this area. You have a chance here to update its Friend/Foe settings and remove its combat inhibitors to make it fight alongside your group instead.
Head to the chasm to the right of the storage tunnels that hosts even more mercenaries for you and Andreja to deal with. Defeating these foes and traveling to the bottom eventually leads to a Caelumite Deposit from your quest marker. Simply use a Cutter weapon to drill into this rock formation to collect Artifact Iota in Starfield and part ways with Andreja, who chooses to remain in the system.
Find the Second Artifact
Unlike the first Artifact, the second in this quest could show up on a greater number of planets or moons, ranging from examples like Sumati, Tau Ceti II, and Piazzi IV-c. No matter where you go, your mission marker will guide you to which place you need to land. Continue from the landing zone until you find either an Outpost or Cave that your map points to as you adventure into another dungeon-like region.
Things are pretty straightforward this time, just travel to the end of the area until you discover another Caelumite Deposit. Once again, drill with a Cutter to touch Artifact Zeta and experience another vision cutscene. From here, return to the Lodge and add the Artifacts you’ve found to the total collection, and talk to Matteo and Andreja, who arrive to see the cosmic minerals join together in Starfield.
Follow the Grav Anomaly
Return to Vladimir on The Eye and talk to him, which reveals that there was a grav anomaly produced by your collection that matches a signal on the planet Procyon III. Journey to the right system and land on the Scanner Anomaly Site to investigate. Open the Hand Scanner once you’re on the planet’s surface to see distortions on the edges of the white circle, which will point you in the right direction.
Reports of bugs that prevent any distortion from showing up on your character’s Hand Scanner have been reported here. Restarting the game or reloading the planet are possible solutions if you experience this.
The distortions to the scanner are subtle and sometimes hard to make out, but those who keep following the distortion until it gets heavier should discover a large Temple. The Temple Eta‘s interior is almost like a massive dome with spinning rings that you can observe while floating in Starfield. Fly up to the shimmering group of stars above the rings and follow them as they gather a few times to cause the rings to react.
This ethereal experience turns the rings into a portal-looking device, which your character has to float into. A small cutscene plays where your character absorbs the stars that they’ve been chasing, enacting a stronger vision than those seen when touching the Artifacts. You’ll wake up back outside the Temple, and should then return to the Lodge to figure out what exactly happened.
Return to The Lodge
The Temple now allows your character to lift objects with their mind using the Anti-Gravity Field power that you unlocked after the cutscene from the Temple. Report this strange yet amazing circumstance to the members of the Lodge to officially end the quest. You will receive 9,500 Credits, 3 Addichron, and 3 Medipacks for your troubles, and open up the next “Power From Beyond” mission to hunt for more abilities.
Once you finish the “Into the Unknown” quest in Starfield, you have the chance to gain at least 6 more powers from other Temples from around the galaxy waiting to be found.
Starfield
- Platform(s):
- PC, Xbox Series X/S
- Released:
- 2023-09-06
- Developer(s):
- Bethesda Game Studios
- Publisher(s):
- Bethesda Softworks
- Genre(s):
- Open-World, RPG, Sci-Fi
- ESRB:
- M
- Summary:
- Bethesda Game Studios presents Starfield – the first original IP from the studio in twenty-five-plus years. Set in the year 2310, the United Colonies and Freestar Collective are observing a shaky truce after a war set 20 years prior. The player will customize their character as a member of a space exploration team called Constellation while navigating The Settled Systems and the conflicts between the warring factions. According to Bethesda, players can explore over 100 systems and 1000 planets to find resources and build their ships, living out their own sci-fi journeys.
