Starfield: How to explore 100% of a planet? Starfield guide, tips

All planets in Starfield can be explored. Our guide explains how to do it in 100% and what it gives you.

Last update: 31 August 2023

There are almost 1000 planets in Starfield and all of them can be explored. On this page, you'll learn how to fully explore a planet. Sometimes, even scanning all resources, fauna and flora on the planet isn't enough to reach 100%. We explain why it is so and how to reach completion. We also explain what rewards you can gain for scanning.

• Researching planets
• What does scanning give you?

Researching planets

The starmap displays your survey percentage of specific planets and moons. Planets you can't land on can be scanned by approaching them in your spaceship. Approaching a gas giant, turning on the map and surveying it will give you 100%.

Scanning an explorable planet is more time-consuming. To survey 100% of a planet you need to find and scan:

1. all resources;
2. all flora;
3. all fauna;
4. items in specially marked places, called features - in practice, this means locations. Please note you'll have a list of scannable things when using a scanner - under this list there are circles with question marks. These represent special areas.

Not all planets hold many things to scan. For example, Earth is home only to a few resources and a single geophysical feature, while Jemison features resources, fauna, flora and three features.

1. You'll need to find a few representatives of the same species (fauna and flora) and scan them all to fully survey it. You'll likely need to cover some distance.
2. 100% surveyed things are highlighted in green on your scanner, while unsurveyed ones are blue.
3. Some animal and plant species may only be found in different parts of the planet. If the scanner displays the message "Biome Complete" next to the list of scannable things, move somewhere else on the planet and keep searching.

What does scanning give you?

There are two reasons to survey planets in Starfield .

1. Completing a scan will reward you with experience points.
2. Exploring 100% of a planet also gives you research data you can sell. These can be sold to any merchant - you'll find them in the "Notes" tab.