Summary
Starfieldplayers who have grown bored with the game’s combat ought to check outthis new mod which fundamentally changes battle to make those spontaneous fights more engaging. For a game all about discovery and mapping the unknown universe, there’s still plenty of shooting to be found inStarfieldand while most will agree it’s Bethesda’s best take on combat yet, it’s still a little too simplistic for some. Fortunately, those who want something more grounded and realistic are in luck as the game’s modding community has just the solution.
Posted to Nexus Mods by usermatr0x,the appropriately named “StarfieldCombat Overhaul” mod does what one might expect by refining every aspect of the battle system. This includes rebalancing health and damage scaling to ensure players aren’t overpowered against late-game enemies, a factor that’s further tweaked by removing all HP gained when leveling up to ensure bullet sponges are a thing of the past. In terms of actually fighting,melee weapons have received a significant boost to their damage, meaning players can’t simply ignore opponents charging at themwith an axe or sword unless they want to meet a swift end.

What Else Does Starfield Combat Overhaul Change?
If You Name It, It’s Probably Different
While the aforementioned mod largely focuses on minute-to-minute combat tweaks, it also does some work on peripheral systems to ensure players aren’t too strong or too weak.This includes adjusting the way some Skills and Abilities work, rebalancing them to be slightly more impactful but riskier to use, and further prompting players to build into specific roles and classes. Ammo becomes more scarce which, coupled with increased recoil and slower reload speeds on all guns, ensuresusers carefully place their shotsrather than simply spraying.
Finally,Healing is also affected by the mod as every item used to recover health now grants less over a smaller period of time. Not only does this make finding healing items more significant and valuable, but it also requires players to properly utilize cover and breaks in the flow of combat to take a breath and temporarily recover for the next round. It’s a significantlymore realistic take on gunfights, so those who install the mod should be ready to take their time and be patient rather than running into fights.
Starfieldmay be close to a year old but the community is still actively looking tofix many of the game’s lingering issues. After months of general silence,Bethesda has finally begun rolling out content updates that will soon culminate in the launch of the first expansionShattered Spacein late 2024. More patches will likely be issued once the DLC is live as Bethesda has reiterated that it’s dedicated tosupporting its sci-fi RPG for the foreseeable future.