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The Starfield Crimson Fleet faction are one of the most intriguing factions in Bethesda’s RPG. As if exploring the stars wasn’t good enough, a faction of evil space pirates to fight with or against ramps up the excitement up.
We’re going to take you through everything you need to know about the Starfield Crimson Fleet faction so you’ll be ready to deal with them when you’re out there exploring the many Starfield planets and Starfield systems open to you. For a few pointers to start your playthrough right, check out our Starfield tips and tricks.
Who are the Crimson Fleet in Starfield?
The Crimson Fleet are a group of space pirates, and are one of the major factions in Starfield. The ‘bad guy’ faction of the game, they are not to be confused with the similarly named Crimson Raiders from Borderlands. In typical pirate fashion, they fly a stylised Jolly Roger as the symbol of their faction, and can become on your main foes, depending on the choices and journey you make.
The Crimson Fleet is made up of individual pirate captains, each with their own crew, flying under the banner of the Crimson Fleet, overseen by main man Delgado, a no-nonsense leader.
As Todd Howard describes them, the Crimson Fleet are ‘pirates who will stop at nothing to take what’s ‘theirs.’ Following their expansion, the United Colonies, one of the game’s other factions, announced that the Crimson Fleet had become too powerful, and they committed to eliminating them completely.
Where are the Crimson Fleet based?
The Crimson Fleet is based in a old abandoned UC spacestation called The Eye orbiting the planet Suvorov in the Kryx System. They are the dominant faction in and around the Kryx system, but are known to venture further afield in search of riches and loot. For more details, read up on how to reach The Key.
Can you join the Crimson Fleet in Starfield?
Yes, you can join the Crimson Fleet in Starfield. You’ll join the Crimson Fleet as a double agent for either by being caught smuggling contraband or stealing in a UC system, or by talking to Commander Tuala for the Deep Cover side quest. This will start the Rooks Meet King quest, where you’ll meet the Fleet proper on The Key in the Kryx system.
Unlike many games, Starfield doesn’t prohibit you from joining the ‘bad’ factions, going so far as to provide multiple different ways to interact with the faction once you join them. Starfield’s lead quest designer, Will Shen, has described the faction as “the de facto choice for anyone looking to do an evil playthrough of Starfield”.
While you’re a member of the Crimson Fleet, you can join in with the faction’s killing, stealing, and pillaging. Or if you want to be a good person, you can instead doublecross them, acting as an informant for the United Colonies to take down the Crimson Fleet from the inside.
Design Director Emil Pagliarulo said of these interactions, “the cool thing about the Crimson Fleet, what if you’re a good person and want to be a good player and you don’t want to play as a bad guy? You can side with the pirates or you can report back to your superiors and be like a space cop type of thing. So, [we] let you be a cool person and still play with the bad guys.”
If you’re not sold on space piracy just yet though, we’ve got a full Starfield factions list to give you a quick overview of all the other joinable factions we know about so far, such as the mysterious Starfield Ryujin Industries based in Starfield Neon, an infamous pleasure city. Otherwise, here is the best Starfield reactor, the best Starfield spacesuits, a Starfield Delivering Devils quest walkthrough, and Starfield Sabotage quest walkthrough.
