As you progress through Starfield‘s main questline, you’ll discover the mysterious Temples that can be found all over the galaxy. You’ll soon discover that these Temples house weird and wonderful powers that you can wield as you discover more artifacts. There’s also an elusive material called Quantum Essence you can collect, so here’s how to find the temples and gain some new power.
Be warned: there are spoilers for the main quest below.
Where to find Temples
You’ll find your first Temple as you progress through the main story: Temple Eta, which is on Procyon 3. Once you reach The Eye and meet Vladimir, you’ll be able to begin your expeditions to find them. To find Temples, you’ll need to use your scanner and follow the distortions on the planet’s surface. Essentially, you’ll need to face different directions until the white circle of the scanner starts to wobble. You might not see a structure on your scanner at first, so head in the direction that makes the circle wobble the most until an icon appears and you can scan it.
To get into the Temples, you’ll want to find a glittering golden door. These are often tucked away down narrow passageways at the base of the structure and can be a little difficult to find, and it isn’t clear if their entryways are randomised.
It seems that Temple locations are also randomised, so to find one easily, you’ll want to acquire a set of main mission quests called Power From Beyond. From there, you can travel to the planet and search for the Temple.
How the Temples work
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Once inside, you’ll see a spinning circular structure. It’s not immediately obvious what you have to do, but you’re basically looking for a collection of stardust that looks like a vertical line with a swirl of gold going around the middle. See the image above to get a better understanding of what to look for. You’ll enter an anti-grav chamber and can use your boost function to propel you forward, which is handy, as you need to fly into several of these stardust formations as quickly as you can, with the music eventually reaching a crescendo before the circular structure turns into a portal, which you can fly into to claim your new power.
What powers are and how to use them
You can access the power menu by pressing K or clicking at the top of the circular character menu, and you’ll be able to see all of your available powers. There are several powers to unlock, and you can equip one at a time as well as assign others to your favourites menu. To use them, press Z (or LB+RB on gamepad) and you’ll unleash an otherworldly power, such as a teleport dash or a telekinetic shove. Each power has a point cost to use, and your total power limit is 60.
Here are the powers I’ve found so far and what they do:
- Anti-gravity Field: Generate a localised field of intense low gravity, and behold a planet’s true power. Cost: 45 Power.
- Grav Dash: Manipulate gravity to propel yourself forward, and briefly increase any damage you inflict. Cost: 15 Power.
- Personal Atmosphere: Oxygen, pure and clean, brought forth to breathe deep and counteract harmful carbon dioxide. Cost: 45 Power.
- Gravity Wave: Emit a gravitational force strong enough to propel almost anything… or anyone. Cost: 25 Power.
- Precognition: Bend time and glimpse the future, seeing the path someone will walk and the words they may say. Cost: 35 Power.
- Sense Star Stuff: Bind yourself to the particles of creation, sensing the life force of any human, alien, or Starborn. Cost: 15 Power.
- Void Form: Channel the very darkness of space, rending yourself nearly invisible to those around you. Cost: 25 Power.
- Alien Reanimation: Bring dead alien creatures back to life.
- Elemental Pull: Elements, the true treasure of planet and moon, are drawn to your being. Cost: 25 Power.
- Solar Flare: Tap into the power of the sun and release a directed orb of searing hot plasma. Cost: 25 Power.
- Create Vacuum: Oxygen, fuel of humanity, is withdrawn from a localized area at your command. Cost: 25 Power.
- Creator’s Peace: Compels enemies to temporarily drop their weapons. Cost: 25 Power.
- Phased Time: Bullet-time! Slow down time for a brief period. Cost: 45 Power.
How to earn Quantum Essence
This one is easy—kill Starborn as they appear. After a certain point in the storyline, they will appear every time you collect an Artifact or clear a Temple, so just take them out to get some. Once you’ve claimed it, you can increase your Starborn Power regeneration speed for 60 seconds, but I wouldn’t suggest using it all up at once early on.