Starfield Shattered Space is the RPG’s first story expansion, bringing players to a brand-new planet with its own questline, enemies to fight, and more. Here’s everything we know about it so far.
Before Starfield‘s debut, Bethesda Game Studios confirmed plans to release annual story expansions, with Shattered Space coming first. Details on the eagerly-anticipated expansion were scant until the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase, which featured the first trailer for Shattered Space and some information on what the story will entail.
Starfield Shattered Space DLC release date & time
The Starfield Shattered Space expansion will be available on September 30, 2024, just over a year after the game’s launch.
Pre-orders are live, and you can download and play the DLC at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET / 4 PM BST. For more details, you can check out the launch time in every region.
Price
Starfield Shattered Space costs $29.99/£29.99. Do note that you need the base game to play the expansion.
However, those who purchased its Digital Premium Edition for $99.99 will have instant access to the expansion once it launches.
Is Shattered Space on Xbox Game Pass?
Starfield Shattered Space isn’t available through Xbox Game Pass. Despite the full game being available on Game Pass, subscribers will have to buy the DLC separately, but with a 10% discount.
To play the DLC, you can either upgrade to the Premium Edition for $31.49/£31.49 or buy the DLC on its own for $26.99/£26.99.
Platforms
Shattered Space will be available on Xbox Series X|S and PC through Steam and the Xbox store – the same platforms as the base game.
Following Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda, Starfield is Xbox and PC-exclusive, and they haven’t announced any plans to bring it to PlayStation. However, December’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (published by Bethesda) will come to PlayStation 5 in Spring 2025.
Shattered Space trailers
The first trailer for Starfield: Shattered Space debuted during the Xbox Games Showcase on June 9, 2024. It sets a spooky tone for the expansion, featuring bright lights and ominous effects while confirming the story will relate to the mysterious House Va’Ruun.
August 2024’s Gamescom show also featured a new teaser for Shattered Space, seen at the end of the REV-8 vehicle trailer.
On September 16, Bethesda dropped a Shattered Space Deep Dive, detailing what you can expect in the DLC, including the new Va’ruun’kai planet, combat, and more.
PC system requirements
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 Version 21H1 (10.0.19043) | Windows 10/11 with updates |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 5 | AMD Ryzen 5 3660X or Intel i5-10600K |
| Memory | 16 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | MD Radeon RX 5700 or NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti | AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 |
| DirectX | Version 12 | Version 12 |
| Network | Broadband Internet Connection | Broadband Internet Connection |
| Storage | 125GB Available Space | 125GB Available Space |
| Additional Notes | SSD Required | SSD Required |
New content
Starfield Shattered Space brings the brand-new Va’ruun’kai planet in which the entirety of the story takes place. This “hand-crafted” planet brings over 50 new locations to freely explore, and you can leave at any time.
The DLC Deep Dive briefly showed one such location, Dazra City, which becomes a retreat for inhabitants hoping to escape the planet’s new hazards after an experiment goes wrong and “tears a hole in the fabric of spacetime.” While here, players will encounter abandoned areas taken over by zealots, the Crimson Fleet faction, and the scavengers known as Spacers.
Previously unseen enemies like the Redeemed and Vortex Horrors will debut during the expansion as well, the latter being spectral-looking arachnids. These eerie creatures spawn from a tear in reality, which “disturbed the barrier between our world and theirs.”
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Fortunately, devs have taken steps to ensure players can better defend themselves, specifically by improving close-quarters combat. The team hasn’t shared many specifics yet, but the Deep Dive noted that combat will feel “more aggressive.”
Players will be able to craft new grenades based on gathered organic material. Bethesda labeled the grenades as “gross,” though it’s unclear what this entails – unless the new explosives bear any similarity to those in Death Stranding, which were made from protagonist Sam’s bodily fluids.
The trailer description confirms that “unique weapons, spacesuits, and gear” will be added in the DLC, though no specifics have been confirmed.
Shattered Space DLC story & details
Shattered Space focuses on House Va’Ruun, a theocracy in the Settled Systems that worships a deity called the Great Serpent. This is one of the religions Starfield players can choose during character creation, though the base game reveals little about the organization.
Notably, the new story content will take players to Dazra, a city on House Va’Ruun’s hidden homeworld to investigate a cosmic threat.
A Bethesda blog post released alongside the initial trailer gives the following story description: “When a distress signal originating from a derelict star station leads you on a path to Va’ruun’kai, you’ll begin to uncover the secrets surrounding the followers of the Great Serpent.”
A preview on Xbox Wire describes Shattered Space as an expansion that subverts expectations by exploring new genres. Players can expect a “horror-inflected mystery story” that finally addresses lingering questions about the base game’s House Va’Ruun faction.
If Starfield delves into humanity’s search for knowledge as Bethesda said, the new DLC ponders what happens when that search goes a few steps too far. What players will find during the journey are the terrifying results of secret grav drive technology experiments conducted by The Great Serpent’s followers.
The experiment takes a turn for the worse a few weeks before players respond to the distress call. The secret test unleashes a tear in the fabric of spacetime, one that swallows up areas of the planet’s capital city. You can also find zero-gravity areas called Vortexes around the alien-looking planet, letting you use your jetpack to fly over these zones.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Va’Ruun sect has gone missing in the seat of government known as the Scaled Citadel. Trapped in a bizarre field of energy, the leader’s absence creates a power vacuum that internal factions will fight to fill.
The DLC will additionally see players inducted into Va’Ruun society, where they’ll help navigate the increasingly violent state of things.
How to start Starfield Shattered Space
To start the new story once you’ve bought and downloaded the DLC, you’ll need to make sure you’ve completed the first quest (One Small Step), then grav-jump to an orbit that’s not being used by another quest or encounter.
Here, you’ll get a distress call from The Oracle and Shattered Space’s story will begin, taking you to Va’ruun’kai.
If you’ll be playing Starfield for the first time with Shattered Space, or need to refamiliarise yourself, you can check out the must-know tips for beginners and our ultimate walkthrough.