Summary
- The Dream Home Trait in Starfield provides the best house in the game, with ample space for customization and storage.
- The mortgage for the Dream Home is expensive, but it can be paid off without any time limit through procedurally generated missions and freelance smuggling.
- While the Dream Home is a valuable Trait, it may not be worth it for players who want to avoid paying the interest, prefer a free house, or want the versatility and profit potential of building an Outpost instead.
Starfield‘s Dream Home is pretty, but comes at a cost. When they start a new save, Starfield players can pick a Religion, Background, and up to three Traits. These all have their pros and cons, but none are more balanced than Traits. Each Trait can give a character a major advantage, but also comes with a disadvantage. It’s up to the player to decide what their run might look like, determining which skills they can sacrifice and which they should buff. The Dream Home Trait is a unique one, however, in that it doesn’t affect any stats at all.
The Dream Home Trait gives the player character a house almost from the very start. They can access it immediately after finishing the main story quest “One Small Step” and beginning the side quest “Dream Home,” which takes them to the planet Nesoi where their property is located. It’s a nice place, but it’s also a lot more than that. Taking the Dream Home Trait means being saddled with a serious mortgage that could cause trouble down the line. There’s no way to buy it otherwise – the Trait and the debt are the only way. So is it really worth the price tag?
Pros Of The Dream Home Trait In Starfield
Starfield‘s Dream Home is by far the best house available. By comparison, it’s huge, with two floors, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an outdoor deck. Most of the other homes available are little more than glorified studio apartments, so there’s really nothing else like it on the market. Those who want to do a little futuristic interior design won’t find a better location. Of course, all homes are customizable, but none of them provide as much space or flexibility as the Dream Home. Also, since it’s the only thing on Nesoi by default, the mortgage effectively buys a character not just a house, but an entire private planet.
But houses are more than just cosmetic – they also serve a practical purpose. Namely, that’s storage space. Hoarding is a problem in Starfield, and players need somewhere to store all the heavy weapons, armor, and material they swear they’ll find a use for someday. That’s where having a home comes in, and any of them will suffice as a reliable, always-available place to drop off excess loot. However, the Dream Home has the most space of them all, and having all that storage from the beginning of the game can make it much easier to prevent over-encumbrance emergencies later.
Another useful aspect of a home in Starfield is the ability to craft items and equipment there. The Dream Home starts with a Cooking Station by default, and additional crafting tables can be added with customization. Of course, a ship can also serve as a decent mobile crafting station with the right parts and increased storage capacity in Starfield, but the convenience of a home base and the ample space of the Dream Home just can’t be beat.
Now for the mortgage. 125,000 credits may seem like a lot in the early game, but it’s relatively easy to pay back the Dream Home debt by the end. Saving may go slowly in the beginning of the game, but once the player has progressed enough with a faction to unlock procedurally generated missions, they can easily grind out low-risk, high-reward tasks to get their money up quickly. Eventually choosing to side with the Crimson Fleet in Starfield unlocks smuggling missions that can also bring home the bacon. Also, there’s no time limit to paying off the Dream Home mortgage, so players can take as long as they need.
Finally, it’s always possible to give up on the Dream Home. If a player decides for any reason that they don’t want it anymore – maybe they’ve found another place they prefer, don’t like the house as much as they hoped, or just don’t want to bother paying off the debt – all they have to do is go to GalBank in New Atlantis and tell Landry Hollifield they’re no longer interested. All they’ll lose is whatever they’ve already spent on interest, which should be negligible. It’s a waste of a perfectly good trait, since it’s impossible to select another one without making a new character, but it can be done.
Cons Of The Dream Home Trait In Starfield
The Dream Home is expensive, sure, but so are most houses. However, there is a way to get a free house in Starfield by completing a series of quests. Of course, it’s nowhere near as nice as the Dream Home, but if all a player needs is a place to store items and craft equipment, it’ll do just fine. It also has a great location, being smack-dab in the middle of The Well, a bustling New Atlantis neighborhood. But if customization and design is what they’re after, the player character can do no better than the Dream Home.
Another major downside to the Dream Home is the interest its debt incurs. The first time a player character wants to use it, they’ll have to pay 500 credits to get inside. That’s just the first of many charges, though. From then on, GalBank will automatically charge them 500 credits every week until the mortgage is paid in full. Worse still, none of those payments go toward decreasing the total debt. Therefore, it’s best to hold off on visiting the Dream House, ideally until the debt is paid, but at least until the player character has a comfortable amount saved up.
Unfortunately, there are no financing plans or installments for settling the Dream Home mortgage in Starfield. All 125,000 credits have to be paid in full, in one lump sum given to Landry at GalBank. It can take a while to save up that much, and the interest can greatly inflate the overall price in the meantime.
As useful as buying a home can be, there’s a better option: building an Outpost. Outposts can do everything houses can do and more. At an Outpost, players can store loot, craft items, and build customization furniture, appliances, and structures. They can even build their true dream home, a place of their own design. Plus, spare crew members can be assigned to Outposts to make easy money in Starfield, so unlike the Dream Home, they actually provide an opportunity for profit. They may not be quite as cozy as homes, but they’re just as useful.
Ultimately, though, the Dream House is worth the price tag, as long as there’s a good use for it. If a player would rather avoid the interest or don’t care what their house looks like, then there are better options out there. If they’ll be doing a lot of hoarding, earning, crafting, or interior designing, or even if they’re just interested in seeing what the Dream Home entails, then it’s one of the best Traits available in Starfield.
