Outpost building is a fun side activity that can help you make your own little place in space to call your home. Of course, there are plenty of limitations that go along with building outposts, and you can’t just expect to cover a whole planet in buildings. In addition, once you do set up your outpost, there is a limit to how many items you can place and how many outposts in total you can have. The guide below goes over how many outposts you can have, how to increase that number, and what the limits for building at your outpost will be.
Outposts have a lot of limitations, from how many you can set up, to where you can build, and finally how many items you can place inside each one.
How Many Outposts Can I Have at Once in Starfield?¶
As soon as the game allows you to build outposts, you can start setting them up provided you find a stable planet. You will be given eight beacons and can set up a total of eight individual outposts. You can expand on how many outposts you are building by investing in the 
Planetary Habitation skill. This is an expert-level skill in the science tree. Each level of this skill increases how many outposts you are able to build. In addition to this, with each level, you will be able to increase the type of planets that you can build outposts on.
- Planetary Habitation Rank 1: You can now build twelve outposts, including freezing and Inferno planets.
- Planetary Habitation Rank 2: You can now build twenty outposts, including planets with extreme pressure.
- Planetary Habitation Rank 3: You can now build thirty-two outposts,including toxic and corrosive planets.
- Planetary Habitation Rank 4: You can now build forty-eight outposts, including planets with extreme gravity.
The total number of outposts you can have in Starfield after fully upgrading the Planetary Habination skill is 48. These can be in different systems, in the same system, or even on the same planet. Keep in mind that even if you do rank up to build on planets with hostile environments, you will still be affected by the planet while outside. In fact, the game even provides a way for you to link your outposts together to be more efficient. If you have already reached your outpost limit, but have found a planet you like more, then simply remove one of your outposts. We have a guide detailing the process of removing an outpost here.
What are The Outpost Building Limits?¶
Each outpost has a circular limit that you are allowed to build inside. There is no way to move this circle, outside of moving the beacon itself. You can not expand it later on, and the room inside the circle is what you have to work with. This is why you should strategically place beacons near ore veins that you want to harvest. Once you do have your spot set up, you can begin building. Keep in mind that there is also a limit to building horizontally as you can’t just make an outpost that reaches into space. Essentially you have a large, but limited circular field to build your outpost inside of. When you are in build mode you will be able to see the circle around you, indicating where you can place items. This limit does not show up horizontally, so you won’t know how high you can build until you try. Things like cliffs and dips in the ground can affect how high you can make your outpost.
There is a bar that you will see at the bottom of your building screen that is marked Build Limit. With each item you place, the meter will move up, and when it’s full you will no longer be able to build and place items unless you remove some first. It seems that certain items affect the bar more than others, likely due to how much power they take to function. For example, a decorative item like a coffee machine doesn’t take much to render. On the other hand, something like a light that actively affects the graphics of the game is going to put more on your load. The best way to learn the limit is to build up your outpost and keep an eye on how much the limit bar jumps with each addition. This will give you an idea of how much you can place, and what items you need to limit yourself on. Sadly, you will have to actually place the item to see your bar increase, as the game doesn’t pre-warn you about the load each object will take.
(1 of 4) You can see the area around your beacon that you are allowed to build inside.
Finally, you should note that there will be other limitations outside the standard ones stated above. You can only place a limited number of robots, crew, and cargo links at a single outpost. This limit can be lifted by investing in the 
Outpost Management skill. This is an expert-level skill, so you will need to work your way up it. You can find it in the social tree. The first three ranks increase the cargo links, robots, and crew you can place at your outpost, while rank four increases your extractor’s output. If you are looking to make an outpost that makes money or collects large amounts of resources then investing in this skill is a must. Outside of this, everything is pretty straightforward, and the game will tell you when you are going outside of building limits.
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