One Remote Starfield Location Shows Bethesda’s Incredible Attention To Detail

Summary Starfield's incredibly vast world can almost feel devoid of content, but Bethesda has placed bespoke content in surprising places.

Players can find and explore the location where Barrett found Constellation's second Artifact.

This unique location delivers on what initially feels like throwaway dialog to explain Consteallation's search for the Artifacts.

Starfield has certainly received its fair share of criticism, and Bethesda titles are always put under intense scrutiny despite their popularity, but the studio has a knack for including impressive details that are easily lost within the games' vast worlds. None are more vast than Starfield either, with over 1,000 explorable planets and moons littering its expansive game world. Despite so much getting lost in Starfield's ambitious breadth, there is still one detail which follows through on an off-hand comment made toward the beginning of the game, displaying Bethesda's dedication in making the Settled Systems feel contiguous.

Many of Starfield's perceived shortcomings are symptoms of the game's size, and more specifically, the necessity of its procedurally generated content. The game is simply too large to be filled with bespoke content, a major departure from beloved Bethesda titles like The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim or Fallout 3. Most planets and moons are barren, making Starfield's space travel at least partially realistic, and any extensive exploration will have players coming across cookie-cutter points of interest. Even outside of Starfield's major cities and locales, though, there are unique locations standing as a reminder of how Bethesda won its world-building fame.

Related "An Instant Classic": Starfield Review Starfield has plenty of captivating tales and dynamic mechanics that make it an epic science fiction adventure - and an instant classic.

You Can Find The Sulfur Mine Where Barret Found An Artifact In Starfield

On Ka'zaal, In The Nirah System

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Searching for Starfield's Artifacts is a primary thrust in the main questline, and coming into contact with one begins the player character's journey with Constellation. The indescribable experience of touching an Artifact is also an early connection the player has with Barrett, one of Starfield's most prominent companions. At some point before the beginning of the game, Barrett comes into contact with an Artifact in a sulfur mine on Ka'zaal. It's a rather simple explanation of how Constellation's search for the mysterious objects is ongoing, and can generally be dismissed as a way to drop the player in media res, since it never becomes a subject of consequence.

However, Ka'zaal can be visited in the game, and the sulfur mine where Barrett found the Artifact can be explored, granted the player character has reached a high enough level. Ka'zaal is a moon in the Nirah system, far on the right side of the Starfield star map, with a recommended level of 55. Far away from most hand-crafted locations like New Atlantis and Neon, the Ka'zaal Sulfur Mine is a unique location of no real importance aside from the Artifact it once housed.

The furthest reaches of Starfield's map, including the Nirah system, don't have to be explored before beating the game. Exploring high-level star systems can be saved for Starfield's New Game Plus.

It would be disingenuous to call Starfield carelessly designed, but much of its unfathomable scale leaves a lot to be desired from a content standpoint. It's many planets aren't bursting at the seams with curated quests like Skyrim; the experience is more understated, opting to let players weave a more organic narrative experience. The merits of this approach can be debated, but the Ka'zaal Sulfur Mine shows that Bethesda was sure to put a nice bow on plenty of details. What is essentially a handful of throwaway lines from Barrett can turn into a nice surprise hundreds of light years away from where players will likely spend a majority of the game.

The Ka'zaal Artifact Wasn't The First Constellation Found

Nor Was It The One That Gave Barrett His Vision

While discovering the Ka'zaal Sulfur Mine is a nice payoff for being invested in Barrett's character, it does little to explain how Constellation began its search for the Artifacts. The Artifact found on Ka'zaal is actually the second one to come into Constellation's possession, followed by one found in the organization's archives by Barrett. Years before the game takes place, Constellation acquired an Artifact through unknown means, and it was promptly stored away without being investigated. Barrett would later uncover it, touch it, and receive his vision.

This order of events actually helps explain why the Ka'zaal Artifact was found in such a remote location – Constellation was actively looking for it. Ka'zaal is much too far from Constellation's headquarters on Jemison to have any characters believably stumble upon an Artifact there. The serendipitous discovery of an Artifact already in Constellation's possession is another matter, though it does fit quite well with Starfield's themes surrounding the unknown and the unknowable; its discovery, right under humanity's nose, almost feels like an homage to the Monolith being discovered in Tycho Crater on the Moon in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Much of Starfield feels patchwork, largely due to its astounding reliance on procedural generation. The content that is bespoke, however, has Bethesda's signature care written all over it. The same density that makes Oblivion's Imperial City or Fallout 4's Diamond City compelling can be found in Starfield's Akila City, but it also extends to inconspicuous locations like the Ka'zaal Sulfur Mine. Starfield's dedication to realism may have harmed it at large, but there are still plenty of locations designed to charm the player.