Starfield

Starfield

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War of Angels

War of Angels

Collect 20 Quantum Essence

20

11.16%

How to unlock the War of Angels achievement in Starfield - Definitive Guide

If you've not played much or any of the game, maybe look away from this guide as it's gonna spoil the game a somewhat for you. Having said that, let's continue.

Quantum Essences are something you will start to see as you progress the game a bit. They will be dropped by an enemy called the Starborn. Now I'm gonna list the ways which I encountered the Starborn by don't worry, I finished the game with 25 having using 2 so collected 27 in total so get the required 20 shouldn't be a massive issue, I also didn't find every temple either. If you want to check how many you have, pause the game, press up and A so now you're in the power screen and look at the bottom left.

First the temples, these are the things you later get powers from, everytime you complete 1 a Starborn will appear after, kill him and you'll get an essence. Keep in mind, their bodies disintegrate, you won't be able to search them you are just given the essence.

Second the story and I'm gonna spoil a later mission for you so look away if you've not finished or very close to finishing a play through. Once you meet the Hunter and Emissary, you'll be sent to the Moon to search through NASA after getting the artefact the Starborn will attack on you way up. You'll likely get 5-10 this way, which is a good method. The final mission will also have more Starborn, however for me, not every Starborn here dropped one, I got one after completing each battle section which gave me around an extra 5/6 in total.

Third, once all artefacts were collected they task you with putting them in the armillary and grav jumping somewhere. At this point I chose to rack up the rest of my achievements and having the armillary on your ship makes you a target. You'll randomly see Starborn craft land on a planet, go to it because about 5 Starborn will get out every time and are good source of Essence.

Fourth and this one I haven't tested so I'm completely guessing. You can put the armillary at an outpost which will make that outpost a target for the Starborn. I would imagine this would also work by defending it, so I'm putting it here just in case.

I will warn though, my Essences did not carry over into new game plus, so if you're planning to get 10 and 10 in different playthroughs, don't. Get it in 1 playthrough, it shouldn't be too difficult and good luck.
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08 Sep 2023 10:24

24 Comments
I've not heard of any other examples of this not occurring. They will spawn after you've obtained the power and been teleported outside the temple, wait around there a minute or two and see if they spawn, they may be invisible at first but they should attack you. It could be worth trying to do a couple story missions though and see if there is a tie in to story progression but I can't give a definite answer either way. Let us know how it goes after your next temple to see if it spawns or it requires to progress further.
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By Muscat95 on 11 Sep 2023 23:25
You will get to the part of the story where you must build an Outpost and an Armillary. At this point you can choose to keep the Artifacts, which has no mass, in your inventory instead on storing them in the Armillary.

As you travel to different worlds exploring, keep an ear open for the sonic boom as ships enter the atmosphere. Look in the sky for them and observe where they land. You want to pay attention to see if it's a Starborn ship which you can discern most of the times.

If it's a Starborn ship, head to that location. Their landing location should show up on your scanner as a Landing Site. Once there, you will see 4 to 5 Starborns. Sometimes you may not see any for whatever reason.

Travel from planet to planet to see if they land, locate and kill them. If they don't land in 5 mins, go to another planet.

The reason they land where you are is because you have the Artifacts on you.
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By Dmbledore on 15 Nov 2023 14:00
So far, I've visited 6 temples (have 6 different powers) and no Starborn enemies appeared in any temple.
Is this normal? Because, I didn't progress too far in the main story. I'm at "All that money can buy" and I don't know if it necessary to progress more to get Starborn enemies at the temples.
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By XbMurphy on 11 Sep 2023 20:28
They didn't appear to me either on the temples until I had progressed further and started getting the Hunter chase and main quest line advanced.... then after thar every temple had at least 1 starborn attacking me.... poor sods.....
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By Jdobem on 12 Sep 2023 09:53
I'm in the same boat. I am only 3, maybe 4, missions into the campaign but have acquired 5 powers. All with zero Starborn spawns. I wonder when I get to the story part when they start spawning will I need to revisit those temples?
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By BigTymer2047 on 12 Sep 2023 13:01
After doing the "starborn" quest i set myself to do all the "power from beyond" quests, to grant myself a new power for each completion plus 1 starborn spawned granting me 1 "Quantum Essence" after doing this for all temples but 2 i continued with the main story i received this cheevo during the quest "Revelation", HOWEVER i only have 15 "Quantum Essence" im assuming this achievement is currently bugged with the essence drops and/or tracking but im at 15 and got the cheevo to pop. i killed an estimate of 30-35 "starborn" enemies
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By TTV Aerico34 on 13 Sep 2023 13:23
Collected 29 and still no achievement.
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By grizzly#1497 on 16 Sep 2023 03:36
Is it still bugged?
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By beastman rules on 17 Sep 2023 21:02
I’ve done 6 temples so far, gained 6 powers, never once seen anything called a Starborn. Nothing ever appeared, and i didn’t kill anything. After completion of the temple, the game spawns you outside, just standing there. What am I not understanding?
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By MiZ Dove OG on 19 Sep 2023 00:33
The Starborn should start appearing after you complete the main quest mission that's also named "Starborn" (where you encounter the Starborn in space), or possibly after the next quest "Further Into the Unknown" (where you meet your first Starborn in the flesh). I believe I met my first Starborn at a Temple after completing "Starborn" but I'm not completely sure.
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By tobiasvl on 19 Sep 2023 00:59
Do you need to keep in "inactive" in inventory for it to count towards achievement or can you use it?
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By Dredgen on 19 Sep 2023 07:02
You can use them. I used the first one I got (I didn't know what it was) and the achievement popped later when I had 19 in the inventory.
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By Renki on 19 Sep 2023 12:31
Anyone else reached 20 quantum essence but not have the achievement unlock?
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By Belumial on 21 Sep 2023 21:50
I have 20 but it hasn't unlocked
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By Wolfie McG on 25 Sep 2023 06:17
If you have 20 in the Reanimation counter then make sure you check under Status -> Combat -> Starborn Killed. I had 24 or so in the reanimation tracker but only said I killed 19. So really it's you have to kill 20 enemies that have the name "Starborn" since there are some enemies called "Starborn Travellers" etc. that don't count. Hope that helps!
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By EvilDemon24 on 27 Sep 2023 05:57
Apparently this can be a little annoying currently because there is a bug that makes it so that no enemy crews ever exit ships (or are even on ships allowing you to steal an unsellable star guardian or any other ship). Which means you can only get them from temples and the questline. You may be able to possibly get them from outpost attacks but I haven't had one occur.
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By MikeBut on 28 Sep 2023 03:52
Follow up - I built the Armillary at an outpost and Starborn ships started appearing all over the small planet/moon as I was wandering around. Each seemed to have 2-5 Starborn to kill. It did not take long to get enough to pop the achievement.
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By JORAX on 30 Sep 2023 03:00
You don't need the essence. Just killing them enough, and during Revelation, you fight a lot of them. I killed 10 Starborn but collected 5 Quantum Essence during the mission. I got the achievement after killing 5 during the mission even though I was stuck at 15.
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By Apostle92627 on 01 Oct 2023 00:11
Most of mine have been from killing 5 or so of them when I happen across one of their ships out in the middle of nowhere as I'm scavenging.
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By Count Flanders on 25 Oct 2023 18:31
I have 23 of them. Plus I've already used a couple I guess the achievement is bugged for me???
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By SAYANSPARTAN on 07 Nov 2023 23:55
This is for killing 20 total Starborn, not collecting 20 Essence. You should have about 12-18 Starborn killed by the time you start the Revelations missing (second to last main story mission). That mission alone you have to kill about 10-15 Starborn, so this achievement is almost story related. Just make sure to kill starborn anytime you see them and you should be fine. Main story alone you have to kill close to 20.
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By Arsenic 17 on 27 Jan 2024 17:34
I never killed an opponent after leaving the temple because I didn't know I had to do it... Is there any way to collect these essences after completing all the temples?
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By grzechufs on 25 Feb 2024 11:51
Yes kill the starborn during the last few main story missions.
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By Arsenic 17 on 25 Feb 2024 16:04
Just sharing my experience - first 4 or 5 temples didn't have Starborn and I am wondering if it is because I hadn't progressed the main quest to the Hunter stuff yet. I now have 20 essence but only 15 kills on the tracker. I don't have all powers but Vlad won't give me any more and I think I'm on the final mission. Going to see if I can get some outpost attacks I guess.
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By JORAX on 28 Sep 2023 16:10
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This achievement is NOT for collecting the Quantum Essence that the Starborn drop when u kill them. This is actually for killling 20 Starborn.

I was worried going into Revelation, the next to the last mission, that i only had 13 essences. But early in the mission, i was attacked by “Guardian Musa” on the bridge to the Broken Temple. They do not drop the essences, but the achievement popped after I killed them.

I looked and i had 14 essence (it did give me one for killing them all) but when i checked stats under “Combat>Starborn Killed” I had 20 Starborn killed. So it’s for Starborn kills, not how many Quantum Essences you have. And destroying enemy Starborn ships does not count.
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29 Sep 2023 17:42

3 Comments
I can confirm. I have 20 Starborn killed but 15 Quantum Essence.
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By Apostle92627 on 30 Sep 2023 23:23
Yep, unlocked after I killed my 20th Starborn and had only 19 quantum essences.
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By prakkero on 10 Oct 2023 19:50
That makes sense, I have 20 essences but didn’t get the achievement so checked on here. They had landed on a hostile planet one time and I got like 4 essences for free basically because the native fauna killed the Starborn. So guess I still have a ways to go for this then.
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By theandrew13 on 29 Oct 2023 13:14
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Towards the latter part of the game, when the story really gets going, you’ll start to encounter beings called Starborn. They will be rare enemies that crop up at various points throughout the story. Every time you kill one, instead of getting loot, you’ll absorb something that’s called Quantum Essence.

There are a finite number of these Starborn in Starfield, so you’ll definitely have to go out of your way for this one. If you just stick to the story, you will fall short.

Thankfully, every time you visit and complete one of the game’s temples, you’ll have a Starborn to face off with after you leave the temple. I completed 11 temples by the time I went to do the last two missions (see One Giant Leap (50G)) and I unlocked this achievement during the penultimate mission, “Revelations” (I ended up with 22 in the end). There were more temples for me to seek out as well - 15, according to my stats - so there's not a shortage of them per se, you just really need to seek them out.

So, in order to get this, you’re going to need to visit Vlad regularly for the side mission, “Power from Beyond,” to get temple locations. Then, simply visit the temple locations that Vlad gives you, defeat the Starborn Guardian at the end (outside the temple) and you’ll have 20 Quantum Essence in no time whatsoever.

Incidentally, you can check how many Quantum Essences you’ve collected if you go to the pause menu and then go up to “Powers.” At the bottom of the Powers screen it will say “Use Quantum Essence” and then a number in brackets. Provided you’ve not used Quantum Essence to increase your Starborn power regeneration speed for 60 seconds, then that number will be how many you’ve collected so far.

Once that number reaches 20, this achievement will unlock.
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