Starfield
62 Achievements
1,200
80-100h
PC
Xbox Series
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
By Dmbledore on 15 Nov 2023 14:00
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.
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.
3 Comments
I can confirm. I have 20 Starborn killed but 15 Quantum Essence.
By Apostle92627 on 30 Sep 2023 23:23
Yep, unlocked after I killed my 20th Starborn and had only 19 quantum essences.
By prakkero on 10 Oct 2023 19:50
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.
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.