Just over a year after its initial launch, Bethesda has finally given Starfield players a closer look at the game’s upcoming DLC, the Shattered Space expansion. A nine-minute deep dive trailer breaking down the expansion was recently uploaded to Bethesda’s YouTube channel, giving players their first real taste of what the expansion has to offer. The trailer also revealed the expansion’s launch date: September 30.
Focused around the fate of what is easily one of the most interesting factions from the base game–House Va’ruun–Shattered Space is a mostly self-contained adventure, according to Bethesda, taking place entirely on the homeworld of House Va’ruun–known as Va’ruun’kai–and its capitol city, Dazra.
“We love Starfield’s massive open galaxy, but from early on in our planning, we knew we wanted to introduce some more secluded and handcrafted locations similar to what you’ve seen from our past expansions,” said lead producer Joe Mueller. “There’s so much mystery to House Va’Ruun! And becaused they’ve so thoroughly isolated themselves, it made them the perfect faction to explore in a completely self-contained experience.”
“From the minute you arrive on Va’ruun’kai, the story never sends you off-planet,” lead creative producer Tim Lamb explained. “You’re free to leave at any time, but the story is fully centered around life on the Va’ruun homeworld.”
“Everything you discover, every location you visit, every side mission you seek out, it all tells the story of what happened here, and how the Va’ruun people have survived cut off from the comforts of the Settled Systems and the rest of humanity,” Mueller added.
In Shattered Space, players will arrive on Va’ruun’kai shortly after a major disaster that sees the reclusive civilization descending into chaos.
“One of our main themes throughout the base game is humanity’s search for knowledge,” lead quest designer Brian Chapin said. “Shattered Space is still about that search, but it’s also about what happens when it goes too far. “Before the start of Shattered Space, a secret experiment involving Grave-Drive technology went terribly wrong. It’s a very extreme pursuit, and it has backfired horribly for the people of House Va’ruun.”
“[The experiment] resulted in a massive tear in the fabric of space-time that swallowed a significant portion of the Va’ruun capitol of Dazra,” design director and writer Emil Pagliarulo said of the expansion’s storyline. “You arrive just a few weeks after the Vortex Incident. It’s still very fresh in everyone’s mind. There’s a massive crater in their city, nothing has been reconstructed, people are still searching for missing loved ones.”
In addition to the massive crater, the people of Va’ruun are also dealing with other challenges. After the Grav-Drive experiment went sideways, The Scaled Citadel–House Va’ruun’s seat of governmental power–became trapped within a mysterious energy field. Additionally, Anasko Va’ruun–Speaker for the Great Serpent and leader of House Va’ruun–is missing. His disappearance has created a power vacuum, and the smaller factions that make up House Var’uun are each fighting for control of the now-devastated Va’ruun homeworld, its government, and its future. As they progress through the story and explore Va’ruun’kai, players will have to interact with House Va’ruun’s various sub-factions, and the trailer hints that the fate and future of House Va’ruun and its homeworld rest in the player’s hands.
“Va’ruun’kai and Dazra City are like no other location in the base game,” art director Istvan Pely said of Shattered Space’s environments, which are visually striking and–unlike many other locations in the chronically desaturated Settled Systems–filled with color.
“Va’ruun’kai has a completely distinct visual identity,” creative lead Alan Nanes added. “We say it’s very ‘alien.’ You’ll see this in the extraterrestrial landscape, gravity anomalies, and much more.”
By “gravity anomalies,” Nanes seems to mean “moments where gravity stops working,” as the trailer features multiple shots of floating corpses and clips of low-g combat.
Due to the tear in the space-time continuum, strange creatures “from the other side” are slipping through the tear into Va’ruun’kai, and players will have to adapt accordingly. Bethesda says it wanted to use Shattered Space as an opportunity to “amp up” combat and introduce over 50 new creatures (including an alien species simply referred to as “Horrors”).
Some creatures can set up ambushes, and the trailer features an extended clip of the player-character taking on a hive of very Xenomorph-like creatures called Cavern Bonecrests. The Cavern Bonecrest Queen appears to pose a significant threat, especially if players are unprepared. But the planet also has its fair share of standard Spacers, Va’ruun Zealots, and Crimson Fleet pirates for players to take on in their quest to uncover the truth behind House Va’ruun’s downfall, restore order to its bickering factions, and decide its future.
Starfield’s Shattered Space expansion launches on September 30 and will be available to purchase for $30 USD. However, players who purchased the $100 Premium Edition of Starfield will get the expansion for free on launch day.