When you begin your personal space adventure in Starfield, you soon get a hold of the first Artifact with mysterious properties that seem magical. The course of the story takes you to The Lodge in Jemison, where you submit the Artifact to the members of The Constellation. But there are more Artifacts out there besides the one you found early at the Argos Extractors Mining Outpost. In this guide, we tell you how to find out the location of Artifact Beta in Starfield’s The Old Neighborhood Mission.
To reach the location of Artifact Beta, some planet hopping is required. Sarah Morgan of The Constellation will be accompanying you. Come rain or shine, she will be there beside you until the end of the mission. Let’s take a closer look at what you need to do to get to the Artifact Beta.
The Old Neighborhood: How The Mission Starts
The Old Neighborhood questline will begin at The Lodge — headquarters of The Constellation itself — after you bring the first Artifact to the space explorer group. There, Sarah Morgan invites you on a new mission where the two of you have to go looking for the man who’s been seen with a metal object that could be the next Artifact.
Sarah Has A Tip
Once you submit the first Artifact you found in the mines at The Lodge, Sarah will let you in on the knowledge that she has a contact in the recruiting office of the UC Vanguard who’s tipped her about the kind of “strange metal object” The Constellation is looking for. It is another missing Artifact, just like the one you brought to the group. In case you haven’t been paying full attention, the UC Vanguard is a volunteer force with a job to protect the United Colonies space from threats.
Sarah explains that these Artifacts go inert once they are out of bedrock and hence, won’t raise the suspicions of anyone who comes in contact with them. Since The Constellation people have to be discreet about the whole thing, they are cryptic and ask their contacts “to be on the lookout for strange metal objects.”
Sarah wants you to come with her on this quest to find the Artifact. Should you choose to accept her offer, she will be locked on to you as a companion until you complete the mission.
Now, the first step you need to take is to meet her contact at the MAST building in New Atlantis, which serves as the headquarters of the United Colonies.
Meet The UC Vanguard Contact
Once you reach the MAST building, enter and go to the left. You’ll see Commander John Tuala. He is Sarah’s contact in the UC Vanguard.
Tuala will tell you that the person with the possession of the metal object is a UC Vanguard volunteer, Moara. His job is to patrol the Old Neighborhood of planets Sol, Mars, and Neptune. As per Tuala, word is that Moara has been showing off some “fancy metal ornament” to people.
You will learn from John Tuala that Moara is an old-timer with the Vanguard, and he is most likely to check in at Cydonia, a mining settlement on Mars. You know where you have to go now. Not to another place in New Atlantis. But to a whole new planet.
Cydonia, Here We Come!
You’ll find Cydonia to be a barren, dusty landscape, scorched by the sun. There is no vegetation to be found here. Just hot winds blowing hot dust into your face. Make sure your helmet is equipped before you step out.
Once both of you reach there, find your way inside the building with the signboard that says, ‘Mining Colony of Cydonia‘.
Inside, there will be a bar where you’ll find Jack, the bartender. Turns out that Moara hasn’t settled his tabs with him, and Jack is sore about that. Based on how good your persuasion skills are, you will ultimately wheedle out some useful info on Moara.
Jack will tell you that the last time Moara was here, “he kept yelling about The Lady of Love. Singing songs. All that kind of thing.”
The Lady of Love
Your next stop should be Venus, the planet of love and romance. But you don’t have to land here. Once you exit Mars and approach Venus, Sarah will start talking to you. She’ll warn you of the Var’uun Zealots’ fleet of ships some distance away.
You went looking for Moara, but Sarah will inform you that there are no readings of any Vanguard ship in the area.
The smarter choice here (as Sarah would recommend) would be to power down your ship, stealthily approach the UC satellite beacon that lies close to the Zealots’ ships, and download all the logs. This would help in knowing whether Moara flew past.
You have to get within 500 meters of the beacon to download the data. After you activate and are done downloading, you’ll get to know that Moara went to the Nova Galactic Staryard on Luna, Earth’s Moon, to get parts for emergency repairs.
Luna, Moon of Earth
Next, you have to dock at the Nova Galactic Staryard on Luna. Go to Luna and take care to dock securely, as failure to do so may cause your ship to ram into the Staryard. Go slow and with precision.
As soon as you enter the Staryard, you’ll find a dead body on the right. Arm yourself with the weapon of your choice and slowly move ahead. Do make sure that you inspect each drawer and place for useful items like ammo and med kits. You will also find weapon racks. Loot them.
You’ll soon find that Spacers have taken over the Staryard. As per Sarah, they love taking over abandoned facilities like the Nova Galactic Staryard.
There will be plenty of them, so you need to ensure that you have enough bullets to last you the entirety of the fight. Go for headshots, and you’ll be able to save on ammo. You can also loot bullets and weapons from dead bodies, so that’s a plus.
Once you reach the lower levels of the Staryard, you’ll find Vanguard Moara’s Slate. Hopefully, you have cleared the area of Spacers by now.
In this, he informs that after having done with the repairs, he went to Neptune.
Finding UC Vanguard Moara’s Ship
Neptune marks the final stage of The Old Neighborhood mission; here, you will find the location of UC Vanguard Moara’s ship. When he spots you, he’ll start firing. Or so it would seem. But Moara would tell over the channel that some mercenaries hijacked his ship, and they are the ones who were controlling it and firing.
You’ll have to fire back and damage his ship just enough so as to board it. You can’t afford to destroy the ship, as both Moara and Artifact Beta are on that ship.
Once you board Moara Otero’s ship, the rest is easy. Dock, get inside, and kill the hijackers. It won’t be a long firefight as they’ll be few in number.
Yay! UC Vanguard Moara is safe now.
He will then allow you to take Artifact Beta which is kept just at the front of the ship.
Now, you just have to get back to The Lodge at Jemison. Mission complete.
Summing Up
With The Old Neighbourhood walkthrough, we have tried to focus on what to do to get the Artifact Beta quickly. You could, of course, take your time and explore in more depth to get items, unlock side quests, etc. For example, there is a locked room at the Nova Galactic Staryard, which is optional, but if you manage to unlock it, you’ll get some goodies. Cydonia also has some interesting side missions for you.
If you still haven’t made up your mind about buying the game, be sure to check out my review of Starfield to get a better idea about what you can expect. And, oh, don’t just get lost in that space when you start playing. Keep watching this ‘space’ as well, as we will be hunting for the other Artifacts also. Solving the universe’s mystery is of paramount importance.
