If you’ve gotten to the High Price to Pay quest line in Starfield, then you know that a big decision lies before you. You’ll be given the choice of either going to The Lodge or going to The Eye to protect your friends at either location. There are consequences for either decision, and one of them may impact you more than the other.
I will be discussing some huge spoilers on this page in order to explain this major turning point in the Starfield plot line. If you don’t want anything to be ruined for you, then do not read any further. If, however, you want help making a decision and don’t mind spoilers, keep reading. This part of the story is part of what makes Starfield one of the best Xbox games and best PC games out there.
Leading up to High Price to Pay
- Technically, Starfield starts gearing you up for High Price to Pay as far back as the quest entitled, No Sudden Moves. You’ll be tasked with heading to Captain Petrov’s ship to reclaim an Artifact from him. You’ll specifically be told to take Sarah Morgan with you as your companion. During that mission’s course of events, you’ll be forced to either steal Petrov’s Artifact or can destroy everyone on the ship in order to complete the quest.
- Coming back to New Atlantis from Captain Petrov’s ship, you’ll be intercepted by a United Colonies capital ship known as the UC Vigiliance. You’ll want to agree with going peacefully onboard it. This initiates the Deep Cover Mission, which unfortunately has a common bug in it when it comes to finding Lieutenant Toft.
- On board, Commander Ikande of UC SysDef gives you a strong-armed deal that you have to accept. You will help infiltrate the notorious space pirate faction, Crimson Fleet, and feed information back to UC SysDef.
- After all of that, you’re finally free to return to The Lodge below and talk with your fellow Constellation members. However, the minute you do the High Price to Pay mission kicks off in earnest.
What happens if I defend The Lodge?
If you decide to defend The Lodge, the Starborn Hunter appears upstairs and starts attacking Walter. You can shoot at The Hunter, but your bullets will be wasted, so just avoid getting shot and then after Noel packs up the Artifacts follow your Constellation companions down into the basement, through the underground passage, and out into the street.
Once you’re out in the city, The Hunter will suddenly appear next to a shop, but don’t bother fighting him. Your bullets will barely make a dent, and he’ll just heal up after you’ve wasted a bunch of ammo anyway. Instead, simply keep running toward the blue hexagon mission marker in the distance. If you stop, your Constellation companions will stop too, so don’t worry about what they do. They’ll be safe. Just keep running and then use the elevator at the end of the designated running area to make your way to another part of the city.
From here you need to try and make it to your ship. So once again, keep running with Noel and don’t stop for anything. As soon as possible, board your ship and take off into space. After this heart-thumping moment, The Hunter will contact you from their ship, Scorpius, to say that you might have impressed them. They go on to say that they will leave you and the Armillary (the collection of Artifacts) alone for now because they think you have “a larger role in all of this.” Respond in whatever way you want to here, it always results in the Scorpius taking off without really providing answers.
You’ll then make your way to The Eye and will discover that one of your companions has died. This will be whichever companion on the station that you had the best friendship points with. After talking to everyone on board, the survivors will state that they will continue to explore for Artifacts and fight The Hunter to honor their fallen friend’s memory.
Now that the Lodge has been compromised, you’ll then be given the choice of placing the Armillary (the group of collected Artifacts) on your ship or on an outpost that you design.
What happens if I go to The Eye?
Running to The Eye will result in you getting there too late to fight The Hunter. However, everyone on board will be alive. After checking in with everyone, you’ll be tasked with returning to The Lodge to see what damage has been done. Upon returning to the building, you’ll find one of your companions has died. This will be the companion that you had raised the highest relationship with.
After talking with everyone who survived, you’ll be told that Noel managed to escape out the basement door and will be asked to follow and make sure she’s safe. You’ll follow the marker and find that Noel is hiding in an underground passage. However, The Hunter soon shows up, and then you and Noel will need to make a run for it back to your ship.
Don’t bother fighting The Hunter, as your bullets will hardly hurt him. He’ll simply heal back to full health if you do make any dent. Instead, work on running through the city as fast as you can and trying not to get shot. Then board your ship. As with the other decision, The Hunter will contact you from their ship, the Scorpius, and say that they will leave you alone for now because you might have “a larger role to play in all this.”
You’ll then be told to go back to The Eye, where Vladimir and Noel will discuss what to do with the Armillary (the group of collected Artifacts). Since the Lodge has been compromised, you’ll have the choice of placing the Armillary on your ship or on an outpost that you design.
What happens if I don’t go to the Lodge or the Eye?
More of an every man for himself kind of player? Sorry, ditching is not really an option. Despite this being a rather critical moment in the game, you can actually choose to leave your Constellation companions and go off to fulfill other missions. Regardless of how much time passes, the choice to go to The Lodge or The Eye will still be waiting for you.
I even tested this by running off and completing a few Crimson Fleet missions rather than choosing which companions to stick with. But the choice was still there waiting for me after time had passed.
Starfield High Price to Pay: What should I do?
Put bluntly, regardless of what choice you make, one of your companions is going to die. If you’ve been focused on romancing one of these characters and don’t want to let them go, then you’ll want to go wherever they are.
The game seems to make you choose between the two companions that you have the best relationships with. For me, I had to choose between saving Barrett on The Eye or saving Sarah Morgan in The Lodge. However, my co-worker, Samuel Tolbert, had to choose between Sam Coe on The Eye and Sarah Morgan in The Lodge.
The best decision at this point really depends on how you feel about the characters. If you really like one of the companions more than the others, then you should opt toward saving them. If you’re not sure who to pick, you can always check your companion’s skills and see if there’s one that offers better perks than the other.
As far as what’s considered cannon, staying at The Lodge makes more sense. You work to defend the Artifacts (or Armillary) and run through the city with your Constellation companions in order to escape. Meanwhile, choosing to go to The Eye makes the story go far less smoothly. You’ll get there too late to do anything, then will be forced to come back to the Lodge and feel guilty about abandoning everyone. Then you’ll still be forced to face the Hunter while running through the streets with Noel. So if you simply care about everything running more smoothly, stay at The Lodge.
Where should I put the Armillary?
This is more a matter of preference than anything else. Wherever you place the Armillary will determine which place gets attacked more often. If you’re into space combat, then put it on your ship. It’s a lot easier to place the Armillary on your ship anyway, since it requires specific resources to place it at an outpost.
However, if you like the idea of building a fortified outpost somewhere complete with defensive guns and protective walls, then placing the Armillary at an outpost will be more your speed.
Note that you can always remove the Armillary from an outpost and put it on your ship, and vice versa. So, you’re never fully stuck with this decision.
A very high price to pay
Caught between a rock and a hard place, or rather The Lodge and The Eye makes for a very stressful moment in Starfield. Regardless of what you choose, things cannot turn out completely in your favor, unless you really hate one of your companions. If you’re playing through a second time before getting to this point, you could bypass this painful decision entirely by spending more time with a companion you don’t really like all that much before reaching this mission. Then they will be one of the default characters to choose between. Don’t call me a monster. They’re just NPCs.
The rest of Starfield’s storyline still has time to play out, so continue forward in order to learn more about The Hunter, your Starborn Powers, and the strange Armillary device you now have in your possession.
