Don’t believe those guides that say you need to have Expert Stealth. I did this with the basic stealth skill and triggered no alarms. It was hard and took many attempts but there’s an easy to do it, and you really only need to use manipulation a few times. Below I’ll go into details.
How to stealth through the Sabotage mission in Starfield without getting caught
Before you start this mission, you need to make sure these conditions are met or you won’t be able to do this without getting caught:
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At least one booster skill
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Your level is at least 12
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You have at least an Expert Skill in lockpicking
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You have at least one sneaking skill
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At least three digipicks
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No companion is actively following you.
If you don’t have enough skills, you can always leave and return before you enter the building.
Related: Best Stealth Build In Starfield
Should you use a fake identity or go through the roof access in the Sabotage mission?
When you start the mission, you’ll be asked how you want to proceed, whether through the roof access or as someone who is going to a meeting. Go ahead and take the fake identity to get into the building.
You’re going to be asked to sit down and wait. Go ahead and do that while the secretary goes off into another room. When they’re gone, go to the nearby elevator and get to the Roof access. If you try to follow this path, it will cause death and destruction. The steal way is to sneak through the roof access from here.
Once you’re through the elevator, go ahead and take a right and open the vent to show a guard with a weapon over a fan. Use manipulation to have that guard turn off the fan. This is why your level has to be at least 12, because the Manipulation will fail if the enemy is a lower level than you, and this guard is level 12 on normal difficulty. Once the fan is off, go ahead and jump down.
This is the point of no return. You’ve made the jump and there’s no way back up. Take the short walk to the nearby computer where the mission marker is pointing to. Once you turn on the computer select these options:
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Critical Systems
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Heating [!]
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Activate System
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Yes
Now the heater is on and everyone has been evacuated. Head to the nearby room to your right and go through a vent. You’ll be living in these vents moving forward. Follow this vent until you can drop onto the lights through a vent in the ground.
As this is incredibly tricky, I suggest that you save often. Personally, I had about three saves because I was trying different methods, but now that I have found the right method, I recommend two saves. One save at the beginning of each floor and a quick save.
How to get to Lucas’ computer in Sabotage without being caught
When moving through these next few floors, do not go as fast as you can. Instead, go 75% of the speed you can because it makes you more stealthy. Watch your stealth meter closely because the stealth in Starfield is broken, enemies find you too easily, so you need these safety precautions.
Follow the path of the lights to the mission marker. When you get in front of the door, wait for the guard to start walking away from the door. When they are starting to walk away, drop down and pick the lock. Go into the room and close the door quickly. This way, you can walk around without needing to worry about being seen.
Get to the computer and hack in using a digipick and select Overseer Program. You’re done with this part, so you need to go next to the door and open it to keep an eye on the guard.
You can try and go back up the lights using a booster pack, follow the opposite path and go through multiple vents just to get to the bottom floor or save yourself 20 minutes and follow a trick I figured out.
If you leave the room after the guard walks away, and make an immediate left, you will see a railing. Jump over the railing and you’ll land on the lights from the ceiling on the floor below. This saves so much time and energy.
Related: How to equip a suppressor to any gun in Starfield
How to get to R&D in the Starfield Sabotage mission
Now head for the vent in front of you. You can either manipulate the guard below, which is easy on lower levels, or you can stick to the railing on the right. If you walk slowly enough, no one will catch you. We recommend walking slowly and manipulating the guard because if you go too fast, all the guards nearby will hear you and find you.
Once you get through the vent, keep jumping down lower and lower. You’ll find a vent leading to a bathroom. Jump down. Before you open the door, make sure to quicksave because sometimes they end up looking right at you.
The smartest idea is to wait until the first guard leaves, then walk into the nearby meeting room. Hang out until you see another guard walking down the hall in front of you then quickly go down the hallway to the left of the bathroom. Go into the room and just wait for a guard to walk by again.
From there, go into the cafeteria and manipulate the guard in there so that they go somewhere else while you get into the storage room way at the end of the room. Go into the vent again and proceed to the next vent exit.
This part is pretty much the easiest of the whole mission. Follow the path on top of the lights hanging from the ceiling until you reach the next vent. It’s slow but very easy to do, and no one looks up the entire time. When you get to the vent you can either manipulate the guard to leave or just wait until they look away. I waited until he walked away. It didn’t take long. After he leaves go into the vent.
You are now in an elevator shaft. Go ahead and drop down as loudly as you want because there aren’t any guards around. The vent at the bottom is R&D and it’s the hardest part of this entire mission. Do a real save and then a quicksave.
How to get the in R&D in Sabotage
Okay, so I encountered a bug when doing this, and the guard was right in front of the vent. If you encounter this, just go to the end of the hallway and then jump up and boost to the platform above. If he’s not, wait until he’s not looking and just jump and boost from the vent. They can’t see you if you hug the wall after.
If you encounter the bug, you have to stick to the right side all the way through the ventilation system and go to the next floor by dropping down when you reach the room with the turrets. You can walk to the next area you need to be in from there.
If you don’t encounter the bug, just go toward the big room and wait for the guard to look the other way before jumping to the other platform on the opposite side of you. You can follow the path and take the vent down quickly. Follow the vent until you make it to the bathroom. This is the easiest way so I hope you don’t get that bug.
Either way, you need to find the computer where the quest marker is pointing to. It’s in the room that has stairs in front of it, super hard to miss. Grab the ID card next to the monitor before moving forward. Hack the computer and pick Overseer Program and you’ll almost be done hacking computers.
Related: Starfield: How Lockpicking works – How to use Digipicks
Now you can leave through the orange door. If you encountered the bug, it’s the same way you came in. Walk through there until you see the red door. You have to time this right. Quick save and get as close to that door as you can without the turret seeing you. When the turret begins to look away, put your keycard in and rush through the door. Go inside and close the door as quickly as possible.
The noise from the door alerts the guards who will try and come in if the door isn’t closed.
Don’t immediately go to the container, it’s a trap. Go to the windows near the container and press the button to close the blinds. Now go to the very left of the container and hack the computer again. This is where you need the Expert Security skill. You will get caught here if you try and open the holding chamber without turning off the alarm.
Follow the power cord to get to the computer called Security Access Controls. Hack in and press Disable and Yes. Go ahead and grab a prototype.
How to leave R&D in Sabotage without getting caught
The vent in the room is a false promise, trust me. I went through that often trying to find a way out but it’s probably just the developers making fun of people for trying to leave through the vents again.
Instead, open the door and head straight out as soon as you can, hugging the left side. I kept getting caught because the guard was just hanging out; if you encounter this, do what I did and manipulate them into walking to the holding case. Then you can leave just fine.
From there go back into the area where you found the ID card and go into the bathroom again. Use the vent to get to the platform you used before and follow the path back to the elevator. Even if you had the bug earlier, for some reason the guard won’t see you, so feel free to follow this route.
Now you can take the elevator back to the lobby and walk away like this is the sequel to Ocean’s 13. Make sure to check out more Starfield guides here on PC Invasion.
