Failure to Communicate quest walkthrough – Starfield

Players wanting to speed through Starfield and move on to the next game can simply follow the main story quests to their conclusion. But as a completionist, I can’t help but be distracted by every little side quest that comes my way! One of these quests is called Failure to Communicate, which begins when you receive a distress call after a space jump. If you’re as intrigued as I was, read on for a full Failure to Communicate quest walkthrough, including the Safe Key location. 

Starfield — How To Complete Failure to Communicate

To complete Failure to Communicate you’re going to need to go through 14 quest steps. Don’t be put off as many of these are simple conversations. However, you will also need to get your hands dirty, flying a series of space combats against Spacer ships, one large shootout on a space station, and completing one (optional) Persuasion skill check.

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I’d suggest clearing out your cargo hold (unless it’s huge), as you’ll be taking down at least 20 ships you can loot for Ship Parts and other resources. This is great for leveling up ship combat skills. I’d also suggest making sure you have the likes of Andreja and Barrett in your ship as crew if possible, as you’ll be utilizing their ship skills throughout. 

Part 1 — Failure to Communicate

Your first task is to talk to Alban Lopez who you’ll find at Lopez’s Farm. This will be on a different planet depending on where you picked up this randomized quest, but it is a simple task to select the task in your mission list, and then auto-travel to the location. Once you've landed, talk to Alban, who will ask you to repair four communication satellites.

Parts 2-5 — Repairing the satellites

You’ll need to be prepared for some tough space combat when you head up to repair these satellites. You’ll jump to within close range of three Spacer ships (levels 4, 4, and 10 for me). Once defeated, fly to the relay and fix it. 

Once the relay is fixed, you'll need to fly to three more communication satellites nearby (likely in the same system) and fix those too. Though it may be randomized, I found no one guarding the second satellite and three Spacer ships (all level 10) guarding the next. The final satellite had another three ships (the 4, 4,10 selection again) defending it. 

Parts 6-9 — On Jacquelyn’s ship

Dock with the ship, then go aboard. After the three complete their conversations and you’ve spoken to Lopez, he’ll ask you to try and get the other two families to join a defense pact. As a side note, I didn’t find anything worth looting on the ship.

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You only need to get Chanda to join, but you’ll want to get Jacquelyn on board too. Getting Chanda to join is as simple as speaking to him on the ship, but for Jacquelyn, you’ll either need to pay her 2,000 Credits or complete a six-point, three-attempt Persuasion skill test (I got through choosing two three-point questions in rounds two and three).

Report back to Lopez, who will tell you the location of the rest of the Spacer ships and offer you some ship support. I didn't see any harm in taking the help, so you’ll just need to weigh up how good a pilot you are, or how much of a hero you need to be! 

Parts 10-11 — Defeating the Spacer ships

You’ll need to take out Spacers in two locations (the order you do them is irrelevant). I found two level 10 Spacer ships and two level fours at the first location, with three ships helping me in the battle. It was exactly the same scenario in the second battle. 

The NPC ships are actually pretty useful, if only to keep the heat off of you while you take the Spacers down. Once you’ve defeated the Spacers at both locations, return to the Lopez farm. Note that you can loot the Lopez Farm buildings without fear of stealing, but there’s little value to be found. After a brief conversation with Lopez, you’ll be off to take out the Spacer base.

Parts 12-14 — Defeating the Spacers

The final battle is in two parts. First is a space battle, after which you’ll land on a space station to take out the remaining enemies. If you’ve handled the space battles up to this point, you shouldn’t be too surprised or worried by this final challenge. You’ll face four ships (levels 14, 10, 10, and 4) and, once defeated, the same again as reinforcements. Then you can land and finish them off.

The station battle is at close quarters, so a well-trained combat companion such as Coe is a good option here. Be sure to loot the Spacers afterward to find an epic Hauler’s Navigator Space Suit and legendary Calibrated Grendel.

You can find the Captain’s Computer in the left corner of the back room downstairs. This supposedly allows you to change the settings on some robots to protect you and remove their combat inhibitors. The problem was, I saw no evidence of any robots, so I can only presume this is a little joke on the programmer’s part.

Walk up the stairs and be sure to loot the mannequins in the glass containers for more valuable items, including an epic Deep Mining Pack and a legendary Repulsing Deep Mining Pack. Move into the lift just past the mannequins and head upstairs.

The first corridor and room you move into upstairs are safe, as is the upstairs area. You’ll be looking at battling around 20 Spacers, the toughest of which is a level 22, but most of them aren’t too strong (below level 10). You'll have to contend with a few melee enemies that will charge at you. With them cleaned up, talk to Lopez one last time to complete the mission. 

Safe Key Location in Failure to Communicate Quest — Starfield

Before you leave the station, there are four locked safes to open. From the lift that led you upstairs to the final battle, walk straight ahead (1), and turn right when you get to the locker area (2). Go up the short set of stairs, then right down another set (3). Go right into a room at the bottom, and the safes (which look like lockers) are right in front of you (4, see route below).

To find the key, follow the image below. With your back to the safes, leave the room they're in and go left and up the stairs (5). In the area at the top go up the next set of stairs (6), then into the room on your left (7). The key (8) is on the large central table (along with a Grunt Magazine that gives a permanent +5 percent Ballistic Weapon Crit Damage bonus).

Go back to the safes to grab the following (don't forget to open all four):

• Suppressed Eon
• 18,782 Credits
• Lots of ammo
• Amp
• Digipick
• Isotopic Coolant
• Zero Wire

Want more on Starfield? Check out Starfield – Best Way to Make Money, How to take over a ship in Starfield (and register it as your own), and more right here at Pro Game Guides!