Secrets Of The Mantis

During my early access time with the game, I stumbled upon a random quest that I just so happened to follow-through with, and boy am I glad I did. So, for full transparency it’s impossible to know exactly when and where you might stumble upon this secret given the procedural nature of aspects of Starfield, but I’m going to lay out all of the major beats of the quest, so you know exactly what to keep an eye out for.

Secret Outpost Quest

The quest you’re hoping to stumble upon is a text slate called Secret Outpost! Now I got this off a Spacer I defeated on Altair 2, but it is possible to find this elsewhere in the galaxy. Both Livid and Shmo found their tablets in other parts of the world which means there’s no way to simply farm this, just keep killing. Finding the tablet will automatically trigger a quest called Mantis. If you get this quest, I highly recommend you stop what you’re doing and start this immediately.

This will send you to a different planet. For me it was Denebola 1-b, and I think that should be consistent for each of you, but that really doesn’t matter, track the quest and follow it to wherever it takes you.

Once you arrive, you’ll realize it’s a particularly nasty point of interest crawling with enemies and littered with booby traps. The backstory is that this base was a hideout for someone called The Mantis, a sort of phantom of the galaxy, and by the sounds of the various audio logs a bit of a nut. As you work your way through the facility keep an eye out for various slates, specifically the audio logs that give you important context about the hideout. 

There’s one slate in particular you’ll want to keep your eyes out for which is titled ‘Leon Voclain – Sic Semper Tyrranis’. It holds the key to an environmental puzzle you’ll need to solve for later. At a crucial choke point you’ll meet this squirrelly fella named Livvey who promises to help you. Being the good-natured guy I am, I told him to get out of here before he too fell victim to the lair’s traps, but he got a little peeved and ended up dead anyways…whoops. 

On the other side of the door he was blocking was the environmental puzzle I mentioned before. You have to move from one end of the room to the other without activating the OP turrets that will pretty much one shot you. To do this you need to spell out a word using the letter tiles on the floor. I recommend leaving your companion behind here as they do trigger the traps, at least they did for me at least once, which was enough of a reason to leave them behind. 

If you managed to scoop up enough slates during your adventures through the hideout you might already have the key to solving the puzzle in your inventory, it’s that slate I mentioned before titled ‘Leon Voclain – Sic Semper Tyrranis’ That last word, Tyrranis is your key. Carefully move across the room spelling out the word one letter at a time T-Y-R-A-N-N-I-S. Once you do that you can throw the switch and exit the other side of the room, deactivating the turrets. Don’t forget to grab your companion again, you’re going to need them. What lies beyond are more rooms full of salvage and some robot defenses. For me this was the first time seeing a Model A and Model S bot so they definitely took me by surprise.

Mantis Armor

If you manage to get through all of that however, the spacers, the turrets, the puzzles, and the robots you’ll reach the final room, the lair of the Mantis. Inside your quest will update and you’ll be able to claim the following, The Mantis Pack, Mantis Space Helmet, and Mantis Spacesuit. The bonuses that roll on your Mantis Armor will be different for each player so while all three pieces of my armor have the Incendiary modifier, Shmo had a completely different set of gear. This is pretty typical in a Bethesda game but does throw a wrench in things as far as consistency goes. I’d highly advise saving your game before you pick this up. If you don’t get a good roll, simply load the previous save and pick it up again for a new roll.

While the armor looks ridiculous it’s such a huge improvement over most gear in the game, especially early on. This armor carried me from around the 20-hour mark all the way up to the 65-hour mark where I finally made a swap. Not because I had to, but because I found something even better.

Mantis Ship

Once you’re done looting the hideout there’s one more thing you need to claim, the Razorleaf, a brand new ship. As the first new ship I stumbled across in the game I was over the moon with how cool of a reward this was. In terms of value, it’s nearly double that of the Frontier and a huge improvement in terms of performance. Better parts mean expanded capabilities and while it’s not a star destroyer it’ll certainly satisfy your early game needs. 

My favorite aspect of Razorleaf is the armory HAB that allows you to store tons of weapons and gear. Storage becomes a real problem in the mid-game, especially if you’re a collector/hoarder like me and have that HAB is a lifesaver. It’s also just a really cool small-profile ship that can maneuver well, handle itself in a dogfight, and looks sleek to boot. It’s the perfect carrot at the end of the stick and now you know just how to find and claim it as your own.