Cydonia isn’t the only major settlement in the Sol system of Starfield; there’s also New Homestead, an ancient off-world colony built on the Saturn moon of Titan. Players can visit the settlement to take the tour, enjoy the local color, or assist the locals with their power system.
Specifically, the high winds and icy atmosphere of Titan sometimes cause ice to build up on the power systems, and when they stop working, the settlement suffers from brownouts. Starfield players can learn about this issue from a random UC guard, and they can begin to deal with the problem by going to see Joyce Osaka.
How to Start the Brownout Quest
When players enter New Homestead, they’ll see a set of stairs straight ahead and a few hydroponic modules to the right. Between the entrance and the hydroponic modules is an elevator, and unlike the other elevators in New Homestead, this one goes up. The other side of the elevator will open up at the top.
The tower room has one occupant, Joyce Osaka. She’s in charge of the settlement’s power, but she’s having some trouble. Some parts of the power infrastructure have stopped working due to ice buildup, but Joyce needs to stay in the tower to keep an eye on the power grid. Players can help her out by going outside and zapping the ice off the wind turbines and transformers. Doing this requires a cutter, and if players don’t have one for some reason, they can use the cutter on Joyce’s desk. Players can also read Joyce’s diary, although it doesn’t impact this mission.
How to Remove the Ice
In total, there are five blocks of ice that players need to remove. The three on the turbines are easy to spot since the turbines in question aren’t spinning properly. The two on the transformers are harder to locate, but players can use their scanners to highlight the ice deposits. Curiously, the field that normally displays the element players are looking at is blank for these ice deposits, but they still get water from mining them.
Of course, if players set “Brownout” as the active mission, the objective markers will point to all five ice blocks. Players can also find and remove all five ice deposits before speaking to Joyce. Doing so doesn’t change any dialog, but after agreeing to remove the ice, proactive players can speak to Joyce again to immediately complete this side mission.
For helping Joyce out, players get 75 XP and a few credits.
Starfield is available now on PC and Xbox Series X/S.