Starfield – Should You Save Rafael In Entangled

The Starfield Entangled mission occurs toward the tail end of the campaign. It’s essentially where you’ll find one of the last artifacts remaining. However, there’s a fateful decision that you need to make. Our guide discusses if you should save Rafael in Starfield, or if you should choose the other group instead. Likewise, please be reminded that this article contains spoilers.

Should you save Rafael in the Entangled mission in Starfield

The Starfield Entangled mission takes place on Freya III in the Freya system. Due to the distance, make sure that you have a powerful grav drive so your ship can make the jump. Here’s a quick summary:

• You’ll hear of a distress call from Rafael, but there doesn’t seem to be a problem in the Nishina facility itself.
• You soon start to “shift” (i.e. teleport between dimensions) due to the effects of the artifact deep within the bowels of the facility.
• In the “normal” world, the lab personnel are all concerned. Apparently, there was a malfunction in the lab, and Rafael died while trying to fix the machine.
• You’re then given a control device so you can manually teleport between universes. Likewise, you’re handed the Experiment A-7, a rare shotgun that’s also one of the best weapons in the game.
• In the “dark” world, you’ll find Rafael. In his dimension, he survived the explosion, but everyone else in the facility died.

Left: Rafael is in his own universe; Right: The Nishina personnel are there to help you.

Entangled mission objectives and enemies

The main goal in the Starfield Entangled mission is to shift between universes by interacting with the shimmering distortions. Locked doors and other obstacles will bar your way. However, if a path is blocked in one universe, then perhaps you’ll find another way in the alternate dimension. You also have to take note of enemies:

• In the normal world, the facility is still up and running. Unfortunately, the lockdown caused defense systems to malfunction. You’ll have to fight your way through numerous robo sentries, robo dogs, and turrets. Still, you might find terminals that allow you to disable them completely.
• In the dark world, the ransacked facility is now crawling with nasty bug-like creatures, and the walls themselves have pustular growths.

This is Starfield’s horror level.

The lab experiment

Eventually, you’ll reach the main lab where a giant laser is drilling through the artifact. You’ll also notice seven terminals in each world. Here’s what you need to do:

• You can continue to shift between universes by interacting with distortions.
• However, you only need to interact with seven terminals in one world so you can shut down the drill.
• You’ll still get attacked by groups of robots or swarms of bugs depending on the realm.
• The reality where you shut down the experiment is the one that will continue to exist.

Choose which reality remains in existence.

What happens if you save Rafael

You can save Rafael in Starfield by shutting down the terminals and the experiment in the dark world. In doing so, he’ll give you several items. As of the time of this writing, we can’t confirm if these are randomized, but these are the rewards that we received:

• Rare: Disassembler Professional’s Advanced Coachman
• Rare: Instigating Calibrated Magshear
• Unique: Vytinium material
• Unique: Tasine material

But, that’s not all, if you save Rafael in Starfield, he’ll follow you back to your ship. Take him to New Atlantis and visit him in the Viewport bar. You can then recruit him as a crew member. His skills are Outpost Engineering 1, Starship Engineering 2, and Outpost Management 1.

You can recruit Rafael in the Viewport bar in New Atlantis.

What happens if you save the rest of the people in the lab

Conversely, you can save the rest of the Nishina lab folks by shutting down the terminals and drill in the normal world. These were the items that we received:

• Legendary: Reactive Advanced Experimental Nishina Helmet
• Legendary: Incendiary Advanced Experimental Nishina Spacesuit

Ultimately, the choice is up to you when it comes to the Starfield Entangled and Rafael dilemma. Would you sacrifice dozens of people just for one crewmate, or will you prioritize the needs of the many? In any case, regardless of your decision, you still have to conclude the campaign in the Revelation finale.