Starfield: Should You Kill Or Persuade Delgado In Legacy’s End? (2024)

If the player decides to side with UC SysDef, Starfield's Crimson Fleet quest line comes down to one crucial moment, where one may choose either to kill or persuade the pirate leader Delgado. As the captain of the Crimson Fleet, Delgado has been the protagonist's first point of contact with the pirate legion since the very beginning of their business relationship. This is intertwined with another faction quest line: that of the United Colonies. Players must infiltrate the Crimson Fleet during SysDef's quest line, reporting back to the interstellar trade regulator with knowledge of the pirates' activities and ultimate goals.

But there's one catch. The Crimson Fleet is after Kryx's Legacy, a treasure left behind by the faction's founder. Once the player character finally finds it, they have a choice to make in the quest "Legacy's End": side with SysDef or the Crimson Fleet by bringing the data either to Delgado, or to UC Commander Ikande. Whomever the player sides with, they'll have to attack and destroy the other's base, putting an end to that faction for good. They'll come face-to-face with the leader of the faction they attack, who'll threaten to activate their base's self-destruct function. They can either talk them down or kill them outright.

What Happens If Players Kill Delgado In Starfield?

Access To Powerful Items

Assuming they side with Ikande and SysDef, the player character will come face-to-face with Delgado in the end, at which point they'll have to choose between killing him or persuading him to surrender. The character may have to fight Delgado during "Legacy's End" if they choose any threatening dialogue options, or if they attempt to make him surrender but fail.

Delgado is far from the easiest opponent, with a decent suit of armor and the unique Tempest rifle, but he's not the hardest, either. He doesn't have any special Starborn powers like the player character or Starfield's final boss, though. He's just a normal human being with an abnormal amount of combat experience, but he goes down relatively easily in the end. Players should use everything at their disposal against Delgado since once they've chosen this option, there's no going back.

Don't forget to check his inventory, as fighting Delgado is the only way to gain his computer password, which allows them to free kidnapped accountant Shinya Voss. Delgado also carried a unique rifle called Tempest. With 19 base physical damage and a fire rate of 90, Tempest hits hard and fast. It also has the special ability Handloading, which provides extra damage but sometimes causes rounds to fail at random. That makes the Tempest something of a gamble; it can hurt, but it doesn't always hit its target. However, its relatively high accuracy for an automatic rifle should offset the issue enough to make it viable in combat.

But before Delgado, one final wave of pirates will surge forward to prevent the player character from shutting down three reactors. Compared to Delgado, these last few are a cakewalk. The player character can then head for Delgado's office, finishing the quest by killing him and aborting the self-destruct sequence at his computer. Ultimately, disbanding the Crimson Fleet one way or another may lead to one of many Starfield endings wherein the pirate faction is said to have been destroyed. Whether the United Colonies rose in their place depends on whether the player completed that separate quest line.

What Happens If Players Persuade Delgado In Starfield?

Must Pass A Series Of Checks

Winning Persuasion checks in Starfield provides an easy way out of many situations, and this final confrontation with Delgado is no exception. Occasionally, during a dialogue scene, one of the options in the list will contain the modifier "[Persuade]." Choosing this begins the Persuasion mini-game. A "Persuasion" bar appears at the bottom of the screen, with a number of segments that represent how difficult it will be to convince the target to do something. A "Turns" counter also appears, tracking how many dialogue options the player character will be able to pick before the target's patience runs out.

Each choice also includes a number representing how many segments it'll fill, along with a colored bar, in green, orange, or red, representing the likelihood of success for that particular option. Green options almost always succeed but usually only fill in one or two segments. Orange options fail more often but may fill in three or four. Red options are least likely to succeed but can fill in five or more segments of the Persuasion bar at once. It's important to balance risk and reward here. The best course of action is to start with safe, green options, then proceed to riskier oranges and reds as the clock runs out.

Delgado gives the player character three turns to fill eight Persuasion segments, which is pretty standard for some of Starfield's most difficult, late-game Persuasion checks. In most cases, it's impossible to fill all eight with green options alone, so players will have to take a few risks to convince Delgado to stand down. However, with the Manipulation skill, which can either be obtained by spending a Perk point at level up or by joining Ryujin Industries in Starfield, there'll be a few extra green options available, each adding four points to Delgado's Persuasion bar. With eight segments to fill, Delgado's Persuasion bar is actually very manageable with Manipulation.

If the Persuasion mini-game fails, Delgado attacks anyway, and the rest of the mission plays out as though the player attacked him outright. If it succeeds, however, the quest ends immediately as Delgado shuts off the self-destruct sequence. He and the remainder of the Crimson Fleet turn themselves into SysDef, and can later be visited in the brig aboard the UC's flagship, Vigilance. However, choosing this option means missing out on all Delgado's unique loot, including Tempest. This has the same impact on the ending as killing Delgado outright: if UC's own quest line is completed, it's implied the Crimson Fleet was disbanded immediately after.

It's Better To Kill Delgado In Starfield: "Legacy's End"

The Best Decision Is Obvious

It may not be nice, but killing Delgado provides the best outcome in Starfield's "Legacy's End" - as long as they choose to side with SysDef, that is. Keeping him alive means he'll spend the rest of his life (or at least the rest of the game) rotting in a UC cell, which is hardly the future this adventurous pirate imagined for himself. Other than the little Easter egg that allows players to visit him in jail, there's no special benefit to forcing his surrender.

Persuading Delgado means the player character never gets a chance to help themselves to his equipment, missing out on an Advanced Pirate Corsair Spacesuit, a Pirate Raiding Balanced Pack, and of course, his unique rifle, Tempest. While most of the other items in his inventory can be obtained from elsewhere, Tempest is unique and can only be found by killing Delgado or by activating console command cheats. Even if they have no use for it, the player character can always punt it over to a companion or sell it for up to 11,480 credits.

Players stand to gain nothing by convincing Delgado to surrender except the satisfaction of a successful Persuasion check and maybe a point toward the next rank in Speech. Killing him is just the more practical option, as it grants access to a unique, valuable weapon that can't be found anywhere else in-game.

On a repeat playthrough, it's even possible to side with Delgado instead, provoking a similar decision centered on SysDef's Commander Ikande. Killing Ikande instead nets the player character his unique pistol, Unfair Advantage. Starfield's unique, cyclical structure and robust New Game Plus mode allow for all possibilities to be explored in these difficult decisions.

The Only Reason Not To Kill Delgado Is For Roleplay Reasons

An Unceremonious End

Although some decisions in Starfield have their pros and cons, from a game perspective, there's no reason not to kill Delgado, but from a narrative sense, there may be a reason to spare him. After all, although they are pirates, Delgado decides to lift the player-made character up in the ranks, regardless of criticisms from the rest of the crew, like Jazz or the other Crimson Fleet pirates. It's fair to say that this could create a moral quandary for those who prefer to keep their friends alive, regardless of whether the character sides with the UC or Crimson Fleet.

Ultimately, the decision that matters much more is whether, initially, the player decides to side with Sys Def or the Crimson Fleet to begin with, as this final decision is more of an afterthought than an impactful beat in the game's narrative. There's also always the chance that future expansions may expand upon this questline, which would make the decision to kill Delgado more impactful in the Starfield universe as his absence could have an actual impact on gameplay, but as it stands, it's more of a question of whether someone would want his loot or not.

As one of the most infamous pirates in the Settled Systems, either choice for Delgado ends pretty miserably. If the player chooses to side with UC SysDef and betray Delgado, he either ends up dead by a pirate "rookie," with his entire crew being destroyed by a single person, or he ends up rotting away in a UC jail cell for the rest of his life. Either end is a depressing ultimate conclusion for one of the most renowned criminals in Starfield lore.

Starfield

Platform(s)

PC , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S

Released

September 6, 2023

Developer(s)

Bethesda

Publisher(s)

Bethesda

Genre(s)

Action , RPG

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs, Strong Language, Violence