Starfield sleuths are combing through game footage for spoons

An explorer from Starfield stands in front of a saturn-esque ringed planet, looming on the horizon.

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Starfield is releasing in September, which is only about two months away, but the wait for Bethesda's space opera has fans on the Starfield subreddit combing through the gameplay deep dive for anything from information on skill trees and gear to spoons, apparently. A thread made by a since-deleted user (which is concerning in itself—what are you trying to hide, Todd?) gathered 1.2k upvotes.

The thread, titled "Forks confirmed, but still no spoons. Guys, I'm worried," begins with a screenshot from another thread from two years ago which asks: "Do you think Starfield will have spoons, and how would spoons affect the gameplay and overall immersion?" What seemed like a shitpost back then has since become a genuine cause for concern, especially considering the accompanying screenshot from the deep dive.

In the screenshot, a customer sits at a restaurant after being served what appears to be a bowl of soup, alongside a few servings of either space pomegranate or pies. He doesn't have a spoon. This had led an increasingly feverish group of fans to demand: where are the spoons, Todd?

Comment from r/Starfield

I did a touch of sleuthing myself, and unless I've missed something, I can't see one. There was something that looked spoon-adjacent in the Leadership skill tree, but upon further inspection it appears to be a lit match. I'm starting to see spoons where there aren't any now.

To see if this just was a worldbuilding thing, what with Bethesda's stated NASA-punk style, I visited the official NASA website to see if spoons were actually used in space, and yes, they are: "Astronauts use knife, fork, and spoon. The only unusual eating utensil is a pair of scissors used for cutting open the packages." This is thanks to the "spoon bowl", a grim-looking rehydratable plastic bag with a literal valve attached to it that facilitates spoonable meals for space explorers. Fascinating feat of engineering, but it doesn't make my tummy rumble.

An image and diagram of a "Spoon Bowl", a containment method for spoonworthy meals in space. — (Image credit: NASA)

This might be why sandwiches are a collector's item in space, but it's probably just a quirk of whatever procedural elements Bethesda has used to generate its meals and cutlery. Perhaps the customer featured in Bethesda's deep dive wanted a challenge with his meal. As user Flyraidder puts it: "Guys, if you can’t use forks in place of spoons. It’s a skill issue."

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.