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Juno’s Gambit is a random side quest in Starfield you can encounter while exploring space. Its main objective is dealing with a malicious AI on the ship that killed the last technician who wanted to fix the problem. You can choose to leave Juno alive and not destroy the AI, which will have an interesting quest outcome. We’ll explain each option in more detail so you can choose the solution that works best for you.
Starfield: How to Start the Juno’s Gambit Quest
This mission is unrelated to any questline, so it can be difficult to get it if you don’t know where to search. This random event can occur at any time when you are traveling through space. So first, we recommend you join the Ryujin Industries faction to unlock an additional dialog option as well as a possible ending. Once you do that, you can go search for a quest.
The location where the mission can begin varies, but mostly, it happens near the following planets:
- Khayyam System – Khayyam II
- Shoza System – Shoza III
- Tau Ceti System – Tau Ceti III
You may need to fly through these locations several times before the mission starts, so be prepared to travel and stock up on fuel.
Dock With a Mysterious Ship
When the mission finally becomes available, pay attention to the Ecliptic ship, which will be aggressive and attack you. Foremost, you will need to destroy it, after which you can dock and go investigate it.
Once aboard, you won’t find anyone at first, but after carefully exploring it, you’ll hear voices behind one of the doors. Open the door, and you will see two operatives: Khambatta and Collins. In addition to them, there will also be a dead technician and a large computer in the room, which will later turn out to be Juno.
After talking to the operatives from Ryujin Industries, you will learn that Juno is a malicious AI that needs to be neutralized immediately. They tried to do so, but things when wrong and the computer killed the technician who was changing the board. Thus, Collins and Khambatta will ask you to do this task.
You will also be able to talk to Juno and learn more about her. As it turns out, this AI is not as bad as they say, and now you have a difficult choice to make: destroy the computer’s consciousness or not.
Starfield: Should You Kill Juno?
When you finish the conversation, you can finally decide what to do. If you have followed our recommendations above and joined the Ryujin Industries faction, you will have an additional choice at this point. So let’s take a closer look at each of them:
Kill Juno
By choosing this option, you ignore Juno’s pleas for mercy. Instead, you take the motherboard and insert it into the mechanism, causing it to overheat. You completely incapacitate the system and knock Juno unconscious, while listening to her screams. The AI tries to save itself by disconnecting from the system, but eventually dies. After that, you can say goodbye to the operatives and head back to your ship. When you do, you’ll see an incredible plot twist. Juno will activate again, but this time she’ll be really evil. The first thing she will do is cut off the oxygen to the operatives and then use the Grav Drive to escape. This is the end of this mission.
Keep Juno Alive
To keep the AI alive, you’ll need to kill both operatives. When you do, you can talk to Juno. She will ask you what she should do next, and you can give one of the answers provided that you like best. Regardless of which answer you choose; it will not affect the story. After the conversation, Juno will shut down, and you may think that she has disconnected herself and died, but she has not. As soon as you undock from the ship, Juno will start the systems and use the Grav Drive to travel further.
Convince the Operatives Not to Kill Juno
This option will be available to you if you have previously joined the Ryujin Industries faction. Thus, without any victims, you can convince Khambatta and Collins to let the AI live and allow it to develop and travel. If you choose this option, you will have an additional task to bring the operatives to Neon. Despite this, if you choose this option, you will receive more credits than in other cases.
Basically, the choice is up to you. Given that this quest doesn’t affect much, we recommend choosing the latter option to get more credits.
That’s it. Now you should complete the Juno’s Gambit quest in Starfield without any difficulties. Good luck!
Starfield is available on Xbox Series X|S and PC.
