The whole story comes full circle in this final Freestar Collective faction mission walkthrough, as you confront head honcho Ron Hope. The mission is a pretty satisfying wrap up of the Freestar faction, with some good rewards and decent story beats.
After you’ve landed in Hopetown, Ol’ Ron won’t be up in his hoity-toity office. The will actually lead you into the garage part of the facility. Ron Hope can be found towards the back, finishing up a discussion with Birgit (Image 1). You’ll need to wait for them to finish before chatting him up.
When you talk to Ron Hope and accuse him of being the one directing the mercenary attacks, he’ll deny it until you tell him about the evidence that Paxton Hull gave you. He’ll confess and explain his motive, which some convoluted business strategy involving farmers, fertilizer, and fuel. Then he will promise to correct his mistake and offer you a bribe to remain silent. From here, you have several options:
Accept Bribe – Receive an extra 20,000 credits for not disclosing his involvement to the Freestar Rangers.
Attack Him – He deserves it.
Accept Bribe with Negotiation Skill – Persuade him to pay you 50,000 credits in blood money for your silence.
Hold True to Your Ideals – Take him into custody, which will prompt him to attack you.
Let’s not lie to ourselves, 50,000 credits is a nice chunk of change. If you have a single point in negotiation, then you can get quite a few credits off this jerk. However, credits are pretty easy to come by in Starfield, and this swine was ruining families’ lives. We think it is much more appropriate for the story that you take him into custody, and kill him — but you do you.
If you choose not to take the bribe, he will then try to guilt you into thinking about his employees’ welfare. This is a dumb trick, and you won’t get any credits if you agree to keep his secret (Image 3). His employees are better off without him, anyway.
If you accepted Ron Hope’s pitiful bribe, then skip toTalk to Marshal Blake.
Eliminate Hope’s Security and Kill Ron Hope
If bribes and threats fail, Ron will resort to violence. He goes down very easily, but his assistant and security are more dangerous. Since they are in close proximity when the fight starts, you will have to be quick on the draw. It should be easy after dealing with The First, though.
Talk to Birgit McDougall
As a way to give you more closure with Hopetown, the game will have you speak to Birgit. She will talk about Ron’s demise, then give some details about the possible future of the company.
Talk to Marshal Blake
Fast travel back to Akila City and skip up to The Rock. You will find Emma and the Marshal at the bar. Depending on how you handled the Ron Hope situation, the Marshal will either be surprised that Ron was the villain, or disappointed that you never found out who was behind the mercenary attacks. Either way, they will make you a full-fledged Freestar Ranger, giving you the Ranger Gear, the Justifier, and the Star Eagle ship.
Upon receiving the badge, the mission will end, and you’ll have this strange feeling that you’re now a space cowboy / cowgirl-cop-thingy. Go out and do whatever it is that those do.
Kelson is a spud head from out west. He is most happy when holding a milky tea with too much honey and playing a sprawling role playing game or reading a fantasy novel. His video game tastes vary but his main genres are looter shooters, RPGs, and real time strategy games.