Starfield: How to Complete Matters of the Hart

If you’re close with Sam Coe with Starfield, you may have gotten the companion quest Matters of the Hart. It’s actually started by his daughter, Cora, and who can say no to a kid worried about their mother? What ensues is a long trip across the galaxy to face down criminals and rescue Sam’s ex-wife. Here’s how to complete Matters of the Hart in Starfield.

How to Complete Matters of the Hart in Starfield

Here are the primary steps for completing Matter of the Heart in Starfield. I go into greater detail for each step below the bulleted list:

• Find Freestar Ranger Lillian Hart:
  • Go to Neon City.
  • Go to the Freestar Rangers building.
  • Get past Rane Ryce.
  • Search Lillian’s Room.
  • Go to Ryujin Apartments.
  • Get the Dataslate.
• Rescue Lillian:
  • Go to the Victor Compound on McClure II.
  • Find Lillian inside (but don’t shoot her).
• Take out the Syndicate:
  • Reach the Dumas spaceship.
  • Retrieve the message aboard.
  • Return to Andromas III.
  • Defeat three waves of enemies.
• Mediate Sam and Lillian’s relationship issues.

How to Find Freestar Ranger Lillian Hart

To start Matters of the Hart, you must be relatively good friends with Sam Coe. After a while of traveling together, Cora Coe suggest helping her mother, Lillian Hart. Apparently, they’ve been exchanging letters, and she hasn’t heard from the superstar Ranger in some time, which is quite unusual.

Starting Matters of the Hart locks Sam in as your companion, so make sure you like his company or have the time to complete the mission in one go. Giving in to Cora’s request, set out for Neon City on Volii Alpha in the Volii system.

Searching Lillian’s room yields a slate with notes of an ongoing investigation. It seems she’s gone deep undercover with the Syndicate, a gang of vicious criminals set up in Neon. She notes an informant she needed to contact, as well as their address. As the only lead, make your way to the Ryujin apartments building.

Interacting with the elevator will bring you directly to the floor you need. Since you don’t have a key, getting in seems to be a concern until Cora whips out her trusty tools and picks the lock. Kids, man. Inside, you’ll find a standard apartment, except for the bedroom, which is a gore-covered disaster. Searching around reveals a dataslate between the living room and kitchen areas. Lillian is asking for an extraction. It seems her cover is close to being blown.

Take Out the Syndicate

While rescuing Lillian was the original goal, returning to Neon City isn’t on her agenda. Instead, she wants to plan a counterattack to take out the head of the Syndicate, Valerie. Since multiple people and security cameras saw who you are, it’s likely people will be sent after you. This is the only way to ensure complete safety for Cora.

This part of the Matters of the Hart quest involves quite a bit of grav jumping to get to the Dumas spaceship. A message with the location of the secure cache is the prize, but must take the distance you’re traveling into account. With the Frontier (Starfield‘s starting ship), I had to make about three jumps just to get there, some of them through hostile systems like Kryx.

Board the Dumas and obtain the message you need. Then head all the way back to the Andromas system, specifically Adromas III.

Prepare for Battle

Before landing and looking for the cache, however, stop to prepare yourself. The last combat section of Matters of the Hart includes three waves of higher-level enemies. This includes the leader, who can be up to Level 35. Since I got this companion mission early on, I had difficulties surviving with the limited healing items and ammo that I had.

Lay mines on the hilled area near the cache, and take any chems now before the battle starts. Once you get close to the cache, Syndicate ships will start landing to offload attackers. There will be three waves, each with approximately 10-15 enemies split into two groups. The second and third waves will have robots, and the third one will have Valerie herself.

They don’t move as fast as you do, so taking the opportunity to buff up by hiding behind pieces of the environment is a solid plan. Since I was vastly under-leveled and with minimal healing items, this was much harder than other fights If you were able to plant mines throughout the battlefield, the numbers you actually have to face will be quite reduced.

Relationship Troubles

Surviving the attack means the end of the Syndicate’s campaign of terror. That isn’t quite it for the Matters of the Hart quest, however. With the enemies dead, Sam decides now is a good time to hash things out with his baby momma. Unfortunately, you’re stuck there as the newly appointed mediator for this argument. I feel awkward just thinking about it.

When they’ve finished their conversation — which actually ends on a good note — Sam invites you to join him in Akila City at the bar near the statue of Solomon Coe. He’ll find a spot to sit right near the edge as soon as you get close to it, but the bar’s located on the left before The Rock when you’re coming from the star yard.

This is the best part of the Matters of the Hart quest. If you’re looking to romance Sam, you won’t want to miss it. I won’t spoil anything for you, but the cowboy has a way with words. If you’ve decided to stay friends, however, this is the time to choose that option. Once you get through the mushiness, Matters of the Hart will complete, and you can dismiss Sam if you no longer want to travel with him.

That’s how to complete Matters of the Hart in Starfield. One of the main companion missions for Sam Coe, this lets you decide how you want your relationship to progress in the game. For more companion mission walkthroughs, as well as tips for other quests, check out our Starfield guide vault.