When you first arrive in the Lunara system in Starfield, you will be thrust into a combat situation between an immobile ship and an Ecliptic ship.
Upon defeating the Ecliptic ship, you will hear mysterious voices coming from the ship you saved. This turns out to be Juno, an AI machine that has apparently started to malfunction.
You can board the ship and begin the Juno’s Gambit quest to figure out what’s going on. There are some callous decisions to make in this Starfield mission, but you can navigate your way through with a level head (and some help).
Meeting with the Ryujin Operatives
After boarding the mysterious ship, you can enter and speak with two men standing over a dead woman’s body on the ground. The men will identify as Ryujin Operatives on the ship working on a particular project. They claim the AI named Juno killed the woman because she attempted to attach a Control Board to the AI machine.
If you’re already a member of Ryujin Industries, then you will have some additional dialogue with the two men.
However, if you’re not, you can ask them what’s happening. As expected, they will ask you to attach the Control Board to Juno since they’re too afraid of getting killed like the woman. Once the Control Board is bound to Juno, it will shut down, essentially killing it.
Speaking with Juno
Before you make your decision on whether to shut Juno down or not, you can ask it some questions. The AI has a tedious way of speaking, but through dialogue, you learn Juno was installed in this ship by humans, but it has its thoughts and compares itself to a human. As such, it asks you not to murder it and instead free it from the shackles of the ship it’s currently on.
After the dialogue ends, you can speak to the operatives again and make your decision. You have two options, which are:
- Say “I’ll do it, but I want to make sure I’m getting paid.”
- Say “Juno deserves freedom.”
Letting Juno live
If you choose the latter of those two options, letting Juno be free, the Ryujin Operatives won’t be too happy initially, but you can eventually convince them this is the right thing to do. You can choose options that mention the operatives having to do more paperwork if they kill Juno, and that’s pretty much all it takes to convince them.
After agreeing with your decision, they will request a lift back to Neon, and Juno gets free. After dealing with the operatives, you can speak with Juno, and a couple of options are presented to you. Juno asks what you would do if you were in its position, and you can respond in various ways. Whatever you say, Juno will act like it’s shutting down, but it’s going away to be free out in the galaxy.
Once Juno is done speaking, board your ship and undock. You can then return the men to Neon, and the quest ends.
Attaching the Control Board to Juno
In the other ending, you can decide Juno is too aware to continue living and attach the Control Board to it. This will shut Juno down, and the operatives will be relieved that nothing happened to you or them.
You can speak to the Ryujin Operative again and mention your pay for the job, but your credits won’t be added to your account until you get back on your ship.
In this scenario, the operatives won’t ask you to return them to Neon, as they have paperwork and a body to clean up.
So, you can board your ship and then undock. After this happens, though, Juno will suddenly enter a self-destruct sequence, and you will hear it say some final words before ultimately blowing up the ship and killing the operatives inside. Once the ship blows up, 3,500 credits will be added to your account.
While this might seem like the end, Juno is not done with you. Several hours later, Juno will return as a level 32 enemy ship and attack you upon entering a random system. For me, I entered Cassiopeia at level 24, and Juno attacked on-site.
There is no way to board Juno when it attacks, even if you take out its engines. You have to destroy it.
Juno’s Gambit Ending for Ryujin members
A lesser-known ending is available for those who join Ryujin before getting to this point. From this comes unique dialogue options—when done correctly, this route amounts to receiving the most credits. If you can manage to convince Ryujin not to change Juno, Juno will be set free. This ending results in Juno living and the Volii System passengers retuning home.
Juno’s Gambit decision: Should you let Juno live or not?
In my estimation, the best ending is deciding to set Juno free, as the AI gets to live out its days roaming the galaxy, and you don’t have to fight it later on. However, I didn’t see any credits added to my account in this ending, so you might be missing 3,500 credits if you let Juno live.
So, to sum up, if you want some easy credits, see a ship explode, and have a ship fight down the line, you can shoot Juno down. But if you want the best ending for Juno’s Gambit quest in Starfield, let the AI be free.
