General Skills
Acrobatics Arcana Athletics Computers Crafting Deception Diplomacy Intimidation Lore Medicine Nature Occultism Performance Piloting Religion Society Stealth Survival Thievery

General Skills

Decipher Writing (Trained)

Source Player Core pg. 186
When you encounter particularly archaic or esoteric texts, the GM might require you to Decipher the Writing before you can understand it. You must be trained in the relevant skill to Decipher Writing. The skills used for Deciphering Writing and the types of texts they usually decipher are:
  • Arcana for writing about arcane theory, including arcane spells and rituals
  • Computers for programming or other computer languages
  • Occultism for eldritch script and occult esoterica
  • Religion for scripture, allegories, and proverbs
  • Society for coded messages, archaic text, or (in some cases) alien languages

Decipher Writing

You attempt to decipher complicated writing or literature on an obscure topic. This usually takes 1 minute per page of text, but might take longer (typically an hour per page for decrypting ciphers or the like). The text must be in a language you can read, though the GM might allow you to attempt to decipher text written in an unfamiliar language using Society instead.
The DC is determined by the GM based on the state or complexity of the document. The GM might have you roll one check for a short text or a check for each section of a larger text.
Critical SuccessYou understand the true meaning of the text.
SuccessYou understand the true meaning of the text. If it was a coded document, you know the general meaning but might not have a word-for-word translation.
FailureYou can't understand the text and take a –2 circumstance penalty to further checks to decipher it.
Critical FailureYou believe you understand the text on that page, but you have in fact misconstrued its message.

Sample Decipher Writing Tasks

Trained entry-level philosophy treatise
Expert complex code, such as a cipher
Master top secret code or advanced research notes
Legendary esoteric text written in metaphor by an extraplanar being

Earn Income (Trained)

Source Player Core pg. 186
You can use a skill to earn money during downtime. You must be trained in the skill to do so. This takes time to set up, and your income depends on your proficiency rank and how lucrative a task you can find. Because this process requires a significant amount of time and involves tracking things outside the progress of adventures, it won't come up in every campaign.
The most typical ways to Earn Income, detailed further in this section are:
  • Crafting goods for the market (Crafting)
  • Practicing a Trade (Lore)
  • Staging a Performance (Performance)
In some cases, the GM might let you use a different skill to Earn Income through specialized work. This might be scholarly work, such as using Religion to study an alien culture's faith—but live streaming a sermon would still fall under Performance instead of Religion. You also might be able to use physical skills to make money, such as using Athletics to haul cargo at a spaceport or Thievery to pick pockets at a crowded concert. If you're using a skill other than Crafting, Lore, or Performance, the DC tends to be significantly higher.

Crafting Goods For The Market (Crafting)

Using Crafting, you can work at producing common items for the market. It's usually easy to find work making basic items whose level is 1 or 2 below your settlement's level. Higher-level tasks represent special commissions, which might require you to Craft a specific item using the Craft downtime activity and sell it to a buyer at full Price. These opportunities don't occur as often and might have special requirements—or serious consequences if you disappoint a prominent client.

Practicing A Trade (Lore)

You apply the practical benefits of one of your Lore specialties during downtime by practicing your trade. This is most effective for Lore specialties like business, law, or mining, where there's high demand for workers. The GM might increase the DC or determine only low-level tasks are available if you're attempting to use an obscure Lore skill to Earn Income. You might also need specialized tools to accept a job, like an enercycle to conduct deliveries in a busy city or a fashionable suit to attend a meeting with corporate clients

Staging A Performance (Performance)

You perform for an audience to make money. The available audiences determine the level of your task, since more discerning audiences are harder to impress but provide a bigger payout. The GM determines the task level based on the audiences available. Performing for a typical audience in a seedy bar is a level 0 task, but a performance for a group of fellow musicians with more refined tastes might be a 2nd- or 3rd-level task, and ones for wealthy clients, fashionistas, and interstellar dignitaries are increasingly higher level. Your degree of success determines whether you moved your audience and whether you were rewarded with rave reviews or downvotes.

Earn Income

You use one of your skills to make money during downtime. The GM assigns a task level representing the most lucrative job available. You can search for lower-level tasks, with the GM determining whether you find any. Sometimes you can attempt to find better work than the initial offerings, though this takes time and requires using the Diplomacy skill to Gather Information, doing some research, or socializing.
When you take on a job, the GM secretly sets the DC of your skill check. After your first day of work, you roll to determine your earnings. You gain an amount of income based on your result, the task's level, and your proficiency rank (as listed on the Income Earned table).
You can continue working at the task on subsequent days without needing to roll again. For each day you spend after the first, you earn the same amount as the first day, up until the task's completion. The GM determines how long you can work at the task. Most tasks last a week or two, though some can take months or even years.
Critical SuccessYou do outstanding work. Gain the amount of currency listed for the task level + 1 and your proficiency rank.
SuccessYou do competent work. Gain the amount of currency listed for the task level and your proficiency rank
FailureYou do shoddy work and get paid the bare minimum for your time. Gain the amount of currency listed in the failure column for the task level. The GM will likely reduce how long you can continue at the task.
Critical FailureYou earn nothing for your work and are fired immediately. You can't continue at the task. Your reputation suffers, potentially making it difficult for you to find rewarding jobs in that community in the future.

Sample Earn Income Tasks

These examples use Piloting to work as a pilot or Legal Lore to perform legal work.
Trained run speedy errands on your enercycle, do legal research
Expert pilot a small salvage ship, present minor court cases
Master pilot a large research vessel or freighter, present important court cases
Legendary run an interplanetary pilot training program, argue a case against an Embri Speaker and their coterie in their own court

Identify Magic (Trained)

Source Player Core pg. 188
Using the skill related to the appropriate tradition, as explained in Magical Traditions and Skills, you can attempt to identify a magical item, location, or ongoing effect. In many cases, you can use a skill to attempt to Identify Magic of a tradition other than your own at a higher DC. The GM determines whether you can do this and what the DC is.

Identify Magic

Once you discover that an item, location, or ongoing effect is magical, you can spend 10 minutes to try to identify the particulars of its magic. If your attempt is interrupted, you must start over. The GM sets the DC for your check. Cursed magic or esoteric subjects usually have higher DCs or might even be impossible to identify using this activity alone. Heightening a spell doesn't increase the DC to identify it.
Critical SuccessYou learn all the attributes of the magic, including its name (for an effect), what it does, any means of activating it (for an item or location), and whether it's cursed.
SuccessFor an item or location, you get a sense of what it does and learn any means of activating it. For an ongoing effect (such as a spell with a duration), you learn the effect's name and what it does. You can't try again in hopes of getting a critical success.
FailureYou fail to identify the magic and can't try again for 1 day.
Critical FailureYou misidentify the magic as something else of the GM's choice.

Learn a Spell (Trained)

Source Player Core pg. 189
If you're a spellcaster, you can use the skill corresponding to your magical tradition to learn a new spell of that tradition. The Learning a Spell table lists the Price of the materials needed to Learn a Spell of each rank. Learning a Spell is most useful for classes that use a limited spell list, like the witchwarper, though other classes might use it gain rare or uncommon spells.

Learned Spells

If you have a spell repertoire, such as the mystic or witchwarper do, a spell you learn isn't automatically added since you can only know a limited number of spells. Instead, you can select it when you add or swap spells. Otherwise, a spell you learn is added to your repository of spells, such as the spell database for a technomancer.

Learn a Spell

Requirements You have a spellcasting class feature, and the spell you want to learn is on your magical tradition's spell list.
You can gain access to a new spell of your tradition from someone who knows that spell or from magical writing like a spellbook or scroll. If you can cast spells of multiple traditions, you can Learn a Spell of any of those traditions, but you must use the corresponding skill to do so. For example, if you were an elemental mystic with the witchwarper multiclass archetype, you couldn't use Nature to add an arcane or occult spell to your witchwarper spell repertoire.
To learn the spell, you must do the following:
  • Spend 1 hour per spell rank, during which you must remain in conversation with a person who knows the spell or have the magical writing in your possession.
  • Have materials with the Price indicated in the Learning a Spell table.
  • Attempt a skill check for the skill corresponding to your tradition (DC determined by the GM, often close to the DC on the Learning a Spell Table). Uncommon or rare spells have higher DCs; full guidelines for the GM appear on page 52 of Starfinder GM Core.
Critical SuccessYou expend half the materials and learn the spell.
SuccessYou expend the materials and learn the spell.
FailureYou fail to learn the spell but can try again after you gain a level. The materials aren't expended.
Critical FailureAs failure, except you expend half the materials.

Recall Knowledge (Untrained)

Source Player Core pg. 190
To remember useful information on a topic, you can attempt to Recall Knowledge. This action is one you're likely to use frequently. Learning more about the Universe and people around you is one of the best ways to inform your decisions, and Recalling Knowledge can help you figure out how to best fight alien horrors, solve ancient mysteries, and navigate social challenges.
You might know basic information about something without needing to attempt a check, but Recall Knowledge requires you to stop and think for a moment so you can recollect more specific facts and apply them. You might even need to spend time investigating first. For instance, to use Medicine to learn the cause of death, you might need to conduct a forensic examination before attempting to Recall Knowledge.

Recall Knowledge

You attempt a skill check to try to remember a bit of knowledge regarding a topic related to that skill. Suggest which skill you'd like to use and ask the GM one question. The GM determines the DC. You might need to collaborate with the GM to narrow down the question or skills, and you can decide not to Recall Knowledge before committing to the action if you don't like your options.
Critical SuccessYou recall the knowledge accurately. The GM answers your question truthfully and either tells you additional information or context, or answers one follow-up question.
SuccessYou recall the knowledge accurately. The GM answers your question truthfully
Critical FailureYou recall incorrect information. The GM answers your question falsely (or decides to give you no information, as on a failure).

Sample Recall Knowledge Tasks

The following examples use Corporate Lore or Religion.
Untrained name of a CEO or core deity
Trained names of a company's board members, major doctrines of a core deity
Expert hierarchy of a company's employees, teachings of an ancient religious sect
Master hidden facilities and trade routes of an interplanetary corporation, major temples of a deity across Near Space
Legendary black site of an elusive bioweapons manufacturer, secret doctrines of a religion, remote holy sites in the Vast

Subsist (Untrained)

Source Player Core pg. 191
Skills: Society, Survival
If you need to provide food and shelter, you can use the Subsist downtime activity. This typically uses Society if you're in a settlement or Survival if you're in the wild.

Subsist

You try to provide food and shelter for yourself, and possibly others as well, with a standard of living described on page 243. The GM determines the DC based on the nature of the place where you're trying to Subsist. You might need a minimum proficiency rank to Subsist in particularly strange environments. Unlike most downtime activities, you can Subsist after 8 hours or less of exploration, but if you do, you take a –5 penalty.
Critical SuccessYou either provide a subsistence living for yourself and one additional creature, or you improve your own food and shelter, granting yourself a comfortable living.
SuccessYou find enough food and shelter with basic protection from the elements to provide you a subsistence living.
FailureYou're exposed to the elements and don't get enough food, becoming fatigued until you attain sufficient food and shelter.
Critical FailureYou attract some trouble, eat something you shouldn't, or otherwise worsen your situation. You take a –2 circumstance penalty to checks to Subsist for 1 week. You don't find any food at all; if you don't have any stored up, you're in danger of starving or dying of thirst if you continue failing.

Sample Subsist Tasks

Untrained forage on a lush planet with calm weather like Castrovel or panhandle at a busy space port with plentiful resources like Absalom Station
Trained forage on a habitable terrestrial planet, adequately supplied research station, or city
Expert forage in extreme terrain, subsist in an insular frontier colony, or stowaway on a long-haul freighter
Master forage on a desert moon or abandoned space station
Legendary subsist on a barren asteroid, toxic or irradiated planet, or a city undergoing orbital bombardment