Starfield Guilty Parties choice walkthrough
Should you side with Ularu or Masako?
Guilty Parties is one of the final quests in the Ryujin Industries questline in Starfield.
During Guilty Parties you’ll be tasked with finding and confronting Imogene - your boss at Ryujin Industries - and deciding whether to kill or spare Imogene. This isn’t, however, the only choice you’ll have to make during this Starfield quest as you’ll later have to decide whether to side with Ularu or Masako.
Below you’ll find our Guilty Parties walkthrough covering everything you need to know for this Starfield quest, including the consequences for siding with either Ularu or Masako.
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How to start Guilty Parties quest in Starfield
To reach the Guilty Parties quest in Starfield, you need to complete the first eight missions in the Ryujin Industries questline. Guilty Parties will then automatically start after you’ve completed Background Checks.
With that achieved, your first step in Guilty Parties is to talk to Imogene on the Operations Floor of Ryujin Industries. Her office, however, will be empty, so head outside and talk to Yuko. During your conversation with Yuko, she’ll reveal that Imogene’s last known location was at a front for the Seokguh Syndicate.
After talking with Yuko, you’ll be given a number of optional objectives depending on how the conversation has gone.
You may receive the optional objective to talk to Dalton on the Executive Floor to learn more about the Seokguh Syndicate. Doing so will lead to another optional objective - Talk to Benjamin Bayu.
If you have the Neon Street Rat Trait and its associated dialogue option when talking to Yuko though, you can bypass Dalton and go straight to Benjamin Bayu. Doing so will have no overall consequence apart from Dalton having a couple of different dialogue lines later on in the quest.
You can, however, ignore both of these optional objectives completely and go straight to the Seokguh Syndicate’s hideout at Frankie’s Grab & Go. We do recommend getting permission to enter this hideout though as it will make the quest a lot easier.
If you do choose to avoid talking to Benjamin Bayu or tell him 'to bring it up with Dalton', then you’ll unlock the Managing Assets mission later on in the Ryujin Industries questline.
Talk to Benjamin Bayu during Guilty Parties in Starfield explained
If you want to get permission to enter the Seokguh Syndicate’s hideout during the Guilty Parties quest in Starfield, then the person you need to talk to is Benjamin Bayu.
To find him, you need to visit the Astral Lounge on Neon and, once inside, take the elevator up to the VIP Balcony. Follow the corridor around to the otherside of the balcony where you’ll find Benjamin standing awkwardly in a room by himself. It’s important to note that if you tell him 'to bring it up with Dalton' during the following conversation you’ll unlock the Managing Assets quest later on in the Ryujin Industries questline.
When asking for Benjamin’s permission to enter the Syndicate’s hideout you’ll have two choices - do a favour for him or Persuade him.
We recommend choosing Persuade as it is by far the quicker option. Just make sure you save before doing so. You also only need to fill in four bars to achieve a successful Persuasion.
We were able to Persuade Benjamin by choosing the option 'A small gesture of good faith now could have a lot of weight later.' This is a four bar option and completed the Persuade mini game in one fell swoop.
Once Benjamin agrees to let you enter the hideout, it’s time to visit Frankie’s Grab & Go.
How to find the Syndicate during Guilty Parties in Starfield
To find the Seokguh Syndicate in the Guilty Parties quest of Starfield, you need to visit Frankie’s Grab & Go in the Ebbside section of Neon. You can access this part of the settlement by going through one of the many doors with the Ebbside sign above it in the central part of Neon.
When you’re in Ebbside, follow the mission marker until you reach Frankie’s Grab & Go. (The sign above the doorway is hard to miss.)
Once there, you can complete the optional objective of talking to Franchesca 'Frankie' Moore. If you’ve Persuaded Benjamin Bayu or completed his favour to grant yourself access to the hideout, she will open the doors for you.
If you haven’t talked to Benjamin, however, you can also pickpocket the keycard from her or enter via a vent on the roof. Keep in mind that, if you choose the vent route, you will have to pick a Novice level lock so make sure you have some Digipicks. It’s important to note that, if you take one of these two options, then the Syndicate members in the hideout will be hostile to you. (Though you should avoid causing any trouble even if you are allowed in the hideout.)
No matter how you gain access to the hideout, you’ll always find Imogene in a room at the back of the first floor. Follow the mission marker if you’re having trouble finding her.
Confront Imogene during Guilty Parties in Starfield: Should you kill or spare Imogene?
Now that you’ve found her, the next step in the Guilty Parties Starfield quest is to confront Imogene.
We highly recommend talking to Imogene as she’ll reveal that Ularu is, in fact, the mole who has set Imogene up to take the fall. This means Imogene is innocent and, if you’re doing an ethical run, you’ll want to support her. Imogene will also give you a slate containing the evidence you need to prove this fact.
If you have the Neon Street Rat Trait, then there will be a number of Trait-specific dialogue options throughout this conversation.
Depending on how the conversation goes, you’ll have the chance to either kill or spare Imogene’s life. We recommend keeping Imogene alive, especially if you’re doing an ethical run (she is innocent after all), as it will decide who will grant you access to the Ryujin Industries mission board.
Who to side with during Guilty Parties in Starfield: Should you side with Ularu or Masko?
Now that you have proof of Imogene’s innocence, it’s time to deal with the major choice of the Guilty Parties quest in Starfield - do you side with Ularu or Masako?
Before you make your decision, however, you need to return to Ryujin Industries and possibly deal with two optional objectives.
The first is talking to Yuko who will automatically pull you into a conversation when you reach the Executive Floor. This conversation has no bearing on Guilty Parties or the rest of the Ryujin Industries questline as a whole, so, if you want to leave it, feel free to do so.
The second optional objective is far more important, because it’s here where you can side with Masako or Ularu. It involves confronting Ularu about her deception in her office on the Executive Floor.
Remember - if you confront Ularu, your dialogue choices will impact the ones you later have with Dalton when completing this quest. We recommend saving before talking to Ularu to ensure you get the outcome you desire.
If you decide to confront Ularu, you’ll be given the chance to successfully Persuade her into explaining exactly what she’s been trying to achieve. The basic gist of things is that she wants to replace Masako as CEO and has decided that corporate sabotage is the way to go.
It’s also during this conversation where Ularu will give you the option to side with her during this conversation. Keep in mind that your decision here will affect the end of Guilty Parties and the Ryujin Industries questline going forward.
Side with Masako consequences
If you side with Masako, you’ll hand over the evidence of Imogene’s innocence, be prompted and gain the chance to kill Ularu in her office. If you spared Imogene and proved her innocence, you must talk to her to access the Ryujin Industries mission board. If you killed Imogene or spared her but didn’t prove her innocence, Masako will grant you access to the mission board instead.
It’s important to note that killing Ularu doesn’t have any major consequences to the Ryujin Industries questline aside from her absence.
Side with Ularu consequences
If you side with Ularu, however, you’ll agree to help her overthrow Masako as CEO, but you can change your mind during the final Ryujin Industries quest - Executive Level. If you do not change your mind then she will successfully take over the CEO position during this final quest.
Siding with Ularu also removes the Stealth requirement for any mission you later pick up on the Ryujin Industries mission board.
Who you ultimately decide to side with depends on whether you’re playing an ethical run or not and, if this is the case, then you’ll want to side with Masako. The main advantage of siding with Ularu over Masako is, of course, the removement of the Stealth requirement for the quests you gain from the Ryujin Industries mission board, so, if you hate sneaking about, then Ularu is the way to go.
No matter who you decide to side with, it’s time to return to Dalton once you’ve finished with Ularu. Here the dialogue options will depend on whether you killed or spared Imogene and who you sided with when confronting Ularu (if you confronted her that is).
Once your conversation with Dalton is finished, you’ll be rewarded with some Credits and 250 XP before The Key Ingredient quest automatically begins.
Hope you chose wisely during the Guilty Parties quest!