Spaceships and Space Combat - Starfield

Game: Starfield
Content Type: Gaming Guides

Starfield is a massive role playing game that takes its players out into the unknown of space. Unsurprisingly, some parts of the game like spaceflight, spaceship customization, and spaceship combat play an integral role in the gameplay. Below is a guide that covers the fundamentals of how to control your ship, what upgrades are available and best for your spaceship, and how to pilot your spaceship during combat.

Starfield is expected to be released in the first half of 2023 — this guide will be updated as more information becomes available.

Controlling Your Spaceship

The first – and probably most important – step of the spaceship guide is learning how to control the spaceship. In Starfield, spaceships can be controlled in both first-person and third-person perspectives. While the feel of these options will vary from player to player, there are instances that suit a certain perspective. In first-person, the player can see their heads up display (HUD), which has a wealth of information while in combat– more on that down below. While on the other hand, third person provides players with a better field of view. This makes third-person more desirable while exploring and scouting out new planets and locations.

starfield spaceship guide battle shields — First-person and third-person are each better for certain occasions.

starfield spaceship guide third person flying — First-person and third-person are each better for certain occasions.

Throughout the game, there will be occasions when the player can dock their ship to other ships. After docking, players can undock by pressing button xbox y , get up out of their seat by pressing button xbox b , or board the other ship by pressing button xbox x .

starfield spaceship guide docking to ship — In space, no one can hear you dock.

Ship Upgrades & Customization

Ship Class

Perhaps the most important factor in upgrading a spaceship is what class of ship the player has. Starfield has plenty of different classes of ship for all the different types of explorers out there. Class basically determines what the main chassis is in which all the other upgrades add onto. Different classes also provide different intrinsic stats to build on. For example, some ships will have bigger inherent crew capacities than other ships. This will come in handy as the player progresses and adds companions and other NPCs to their crew.

starfield spaceship guide ship class mako vectera v2 — Ships are referenced by which class they are and a location (likely where they were created, or perhaps where they port).

Ship Parts

After the player has a ship, they can dive into the nitty-gritty of buying and upgrading parts for the ship. Different parts make different changes to the layout of the ship and how it functions. Ships with higher graded engines, for instance, will be able to jump more light years. There are many other stats that are determined by the quality of the ship’s parts. It is worth noting that some parts will require the player skill, ‘Starship Design’ in order to intergrade them to the ship. Here is a list of all the different parts of a ship in Starfield.

Cockpit
Engine
Tank
Lander (Different sides, port, seaboard, fore, aft)
Cannon
Modules (hab, cowl)
Reactors
Control Station

starfield spaceship guide spaceship stats v2 — Mass is an important characteristic of a ship that limits the amount and quality of parts that can be attached.

There are a plethora of spaceship manufacturers that make different ships and parts. Some of these producers specialize in different things. Some examples are ‘Horizon Defense’ being a manufacturer of cannons, and ‘Reladyne’ making high graded engines. For the more basic parts – like landers – the more expensive a part is, the less mass and more health (hull) it has. This means that spaceships with expensive parts will be able to equip more parts and modules, and be the most protected.

Astroneering? Never heard of her.

Color Customization

Another aspects of spaceflight that will be most enticing to RPG lovers is the fact that Starfield allows players to fully customize their ships. For starters, players can choose the color of their spaceship. Not only the hue of the spaceship can be selected, but also the saturation and brightness. This allows players to put their own creativity into how their ship looks, which will also be nice while viewing the ship in third-person view.

starfield spaceship guide ship color options — Starfield’s spaceships can stunt their fashion anywhere in the galaxy.

Space Combat

Now that the player has their ship in tip-top shape, it’s time to go over how spaceship combat works. Most of the information that is available to a player during combat is on their HUD. This will show players their speed, thrust, shields, hull integrity, ship systems, and if an enemy missile has target locked their ship. Since the HUD can only be viewed in first-person mode, it is recommended to stay in that mode unless the player loses sight of an enemy ship or is being tailed by one.

starfield spaceship guide battle shields 1 — The spaceship shields (bottom right – currently at 86) will decrease as they take damage. After the shields are completely depleted, the hull is vulnerable.

Targeting

On the offensive side of things, shooting at other ships is pretty straight forward. The player moves their aiming reticle over an enemy ship and fires their blasters. As they are engaging and keeping their reticle over an enemy, a ‘target lock’ bar will populate and increase in percentage. After the bar hits 100%, the player can press and ‘target lock’ the enemy vessel. If the ship evades the player, then the target lock percentage will go down.

starfield spaceship guide target lock — The face you make when you can target lock, but you’re also locked on by an enemy missile.

Weapons

Ships are equipped with both blasters and missiles. While missiles are more accurate when ‘target locked’ on an enemy, the enemy ship does not need to be 100% target locked in order to shoot missiles at it. Just like the player’s ship, after weakening the shields of an enemy craft, they are susceptible to hull damage. If the player hits an important part of any enemy ship– like the reactor– that will result in a critical hit.

starfield spaceship guide combat missile firing — Blasters and missiles can be fired simultaneously. Note the critical hit prompt in the top right of the picture.

After reading this guide, hopefully players have the confidence and know how to tackle all the challenges associated with space travel. Have any questions, or any Space Combat tips you want to share? Let us know in the comments!