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Starfield: How Space Travel Works

Explore the stars with the intergalactic fast travel of Starfield.

Travelling the galaxy isn’t as simple as hopping onto a spaceship and scooting around. Space travel is a big part of Starfield and zipping around the galaxy is going to take some getting used to. To help you get a grip on this major change in the Bethesda open-world exploration formula, we’ve put together an exhaustive guide covering every aspect of space travel for total beginners. If you know nothing about Starfield and want to understand how the game works, we’ll explain in-depth. This is how exploring the galaxy (generally) works, and why it might not be as expansive as it first seems.

More Starfield guides :

Best Skills | Best Ship Upgrades & Mods | All Companions | All Romance Options | All Settlement Locations | Join All Factions | How To Pirate Ships | Secret Companion | Secret Ship & Suit

How Space Travel Works

In Starfield , you’ll need to use space travel to progress missions, explore new planets, or dog-fight enemy vessels. You’ll be travelling in space constantly.

• Travel Between Planets & Locations : Press [LB] to open your scanner. From here, you can jump directly to mission locations, planets in the same star system or new locations marked on your map. As you progress the story, new locations will be automatically marked. Planets will also be marked and may reveal new locations if you travel to the system.
• You can also open the map menu and select locations to travel. From the map, you can automatically select your current mission objective area and travel.

Using the Scan function makes traveling much easier and faster. Using s can can be done on the ground as well as space. You can instantly jump to discovered locations or planets that way. You can even travel to new star systems — but that takes extra effort.

• Travel To Star Systems : To jump between star systems, you’ll need to power up [ GRV ] engines. One power bar is enough to jump to an entirely new system.
• You can only instantly jump to star systems you’ve explored once before. If you haven’t explored the Star Systems on your route to a location, you’ll need to make individual jumps to each area. Select a Star System on the Galaxy Map and hold [ X ] to jump.
• Some planets may feature dangerous enemy encounters, mission prompts, or helpful settlements. Explore to see what you can find! Each Star System has multiple planets you can check out.

Scanning Outside Major Settlements : When you arrive at major star systems with spaceports, your ship will be scanned. If you’re carrying illegal cargo called Contraband, it will be immediately flagged and searched. To avoid getting caught, you’ll need to purchase cargo upgrades for you ship called Shielded. These Shielded cargo upgrades allow you to hide cargo.

• How To Fight Enemy Ships : Dogfighting is necessary in space. You’ll encounter pirates and other threats. You can even become a pirate yourself and rob cargo from ships you find while exploring the galaxy.
• Add bars to your [ LAS ], [ BAL ] and [ MSL ] for maximum damage. [ LAS ] is strong against shields, while [BAL] and [MSL] are strong against hull.
• Balance your [ SHD ] and [ENG] power. Shields help defend your ship, which are critical for avoiding constant damage. Engines give you speed and boost, which you’ll need to avoid incoming missiles.
• Missiles are your strongest weapon. You’ll need to lock-on and fire homing missiles to deal high damage to targets. To quickly break shields on enemies, use both Lasers and Ballistics, then unleash missiles.

Before you can improve your ship, you’ll need to increase your Piloting Skill . This critical skill is essential for flying better ships so you aren’t killed so fast. Before you upgrade, you’ll also want to hire Crew. Crew can be found at any bar in major settlements. Hire them and assign them to your ship. Whatever their skills are, they’ll immediately be added to your total skills. Yes, their skills become your skills. Fill up on crew as quickly as possible to enhance your skills with ships.

• NOTE : While crews share their skills, you won’t be able to fly better ships unless you increase your piloting skills personally, for your character. For the purposes of getting better ships, crew piloting skill is ignored.

How To Avoid Detection In Space : To avoid combat, power down all systems except for 1-2 power bars in [ENG]. The more power bars in your weapon systems, the easier your craft will be to detect. The further away from an enemy you are, the less likely they are to detect you. By doing this, you’ll be able to carefully scoot toward starships, space stations, or valuable loot.

Finally, you can hail or board almost any ship or space station. Doing so is a little tricky.

• How To Dock / Hail : In space, target the ship or station you want to board or hail. Press [A] to target and button prompts will appear. Hold down the buttons shown. On Xbox, press and hold [X] to dock, or hold [A] to hail. Not all vessels will respond to hails.

Hailing can be used to issue threats or more. If you can’t dock with a ship or station, you may want to try hailing first. Unlike with fast-travel, you’ll want to stay out of the scanner to dock or hail. Only targeting is required.

• How To Rapidly Board / Disembark : You don’t have to slowly enter your ship and sit at the cockpit or stand up and exit. You can instantly board and disembark using your Scan function.
• On The Ground : Press [ LB ] to open the scanner, then target your ship. Press [ A ] to instantly fast travel into the cockpit.
• In Space : After docking or landing, hold [ X ] to disembark. Alternatively, if you need to use your ship functions, hold [ B ] to Get Up and walk around the interior of your ship. Then you can exit through the ladder and ramp.

Even when interacting with your ship’s ramp or entrance, you can immediately board. By selecting [ Cockpit ] you can immediately hop into your pilot seat instead of walking through the ship interior.

When disembarking at major settlements, you can even instantly fast travel to locations you want to visit first. When you select a settlement on the planet map, multiple locations will appear. You don’t need to walk to every major location — you can instantly port there while your ship docks at the spaceport. That makes travelling around the map and completing missions smoother than ever before.

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How To Fast Travel In Starfield - All Methods And Tips

Head to different cities, planets, and star systems in Starfield.

By Jason Rodriguez on September 15, 2023 at 2:03PM PDT

It's important to know the different fast travel methods in Starfield . Given that there are numerous star systems and planets to visit, you'll definitely explore the far reaches of the galaxy. There's surprisingly a few ways to fast travel, and a few things to consider when using these methods. Our guide discusses the methods that you can use in the game.

How to fast travel in Starfield

The Starfield fast travel methods can be categorized into two types: local planet and star system grav jumps. The mechanic itself is unlocked early in the game, specifically once you need to do a mission on a planet called Kreet. However, more options open up when you arrive at New Atlantis, the capital of Jemison in the Alpha Centauri system.

Fast travel while on a planet

To fast travel in Starfield, all you need to do is open the menu and select the map in the upper-left section of the screen. The first map view shows the general points of interest on a planet or moon. Simply select a landmark, a landing area, or your ship to go to that location. It's worth noting that this won't work if you're in combat, if you're over-encumbered, or if inside another facility/area (i.e. a cave within a base).

In the image below, you can see that there are six fast travel spots in New Atlantis: the docking area, commercial district, residential district, MAST district, the Lodge, and your ship. If you back out of that selection group, you could see other outposts. Moreover, you can pick any area of the planet so you can land there quickly (as long as it's not on water).

How to reach other star systems via grav jumps

The other Starfield fast travel method involves heading to other star systems. As usual, you'll open your map, and then back out until you see the galaxy view (i.e. star map). This lets you choose a different star system to go to. However, take note that you can only head directly to a star system if you've already discovered the path/node that it's connected to.

Similarly, the distance is affected by your ship's fuel and grav drive. Also, there may be instances when you'd have to do multiple jumps instead. You can learn more in our ship upgrades and modifications guide .

Likewise, heading to another star system requires you to do a grav jump. Here are some additional fast travel tips:

• If you're in orbit, you have to allocate power (i.e. the little pips) to the grav drive (i.e. GRV) in the lower-left corner of your screen.
• This might also require you to decrease the power allocated to other systems, such as weapons, engines, or shields.
• The more power you allocate, the less time you need before the grav jump kicks in. For instance, with +3 power, the jump will occur after a four-second countdown.
• This action can be done while you're in combat. In fact, this is almost a given if you end up getting attacked upon reaching another planet, and it's unlikely that you'd be able to defeat enemy forces.
• If you're ready to fast travel to your active quest, you can "set course" and fast travel to the right star system (or docking station if you're on the right planet already) instantly with the click of one button in the pause menu. On Xbox controllers, this button is X by default.

Starfield is a massive game with numerous planets to explore. For other tips and tactics, you can visit our guides hub .

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A No-Fuss Guide To Starfield Space Travel

Read More: Help! I’m Trapped In Starfield’s Menus And Can’t Get Out

This guide will help you understand how Starfield’s map system works, and offer some tips and tricks for navigating it—and by extension the galaxy—faster. At the end, there are also some options for a more immersive experience that doesn’t rely on menu and map diving quite as much.

How to unlock fast travel in specific areas

At first, it might seem like you need to constantly go into orbit around a planet to go straight to a specific destination. Fortunately, once you’ve visited a city or specific location on a planet, there’s a way to navigate to it from almost anywhere (although some areas like dungeons don’t let you fast travel out of them, not too dissimilar to how fast travel worked in Bethesda’s previous games).

And you don’t need to go into a menu to fast travel either. On a planet’s surface, simply open up your scanner with LB on controller (or F on keyboard), point your reticle to any area you’ve previously visited, and hit A on gamepad (or E on keyboard) to get the prompt for fast travel.

To immediately travel to a specific location on a given planet, simply navigate to it with the A button (or Left Click on a mouse) on the starmap until you see the prompt to hold X button (or key) to land. Remember that you must’ve visited a location at least once before you can fast travel this way.

Basic space and map navigation

Starfield features four levels of maps. The most immediate is your surface map, a somewhat-lacking and simplistic layout of what points of interest are around you. It’s not terribly useful, but you can select previously visited locales from this menu and fast travel to them pretty quickly. You can quickly access the surface map by opening your scanner with LB (or F key) and then hitting RB (or G key).

Read More: Starfield’s Local Planet Map Is Horrible

The next level up from there is the planet map. You can get to this map instantly by holding the menu button (or Tab on keyboard) . From this view you can pick specific locales indicated by an icon, or select just about anywhere on the planet to land and see what awaits you.

After the planet map, there’s the system map. This shows you all the planets, moons, and space stations in a given star system. Simply choose a location from this area to set a course or land instantly if you’ve previously visited the area.

The final map layer is the galaxy map. Here you can view all star systems available in Starfield. You’ll chart courses to new systems from this map view. If a given star system is too far for your current grav drive to reach, you’ll either need to upgrade your ship and invest skill points in the Astrophysics perk, or navigate to a closer star system to get yourself within range.

When traveling to a space station, you’ll need to manually fly up to it to dock. Be sure to target the space station by hitting A (or the E key) when close. You can dock by holding X (or the R key) once you’re under 500 meters away from the station , so no need to worry about damaging your ship by getting too close. Once you dock, you can hold the X button or key to immediately board instead of needing to walk to the back of your ship. Likewise, when returning to your ship, you can hold X (or the R key) at the space station’s exit to go straight to your cockpit.

How to fast travel to mission objectives quickly

Some quests in Starfield will task you with hopping to a few different locations. If you want to immediately locate where your next objective is on the starmap, simply navigate to your quest log by hitting the menu button (Tab on keyboard) and selecting the lower portion of the radial wheel. (You can also access your missions by hitting the view button from the star map.) Once you select a specific mission, you can hit Y on gamepad (B key on keyboard) to have the map automatically locate where in the galaxy your next objective is.

Immersive space travel

If this is all too much menu diving for your space travels, you can choose to avoid most maps and menus to reach any given location. While traveling from point A to B by simply flying is technically possible, it’s not very ideal. Instead, from your ship’s cockpit, look around until you see an icon for a specific destination. Press A when you spot where you want to go and you’ll be given an option to hold X (or the R key) to travel there.

You can navigate to almost any planet in a star system this way, as well as to other star systems. If the place you’re going is a mission objective, you’ll see “Mission” written under the icon. And when jumping between star systems, the more power you give your grav drive by way of the power icons in the lower left HUD of the cockpit view, the quicker your drive will spin up.

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How to grav jump and fast travel in Starfield

Your Starmap helps you explore, but not always

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Getting from point A to point B — or from planet A to planet B, for that matter — in Starfield isn’t always as straightforward as it might seem. There’s a lot you can’t do — like manually fly between planets — and for the stuff you can do, you have a lot of options for how to get there, mostly revolving around your grav drive and its grav jump capabilities.

Our Starfield fast travel, navigation, grav jump, and Starmap guide will explain everything you need to know about how to use your handscanner to fast travel, using your Starmap to grav jump systems, and how to know when you can’t fast travel. We’ll also explain how the grav drive works and what “grav jump pending” means.

How to fast travel in Starfield

Short answer first (and the thing Starfield explicitly calls “ fast travel ”):

While on a planet, you can pull up your handscanner with LB to show nearby points of interest. This usually includes your ship and things like other neighborhoods — indicated by large diamond icons. When you point the reticle at a location you’ve visited before, you’ll have an option to fast travel directly to it at the bottom of your screen.

Now, let’s talk about things that work like fast travel, but aren’t called that. But first…

Sometimes you can’t fast travel

As much fast traveling as you’ll do, it has some restrictions that are hard to understand at first. In space, you can’t see the planets around a star until you’ve jumped into the system for the first time. And you can’t jump into a system if your route passes through any systems you haven’t already visited. In those cases, you’ll have to take your trip one jump at a time.

While on your ship, you can’t start a grav jump if you’re currently docked with another ship or at a space station. You’ll have to sit down in the cockpit and undock first.

On planets, onboard ships, and on space stations, fast travel is restricted if you’re “inside” — like inside someone’s house or past anything that requires a load screen. We’re calling it “inside” because it’s kind of vague. It also depends on what kind of fast travel you’re trying to do. For example, if you’re in a cave that you accessed from the planet’s surface, you won’t be able to use the scanner to fast travel to your ship (or view the surface map), but you will be able to use the Starmap to jump to a different settlement, planet, or star. Interestingly, this usually includes your ship — look for the caret ( ^ ) shape near where you landed.

How to fast travel with the surface map

On foot and with your scanner up, you’ll also have the option to pull up the surface map . It’s, frankly, not particularly useful, but it’s another way to view the various points of interest nearby. If you’ve visited them before, you can fast travel there. If you haven’t, the map will give you a general idea of how to get there. With the surface map open, you can also fast travel directly back to your ship.

You won’t, however, be walking between settlements on opposite sides of a planet. For that, you’ll need to do a different kind of travel.

Choose a different landing target

The closest zoom on the Starmap focuses on one planet. As you spin it around, you’ll see multiple landing targets — things like settlements and outposts (or just a random spot you choose). Clicking on one of these will take you there.

The first time you do this, you’ll see your ship landing in a cutscene. On subsequent visits, you’ll just show up in the new spot.

This is also how you’ll travel between planets and moon in the same star system.

How to grav jump

For the most part, traveling between star systems in Starfield is automated and you’ll do it through the menu(s). Sometimes, though, there’s one extra step: the grav jump .

Grav jumping means allocating power to your grav drive, and then Millennium Falcon-ing into the night. Your grav drive can’t pull off a grav jump unless you’ve successfully powered it it up. Our guide on how to power up your grav drive explains everything you need to know about fast traveling via grav jump (and the ways in which you’re limited by it).

Missions let you fast travel without digging through the Starmap

You’ve got a couple options for setting the course to your next mission objective if you have an active mission. In the Missions menu, having an active mission and objective will add a show on map and a set course option to the bottom of the screen — show on map is more useful for places you haven’t visited yet, and set course brings you right to the landing target for places you’re familiar with.

Even easier, if you’ve already got an active mission, there will be a set course option right on the main pause menu.

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Is 'Starfield' a far-flung fantasy or a glimpse of mankind's space-bound future?

What to expect from Bethesda Game Studio's new space settlement adventure Starfield and its take on life among the stars.

After what feels like light years of waiting, the long-awaited Starfield has finally arrived. Anticipation for the video game's release has been bubbling for months now, as excited gamers look forward to spending far longer than necessary in the game's character creator mode before strapping in to blast off and explore the far reaches of the galaxy. 

Starfield has been created by Bethesda Game Studios, the legendary video game developer that has become renowned for constructing vast game worlds where the freedom of players is only curtailed by the breadth of their imaginations.

Apply that design principle to a game about galaxy exploration and you can see why excitement is high at the possibility of one of the new best space exploration games out there. With Russia and India recently joining the ranks of national space programs to significantly ramp up their ambitions , not to mention the continued rise in private organizations looking to commercialize the sector, real-life interest in space travel is reaching a peak we haven't seen in decades. In a classic case of art mirroring life, the release of Starfield mimics that spike in interest perfectly as, once again, we find ourselves looking up to the stars and dreaming.

Related: 'Starfield' animated anthology introduces gamers to its inhabited planets (videos)

That's not to say that Starfield will in any way reflect the reality of life in space. Sure, the developers have worked hard to cultivate a 'lived-in' aesthetic that has successfully permeated the game's promotional run generating a stir of excitement that the role-playing adventure could present an immersive simulation of the life of a nomadic space explorer. However, with the game's seeming fast and loose approach to concepts such as artificial gravity and faster than light travel, Starfield promises to be a grounded take on space opera that won't have many confusing it for hard sci-fi.

Capturing the spirit

Nonetheless, early takes on the game have been commending it for capturing the spirit of space travel, if not all of the realism that can accompany it. So, as the game aims for a successful launch mission, blasting gamers across the globe into the far reaches of a simulated galaxy, how is Starfield tipped to give would be spacefarers a taste of stepping out into a life among the stars? Will it become one of the best space settlement games out there?

Certainly, the nature of that stepping will reflect the challenges of spacefaring with developers having shown off footage of different planets that sport varying levels of gravity. Planets with gravity levels that are particularly high or low will compel players to consider how best to traverse their surfaces. Likewise, Bethesda has previously shown footage of combat encounters where the player harnesses lighter gravitational forces to rain destruction down on their foes.

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Zero gravity environments are present too, with developers teasing that they will pose a different kind of challenge to players. For example, use of ballistic weapons in zero-G will push players backwards as Newtonian physics take hold, although canny gamers will likely find ways to turn this to their advantage during zero-gravity firefights.

Starfield isn't the first video game to make gravity a foundational and fun core mechanic, but it does look like it could boast some of the widest integration of space-based mechanics that we've seen in a major gaming release. Undoubtedly, the game's depiction of wider space travel will mirror some aspects of extra-planetary travel. Ships will be designed and improved in a modular fashion, the direction that real-life craft design continues to move in, ironically with the aid of former video game designers.

Take a breath

Likewise, developer-led deep dives that have previewed the game have indicated that oxygen has play a part in adding an extra dimension of risk to planetary adventuring. Indeed, the game's HUD does feature a constant oxygen readout to keep track of, but this mechanic works more like a reskinned stamina bar, a classic staple of combat-oriented video games.

It's the flavour of space travel, without adding an actual oxygen management mechanic. That's something of a shame for players looking for a more immersive experience might enjoy the extra challenge posed by limited oxygen. However, we can see how this mechanic might get in the way of the Starfield's core gameplay focus of exploring planets (even if those planets do have invisible walls as some leaked recent footage seems to suggest).

Still, if Bethesda's previous title, Fallout 4, is anything to go by, players will be able to ramp up the difficulty settings meaning that oxygen supply could become a critical factor in planetary exploration down the line. The same can't be said for fuel supplies though, with the studio's head, Todd Howard, recently confirming that your spacecraft won't be able to run out of fuel. Instead, the game simply won't let you travel without sufficient juice to reach your destination. Of course, fuel is a crucial factor in determining the boundaries of humanity's space travel and whilst that doesn't look to be a factor in Starfield , there'll no doubt be other ways that the game initially limits exploration of the wider galaxy.

Missing features

With sex set to be tastefully sidestepped in the game too, it looks like players won't have to worry about the conundrum of how to actually maintain the population by encountering the proposed difficulties of zero-G copulation . Likewise, it has been suggested that as in previous Bethesda titles, adoption will feature in the game rather than your player becoming pregnant. Whilst this avoids the ethical minefield of charging into combat encounters with an unborn child on board, it does mean that another aspect of permanent space colonization, that being the bearing of children in environments other than Earth, likely won't be explored.

So, Starfield may be missing a few aspects of life among the stars, but so what? When all is said and done it's a video game, designed to entertain and early reviews of Starfield have praised its scale. Ultimately, it's this aspect of the space exploration game that players are most looking forward to, the ability to discover uninhabited worlds, not to mention visiting human-built space colonies that have existed for centuries.

Ultimately, it's this tantalizing glimpse of a distant spacefaring future that will draw in players. Curiosity, that most human traits will have players spending countless hours roaming and exploring, discovering and charting as they seek adventure beyond the stars. But, of course, every game has its limits and Starfield's seem to come in the form of pesky invisible walls. That's something real at least, that real spacefarers have yet to encounter.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Dan's interests sit squarely at the intersection of science fiction and cinema, two childhood obsessions that he loves writing about this day. As video editor for UK outlet Film Stories   he loves writing about movies every day. Dan has a degree that he's never used, believing instead that the answers to all of life's questions can be found by gazing at a huge screen in a darkened room in the company of strangers. You'll usually find him here at Space talking about sci-fi movies and games.

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How to Travel Between Planets in Starfield

In the epic sci-fi adventure Starfield , by Bethesda Studios, you’ll be exploring a massive universe full of planets. Very early on in the game, your character gets their first spaceship to use to fly and fight with. While there is a tutorial,  Starfield  isn’t very clear on how to properly travel between planets. Here’s our guide for traveling between planets and landing on them in Starfield .

How to Travel to and Land on Planets in Starfield

While it may seem as simple as choosing a location and jumping to the chosen planet, there’s a little more to it when traveling between planets. First thing you’ll want to do is open up your star map. Select the system / planet you’d like to fly and hold down the travel button that will appear on screen. For PC, it’s the X key.

This will then zip you over to the desired planet, and you’ll be flying in front of it now. Many people who are familiar with No Man’s Sky will now likely try to fly their spaceship at the planet. Doing so will get you nowhere, unfortunately. Unlike No Man’s Sky,  you won’t be manually flying to and landing on planets.

Instead, what you’ll want to do is open up your map again and select the planet. This time, you’ll be able to scan the planet and then choose a location at which to land after traveling. Then, hold the button prompt to land just like you did when you traveled. This will initiate the landing animation, and you’ll fly down to land on the planet.

That’s how you travel between planets and land on them in  Starfield.  Hopefully, this guide helps at least one person who was trying to fly at a planet for 20 minutes!

KEEP READING:  Starfield Leaker Arrested Following Alleged Attempts to Sell Stolen Copies Online

How to fast travel in Starfield with the Scanner and Starmap

There are several ways to fast travel to places you’ve already visited in Starfield

Knowing how to fast travel in Starfield makes getting around the Settled Systems much quicker and easier. While fast travel is very convenient, it does also get pretty complicated as there are lots of ways of initiating fast travel through various Starmap and Scanner views and menus, and there are a couple of crucial rules you need to remember when travelling in Starfield . With my travel tips in mind, you’ll be zipping across planets and systems in no time, so here’s exactly how fast travel in Starfield works.

How fast travel works in Starfield

Fast travel in Starfield works in one of two ways:

• You can fast travel only to planets and systems you have previously visited , otherwise you may need to perform a full Starfield grav jump to get there the first time.
• You cannot fast travel on foot when you are overencumbered , but you can if you’re in your ship.

Starfield lockpicking How to change appearance in Starfield Starfield afflictions and cures Starfield ship inventory and storage Starfield tips

Usually, as long as you've been to your intended destination before you can use Starfield fast travel to rapidly move from planet to planet, or even system to system. However, it gets a little confusing when there are two main methods for initiating fast travel. In general, you can almost always activate fast travel through your Starmap or the Scanner when you’re exploring on foot or flying around in your ship. Below you’ll find more details about both methods:

How to fast travel using the Starmap in Starfield

The Starmap lets you fast travel and you don’t need to be in or near your ship to use it - you can quickly open the Starmap just by holding the pause button. It’s best for quick planet-to-planet or system-to-system travel but involves lots of menus. Use one of the following Starmap fast travel methods depending on where you want to travel to:

• Fast travel to a different location on the planet you’re currently on: Open the Starmap to view your current planet and select any location on the planet, even if you haven’t explored it already - this one of the exceptions where you can fast travel to new places. You can select pretty much anywhere on a planet as a landing area, so long as it’s suitable for a ship – it can’t be in the middle of an ocean, for example. Once you’ve chosen a location, follow the ‘Travel’ prompt to fast travel there.

• Fast travel to a different planet in the same system: Open the Starmap and press B on controller to back out to the system view and see the entire star system you’re currently in. In system view, you can choose a planet you’ve previously visited, and even select a location to land at. However, if this is your first time visiting your chosen planet, you must set a course to its orbit first. Once you’ve arrived in the planet’s orbit, then you can select a spot to land via the Starmap.

• Fast travel to a planet in a different system: Open your Starmap and press B on controller twice to access galaxy view, which shows you every star system. Choose a star system you have previously visited, then select a planet or location that you have also been to before. Now just follow the landing prompt to fast travel across the stars. Travelling to a system you’ve never been to before will require a grav jump first.

How to fast travel using your Scanner in Starfield

When walking on the surface of a planet or moon, or flying around in space, you can fast travel to a location you have previously visited and can see on your Scanner. This means you can avoid using the Starmap and is great for spending as much time as possible travelling using your ship. It works a little differently depending on if you’re on foot or in your ship, so here’s how each method works:

• When on foot : Activate your Scanner with RB on the controller, look at the icon for a location you've previously visited and then press Y. You can also bring up the Surface Map by pressing RB again while scanning and select a location with the cursor. 
• When in your ship : Activate your Scanner and click on a destination on the planet’s surface or a neighboring planet with A, then you’ll see prompt to travel there. You can also jump to previously visited planets in range if it's highlighted by a mission marker. Getting to new systems still requires the Starmap and a grav jump though.

When fast travelling on foot using your Scanner or the Surface Map, your ship does not move with you, but you can easily get back to your ship by looking at your ship’s icon through the Scanner, or simply opening the Surface Map and press Y to instantly warp back to your ship. Obviously, you need to make sure you’re not overencumbered though!

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Will Sawyer is a guides writer at GamesRadar+ who works with the rest of the guides team to give readers great information and advice on the best items, how to complete a particular challenge, or where to go in some of the biggest video games. Will joined the GameRadar+ team in August 2021 and has written about service titles, including Fortnite, Destiny 2, and Warzone, as well as some of the biggest releases like Halo Infinite, Elden Ring, and God of War Ragnarok.

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Seamless space travel "not that important" to Starfield players, says Todd Howard

Space and planets are separate realities.

Starfield won't let players fly seamlessly from the surface of planets to space.

Todd Howard, the game's director, spoke to IGN and offered further details on the game - including the length of its main quest .

However, when asked whether players can fly seamlessly to space, Howard said the feature is "really just not that important to the player" to justify the extra engineering work required.

"People have asked, 'Can you fly the ship straight down to the planet?' No. We decided early in the project that the on-surface is one reality, and then when you're in space it's another reality," he said.

The comments are interesting with so many comparisons made between Starfield and that other space game No Man's Sky, in which players can seamlessly explore the universe.

Howard also described the ship combat in Starfield as influenced by FTL and MechWarrior.

"There's been a lot of space sims that we're fans of, and space shooters from the '90s," he said, but the Starfield team wanted it "to feel [like] something unique".

Starfield had its big gameplay reveal at the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase - catch up here on everything that was shown .

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Screen Rant

Starfield’s shattered space dlc can fix the game’s most annoying issue.

Starfield's upcoming Shattered Space DLC has the opportunity to avoid the game's most annoying issue by being a smaller, more condensed story.

• Shattered Space DLC for Starfield promises new story content, locations, gear, and more this year.
• Shattered Space should focus on smaller, hand-crafted locations in a single star system to reduce reliance on fast travel in the game.
• Speculation suggests Shattered Space will delve into House Va'ruun backstory, possibly in a new star system, enhancing player immersion.

Not much has been revealed about the specifics of Starfield 's upcoming Shattered Space DLC, but Bethesda has confirmed it will launch sometime this year and will bring new story content, locations, gear, and more to the game. With this, it also has the opportunity to avoid the game's most annoying issue by also being a smaller, more condensed story than that of the main game.

Starfield gave players the opportunity to explore over 1000 planets across 100 Star Systems, with the sheer scale of the game being a major selling point prior to its launch. Unfortunately, in practice, this scale didn't always work in the game's favor, with many players complaining that while the Settled Systems were impressive in their scale, and the story locations were well crafted by Bethesda, most of the procedurally generated planets were largely empty. The game also required fast travel to get to any objectives at a pace that didn't slow down the story too much, as manually traveling between planets took far too long and involved moving through the same kind of dead space at a seemingly slow speed, regardless of how much power was being allocated to engines or boosts.

10 Starfield Updates That Need To Happen Before The Shattered Space DLC

Shattered space needs to have a smaller scale, and a reduced reliance on fast travel.

While Starfield , as with many Bethesda games, offered plenty of side activities and quests for players to partake in outside of the main campaign, Shattered Space would benefit from being a more pared-down affair. Setting its story between a smaller number of hand-crafted locations rather than adding more procedurally generated ones would reduce how much fast travel is required and would keep up the pacing of the story , as currently, jumping out of gameplay to scroll through the Star Map to select a planet three or four systems away (which sometimes involves doing a fast travel jump three of four times depending on a ship's build and resources) does tend to kill the sense of exploration and take players out of the game, breaking any sense of immersion, especially when the fast travel itself involves a load screen, rather than the seemingly instant load speeds seen in other modern games involving such a mechanic like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 .

As many Starfield players have likely already finished its main story and would have spent months exploring what the base game has to offer by the time the DLC arrives, Shattered Space should focus almost entirely on the new locations, rather than sending players back and forth to pre-explored locations such as New Atlantis, Neon, or Akila City. This will further immersion by letting players truly dive into a handful of new planets and learn more about their citizens, rather than constantly stepping away to embark on extra missions and tasks elsewhere.

One Highly Anticipated Starfield Update Will Totally Change The Game, & It's Not The DLC

Theories suggest shattered space will focus on house va'ruun, the house is located in an unknown star system.

Of course, that's not to say there shouldn't be any planet-hopping in Shattered Space , as rumors surrounding its story suggest it could take place in a completely new star system. Speculation has been rife that the DLC will focus on House Va'ruun , the third interstellar government to have formed in the Settled Systems who were mentioned often throughout Starfield 's main campaign, but their base of operations was not seen.

Romanceable companion Andreja was a member of House Va'ruun before joining Constellation as an astronomer and navigator.

From various conversations and other lore found across the galaxy-spanning map, players did learn more about House Va'ruun's backstory and beliefs, with them being formed by the passengers of a colony ship that launched from New Atlantis in 2190 and was reported lost before revealing themselves as a fully-formed government in 2230. The house is also known for its strong belief, following a being known as " The Great Serpent " and although it tried to restore its reputation after its former leader Jinan Va'ruun declared an all-out war on the rest of human civilization - which has since been referred to as the " Serpent's Crusade " - the house has since withdrawn itself into isolation, with Andreja informing the player that Zealots still seem to be twisting the house's teachings and attacking those they deem " non-believers ".

Players' backstories can also be linked to House Va'ruun's teachings, as the " Serpent's Embrace " trait states that they were raised worshiping the Great Serpent.

With such build-up surrounding the house's backstory, it does seem likely that Bethesda would choose to take players to its home planet at some point. While the star system is currently unknown, stopping players from traveling there, House Va'ruun is situated on the planet Va’ruun’kai. If Shattered Space 's story were to be situated entirely in this unknown star system, it would benefit greatly from letting players become fully immersed in House Va'ruun's culture as they explore Va’ruun’kai's capital city, Dazra, and maybe another major city, town, or settlement within walking distance.

To keep Va'ruun'kai's location a secret, House Va'ruun doesn't even share the jump coordinates of the planet with its own agents, instead dropping them off at random locations to carry out their supply-gathering missions with practically no support. These agents also can't return home until their superiors deem their mission complete and send a ship to retrieve them, further ensuring they don't know the route to and from Va'ruun'kai.

With the size of the Star system also unknown, it could offer up plenty of variety in the types of immediate moons or planets surrounding Va'ruun'kai without having to travel too far - or jump in and out of fast travel - to get there. This would offer up the space exploration that is part of Starfield 's core gameplay without breaking up the story too much, essentially fixing one of the main complaints players have had about the main game.

Bethesda Game Studios presents Starfield - the first original IP from the studio in twenty-five-plus years. Set in the year 2310, the United Colonies and Freestar Collective are observing a shaky truce after a war set 20 years prior. The player will customize their character as a member of a space exploration team called Constellation while navigating The Settled Systems and the conflicts between the warring factions. According to Bethesda, players can explore over 100 systems and 1000 planets to find resources and build their ships, living out their own sci-fi journeys.

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Starfield blasted as 'lazy' after players spot disappointing detail

Eagle-eyed fans have noticed a stark similarity between several npcs.

Starfield players are blasting the game as “lazy,” following the discovery that several important NPCs are the exact same person.

Bethesda has made some truly fantastic RPGs in its time, though unfortunately Starfield has been perceived as a swing-and-a-miss for the developer.

If you fancy playing a better game, why not give Fallout a try using our personal recommendations below?

Some of Starfield’s key problems boil down to a lack of life and identity within its universe, as while creating your own starship and flying to distant planets can be fun, once you landm there’s really not much to do .

The term “ Fallout but in space” gets thrown around a lot, which is an unfortunately apt description of what the game is.

To add insult to injury, players are still mocking the game months after it was released, this time for seemingly reusing the same character model for three separate, but important, characters.

This was spotted by JonBovi_0 on Reddit, who said they’d found it “a little odd” that three of the major child characters shared the same appearance.

They continued that the actual quests tied to the characters were “amazing and adorable but they’re the SAME PERSON,” adding, “How hard would it be to make any other kid?”

Other players commented on how frustrating it is to see a AAA game take such creative shortcuts, with one player saying, “They [Bethesda] always do poorly with children but this was the worst.”

Another hilariously added, “We have more children with that damn hairstyle than habitable planets in the game.”

Finally one player said, “Completely agree. And as for the Ranger's daughter (Annie Wilcox?), they could have simply used her friend instead - model already exists. It shows a rushed product.”

While Starfield is still getting support from Bethesda with patches and new content, it seems the majority of players are treating it as a write-off, and are simply using it to pass the time until The Elder Scrolls VI comes out instead.

Topics:  Starfield , Bethesda , Xbox , PC

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How Accurate is Starfield's Space Travel? We Asked an Expert

“i would say, yeah, give them an ‘a’ on the nasa punk aesthetic"..

“Our mission was to convey the wonder and majesty of space exploration, to evoke the golden-age of early spaceflight, and we’ve been referring to this approach as ‘NASA Punk’”. That’s how Starfield art director Istvan Pely described the distinctive look of Bethesda’s latest grand-scale RPG during a lengthy presentation earlier this Summer. 

It was the first time we were given a truly in-depth look at the spacecraft that would inhabit Bethesda’s sprawling sci-fi universe and its ‘NASA Punk’ aesthetic. “This means a design language where the tech is advanced, yet still looks grounded and relatable,” expounded Pely.

To mark Starfield’s launch IGN drafted in the expertise of Robert Chambers , a real-life spaceship expert (yes, really), to analyze what Starfield gets right about space travel, its NASA Punk aesthetic, ship design, and a whole lot more.

Chambers is the Director of Strategy for human spaceflight at Lockheed Martin, the company developing NASA's next generation Orion spacecraft , which is set to return humanity to lunar space for the first time since the end of the Apollo-era over 50 years ago. Alongside personally working on the Orion spacecraft, Chambers is also a fan of the Elder Scrolls and Fallout RPG series, so he’s the perfect person to critique Bethesda's self described 'NASA Punk' Starfield aesthetic.

We showed Chambers scenes from spaceship interiors featured in the June Starfield Direct gameplay deep-dive to see if Bethesda's 'NASA Punk' style and its nods to realistic spaceship design is grounded in reality.

“That little command center in the cockpit is spot on,” notes Chambers, immediately taken by the realism of the touch screen controls. “You know, the shuttle had like 2,500 switches and dials. For Orion we're down to pretty much these 3 screens, and a couple of dozen switches for manual overrides. So this looks like the inside of the Orion spacecraft, other than [there's] a lot more glass than we get to have on the Orion side.”

He explains that in the real world, spacecraft are designed with much smaller windows than their sci-fi counterparts out of fear that ultra-fast moving micrometeoroid impacts, or tiny pieces of debris could damage the glass.

Of course, Chambers saw just one of the many cockpit designs that players can use to construct and control their ships. Regardless, the comments serve to highlight the balancing act that Todd Howard and his team had to strike when crafting Starfield's NASA Punk aesthetic between including real-world spaceflight design elements, and ensuring that they don’t get in the way of player enjoyment.

It must have been a tightrope walk but judging by Chambers reaction, Bethesda seems to have trodden it well.

For example, most ships in Starfield boast artificial gravity, which allows passengers to walk on the floor as if they were on the surface of a planet. However, Chambers also spotted the hallmarks of realistic spaceship design in the sci-fi technology-infused scenes. 

“It looks here like they really put some thought into this thing operating in a non artificial gravity environment as well,” explains Chambers. “Hand holds at the top, a lot of hand holds everywhere, and then the thing I really love is, like, the bolts are appearing.”

Chambers elaborates that he could imagine the crew pulling out the bolts fastened to the ship’s interior in order to reveal hidden compartments. Small environmental touches like this draw Starfield’s environment closer to the design ethos of real world spacecraft, wherein every ounce of space must be used, modified to suit crew needs, and if necessary, repaired, as quickly as possible.

“You never know what's gonna break, and what you're gonna need to fix, I think they got it spot on from those types of things.”

The ‘NASA Punk’ aesthetic made itself known in each subsequent scene, wherein realistic spaceship design concepts were juxtaposed with the sci-fi logic and technological evolution that underpin the far future setting of the game.

For example, upon spotting a bunk in the living quarters Chambers noted that crew don’t have the luxury of a bed aboard a real spaceship. Yet with artificial gravity tech this became possible. More importantly, the presence of the creature comfort was true to the current day real world space exploration truth that  “having a space of your own'' is vitally important, particularly as an astronaut gets further away from home.

Chambers also clocked Bethesda’s attention to detail when it came to the technology in the player’s spacesuit, including the backpack, which functions as a life support unit for astronauts in the real world. “When you go out into deep space or on the moon, really anywhere, even in low earth orbit around the moon. There it's really, really cold unless you're in the sun. And then it's really really hot.”

"I would say, yeah, give them an 'A' on the NASA punk aesthetic."

Of course, in Starfield the player’s spacesuit backpack can also function as a booster. Chambers reveals that a similar, albeit less powerful Starfield-esque booster pack could be used by future astronauts exploring the Moon in real life in the coming decades.

“I would say, yeah, give them an ‘A’ on the NASA punk aesthetic. It all looks realistic. It looks like the kind of thing that you need to fix with a Phillips screwdriver and a soldering iron. And that's how we build spacecraft today.”

Chambers also gave his thoughts on the fictional exploration timeline that Bethesda created for the Starfield universe, in which astronauts first set foot on Mars in 2050, and begin living in space full time by the year 2100.

“I watched with interest the timeline Bethesda laid out, and I will say they were pretty conservative on humans to Mars. What we've all been working within the industry is this magic date of 2033.”

According to Chambers, 2033 is the sweet spot for sending humans to Mars in terms of radiation output from the Sun and amount of thrust needed to get there. Furthermore, many of the key technologies that we need to make the trip already exist. “So I think we can get to Mars earlier than the 2050 that Bethesda put in their timeline, I think we can beat him to that.”

However, Chambers thought that Bethesda’s predicted date of 2100 for humans living full time in space was more accurate: “To do that by 2100, was the date that I think that the Bethesda folks put out there, you know, that's actually pretty realistic. The ability to, as part of what NASA is doing with Artemis, the international partners, agencies, and all of industry is to create enough of an infrastructure at the moon that it is essentially self-sustaining.”

Of course Starfield’s timeline extends hundreds of years beyond humanity’s fledgling steps into space, to a time when we have established far-flung colonies among the stars. Our story begins in the year 2330, in a time when space travel has become democratized to the point where companies, pirates, and in some cases even private individuals are able to own starships of their own.  

It’s a fantastic notion, especially when you consider the fact that modern day spacecraft like Orion cost many billions of dollars to design and build. However, according to Chambers, this common sci-fi trope could well come to pass – just don’t expect the ships to be as pretty as the ones you’ll pilot in Starfield.

“So spacecraft like Orion, [are] hugely expensive, and take a lot of time because it's measure thrice cut once. So all of the engineering review boards, all of the what ifs, all of the ways of densifying capabilities into a spacecraft mean that it's really, it's a national asset, because there's so much put into it.”

However, Chambers could also foresee a scenario where humanity is able to start harnessing the materials abundant in space, which would allow us to build spacecraft off planet. A lot of infrastructure building will be needed to get to that point, but it’s possible that personal spacecraft could actually be a reality in a few centuries time.

“So I would say, a couple of hundred years, [and] people ought to be able to build their home builds. I don't think they're going to be anywhere near as slick as what we're seeing in Starfield yet, but home built spacecraft in 200 years I'd buy it. Literally, I would buy it.”

"The reality is, building these spacecraft is so complex, we talk about it being the greatest team sport ever."

Sadly, designing a spacecraft in the real world today is a whole lot more complicated than the module-based ship editor found in Starfield. However, Chambers thinks that this 'plug and play' approach to spaceship building could become more realistic as humans spread further into the solar system.

“The reality is, building these spacecraft is so complex, we talk about it being the greatest team sport ever.” Beneath the aerodynamic outer shell of the Orion spacecraft is a “second skin” of interconnected systems, bulkheads, tubing, aviation boxes, and other vital elements. Altering any aspect of the design has the potential to cause a “ripple effect” that would need to be addressed in systems across the spacecraft.

This complexity is driven partly by constraints placed on a spacecraft’s design by what Chambers describes elsewhere as “the tyranny of the rocket equation”, which forces scientists to make each part of a ship as multi-purpose as possible in an attempt to cut down on a spacecraft's size, and mass. However, once humanity becomes capable of building spacecraft off world, ship parts could indeed become more ‘plug in and play’ as early as 2100. 

“I think Bethesda got it right with that concept of modular spacecraft, simply because we're moving into this realm where we really understand the technology and the engineering behind it. And if we can decouple ourselves from the Earth's gravity well, which is the great challenge, to get all that mass up there. Once we can start optimising for clean interfaces and modularity, the sky becomes the limit. No pun intended.”

Chambers also explained that vast capital ships like the Star Destroyer from Star Wars, or Starfield's UC Vigilance battleship could become a reality in the far future.

“So is it feasible to build those? The short answer is, yes, because there is so much material out there. You grab two asteroids, you got all the raw material you need to build something the class of a Star Destroyer or some, you know, Deep Space 9 station , right?”

However, such a ship would require a massive amount of money and a colossal workforce to build, along with an advanced offworld economy and infrastructure not unlike the one we see in Starfield. It's also possible that Starfield could, in some small way, inspire the development of new technologies with which to explore the real-world solar system.

"There are real scientists and engineers and creative folks that are thinking about how it would actually work. And by definition that might actually lead science."

“One of the things that always goes through my mind is sort of form follows from function or life imitates art right? The truth is, science fiction writers and folks that immerse themselves in the reality of it, whether it's Ridley Scott with The Martian or what Bethesda is doing for their exploration, sort of the whole vibe of what that world looks like. There are real scientists and engineers and creative folks that are thinking about how it would actually work. And by definition that might actually lead science.”

Of course there are some elements of Starfield’s science-fiction technology that will, for the time being at least, remain the purview of science fiction, such as the gravity drive that allows travelers to fold space and bridge the incredible distances separating the stars. 

“When I think about the migration of humans outward, there's kind of two angles I approach it from,” says Chambers. “One is my ‘graduate of a higher learning Institute with degrees in engineering and physics expertise’. And then there's the more philosophical [side], and the fact that we don't know what we don't know.”

Scientists are constantly working to make propulsion more efficient and powerful. Lockheed Martin is actively developing a new nuclear propulsion system for NASA and DARPA that would increase energy efficiency over the conventional chemical propulsion systems used today.

Chambers muses that our eventual journey to the stars could be made in huge generational ships using engines that could accelerate to phenomenal speeds without defying our current understanding of physics. However, he also left the door open to the possibility that humanity could discover a paradigm-altering method of travel that could open up a swifter path to the stars.

“Plan for what you can do and then hope for that breakthrough and keep funding the fundamental research, because those are things you don't know until you suddenly stumble across it, what you could really accomplish.”

Regardless of whether such a sci-fi exodus to the stars will ever actually happen, Chambers believes that titles like Starfield play a helpful role in engaging the public with space exploration, at a time when NASA and its partners are actively looking to push humanity deeper into the solar system.

“I'm a huge fan of attracting a whole new set of folks to what NASA and the international partners and industry from across the world are doing, because not everybody knows. Sometimes when I chat with people about what we do, and what I'm planning that we're gonna be able to go do in a few years, [they say] you know, I thought that was science fiction.”

“So I love the fact that the NASA punk concept is showing it. It looks like what you have today and is extrapolated forward, and it allows people to not just believe in the future, but realize like we're on a direct path for it.”

Starfield is set to get its full release on September 6 on Xbox Series X|S, and PC as a day one Game Pass title . Be sure to check out IGN's walkthroughs, guides, and interactive maps to make sure that you get the most out of your journey through the settled systems.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

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Sarah Morgan Lore In Starfield

• Sarah Morgan, a companion in Starfield, has a hidden love for alcohol, with hints throughout the game and a knowledge of botany.
• Sarah's enthusiasm for space travel is influenced by her atheist parents who were unable to pursue their beliefs due to a shortage of time.
• Sarah is a lawful good companion, disliking violence and deceit, making her less ideal for renegade characters. She disapproves of any actions that are remotely bad.

Players will run into Sarah Morgan very early on in their Starfield adventure, and while a lot of people will immediately choose her as their companion to travel alongside them in their intergalactic adventure, there's still a lot about her that many people don't know about. Admittedly, the passionate and charismatic Chair of Constellation will reveal a lot more about herself if the player decides to open up a dialogue with her as frequently as possible, but there's still some hidden information that can be a little harder to obtain, or that's simply very easy to miss entirely.

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This can be a real shame as, on the surface, Sarah can almost seem a little basic or almost bland, but when digging more into her personal life and background, it reveals that she's extremely interesting and layered as a character. Sarah has already proven to be a fan-favorite by Bethesda fans, but for anyone looking to learn a little more about her, these are some bits of information and context that players may have missed out on.

Her Relationship With Alcohol

There's a few subtle hints that sarah enjoyed drinking in her early career.

There are a few subtle hints throughout the game that Sarah is quite partial to enjoying an alcoholic beverage now and again, something that seems to have been a tradition since her early career. The first giveaway is the large moonshine still that can be found in her old campsite on Cassiopeia, but another hint is the fact that she has a long and experienced history with botany, which would give her a lot of knowledge on how to produce certain drinks.

There's also an instance on Cydonia where the player can let Sarah talk to bartender Jack concerning Moara's bar tab, something she may feel more comfortable talking about because of her prior experience. Nonetheless, it's a small bit of subtle storytelling that helps to flesh out her character, even though a lot of people don't pick up on it.

Her Parents Were Atheists

The beliefs of sarah's parents go a long way in explaining her enthusiasm for space travel.

If players spend enough time with Sarah, she will eventually begin to talk more about her friends and family, specifically her mother and father , who she reveals are Enlightened. In the world of Starfield , this means that someone is essentially an Atheist who does not believe in any higher powers, but Sarah then explains that they, unfortunately, couldn't pursue their beliefs due to a shortage of time.

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This simple bit of context reveals so much about Sarah as a character, especially her undying passion for space exploration and finding "Truth" within the universe alongside her buddies in Constellation. Considering just how many companions are thrown the player's way in the first few hours, it's quite easy to skip over this dialogue option entirely, but it goes a long way to make more sense of Sarah's enthusiasm for Constellation's grander mission.

She's A Lawful Good Companion

Sarah is as straight edge as a bethesda companion has ever been.

As with all other Bethesda titles, Starfield's companions will respond to the player's actions in different ways, depending on their personality and beliefs. For the majority of the time, these allies will be mostly supportive of kind and positive actions, but will still allow the player to partake in some mischief if they need to. However, Sarah doesn't exactly work this way. Instead, she's entirely straight edge, disliking any form of violence or deceit. Even if the player tries to betray a character to score some supplies or a brand-new ship , Sarah will be completely against this, making her less than ideal for anyone trying to make a renegade character.

For a long while after the game's release, fans were experimenting with different dialogue options and quests to see if there was any crack in the armor, but it's been revealed that she is, by definition, the lawful good archetype who will flat out disapprove of any actions that are even remotely bad. Many players may not realize just how hardline Sarah is about this sort of behavior, but it's good to know when booting up an extra playthrough.

She Was A Ship Navigator In The Colony War

Sarah played a big part in one of the galaxy's bloodiest conflicts.

The Colony War is one of the most brutal and bloody conflicts in the history of Starfield's universe, but unfortunately, there's not too much given away about the war aside from a few loading screens and some notes found within the game. After the Freestar Collective attempted to colonize the planet of Vesta, the United Colonies pushed back on this, claiming that they had no right to reach this far into a fourth star system.

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As a result, the United Colonies fired back at the Freestar Collective with everything they had, with one of their most praised individuals being none other than Commander Sarah Morgan, who worked as a ship navigator at the time. Sarah's expertise in Astrodynamics provides a small reference to her past days in the UC Navy that some players may have picked up on, but it's still quite surprising that such a calm and collected individual as her was once a fearsome pilot who wasn't afraid to engage in some truly horrific conflicts.

She's In Her 40s

Sarah's age can be revealed by piecing together a few key dates.

Sarah's exact age has been a topic of discussion ever since Starfield was released since the game doesn't actually give an exact number, and instead, leaves small hints for the player to piece together to try and figure it out for themselves. However, by tracing Sarah's history in the United Colonies , and knowing the dates of the Colony War, it can be deduced that Sarah is roughly in her early 40s.

If the player is close enough to Sarah, she will explain to them that she was 18 years old when she signed up for the administration corps and that she had abandoned the position just a little while before her first year ended to instead join the UC Navy. It's then revealed that her father passed away at the beginning of the Colony War, which itself was in 2308, and considering Starfield takes place in the year 2330, this would make her 40 years old. There could be a little bit of leeway considering that it's not revealed if Sarah was exactly 18 or 19 when the Colony War began, but it's safe to assume that this is her probable age range.

Platform(s) Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PC

Released 2023-09-06

Developer(s) Bethesda

Genre(s) Action, RPG

Spinning Fallout’s Most Iconic Feature Could Fix Starfield’s Personality Problem

A key feature of the Fallout series could work wonders for Starfield's atmosphere and personality, which are somewhat lacking.

• Starfield, Bethesda's space RPG, stands out for its worldbuilding, RPG progression, and engaging quests.
• Despite its strengths, Starfield hasn't captured gaming audiences like Skyrim or Fallout.
• A Fallout-style radio feature in Starfield could add depth, character, and immersion to the game world.

Starfield , Bethesda Game Studios' newest RPG, was undoubtedly one of last year's biggest releases. The game, which takes many design staples of series like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls and adapts them to a space-faring backdrop, has received loads of praise for its charming worldbuilding, slow and steady RPG progression systems, and surprisingly engaging quest chains. With the Shattered Space DLC on the way , the game will hopefully only continue to sharpen its strengths and smooth out its rough edges.

But for as enjoyable as Starfield can be, it hasn't managed to capture the hearts of general gaming audiences in quite the same way as Bethesda's other RPGs. As unfortunate as it is to admit, it seems that Starfield has left a remarkably minor mark on the games industry as a whole as, although it was only released last fall, it seems like many have already moved on from it. Meanwhile, a game like Skyrim , released nearly thirteen years ago, still feels like a major part of pop culture, with its music, lore, and characters all standing out as unforgettable pieces of gaming history. The same can be said for the Fallout series, which has at least one memorable characteristic that could be transplanted into Starfield .

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Starfield should get a fallout-style radio, fallout's radio channels are a stroke of genius.

Fallout 's iconic radio station feature is easily one of the best new ideas Bethesda brought to the table when taking over the franchise in 2007. Fallout s 3 through 76 all include a number of different channels that players can tune into at any moment via the Pip-Boy, strengthening immersion and worldbuilding to an incredible degree. Stations like New Vegas ' Mojave Music Radio offer a diegetic way to engage with the nostalgia-laden tunes that are so fundamental to the quasi-retro vibe of the franchise, while something like Fallout 3 's Galaxy News Radio can provide players with some lighthearted podcast-esque fare while they travel through the harrowing wasteland.

These radio stations are entertaining in their own right, but their ultimate triumph is how they elevate the role-playing aspects of each game. Coupled with Fallout 's incredible environmental storytelling , radio stations help inject life and personality into barren, oftentimes unpleasant worlds. They also offer tonal, narrative, and lore insights via a unique delivery method, as players are interacting with the world the way that an in-game character might.

Space Radio In Starfield Seems Like a No-Brainer

Naturally, a series like The Elder Scrolls wouldn't be a good fit for an equivalent to Fallout 's radio stations, but Starfield certainly is. It might even seem a bit strange that the game lacks its own selection of radio stations, as an adaptation of the beloved Fallout feature would feel natural and charming in the fantastical sci-fi experience.

Starfield 's space exploration could be electrified by the inclusion of some setting-appropriate music or talk shows that could offer comedic, dramatic, or thought-provoking insights into the game's broader universe. Overall, radio stations would add depth and character to Starfield while making the vast ocean of space feel less cold and drab.

Currently, radio is the most common form of communication in space. Other concepts, such as infrared transmissions and interplanetary internet, have been conceived and are being developed, but there is reason to believe that radio would still be the dominant form of communication in a society with ubiquitous space travel.

With Bethesda still hard at work on Starfield , perhaps some radio stations could be patched into the game at some point, either through paid DLC or in a free update. If done well, the feature could be a relatively simple and cost-effective way to give Starfield a bit more character, depth, and immersion.

Developed by Bethesda Game Studios, Starfield is a sci-fi action role-playing game where players interact with multiple factions, engage in combat, customize their main character and ship, as well as explore a universe that features over 100 systems and 1,000 planets.