Summary
It’s every Sci-Fi fan’s dream to own and fly their very own starship, and while there are many games out there that let players do just that, few do it quite as well as Bethesda’sStarfield. Available just 15 minutes into the game,Starfieldwastes no time in giving players a ship, though it might not feel like their own for quite some time. Given to the player as simply a means to travel to another planet,Starfield’s Frontier shipis immediately iconic, but it isn’t going to be to every player’s taste. Thankfully, there’s something players can do about that.
After landing on New Atlantis for the first time - or just about any ofStarfield’s major cities- players will be given immediate access to a ship technician. Located right next to the player’s ship or in a clearly marked building attached to the spaceport, these ship technicians will let players customize their ships. But while players can spend hours forging the ship of their dreams, the most important feature here is the ability to upgrade their ship, which is something players should be doing pretty regularly.
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Starfield Players Should Be Regularly Upgrading Their Ship
Starfield’s various maps and menus can be incredibly obtuse and difficult to navigate at first, but once players get the hang of it, they’ll be fast-traveling between planets constantly. While the ability to fast-travel halfway across the galaxy at a moment’s notice is undeniably helpful, it does, unfortunately, mean that many players will hardly spend any time in the pilot seat of their ship. But even if that’s the case, players shouldn’t just neglectStarfield’s ship upgrading system.
Even if players are rarely taking to the skies themselves, it’s an inevitability that they’ll eventually get caught up in some big space battle sooner or later. And while reactive players can probably make a quickescape by Grav-Jumpingout of there, that isn’t always going to work, and players should be prepared for any eventuality. And the longer players wait to upgrade their ship, the stronger the enemies are going to be when that fight does inevitably come.
The only way to make sure that players are ready for a space battle is to upgrade their ship’s components.Starfieldfeatures an incredibly intricate and immersive ship-building feature, and while it’s very accessible - especially for those playing on PC - it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Thankfully, to upgrade a ship inStarfield, players don’t need to even touch the ship-builder once. All players need to do is head to a ship technician, ask to upgrade their ship, and start buying components one by one. ThoughStarfieldoffers plenty of statistics for each ship component, all players need to do is see if the numbers on the left have a blue arrow next to them. If they do, then the part is better than the one they currently have equipped, and it’s probably worth upgrading.
But on top of being prepared for a space battle when it inevitably arrives, upgrading a ship inStarfieldalso comes with a few hidden benefit that the game doesn’t really tell the player. AcrossStarfield’s galaxy, gamers can encounter a number of NPCs that they can hire as crewmates. Each potential crew member provides unique bonuses to the player’s stats, both on the ground and in space, and players will want to try and maximize their abilities by having a large roster of crew members that grant bonuses to all categories. However, the only way to have more than two crew members at once is to upgrade the ship’s hab capacity. So if players want to really get the most out ofStarfield’s progression systems, then they’ll need to start upgrading their ship.
Starfieldis available on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
