The Colander is the name of a ghostly ship that is floating around in space, waiting for unsuspecting travelers like you to make contact in Starfield.
You are probably going to get some “Event Horizon” vibes after encountering the ship in deep space. There is no one aboard. Its entire crew is gone, but it does look like someone or something is still living aboard.
The Colander is a high-level mission with high-level loot. Note that before starting.
How to unlock the Colander mission
The Colander is an abandoned spaceship that you can explore at any point in your playthrough in Starfield.
There are no prerequisites or missions attached to the ship, so you do not need to do anything to trigger a mission. The only thing you need to do is find the Colander.
The Colander ship is located in the Schrodinger system near the Kryx. You will find it orbiting the Schrodinger III planet as shown in the image below.
Make sure that you meet the level requirements before docking. We recommend that you be at least level 65 before exploring the Colander in Starfield.
Furthermore, only attempt this high-level activity if you have fully upgraded your lockpicking skills.
The Colander ship has a lot of high-value loot. You will, however, need to first clear out all hostiles and open the locked doors to get your hands on the loot.
How to complete the Colander in Starfield
The Colander is full of secrets and is kind of like a puzzle mission where you need to find out what happened to its crew in Starfield. You will need to do this alone because your companions are not going to board the spaceship.
Reach the first level
After boarding the Colander, head on inside and continue moving forward until you reach the Dr. Amos S. location, and then take a right.
There is a hatch in the back of the room that you need to go through to reach the next level of the ship. Do that and you will have two possible routes.
You can either use Digpicks to unlock the Laboratory door or take a left from the hatch you just crawled through.
Should you unlock the Laboratory door or not?
The Laboratory door has an advanced lock that requires you to have advanced lockpicking skills. If you can unlock the door, good enough. If not, go past the hatch.
Both choices lead to the same room, however, so unlocking the Laboratory is not that important. In fact, ignoring the Laboratory is the quicker route.
If your lockpicking skills are not up to par, take a left from the hatch and keep going straight until you see another hatch on your right. This one is locked though.
Interact with the mainframe computer next to the hatch and boot up the “Remote Security Door Control” file to open the door.
Solve the Colander puzzle
Go through the open door and take the ramp to the Laboratory. You will see another doorway here. This one leads to the next (upper) level of the Colander in Starfield.
However, the doorway is going to lead you to the beginning of the ship where you initially started. This is just a little trick the ship is playing on you.
To solve the Colander puzzle, you now need to enter the new red door at the end of the room. It was previously locked when you boarded the ship but has mysteriously opened now.
Kill the Interloper alien
Reload your weapons if you want before entering the red doorway because there is a level 85 alien enemy inside waiting for you. It is apparently the cause behind the missing crew.
The Interloper alien has a strong armor that protects its whole body. You will need to first remove its armor by dealing a lot of damage before being able to kill it.
This is not an easy enemy to defeat if you are under-leveled. There, however, is an easy way to cheese the Interloper in the Colander.
Lead the alien to the crew’s quarters and then start shooting it from there. The Interloper’s body is too big to fit in the crew’s quarters so you will be safe inside.
Loot and exit the Colander
Now that the Interloper alien is dead, you are free to loot the Colander in Starfield. Since there are no missions attached to the ship, you are not going to get any XP or Credits for defeating the enemy or exploring the Colander.
You can, however, loot weapons and high-value items around the ship to fill your inventory. Secondly, make sure to collect a tissue sample of the alien beast. This is a unique substance that cannot be found anywhere else in the game. See if you can find a vendor or merchant who is willing to buy it from you for a lot of credits.
When you are ready to exit the Colander, use the computer near the Interloper to open the master door to the Laboratory. You can then exit the ship the same way you came in.
