Spaceship travel is one of the main gameplay elements in Starfield. You’ll visit different planets, space stations, and more in your adventures. As you progress through the game, you will find different ships that you’ll be able to fly. As such, you can switch between them in the game. But for some, it can be difficult to understand.
In this guide, we’ll review how exactly you can do this. Additionally, we’ll also be looking at how you can acquire some of the best ships in Starfield.
How to switch and set a Home Ship in Starfield
In Starfield, all your owned ships are automatically stored at the Ship Service Technicians, and you can visit them to change your main ship.
If your ship is not present at a certain outpost, you can summon your ship to come to you. Go to any landing pad and either talk to a technician or interact with a terminal and select “view and modify ships”. Here, you’ll be able to edit your ship. Exit this screen, and your ship will have been summoned to you without extra effort.
Ship Services Technicians can be found at almost every major, including Akila City, Neon, and New Atlantis. Visit any Ship Services technician and select the dialogue option “I’d like to view and modify my ships.”
Selecting this dialog option lets you see all your currently owned/registered ships and switch between these ships in Starfield. Scroll through your fleet of ships till you find the one you like and wish to use. After that, look at the bottom right of the screen for the ‘Make Home Ship’ option from the menu. This makes the selected ship the default ship for the player.
Exit the menu, and your selected home ship will appear at the launch pad. You don’t have to wait for the ship to spawn at your location. All your cargo will also automatically transfer to the new ship cargo hold. While selecting your ship, you can also upgrade or modify the ship as required.
Can you switch ships without moving Cargo in Starfield?
If you want to change ships but do not want to move your cargo to your new home ship, you cannot do this now. Every time you change your ship, all the cargo you have in your current ship will be transferred to the new one.
If the cargo capacity of the new ship is lower than that of your current ship, you’ll have to manually pick and choose what you want to keep in your new ship’s inventory space while the rest will be discarded. There is currently no workaround for this.
Furthermore, you won’t be able to change ships if your current ship has contraband in its cargo hold. However, there is a workaround for this. You can either jettison the cargo into space, or you can go to The Wolf Den, where there are no scanners present to prevent you from moving around with cargo.
How to get Ships in Starfield
If you’re unsure of how you can acquire ships in Starfield, you can do so in several ways. As we discussed above, the main way to acquire ships in Starfield is by buying them. You can buy ships from vendors across most planets. They sell different types of ships to you for a certain price. The price depends upon their specifications.
Secondly, you can acquire free ships by completing quests. For instance, the Kepler R ship is provided to you free of cost after completing the Overdesigned mission. On the other hand, the Star Eagle ship will be provided to you once you complete the Freestar Ranger Questline. Similarly, other ships in the game will be given to you for completing quests.
If you want to go the space pirate route, you can hop onto pirate ships and steal them. You can find ships throughout space. For this to work, you’ll need to disable their systems first. Once you board the ship, take out all enemies onboard, and the ship is yours for the taking.
Stealing a ship automatically sets it as your home ship. However, you’ll still retain access to your old ship. Do note that going this route means you must have the piloting skill unlocked, as you won’t be able to pilot most vessels otherwise. You can find the piloting skill under the tech skill tree, which has the following levels.
| Rank | Effect | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Rank 1 | Unlocks the ability to pilot B-class ships | NIL |
| Rank 2 | Ship handling becomes easier | Destroy 5 ships |
| Rank 3 | Unlocks the ability to pilot B-class ships | Destroy 15 ships |
| Rank 4 | Unlocks the ability to pilot B class ships | Destroy 30 ships |
How to Manage Your Fleet in Starfield
If you’ve amassed a large collection of ships, it can often become difficult to manage them. In Starfield, you can own up to 10 different ships, and considering the number of attributes each ship possesses, it can become hard to manage your ships. Here are a few tips you can consider to manage your fleet in Starfield so you only have the best ships available to switch to.
- Sell old ships: You will find better and more suitable ships than the ones in your inventory. You will not be able to go up against newer threats. Therefore, we recommend that you sell them for additional credits.
- Only acquire ships you need: While owning as many ships as you can seems like the fun thing to do, if you have ships that possess the same stats and serve no purpose other than sitting in your collection, it is better to sell them off. Better yet, it’s better not to buy many ships.
- Consider the stats of each ship: building off of the previous point, consider what each ship has to offer. Keep one ship for each of the following purposes: fighting, smuggling, and cargo space. If you have other needs, consider those too and sell off the rest of your fleet.
