Space Combat
- See also: Guides
Space Combat is a major part of gameplay in the upcoming sci-fi RPG Starfield. As a spacefaring adventurer, you'll engage in intense ship-to-ship battles across the Settled Systems. This guide covers everything you need to know about outfitting your ship and dominating foes in combat.
Ship Weapons
Your ship can equip up to 3 weapons at a time, designated Weapon 0, 1, and 2. There are 5 main weapon types:
- Energy Weapons: Effective against shields. Includes lasers.
- Ballistic Weapons: Decimate enemy hulls.
- Electromagnetic Weapons: Disrupt enemy systems.
- Missiles: Deal massive damage but limited ammo and slow reload.
- Particle Beams: Damage multiple systems but lower damage per second.
Choose weapons to suit your combat style. Ballistics and EM weaken ships for boarding, while energy weapons grant quick access to enemy cores. Particle beams are good against evasive enemies, and missiles reward skilled pilots.
Higher rank weapons cost exponentially more but offer superior firepower. For example, the Dragon L1 Laser deals 50% more damage than the Dragon L0 at 16x the price. You'll need to invest skill points into Starship Design to unlock top-tier gear.
Power Management
Managing power allocation is key in space combat. Your reactor has a max output, and you distribute that energy between systems:
- Engines: More power = faster speed.
- Gravity Drive: Shortens spool-up time to jump away.
- Weapons: Maximize offensive capabilities.
- Shields: Maximize defensive capabilities.
Constantly adjust power mid-fight for optimum performance. Dump extra juice into weapons for assaults, then rapidly shift it to engines for evasion. Never waste it on gravity drive during combat.
Targeting Systems
Unlock the Targeting Control System skill to target enemy subsystems. This is essential for capturing ships. Use it to eliminate:
- Engines: Cripple their movement for boarding.
- Shields: Expose the hull.
- Weapons: Disarm dangerous foes.
Bring down shields first unless you are facing serious threats.
HUD and Controls
- Speedometer: Shows current speed. Hit boost for temporary burst.
- Hull/Shields: Monitors health.
- Target Lock: Flashes when taking fire. Close on target to lock on.
- Power Allocation: Distribute reactor energy between systems.
- Gravity Drive Timer: Shows time until next jump.
Defenses
Upgrading Your Ship
Purchase new modules or upgrade existing ones to improve performance:
- Weapons: More damage, faster fire rates.
- Shields: Stronger protection.
- Engines: Higher speeds, better handling.
- Reactor: Powers all systems, upgrade to increase available energy.
- Gravity Drive: Reduce jump spool-up time.
Master all systems for maximum performance in space combat!
Boarding Enemy Ships
You have options when engaging enemies:
- Destroy: Obliterate the ship and loot the remains.
- Board: Dock and take control of the ship. Repair to claim it.
To board, take out the engines first. Then dock and use your hacking skill to override internal systems. Once captured, fly the ship to a spaceport and pay to register it.
Looting Wrecks
Destroyed ships become floating wrecks you can loot from your ship's cockpit. Or you can exit and EVA to search the debris field.
Valuable salvage includes:
- Weapons/Modules: Sell for credits or use for your ships.
- Resources: Elements, chemicals, consumable items.
- Quest Items: Retrieve special objects for rewards.
Exploring wreckage can uncover useful goods but also danger, so beware of traps, enemies, and malfunctioning systems.
Upgrading Captured Ships
Captured ships can be fully customized like normal purchases. However, you must pay to register them at a spaceport first.
Registering lets you mod components, change paint jobs, rename ships, and more. It prevents abuse of capturing and selling ships for easy money.
Stolen ships often need repairs to be flightworthy. Allocate reactor power to restore engines quickly.
Combat Details
The HUD speedometer shows your speed increasing dramatically when boosting. Power levels deplete and regen during boosts. Hull health and shield strength are displayed, with shields regening based on upgrades. Targeting controls let you attack specific subsystems like engines to capture ships. Loot can be secured from destroyed ships.
You can dock and board enemy ships to claim them. Repairs may be needed to fly captured ships back. You'll need to register stolen ships to modify them. Ships can retreat if you don't disable their grav drive quickly. Upgrading targeting systems helps disable key systems for boarding ships.
Space Encounters
Beyond combat, there are many sights and stops in space:
- Asteroid fields to navigate
- Derelict ships to explore
- Massive staryards to dock at and trade
- Cruise ships to mingle with the elite
- Hailing random ships to trade, get quests or commit piracy
- Unique characters like grandma with a meal
- Strange travelers unaware of the past 300 years
Tips and Tricks
- Keep moving and utilize cover
- Time boosts to evade attacks
- Use targeting control to eliminate threats quickly
- Funnel power between weapons and engines
- Take out engines to capture ships
- Upgrade reactors to power more systems
- Keep power balanced during normal flight for quick reactions.
- Hit engines first when fleeing battles. Don't waste grav drive charge.
- Circle strafing while locking missiles can evade enemy turrets.
- Use EM weapons to disable systems on ships you plan to board.
- Mix up your weapon types to take down shields and hulls rapidly.
- Disable gravitational systems to confuse enemy crews aboard ships.