In Starfield you can capture spaceships, but not all of them and only under certain conditions. This guide tells you everything you need to know about capturing and stealing enemy ships.
Here’s the deal: If you want to capture a spaceship in Starfield, it might not work out right away. And that’s no wonder, because stealing ships is subject to some rules that have to be observed in any case. So that you no longer have to shoot through space at a loss, we will explain the capturing of spaceships in detail in this article.
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How to Capture and Steal Spaceships in Starfield
In order to capture enemy ships, you have to find them first, which is not that easy in Starfield. Therefore, we have written a separate guide on this topic, which you can read here on the site. You could also use “allied” ships, but that would of course have bad consequences, so you’d better refrain from it.
Capturing a Ship: You Can’t do it Without the Targeting Control
As mentioned at the beginning, there are some requirements to be met for stealing ships. The first of them would be to unlock the capturing mechanic in the first place. If you don’t do this, you can try to board an enemy flying vehicle for as long as you want – it won’t work.
You unlock the capturing of ships in Starfield by first calling up the skill tree on the PC using the “P” key. Navigate to the technology map (see also the pictures above) and select the item “Targeting Control”. Here you have to invest one skill point, and stealing ships will be possible from now on.
The “Targeting Control” skill allows you to target the ship you want to steal or its hatch. By increasing the rank of Targeting Control, you shorten the time it takes to target it. At the first rank, this takes a moment, certainly to thwart the premature boarding of a ship.
Space Combat: Be Careful When Firing!
When it comes to boarding ships, it should be clear that you shouldn’t fire wildly at the body, because otherwise there will be nothing left of the spacecraft to board. So what you need to do are targeted laser salvos, namely at the stern drives of the respective enemy ship. You have to paralyze them so that the plane comes to a “standstill” and you can board it quite comfortably.
By the way, this sounds more difficult than it actually is. Unless a spaceship is attacking you head-on, its engines are almost always easy to capture and hit. Take a look at the screenshots above. In them we have marked the ship’s engines with green markers.
If you have disabled the drive, you will be able to both see and hear this. This is because if the enemy engine takes heavy damage, the tail jets will start to smoke heavily. In addition, you will automatically listen to the enemy’s radio, which clearly communicates the failure of the drive. This is then also the signal for you to start capturing the damaged ship.
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Approach the enemy’s vehicle with your ship. You should not do this too quickly, so that the active target control can detect the entry of the ship without any problems. As soon as you are close enough, press the “E” key on the PC to enter the spaceship.
Board a Ship in Starfield: Take Out the Crew
Neither your companion nor yourself are welcome aboard the ship, so the usual Starfield shootouts ensue. These can turn out a bit more difficult than outdoors due to the relatively confined space, but if you happen to own a powerful shotgun, the restrictive environment might even suit you. Of course, a powerful automatic weapon will also work in this situation.
Nothing else separates you from the pilot’s seat of the hijacked plane. As soon as the last crew member is on the ground, you can move to the pilot’s seat and make yourself comfortable. The capture is now complete and the ship is yours. In case you don’t want to keep it, you can offer it for sale to a ship’s merchant or engineer.
Ship Cannot be Boarded, What Now?
It is important to mention that not all ships in Starfield can be boarded. However, ships that cannot be boarded do not leave you standing in front of a closed boarding door, but turn into wrecks after their combat defeat.
This may be annoying somewhere, but there is a small consolation: shipwrecks can basically be searched for valuables or raw materials from space (see picture below). So it’s rare that you’ll fly away empty-handed after shooting down an enemy.
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