Starfield how to dock to a space station and board ships

There’s definitely a certain amount of getting used to the way things work in Starfield and that’s the case with how to dock to a space station or board ships. The two are kind of related, which is why we’ve put the two together in our mini tutorial, but there are some subtle differences.

Getting to dock on a space station is the easiest of the two, so we’ll start by covering this in the first section for Xbox controller and PC gamers using keyboard and mouse. This will allow you to land at any of the space stations

In the second section, we’ll cover how to board ships and while this can be as easy as a space station if it’s a friendly ship that you’re trying to dock to, it can be much harder if it’s hostile ships you’re trying to board. The problem here is that you’ll first need to be able to do space flight well enough to incapacitate them and then you’ll need to know how not to destroy them.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter to see more on the latest video games releases, and you can see extra details on Starfield with the official Bethesda Twitter page at https://twitter.com/bethesda.

How to dock to a space station?

To dock to a space station in Starfield, you first need to approach them to be close enough to trigger the docking sequence. This is around 500 meters, which you can see on the screen counting down as you get a little closer if you press the activate button (details below) before you get close enough to dock.

When you’re in range you can press A on controller or R if you’re playing on PC with keyboard and mouse. This will bring up a prompt on the screen for you to choose to dock to the space station, which is all automatic.

All of the detail are on the screen as you go from this point onward, so you should be able complete the docking sequence without any trouble. For Xbox Series X|S or controller it’s press and hold X, so with PC keyboard and mouse it’ll be a similar hold with the prompt on the screen once you’ve pressed R with the target over the station when you’re withing 500 meters.

How to board ships?

To board ships in Starfield, it’s a similar story to how to dock if it’s a friendly ship that you need to board, like the UC Vigilance when you go down the Crimson Fleet route. Just get within 500 meters of it and press the activate button (A on Xbox Series X|S controller and R on PC keyboard and mouse) and then follow the prompts on the screen.

However, it it’s a hostile ship then you’ll need to incapacitate them first. To do this you need to shoot out their shields with the lasers and then start to bring down the ship’s health bar with ballistic cannons and missiles. If you’re not that great at flying you can get some tips in the video below.

It takes a little while to perfect space combat, but once you do you should be able to control the situation better. Once the ship’s health is low you need to be careful not to destroy it before you even get a chance to board it.

This is relatively easy if there’s just one ship, but much harder if you’re going up against a fleet all trying to attack you. In this situation, you’re probably better off leaving the ship you want to board until the very last and you can change which ship you’re targeting with the same activate button as with the docking process.

Once the ship’s health bar is low you can revert to very same process as before, but you should expect a little resistance when you get onboard. Have your weapons ready and maybe take one of your crew with you to act as some extra cover to smooth things over.

With that you should have everything you need to know about how to dock to a space station and how to board ships in Starfield. However, if you’re still struggling you can hit us up with a comment over on Twitter and we’ll see what we can do.

You can also check out our computer games section to keep tabs on other releases. Visit the Starfield Bethsda website at https://bethesda.net/en/game/starfield for more details.