How to dock in Starfield: Boarding other spaceships explained
Get onboarded for coming aboard, welcome or not.
It wouldn’t be a space game without exploring space stations and living out your dream as a space pirate, stealing ships and whatnot.
And on this front, Bethesda has delivered - and to explore this mechanic further, we’ll be taking a look at how to dock in Starfield with boarding other spaceships explained.
There are a few things to consider, however, like how to stop a ship from moving without blowing it up and making sure you have all the right paperwork to fly a colossal commandeered craft, but we’ll go over those too.
Stealing ships in Starfield and selling them can be a great way to get some good money early on in the game, or if you can’t make heads or tails of shipbuilding.
We have plenty of Starfield tips and tricks, so be sure to clue yourself up to get the most out of the galaxy.
There are hapless fellows just waiting to have their engines annihilated and their livelihood upended out there, so we won’t keep you. Read on for all the boarding shenanigans!
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How to dock in Starfield: Boarding other spaceships explained
To dock with another ship or space station in Starfield, you first need to target the vessel and press A (on Xbox) or the E key (on PC) and, once you’re within 500 metres, you can hold X (on Xbox) or the R key (on PC) to dock.
From there, you can either board the vessel, undock from it or, alternatively, get up from the captain's chair and take yourself to your airlock.
To board enemy ships, you first need to choose which ship you want and destroy any other enemy ships in the area.
Once your desired vessel is all that remains, you need to disable its engines and ensure you have unlocked Targeting Control Systems on the tech tree. This allows you to directly target individual components on a ship in a system similar to Fallout’s VATS.
Once disabled, follow the same procedure as above - but instead of a warm welcome, you will have to deal with the ship's crew.
Be sure to have the proper license in place to fly Class B and C ships. These become available to you when you unlock Rank 3 and 4 Piloting SKill respectively.
Read more on Starfield:
- Starfield review - our final verdict
- Starfield missions list - how far are you?
- Starfield tips and tricks - how to get started
- Starfield romance - all potential relationships
- Starfield character creation - all your options explained
- Starfield digipick - how to lockpick
- How long is Starfield? The hours you'll need
- Will Starfield ever come to PS5? Developer comments
- Starfield cast - all voice actors
- Starfield companions - who to recruit
- Starfield soundtrack - how to listen
- Starfield storage guide - don't be overburdened
- Starfield FOV - change your point of view
- Starfield FPS - developers explain 30fps
- Starfield PC requirements - specs needed
- Starfield performance - potential fixes
- Starfield factions - all possible groups
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Authors
Cole Luke is a freelance journalist and video producer who contributes to RadioTimes.com's Gaming section. He also has bylines for Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, Network N and more.
