How to Board Ships During Combat in Starfield

Starfield lets you blast away at pretty much any vessel you come across. But apart from blowing them up, what about boarding them so you can either take control or steal their sandwiches? If you’re not sure how to board ships during combat in Starfield, here’s the answer.

Here’s What You Need to Do to Board Ships in Starfield

Before you can board a ship, you’ll need the Target Control Systems skill from the Tech Skills Tree – it’s easy to unlock, but you can’t target engines without it. Now, find a ship you want to board and select it (A on the controller). Switch to target component mode (X on controller) and select the engines.

Now, when you fire in this zoomed in view, your weapons will damage the engines. When the engines stop working, that’s your cue to board.  It’ll take a few shots and the ship may move enough that it leaves your target component range, in which case reacquire it and hit X again.

To board, fly in close, closer than hail distance, and the ‘dock’ icon will flash up. Docking distance is 500m or lower, though I just flew in till I got the docking icon. Docking is entirely automatic, there’s no manual lining up the airlocks or so forth.

Hold down the key or button it tells you and you’ll dock. Then, once inside the enemy ship you can steal things, kill the crew if you want to steal the ship, whatever makes you happy. If you’re not taking the ship with you, undock and if you’re feeling particularly merciless, blow it up and collect any loose cargo. And that’s how to board ships in Starfield.

For more awesome tiny details in Starfield, check out how you can flip around toilet paper rolls, as well as a great goof about your ship’s extended warranty.