Starfield: How to Dock, Explained

In Starfield, you will regularly need to dock and jump aboard other ships to progress quests, talk to characters, or steal a ship for yourself if you are feeling devilish. Like many mechanics in Starfield, the game doesn’t do a great job explaining how you do this and can leave you bumping into a space station more often than not.

This guide will detail how to dock in Starfield so you won’t have any collisions while trying to jump aboard other vessels, including any conditions that need to be met and when you can dock with another ship.

Related: Starfield Complete Guide – Quest, Lore, Story & Trailers

How to Dock Other Ships and Space Stations in Starfield

To dock with space stations and ships in Starfield, you first need to target what you want to dock with. To do this, you press E on PC and A on Xbox, which will bring up some extra UI options. This will show the name and level of ships and space stations nearby.

Next, you will have the option to hail the ship or space station. You do not always need to do this, but it’s worth it on occasion to make sure you can land, and if you plan to trade with other ships, you’ll want to make sure you can dock before attempting it. You can do this by holding down E on PC or A on your Xbox.

Lastly, to dock with a ship or space station, you need to get within 500 meters of it, and when the option appears, press and hold R on PC, or X on Xbox. This will play a small cutscene as your ship docks with the target. Once that is done, you will have the option to board the other ship, stand up and wander around your ship, or undock and go about your adventures.

On some occasions, you can be hailed or hail a ship and ask to go aboard, which may involve a persuasion check.

Why Would You Need to Dock in Starfield

The first and most obvious reason is to explore and board certain areas. Some quests might require you to board other ships and space stations to progress, or you might find merchants, helpful items, other quests on them, or even a nice amount of Credits.

Additionally, if you plan to be a pirate or claim ships from spacers, pirates, and crimson fleet members, you will need to board them to raid or take the ships for yourself. In those cases, you would need to damage and disable their engines to jump aboard. You need the Targeting Control Systems Perk to attack specific areas of a ship, disable and dock with them. It is also worth noting that you cannot dock with a ship if you are under attack, so you will need to take out other ships beforehand.