Starfield: Can You Pilot Legendary Ships

Legendary Ships are some of the biggest challenges you’ll encounter in Starfield. They have massive stats across the board, levels that start at 50 no matter where in the galaxy you encounter them, and at least five lower-level-but-not-too-much-lower allied ships as backup. In many cases, they appear to be made of the same basic parts as any other ship in the game, so it begs the question: when you do have a ship that can fight them, can you board and pilot them? We’ll go over it in this guide.

Related: 10 Most Ridiculous Ship Designs in Starfield

Can You Claim Legendary Ships in Starfield?

Legendary Ships have an absolutely busted amount of Engine, and one of their weapons is equally crazy. While it’s entirely possible to make a nearly broken ship yourself with C-class experimental parts, you’ll never reach the game-breaking values Legendary Ships have. For that reason, among many others, you cannot claim or pilot Legendary Ships in Starfield.

Instead, taking out a Legendary Ship rewards a metric ton of experience, around 1,500, depending on the ship’s level. That’s almost a full level-up if you’re near the level of the ship in question. Combined with the other enemy ships that tend to surround the Legendary ones, you might get two levels out of the deal.

Tips For Fighting Legendary Ships in Starfield

The challenge, of course, is defeating the Legendary Ships. Don’t think you can take them head-on, and don’t expect to be able to disable their systems with anything except the highest-power parts on the market. Start by taking out the rabble (no easy task on its own), then disengage entirely to regain some shield and repair.

Ideally, you can stay directly behind the Legendary Ship to avoid most of its fire, but if you need to get out in front of the thing, make your way behind it as soon as possible. You’ll also want a ship that’s tanky and has high mobility. Trick out your Legendary hunter with the best engines money can buy, or use a high New Game cycle Starborn Guardian ship if speed is your ultimate goal.

Don’t be discouraged if you die a few times trying to take down a Legendary Ship. They’re broken for a reason. They’re also a great test of your high-value ships, so you can make a mini-game out of fighting them with different setups. Simply make a save file at any ship services vendor, then fast travel to the Legendary Ship with different endgame builds to see how you fare.

Remember that entering NG+ will reset your inventory to zero, so if you spent hours and hundreds of thousands of credits building the perfect endgame ship, you will lose it.