How to increase your ship’s crew size in Starfield

We're gonna need a bigger boat...

Displays a ship in outer space in Starfield.
Screenshot by Dot Esports.

Starfield is Bethesda’s first new universe in 25 years, and it most certainly is a UNIVERSE. This game features entire planets, solar systems, and galaxies that players can freely explore. Naturally, this means that players need a ship—and every ship needs a crew.

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In Starfield, just like Fallout and Elder Scrolls, a major component of progression is deciding how to improve your character’s strength and abilities as you level up through combat and exploration. Space exploration is a major part of the game, so it’s only fair that your ship gets just as much attention as your character.

Don’t mind us, just exploring. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

Increasing your maximum number of crew members in Starfield is technically very easy, provided you’ve hit some prerequisites. These prerequisites, on the other hand…not so much.

How to get more crew on your ship in Starfield

To add more space for crew members aboard your ship, you must choose the Ship Command skill found within the Social skill tree. It sounds easy enough, but this is actually a very difficult skill to access. The skill is located in the Master tier of the Social tree, and its prerequisite requires you to have allocated 12 skill points to the Social tree.

Furthermore, unless you decide to choose 12 different skills within Social, you’ll also have to complete the necessary skill-based challenges before you can advance a skill to the next level. All things considered, this means you’ll need to be at least level 13 (assuming you’ve put all your eggs in one basket) before you can increase your crew member count in Starfield.

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Pierce Bunch
Freelance writer and jack-of-all-games.