The shipbuilding system in Starfield is deep, layered and supremely confusing. One of the most byzantine aspects is the Habitat category of ship modules, or “Habs” for short.
While they aren’t the single most important component of your ship build—that honor goes to your Reactor—their wide variety and lack of any real explanation can make them hard to truly understand.
Luckily, after thirty-odd hours of fiddling with the Ship Builder mode and trying out Habs, I’m able to lay out precisely what they are and what they do for your perusal. Hopefully the game itself will tutorialize this better at some point in the future, but until then this guide has got you covered.
What are Habs in Starfield?
In simple terms, Habs determine the interior layout of your ship. The space you enter when you step through the airlock of your starship is dependent on the makeup of your Habs—In a very real sense, they’re the core of any ship build, whether you’re flying an agile bounty hunter’s craft or a giant cargo-hauling frigate.
Like other ship modules, you can find Habs for sale at any Ship Services Technician across Starfield‘s Settled Systems. Attaching and configuring them is done through the Ship Builder Mode, and also like other modules, the brand names attached to each one determine aesthetic rather than function. A Taiyo Astroneering Workshop, for instance, will give your ship exactly the same amenities as a Deimos Workshop—it’s entirely down to whether you’d rather have a more streamlined or more angular look for your ship’s exterior.
What are those aforementioned amenities, though? As it happens, Habs are the only way to add crafting stations to your ship, meaning that if you want it to be more than a pretty but useless collection of vaguely Alien-esque rooms, you’ll want to invest in a few specific ones. While most habs are strictly cosmetic and simply serve to round out an exterior or add more room to an interior, the ones with actual utility can be found below:
Workshop
The Workshop adds a whole host of crafting stations—nearly every one in the game, in fact, except the Pharmaceutical Station and a Cooking Station. It’s a true one-stop-shop for most of your crafting needs, and I recommend placing it as close to your airlock as possible so you can quickly run in and get all your upgrading done.
Infirmary
While the Infirmary is very slick and stylish, you unfortunately can’t actually take advantage of its facilities to heal what ails you—not even if you have an actual doctor in your crew, which seems like a fairly substantial oversight from Bethesda. Regardless, it comes with a Pharmaceutical Station and a Research Lab, so you can at least pretend to play doctor.
Science Lab
Similarly, the Science Lab provides access to a Pharmaceutical Station and a Research Lab. Given that it and the Infirmary have identical mechanical benefits, the choice comes down to what kind of character you’re playing and what kind of aesthetic you want to cultivate on your ship.
Living Quarters
Living Quarters, somewhat paradoxically, don’t increase your ship’s total crew capacity—you’ll want to turn to upgrading your Reactor, Cockpit, and Weapon modules to do that. What Living Quarters do help with is expanding your passenger capacity, which can help with radiant transport missions or quests where you have to ferry someone from point A to point B, such as Juno’s Gambit. Things can get pretty cramped without the requisite space.
All-in-One Berth
The All-in-One Berth is the only Hab that will let you have a Cooking Station on your ship, which is essential for those long spaceflights. True to its name, it holds a bunk bed, a tiny recreational space, and a kitchenette—why there isn’t a full galley kitchen module is beyond me, but until it’s added in DLC, this one is your best option.
All other Hab modules are strictly cosmetic, and simply help add to the ambiance of your ship. Doors and ladders will connect placed modules automatically, but there’s no real rhyme or reason to how they connect, which can make navigating the inside of your ship a real pain if you’re not careful. It seems that Causeway Habs are prioritized for both door and ladder connections, which can help you direct things with a slightly improved degree of control, but this is the only option available for doing so. Every hab must be connected and accessible, or you’ll be greeted with an error on your way out of the Ship Builder.
Now that you know how to make the inside of your ship just as functional as the outside, the galaxy is your oyster. No more running back to the Lodge to use their crafting stations!
