In Starfield, characters need to be able to endure any climate, vacuum, and gravity level, so of course keeping a Spacesuit equipped is a necessity.
What is not a necessity is having a huge, round, and sometimes opaque dome surrounding your face when you’re speaking to the doctor on a planet whose natural suitable for life rivals that of Earth. This sort of thing is exactly why many games include an option to toggle equipment display.
Thankfully, Starfield is no different. It can be immersion-breaking to keep your hardcore adventuring equipment on at all times, but a total chore to actually go rifling into your inventory to unequip gear when your character is cruising around a city or settlement—especially when many Spacesuits have things like the Pocketed Spacesuit Mod, meaning unequipping it might make you immediately over-encumbered.
Toggling Spacesuit/Helmet display in Starfield
While they both must always be displayed in environments that would be harmful to a human without protection, you can toggle your helmet’s display so it only shows up when air isn’t breathable, and toggle your Spacesuit’s display so that it only shows up when outside of cities/settlements.
Hiding your Spacesuit/Helmet in breathable atmospheres
To hide your helmet while in breathable atmospheres:
- Open your Inventory.
- Go to the Helmets Tab.
- Enable “Hide Helmet in Breathable Areas” by pressing T or LB.
Now your character will never wear a helmet unless they have to. This especially makes sense lore-wise in a game where helmets aren’t usually metal protective barriers, but rather big old glass domes that might as well say “aim here” on them.
Hiding your Spacesuit/Helmet in settlements and cities
To hide your spacesuit while in settlements and cities:
- Open your Inventory
- Go to the Spacesuits Tab
- Enable “Hide Spacesuit in Settlements” by pressing T or LB
The days of visiting the doctor in New Atlantis City while in a full Spacesuit are over. Now your character will automatically hide their Spacesuit when applicable, and you’ll actually be able to see those awesome clothes you spent your hard-earned credits on (seriously, Starfield has some very cool clothing options). Be aware that the display changes will not be reflected within your character preview in your equipment menu. This preview will show all equipped gear, only when you return to the game will the selected gear will be hidden.
Does toggling your Spacesuit/Helmet display impact gameplay?
With both options enabled, your character will wear no adventuring gear while in settlements, a Spacesuit but no helmet on your ship or in habitable wildernesses, and a full Spacesuit anywhere that exposure would be harmful. You will keep all bonuses from all gear hidden this way because nothing is actually being unequipped. Starfield went to the next level of thoughtfulness with the equipment display toggling.
To unhide gear, just follow these exact steps again. The option will now say show gear instead of hide gear and pressing T or LB will switch it back.
