If you have been enjoying space combat in Starfield, you might be wondering how to survive a little longer in fights. The trick is to repair your ship mid-fight and to do that, you will need ship parts! This resource can be awkward to get if you don’t know where to look.
Where to find ship parts in Starfield
There are three main ways to get ship parts:
- Buy them from vendors – You can purchase ship parts from places like Jemison Mercantile, the UC Distribution Center at New Atlantis in the Commercial District, the UC Exchange at Cydonia on Mars, and many other stores throughout the game.
- Destroying enemy ships – If you destroy enemy ships, you will notice that they drop their cargo holds. Fly within 500 meters of these and loot them, and they will often contain ship parts. You can also take out the engines using Targeting Control Systems and then board them and loot the cargo container.
- Saving other pilots – If you intervene in a pirate attack and save some Freestar Collective or Vanguard pilots, they will offer to reward you afterward. You can tell them you need some parts for repair, and they’ll often pony up some ship parts.
Keep in mind that ship parts weigh 10 kilograms each, so keeping a lot of them on a smaller ship will use up a large volume of your cargo hold.
How to repair your ship
During combat, you can repair your ship by using the ship parts. They will repair four percent of your hull every second for 10 seconds. To use them, hit O on the keyboard or push down on the right thumbstick on controller. Remember, these repair the ship over time, so you need to use them before hull health gets so low that you cannot out-repair the incoming damage.
How to increase your shields in Starfield
The easiest way to increase your shield and hull values is to purchase a new ship that has better shields and hull protection. You can also upgrade your shield module in the ship builder if you want to.
You can access the ship building by visiting a Ship Services Technician in most spaceports. Select the option to modify your ship, then select the shield module from the menu. Find a new module that will give you a higher shield value, and you’ll be good to go.
An easy way to get a bonus to shields no matter what ship you are flying is to upgrade the Shield Systems skill. This is a great skill to invest in if you plan on getting involved in a lot of space combat.
- Rank 1 – Increase shield capacity by 20%
- Rank 2 – Increase shield capacity by 40%
- Rank 3 – Increase shield capacity by 60%
- Rank 4 – Increase shield capacity by 100%
