During the Starfield Direct, Game Director Todd Howard clued us in on a minor, yet important detail of Starfield’s in-universe technology and how space travel works. To put it simply: if you plan on exploring all one thousand worlds, your starship needs to be up for the challenge.
In the Starfield gameplay trailer, it was revealed that you’ll get the option to travel from one start system to another using the navigation console in your ship. Rather than pick individual planets and moons, you can step back for a greater view of the galaxy and the stars that inhabit it. Even real life star systems, such as Alpha Centauri, are available for travel. Be on the lookout for hostile factions!
However, these star systems are many lightyears apart, but that’s where your ship’s grav-drive comes in handy. By folding space, you can “jump” to the star you’ve selected on the star map. In doing so, you’ll use a portion (or all) of your ship’s fuel.
Thankfully, you can upgrade the grav-drive, in addition to ship customization, which you’ll definitely want to do as soon as possible. Some stars exceed the amount of fuel you have, due to the distance. No doubt many of Starfield’s secrets are hidden on the farthest planets in space that only the most skilled of pilots will get to uncover.
This does introduce some questions: Is it integral to the story to upgrade the grav-drive? Are there consequences to running out of fuel? Can you get stranded? We’ll have to wait until Sept 6. 2023 to get those answers when Starfield hits store shelves on Xbox Series X|S and PC.
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