What’s brilliant about Starfield is the level of spaceship design it features. Everything from the look and weapons to the engines and shields can be customised to your personal choice.
If you’ve ever wanted to recreate the Kessel Run with the Millennium Falcon, you can even smuggle contraband like Han Solo, or you can kick back with a ragtag cosmic crew in the Milano, too.
Building a spaceship is one option, yet stealing a spaceship is another. If you come across a fine piece of machinery then there’s nothing stopping you from hijacking it and making it yours.
Players have already been sharing their impressive creations across social media since Starfield launched in September, so we’ll be taking a good look at them for inspiration.
Head below for everything you need to know about Starfield ships, including the best designs and cool ships to steal to get the most out of space travel.
How to build ships in Starfield explained
To build ships in Starfield, you need to head to a spaceport and speak with the ship technician. From here, you can ask to customise a ship in your collection, register a new one, repair your ship or buy a new one outright.
An alternative is to build a large landing pad at an outpost. You can then use the ship building terminal to do it yourself.
When in the ship viewer, go to the ship builder by pressing X (on Xbox) or the B key (on PC). You can move and replace the individual modules by selecting them and pressing Edit.
If you make a mistake, you can undo and redo actions. To get to different modules, you can change the level by pressing up and down on the D-pad (on Xbox) or the H and F keys (on PC).
By pressing the A button (on Xbox) or the G key (on PC) you will go on the Add menu, where you can see all the available parts. At the bottom of the screen will be a row of your ship’s stats, and it’s wise to keep an eye on these if you want your ship to specialise in something in particular – such as transporting cargo, fighting or speed.
There are loads of ship parts to choose from, and certain vendors will have exclusive access to some of the more exotic modules – so be sure to shop around.
You can also unlock more components and types of available ships by upgrading your Ship Command and Piloting skill levels.
Once you are done customising your ship, you can confirm the changes and view your new steed on the landing pad.
I.Eat.Games on YouTube has a great guide on ship building. Check it out below:
Read more on Starfield:
Best ship designs in Starfield so far
Of course, original ship designs in Starfield can be very cool, yet it was an inevitability that people would try their hand at recreating some of sci-fi’s most iconic ships – with the most famous of all arguably being the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.
Given that we write about games, it may not come as a surprise that we’re big fans of spaceships from our favourite medium. Redditor neok182 made a very impressive rendition of the Normandy SR-2 from Mass Effect, and also a nigh-perfect Firefly Class ship from Serenity.
Rebs Gaming on X (formerly known as Twitter) shared a convincing Star Wars X-Wing build made by X user fudgiebrown.
There’s also a build guide on YouTube courtesy of fudgiebrown, should you wish to recreate this yourself.
We’re massive fans of this freight haulier made by Brad Groux over on X, too, as it really reminds us of the eponymous Red Dwarf.
Good news, everyone! The good ship the Planet Express ship from Futurama has been made in Starfield. With this handy tutorial on Reddit, too, you can craft your own to make some interstellar deliveries.
Someone also went to great lengths to create a Formula 1 ship if you fancy racing around the galaxy like Lewis Hamilton.
What will you try and build in Starfield? We might try our hand at making the USG Kellion from Dead Space…
Cool ships to steal in Starfield
If you can’t be bothered to build your own, don’t have the funds to buy one or just like the look of someone else’s ship, then you might just want to take one for yourself.
Some of the cooler ships in the game belong to resident space pirates, The Crimson Fleet. Their ships quite often have good offensive capabilities and have features such as Shielded Cargo, which allows you to bring stolen and contraband items into the Settled Systems.
Going after ships belonging to some of the more powerful factions should be done with an understanding of the risks, as factions such as the United Colonies will fight back hard. Bounty hunters can make short work of you, too, but their ships are also quite desirable.
More like this
One particularly cool ship can be acquired by following through the Mantis quest line, an epic side mission that has already been getting some buzz on social.
We’ll have a full guide on how to get this ship soon (it’s the one we’ve used as the main picture for this article), but until then, the video below should help you get this really cool ship:
Essentially, you should find a note on a Spacer at some point that guides you to the lair of a legendary vigilante called The Mantis. Follow this quest to completion and you’ll get their armour and their epic ship, which is named the Razorleaf. Well worth a look!
Subscribe to our free Gaming Newsletter for weekly insights, and follow us on Twitter for all the latest updates.
Looking for something to watch? Check out our TV Guide or Streaming Guide.
Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10, PLUS a £10 John Lewis and Partners voucher delivered to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.