Starfield vehicles

While Starfield ships are a great way to get around, players are forced, at present, to walk from location to location whenever they land upon a planet’s surface. Starfield vehicles are an upcoming feature that will reduce the amount of walking players will need to do, providing players with a means of transport that is faster than their jetpack.

The feature was teased in the 1.11.33 update announced on May 1, 2024. Footage was shown of a developer playing an unknown build of the game in which a rover was seen. Though the footage was blurry, you can see a distinct land vehicle at the 4:43 mark in the video below.

Previously, vehicles were speculated to be available from launch as a means of exploring planets quickly and easily. To the lament of many players, vehicles were not included in the game at launch, with Todd Howard stating that the Starfield boost pack was your closest equivalent to a ‘vehicle.’

However, in December 2023, the official Bethesda Starfield Reddit account commented on a thread that “new ways of traveling” were in the works, and that this update could be seen as early as the New Year, 2024. This may have alluded to the now revealed inclusion of vehicles like the NASA Luna Rover in an upcoming Starfield update.

What Starfield vehicles are there?

Bethesda has confirmed that a land rover vehicle is due to arrive in an upcoming update.

Their latest update trailer demonstrated that a land rover-like vehicle has been designed, and is currently in some form of testing. This is a welcome addition to the game for many fans, but little information was given on whether rovers can be customized, how you get them from one planet to another, or whether other vehicles would be introduced alongside the teased vehicle.

It is very likely, given previous Starfield concept art, that players will transport vehicles from one planet to another using a new ship component. However, this has yet to be confirmed.

Of course, the most important Starfield vehicles are the ships that carry you across the galaxy. Fortunately, we’ve got plenty of guides on that topic, from an introduction to Starfield ships to deeper dives on Starfield ship types, Starfield ship manufacturers, and Starfield ship customization. Each of those gives you a better idea of how to get a ship, upgrade it, and the best possible parts to use.

Are there Starfield ground vehicles?

The first Starfield vehicle is a land rover, which was seen operating like a motorized buggy across a desert dune. Beyond this first vehicle, it is unclear if there are additional ground vehicles that the player will be able to build, customize, and drive in the as yet unnamed Starfield update.

Previous footage in one particular Starfield trailer showed tire marks leading away from the Starfield ship’s cargo bay. This evidence was all fans had that Starfield land vehicles might be in the game at launch, except for some old concept art of a Lunar Rover-type vehicle. However, now reviewing that footage, it’s likely that Bethesda had planned ground vehicles from the beginning, and that players will use a new ship component to transport the rover from one world to another.

Ground vehicles in Starfield represent the first time Bethesda has ever included them, unless you count the horses that were included in The Elder Scrolls series.

It’s believed that Bethesda haven’t included vehicles in previous games due to the technology available at the time, with fast-moving transport leaving the game world struggling to load in time for your arrival. However, with Starfield’s many loading screens, it may be that the previous limitation has been removed.

Are there Starfield air vehicles?

At present, you can land anywhere on a planet, but there isn’t atmospheric flying. Taking off and landing just to move forwards a few kilometers is a bit bulky, so the introduction of an in-atmosphere vehicle, even with the border limits that exist on any procedurally-generated world, could be a great mechanic for Bethesda to introduce. A small jet or hovercraft would make the initial exploration of a planet much easier. However, as Bethesda have yet to explicitly confirm the presence of land vehicles, it may be some time until we see anything like the Vertibird air transport system from Fallout 4.

Starfield water vehicles

Numerous Starfield planets like the one hosting the Starfield city of Neon are largely aquatic. Previous Bethesda titles have included rivers, lakes, and oceans, but they’ve always been left by the wayside compared to their on-land counterparts. Fallout fans in particular know that large bodies of water are fatal to explore without the proper armor or skills, and are usually featureless or contain cut-content.

At Starfield’s release, it was soon discovered that Bethesda addressed the swimming issue in Starfield by simply disabling it, preventing players from going beneath the water’s surface without some Starfield console commands. It is also a well-known fact within the Starfield data-mining community that there exists a considerable amount of cut content that would have populated underwater regions.

So, it stands to reason that, with the overall ship mechanic existing in the base game, that boats and submarines are possible on the Creation Engine 2. Of course, whether Bethesda choose to introduce such a vehicle, either in an upcoming update or in some Starfield DLC remains to be seen. If we’re lucky, a talented member of the Starfield modding community will find a way to make this reality possible, restore the cut content, and introduce a host of vehicles to make exploration in Starfield much smoother than many players have thus far found it.