Starfield vehicles
Unlike spaceships, Starfield vehicles were teased in concept art, but might not appear in Starfield until early 2024.
Starfield ships are primarily used for traveling from planet to planet, and for storing your massive hold of Starfield resources. Starfield vehicles, however, were originally a speculated addition to the game 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 inadvertently teased the inclusion of vehicles like Halo’s Warthog or a NASA Luna Rover in an upcoming Starfield update. So, we’ve researched all the possible methods of transport for this guide, and you can check it out below.
What Starfield vehicles are there?
For now, Bethesda has yet to confirm any official Starfield vehicles. Their Reddit post only stated that “new ways of traveling” were in the works, but it wasn’t explictly stated what was meant. Given that Bethesda has themselves stated they are listening to player feedback, it would seem a misstep to avoid the subject of ground vehicles, which you could potentially store aboard your ship in new ship components, and instead tweak the ship flying mechanic.
But, while vehicles are only hinted at in the comment, it is likely that, if vehicles are coming, that Starfield will see a fleet of rovers added to the game along the lines of what was seen in the Starfield concept art.
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?
Todd Howard confirmed in an interview that there will be no land vehicles at the game’s launch, nor will there be an ability to mount creatures and use them as transportation. Instead, Todd Howard described the Boost Pack as a vehicle of sorts, allowing you to jump over obstacles.
This announcement came as a disappointment to the eagle-eyed viewers of one particular Starfield trailer which 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.
It’s believed that the reason Bethesda haven’t included vehicles in previous games was 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, the recent Reddit comment has sparked speculation that vehicles could be introduced to the game before a crafty modder creates their own Starfield land vehicles with the additions made to the Creation Engine 2.
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 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.