Wondering how to use your ship thrusters in Starfield? It’s a great way to improve your combat prowess through rapid evasion. Considering all the threats the galaxy has in store, you’ll want to master this early on so you show up ready for the tough fights.
How to use ship thrusters in Starfield
There is a prerequisite to unlocking ship thrusters, so don’t bother until you have the Piloting skill. Once that’s taken care of, thrusters will automatically be available on your ship. Bethesda does a fairly good job explaining Starfield controls, but ship thrusters oddly aren’t mentioned, which makes the matter of how to use these unnecessarily confusing.
All you have to do to use thrusters on your ship is hold the right bumper on the controller or space with mouse and keyboard input. Combine thrusters with directional and movement controls for tighter turns, or to quickly change course before boosting.
The difference between using thrusters should be night and day. Check out our other ship guide if you realize you still need a general overview still for ship flight controls and combat basics. Once you’ve got your space legs, try out some advanced maneuvers until you feel confident about pulling off such moves in live combat.
Image by PC Invasion
There won’t be too much need for thrusters early on in the game against weaker enemies. However, powerful opponents will hit hard against your shields and hull. Damage is also something you want to avoid so you’re not sinking credits and resources into expensive hull repairs.
This is why you should actually unlock and learn how to use thrusters early on in Starfield. Ship combat can feel a bit unwieldy at first, so you want to be a pro at dogfights before you wish you were.
Once you’ve got thrusters down pat, check out our guides on how to get shielded cargo capacity for smuggling, how to unlock more ship slots, and how to get authorized to steal ships.
