[GameSpot] - Starfield - How To Increase Ship Crew Size

[343iBot]

You're probably wondering how to increase a ship's crew size in Starfield. Depending on certain factors, your spacecraft can only have a certain number of companions or crew members aboard. Going beyond that limit can lead to dire repercussions, or you might need to dismiss and reassign your recruits. Our guide discusses the mechanics that affect Starfield's maximum ship crew size.

How to increase ship crew size in Starfield

There are three factors that affect the Starfield ship crew size:

• Ship Command skill
• Combined crew capacity in a ship's cockpit and habs
• Combined crew capacity in a ship's reactor, weapon, engine, and shield modules

Bear in mind that the limit is the lowest value out of these three. As such, if you want to have five crew members on your ship, you need to make sure that your vessel has modules that further increase the limit, while also taking note of the Ship Command skill's level.

The Ship Command skill

Ship Command is a tier 4 Social skill, and one of the best in the game. Each rank increases the maximum number of allowed crew members by +4/5/6/8. You can level it up further by completing its tally: destroying or boarding vessels when you have a certain number of crew members in your ship.

Make sure you have enough points for the Ship Command skill.

Combined cockpit and hab modules

We have a ship upgrades and modules guide that discusses this mechanic in detail. Moreover, you can't just install all sorts of parts from the get-go. That's because top-tier options might require a higher Piloting skill or Starship Design skill.

For the sake of clarity, ships can have multiple habs, but only one cockpit. Here are our suggestions for these modules:

• Cockpit: Magellan or Deimos (sold on New Atlantis) - +2 crew stations.
• Hab: Stroud Battle Station 2x2 (sold on Neon) - +6 crew stations.

The Stroud Battle Station 2x2 is the ideal option among habs.

Combined reactor, weapon, engine, and shield modules

The last factor that affects Starfield ship crew size involves multiple modules. Here's what you need to know about them:

• Reactors - Limited to one per ship; you can buy the SF30 or Fusor variants that give +3 crew capacity.
• Weapons - You can have only three model types, but you're allowed multiples of each variant.
• Engines - You can have multiple engines, as each module adds +0.25 crew capacity. However, you can't go over the power limit (i.e. represented by pips in the upper-left corner of your screen). You'll have to decrease the number of engines, or get a better reactor.
• Shields - A ship can only have one shield module, and the part adds +0.5 crew capacity.

Top-of-the-line reactors which have increased crew capacity also require higher Piloting and Ship Design ranks.

In any case, that's all you need to know about how to increase ship crew size in Starfield. Don't forget that certain modules or parts might only be viable for Class-B or Class-C reactors. Likewise, you have to take note of the engine's throughput and the vehicle's overall mass. It's like upgrading your PC: you can't just get a high-end graphics card without considering your motherboard or CPU.

Starfield is a massive game with numerous planets to explore. For other tips and tactics, you can visit our guides hub.

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