Struggling with dogfighting in Starfield? Yeah, me too… until I tried a little creativity. I just started playing Starfield last Friday. I’ve got almost 8 hours in the game now and at lvl 13 (on normal) I’m taking down Galbank craft @ lvl 38. I want to tell you how =]
How I got here
It started with a spacer ship I disabled, boarded, and commandeered. I took my new second ship straight to the shipyard and decided it was time to get creative – after all, I had a pretty solid backup that had worked (mostly) for me thus far.
That’s it. That’s how I got here.
I just solo’d 6 or 7 enemies on a quest without going below 97% shields (they died before they could really get a shot at me), then took out a lvl 38 Galbank ship — but it ain’t b/c I’m amazing. This technique is early-game accessible and totally affordable. IIRC, it was only $8,000 ish in credits..? Wasn’t a lot.
The Loadout
The single biggest combat enabler that I’ve found so far are the lasers with even damage between hull and shields, and has a 3k range. The Disruptor 3300 Electron Beam. You can pick them up in the Deimos(?) dealership, floating just outside of Mars in the Sol system (heyyy neighbor!).
You don’t need three weapon types. Just one. Fill 4 weapon mount points with those lasers, and put them all under your weapon 2 slot (that’s just my preference because it puts it closest to adjusting your engine power as well). This should bring the total power draw from these 4 lasers to the max (ie: 12) power slots. Perfect.
If you’re not sure how to do this, you’ll need to go into purchasing upgrades for your ship, then use the ship editor to manually delete/remove the other weapons, add one of the 3300’s, duplicate three more and place them, map them to weapon two, and rename your ship to something that sounds terrifying. Or cute and cuddly.
You know what? You do you. Or go ask ChatGPT for some suggestions – she’s quite good at it!
The Undefeated (minimally tested) Technique
First: never JUMP into a fight like this – jump to a location within the solar system where your mission is and TRAVEL into the fight (it’s just like jumping except within the system and doesn’t require grav drives). BEFORE you “travel” there, set your engines to 1, then the lasers and shields to MAX (yeah baby!). NOW you’re ready to travel.
Hilarity ensues as you see a cutscene where your ship is striving to keep up with the camera pan… Screaming across the galaxy at 30 (insert interval of speed here I don’t remember). When you arrive, the bogies will almost surely see you immediately and begin their approach.
But the thing they don’t know is… these four lasers at max power are like a gatling gun of pain, misery, and space dust fabrication.
ehh that one sounded better in my head. But see the results for yourself:
Like I was saying – you’re truckin’ along at a comfy 29-30 (again, what measurement of velocity is this?!) something… but your lasers are putting the successes of the A-10 Warthog to shame. Your enemies are outranged and wildly outgunned… they can go faster, buuuuuut who cares when they’re actively evaporating before they have a chance to return fire.
There is one caveat though… I’ve noticed that this makes boarding ships a taaaaad more difficult, so try to disable them while you’re behind them… Or once you disable a ship, you have to be quick to turn down your lasers so you can redirect that power to your engines and get within docking range. Get ready to hold X!
Let me know in the comments if you have any techniques that you’ve tried or how this one worked for you!
Cheers,
Ryan
PS – one last pic =]
