During your Starfield playthrough, you’ll find many opportunities to find ships to call your own. Interestingly, you will see just as many chances to steal other people’s. Why would you ever steal a spaceship, you may ask? Well, because it’s fun to let out your wild side sometimes. To learn more, continue reading to discover how to get authorized to steal and pilot ships in Starfield.
Starfield: How to Get Authorized to Pilot Class C and B Ships
After boarding a ship, eliminating any enemies still aboard, and sitting in the pilot’s seat, you may encounter a message telling you you’re not authorized to pilot the ship. There are a few reasons why this may happen:
- Your Piloting skill is too low
- You need to register the ship
- It’s a bounty hunter ship (Wanted trait)
There are many other ships, such as pirate ships, that you can board and pilot. Some ships are high-class, so you’ll have to rank up your Piloting skill. Upgrading Piloting to rank three allows you to take over Class B ships, while rank four lets you pilot Class C ships.
Alternatively, you can hire a crew member or companion who has high piloting skills to do everything for you. While this is expensive and time-consuming, it saves you the hassle of getting the rank-ups yourself.
Related: How to Rename Your Ship in Starfield
However, if you have the Wanted trait and are attacked by bounty hunters, you can eliminate the enemies but can’t become authorized even if you have maxed out piloting skills.
Once you increase your piloting skills and steal a ship successfully, you must register it by visiting a Ship Services Technician and paying a hefty fee. While it may not feel worth the effort initially, you can sell the ship to break even or use it to fly around space to your heart’s content. In other words, without registering it, the game considers your actions as you commandeering a stolen ship, preventing you from flipping it to make money.
Starfield is available on PC and Xbox Series X|S. To learn more, check out how to get the Lodge Basement spacesuit in Starfield, or click the game tag below to explore our growing article collection.
About the Author
