How to take over a ship in Starfield (and register it as your own)

In Starfield, you can purchase ships from spaceport technicians, but these vessels will cost you a fortune. If you don't want to spend credits to buy ships, the only options left are to complete quests and steal them. Here's a complete guide on how to commandeer ships in Starfield.

How to take over or steal ships in Starfield

When in space, use the Targeting Control Systems perk to lock on to the engine of the ship you want to steal. I suggest not picking a security faction ship as that'll put a bounty on your head. Nonetheless, you need to shoot the ship until its engine is disabled. When ENG appears red, stop shooting (else the ship will be blown to bits).

Go within 500 meters of the ship and dock into it. Board the vessel and kill the enemies inside. Head to the cockpit and pilot the ship to wherever you want.

You can also steal ships on the ground in Starfield. When you land on a planet or moon, sometimes you'll notice a random ship will also touchdown slightly away from your location; you can go there and steal that ship by either killing the guards or accessing the ship using a Digipick.

How to get authorized to steal ships

If you're getting the prompt you're not authorized to pilot the ship, you must've stumbled upon a Class B or Class C ship. To be able to steal and pilot these ships, you'll have to unlock the Piloting skill from the Tech skill tree, then complete some challenges and rank up within the skill to get authorized to steal Class B and C ships. This will probably take hours, hence there's no option left but to destroy the ship and collect its resources.

Related: How to Add Components to Ships in Starfield

How to register ships in Starfield - Add a stolen ship to your fleet

Once you've commandeered a new ship, you can land on a nearby planet or grav jump to make it your home ship. However, these actions will not give you ownership of the ship. For that purpose, you'll have to register the stolen ship at a spaceport—be it New Atlantis, Akila City, or any other planet.

Go ahead and talk to the ship technician at the spaceport and select the dialogue to view and modify ships. Under your stolen ship, you'll get the option to Register (see image). Register it for the price shown on your screen and the ship will finally be yours. It can now be modified, upgraded, or even sold for profit.

Stay tuned to Pro Game Guides for more Starfield content. In the meantime, head over to our article on What to do with Sentient AI Adapters in Starfield.