How to Target Engines in Starfield
On your journey across the stars, you’ll bump into plenty of monstrous aliens, noble scientists and shady characters with ulterior motives, but you’ll also come across a great deal of hostile spaceships trying to put you six feet under. While the game does a satisfactory job of running you through the basics of piloting, it’s easy enough to gloss over the small stuff. So, if you’re curious as tohow to target engines in Starfield, here’s the ins out outs of what you’ll need to know.
Targeting Enemy Engines in Starfield
First things first, you’ll need to unlock theTargeting Control Systems Skillfrom the Tech skill tree to use your ship’s targeting functionality. Thankfully, it’s one of the first tier skills, so you won’t need to unlock other ones to get to it. Once you have this skill unlocked, you’ll be able to target specific systems of hostile spaceships.
Next, during a ship-to-ship combat encounter in space, you’ll want to lock onto your target byhovering your reticle over the enemy ship. It takes a few moments for your ship to lock on to your target — usually, aroundfour or five seconds or so. (Though this can be sped up if you invest further points into ranking up the Targeting Control Systems Skill.)
Once you’ve got a lock, a prompt will appear on your screen that reads “Target Lock“. When you see thispress X on your Xbox controllerorR on a PCto initiate targeting mode.
From here, you’ll be able to target the enemy ship’s specific systems by pressing left or right on theLeft Stickand firing your weapons withRT,LT, and theY button.
So, if you’re looking to disable your adversary’s engines, you’re going to want to focus your fire on the ‘ENG’ system. Luckily, time will slow down in this targeting mode, much akin to VATS in the Fallout series.
Once you’ve disabled an enemy ship’s engines, you’ll be able todock and board the shipand take down the crew.
And on that note, we conclude our guide onhow to target engines inStarfield. For more, here’show to escape space combat quickly,how to power up your Grav Drive, and a general overview of theflight controls. As always, feel free to explore our related coverage down below before you go.
