Starfield: How to Target and Destroy Enemy Ship Engines – A Detailed Guide

When exploring the vast systems and planets of Starfield, you’re bound to encounter unfriendly spaceships and their hostile crews. These adversaries won’t hesitate to attack your ship, firing lasers and posing a threat. While the common response might be to retaliate with sheer firepower, it’s not the most effective approach. There’s a smarter way to disable their ability to fight back – target their engines. Let’s delve into how you can cripple the engines of an enemy ship in Starfield.

Step-by-step Guide: Disabling Enemy Ship Engines in Starfield

When it comes to taking down the engines of enemy ships in Starfield, there are a variety of strategies you can employ. While the simplest approach is to first disable the ship’s shields and then concentrate your fire on its engines, this method can often be inefficient and unreliable. Targeting a ship’s engines while it is in motion presents a significant challenge, as hitting a moving target accurately requires exceptional skill and timing.

Enhance your space combat skills with targeted ship components

When it comes to space combat, precision is key. Thankfully, Bethesda has included a feature in the game that allows you to target specific components of enemy ships. To access this feature, invest a skill point in the Targeting Control Systems skill, located in the Tech tree. While it’s not mandatory, allocating additional skill points can enhance your targeting capabilities.

The ranks in the Targeting Control Systems skill provide the following benefits:

• Rank 1: Unlocks ship targeting functionality.
• Rank 2: Reduces the time needed to lock onto enemy ships by 15%. Target-locked ships fire at you 25% slower.
• Rank 3: Reduces the time needed to lock onto enemy ships by 30%. Increases your chance of critically hitting a target-locked ship by 10%.
• Rank 4: Reduces the time needed to lock onto enemy ships by 60%. Deals 20% increased system damage in targeting mode.

Once you have invested a point in the Targeting Control Systems skill, you can aim at an enemy ship for a certain period of time and press a designated button to lock onto it. This activates a slow motion effect, enabling you to concentrate on a specific component of your choice. If the enemy ship’s shields are down, the targeted component will endure continuous damage until it is completely destroyed.

The significance of destroying a ship’s engines

When engaging in space combat, targeting and disabling the enemy ship’s engines can give you a significant advantage. By rendering their ship immobile, it becomes a vulnerable target for a relentless barrage of firepower. However, taking down the engines also presents an opportunity to acquire new spacecraft.

If there are no enemy ships in the vicinity, you can maneuver your own ship close to the disabled vessel and initiate the docking process. On a PC, simply press the R key, or use the X button on your controller. Once successfully docked, you can eliminate any remaining hostiles on the ship and take control of the pilot’s seat. This allows you to hijack the ship and add it to your own inventory.

Once you have successfully acquired the new ship, you can take it to a nearby spaceport where it will become part of your ship inventory. You then have the freedom to utilize the ship for your own purposes, make improvements to its functionality, or even sell it for extra Credits.

If you are interested in delving deeper into the intricacies of ship hijacking in Starfield, be sure to check out our comprehensive guide on the subject.