How to Get Extra Crew at Spaceports in Starfield

As any space captain worth their salt knows, the best ship needs the best crew to make sure every trek across the galaxy goes smoothly. Thankfully in Starfield, there are plenty of opportunities to go about recruiting crew mates who will help manage every aspect of your adventures, no matter how distant or dangerous they may be. The real trick is having the space (aha) to fit everyone you want to bring aboard, and the Spaceport is the place to make those changes. If you’re not quite sure how, here is our handy guide for how to get extra crew at Spaceports in Starfield.

How to Expand Your Ship Crew at Spaceports in Starfield

When you start the game with the classic Frontier ship, your crew options are pretty limited as you can only have up to two others on board, besides yourself. Given the amount of money it can take to hire quality crew mates, chances are you’re not running immediately to Viewport or other recruitment hotspots just yet. It’s something you’ll have to save up for, especially since expanding your crew slots also requires some amount of credits. Granted, there are ways to earn credits quickly, if you know how and are interested in going that route.

Before you can make those upgrades to your crew limit, you’ll first need to properly rank up the Skills required for it:

• Starship Design – A Tech skill that will allow you to purchase and use higher-quality modules on your ship.
• Ship Command – A Social skill that will allow you to increase the number of active crew members aboard your ship.

Once you’ve leveled up those skills do have a good amount of funds, you can head to the Spaceport and there are two main ways to expand your crew limit:

• Modify/Upgrade via the Ship Builder – This is the more hands-on method to expand your crew allowance. You can take your existing ship and make any number of additions and adjustments, particularly to modules such as hab spaces that will increase the number of crew you can have. This method takes considerably more time, even if you’re comfortable with the Ship Builder, as not only does it have to meet flight standards, you need to rank up your ship building skills high enough to unlock higher-quality modules that let you build and pilot bigger and better ships.
• Buy a New Ship – If the Ship Builder is too daunting or too time-consuming for your taste, and you prefer ships that are pre-built and have the funds to splurge, simply talk to the Technician at the Spaceport in any major city to view the ships they have for sale. They do vary by city, so be sure to shop around some before making the big decision. It will usually be an assortment of smaller, nimbler ships as well as heftier, fortified ones that tend to have plenty of Cargo space and plenty of room for more Crew. Furthermore, with the correct upgrades to one of those bigger ships, you can reach a maximum of 8 active crewmates.

One you have the desired amount of crew space on your ship for your journey through the galaxy, you can go and visit any locations where potential recruits like to hang out. Just make sure you have enough funds left to hire everyone you need.

That concludes our guide for how to get extra crew at Spaceports in Starfield. We hope you found this helpful for making those upgrades, and let us know who your favorite recruits are so far.

Be sure to check out all of our other guides for Starfield, as well as our official review of the game.