Starfield: How to Activate Your Spaceship's Gravitational Drive
In Starfield, it is your task to explore the known galaxy, which means tens of thousands of light-years separate one edge of the inhabited system from...
Sakshi Venkatraman
Aug 31, 2023
In Starfield, it is your task to explore the known galaxy, which means tens of thousands of light-years separate one edge of the inhabited system from the other. There will be no Skyrim-like excursions from one side of the game world to the other, to put it mildly. You will need a ship - conveniently given to you at the beginning of the game - as well as the ability to make gravitational jumps, also known as Starfield's version of warp drive.
In this guide, we will show you how to perform these galactic jumps seamlessly so that you can set off from New Atlantis at your leisure and see what's out there.
Initiating Grav Drive
There are several ways to explore space in Starfield, and gravitational jumping is no exception. The first and most direct method is to press the corresponding button while targeting a mission objective in space.
Mid-Flight
For example, if you are in the Sol system and the objective of your currently active mission is located in Alpha Centauri, there should be a targetable marker during your flight that leads you directly to Alpha Centauri. That's where your mission objective is located.
In this situation, on Xbox Series consoles, you hold down the 'X' button for a few seconds after targeting your destination. On PC, however, you would press the corresponding key that you have set as the hotkey for this function.
If nothing happens, check if you have allocated power to the gravitational drive! Similar to shields, rocket abilities, engines, and more, your drive has its own corresponding allocation. The more you assign to the gravitational drive, the faster the jump will be, which can help get you out of difficult situations. However, if nothing is assigned, your ship will simply remain stationary until you allocate at least one energy bar.
Via Star Map
Whether you are traveling in space or located on a planet, moon, or ship, you can perform gravitational jumps through your starmap as long as you currently have access to fast travel. (Note that this will not be available at the beginning of Starfield when you first arrive at New Atlantis.)
Open your menu, select the "Starmap" tab, and there are several ways to achieve this depending on how precise you want to be. If you want to travel to a specific star system and/or if you haven't been to that system before, you need to switch to the galaxy view (the furthest zoomed-out overview of the inhabited systems) and hover over the desired star system.
If it's within range and you have already explored all the systems along the way, you should be able to press the 'X' button (or the corresponding key on the keyboard) to initiate your gravitational jump course.
If you have already been in a system and want to arrive at a specific location - let's say in orbit around Jemison in Alpha Centauri - zoom in on the starmap to Alpha Centauri or the desired location, hover over Jemison (or wherever it may be), and confirm the direct route. As long as there are no story-related or dungeon-related obstacles blocking your path, Starfield allows you to completely skip the unnecessary part and teleport you directly from one place to another.