The best early ship upgrades and perks for Starfield include:

Every pilot worth their salt, whether they belong to the law-abiding United Colonies or the piratical Crimson Fleet, desires a spacecraft that reflects their splendor. Acquiring the finest early spacecraft upgrades in Starfield will significantly enhance your flying experience.

As we spend a considerable amount of time at the helm of our spacecraft while exploring Starfield, it is of utmost importance to make these hours as luxurious and efficient as possible.

There is an immense array of options available when it comes to customizing your ship, and although Starfield does not permit adding fluffy dice in the cockpit, it can be challenging to know where to begin with all the other ship upgrades.

How To Upgrade And Modify Your Ship

Upgrading your spacecraft is relatively straightforward. Land at any spaceport and seek out the resident spacecraft technician. In New Atlantis, they can be found at the gangway leading to the city, while in Neon, they have their own small hut if you turn left after disembarking from your ship.

Engage in conversation with the technician and select the option "I would like to view and modify my ships." This will allow you to choose which ship you wish to edit, and then press the X button to enter the shipyard.

Cargo Hold

Once you find yourself in the shipyard, it can be quite overwhelming. Your first point of focus should be upgrading your cargo hold, as this allows you to bypass one of the most tedious tasks in the game: managing your inventory.

If you have already enhanced your carrying capacity in Starfield, it might be worth focusing on something else. However, it is still advisable to create as much space as possible. Remember that you can utilize crafting materials from your ship's inventory, making an upgrade to your cargo hold immensely useful.

Fuel Tanks And Grav Drive

Next, you should upgrade your fuel tanks and gravitational drive. If you enjoy flying around in solar systems and maneuvering past adversaries in aerial combat, choose the fuel tanks. If you prefer exploring distant systems, opt for the gravitational drive.

The gravitational drive is particularly useful as upgrades allow you to travel further through space while consuming less fuel.

Weapons

There is nothing more thrilling than spending your money on a mighty pew-pew laser, and Starfield offers dozens of weapon options for your ship.

Ideally, you would want to have three different weapons in case enemy ships are well defended against a particular weapon type. Missiles inflict significant damage but have a slow rate of fire, lasers are the opposite, and electromagnetic weapons are excellent for disabling ships in mid-air, making them perfect for boarding actions.

Shields

Likewise, shields are crucial in combat. You wouldn't want to be stranded in space, reliant on ship parts to repair you while an enemy fighter closes in.

Upgrading your shields in Starfield is just as important as upgrading your weapons, so do not neglect your defense.

Crew And Cosmetics

There are many early ship upgrade options that provide more space for crew members, but it is best to postpone these upgrades until the mid-game when you can afford to recruit more specialists to man your ship's stations.

The same goes for cosmetic upgrades. As tempting as it may be to immediately recreate the Millennium Falcon, keep this in mind for a time when you have enough credits available to invest in such upgrades.

Reactor

Upgrading your reactor is incredibly important in Starfield, but it is also the ship upgrade where you need to exercise particular caution. By upgrading your reactor, you gain more ship power - those points that you can allocate to shields, weapons, engines, and the like.

However, you can only upgrade your reactor up to a certain point before you reach a limit. Unlike other ship upgrades in Starfield, you need to improve the Flight Skills perk to obtain a better reactor. Therefore, make sure you have accomplished that before adding one to your ship.

Best Early Game Ship Perks

There are many early-stage perks that are suitable for ship upgrades, but your first point of focus should be the targeting control system. This allows you to concentrate fire on a specific part of an enemy ship and disable its engines or weapons during combat.

After that, upgrading the Flight Skills perk is the next best choice. This allows you to improve your reactor and pilot larger and better ships.

Lastly, the Starship Design perk unlocks many important ship upgrades, so you should get that next. Shields and automated weapons are also never a bad choice if you engage in a lot of combat.