How to Hail Ships and Dock in Starfield

In certain Starfield missions, you are required to hail ships so that you can dock with them. The communication system can also lead to unique side quests and is the main method you will use to raid ships if you want to live out your space pirate fantasies. Here is how to hail and dock with ships in Starfield.

How do I hail ships in Starfield?

Although Starfield has a tutorial mission that teaches you how to hail, you can actually run into side quests first that require you to access the communication feature before that. If you are like me and tend to venture off on random missions, you may then find yourself stuck when a mission asks you to “hail a ship.” Thankfully, the feature is fairly easy to access once you know how.

To hail ships in Starfield, you need to fly your spaceship close to another ship and then press the “A” button while your cursor is over it. This will then bring up an option to “hail,” which can be done by holding down the “A” button again. Yep, it’s really that simple. Once you press the hail prompt, the ship you are targeting will open up lines of communication with you.

Screenshot via Siliconera

How do I dock ships in Starfield?

To dock ships in Starfield, you’ll use the same method as hailing. Simply fly next to another ship, then click on it with the “A” button to bring up the Dock option. You can now connect your ship by holding down the “X” button. This will then trigger a cutscene, which now gives you the ability to board the other ship.

However, it should be noted that you can only dock friendly ships. If you try to go up to an enemy combatant, they will fire on you immediately and engage in combat. And certain ships will just not have the option. This is why it’s usually best to hail a ship to make contact first before attempting any docking.

If you are playing a devious space pirate, you can raid other ships by docking on them. You will need to first engage in a space fight and bring their health down to red. Once you’ve disabled their shield and engines with enough damage, you can then dock, board, and steal the ship. Certain Starfield Skills, such as targeting systems, make raiding ships much easier to execute.

Starfield is available now for the Xbox Series X and PC.