Now that you’ve got your ship full of gas, you’ll want to take that pup for a spin in Starstruck Vagabond’s procedurally generated galaxy. Read this guide to discover how to pilot your spaceship in style.
How to be a professional pilot in Starstruck Vagabond
You can’t be a flying ace if you don’t have a good grasp of the basics. Let’s make sure we have them covered first. Sit in the captain’s chair and log into the navigation computer. Assuming there are no urgent maintenance issues, we can skip the diagnosis and click System Map.
Control S
The first thing we are going to do is change the course of the ship. Notice the straight white line shining from the front of the ship. This shows you the direction you will travel. Once you activate the boost units, you can rotate them left or right using the A and D keys or the left and right cursor keys.
Point to where you want to go, probably a planet or another point of interest, and scroll down to “Ram Scoop.”
With Ram Scoop selected, you can again use the A and D or left and right keys to move the white overlay indicated above. The closer the white arrow is to pointing in the same direction as the red arrow, the higher the maximum possible speed.
Normally you’ll want to go as fast as possible, except when your route intersects an asteroid belt or debris field, in which case you may want to slow down to increase your maneuverability. Scroll down to “engage” and press the space key.
Interstellar dangers
Now you are up and running. The command console view zooms in on your ship, the white icon is shown above. As you proceed along the selected course, hazards will be identified and displayed on the screen. The following list shows you what each hazard is, what could affect you, and what you should do about it:
dust clouds
These are clouds of choking dust and particle debris, represented as spongy blue shapes. Dust clouds will clog your boat’s sensitive equipment, such as oxygen pumps, resulting in death or engine failure. Become them using the left and right cursor keys.
asteroids
These are chunks of space rock that are launched at incredible speeds. Asteroids are represented by white shapes that look like potatoes. If they hit you, they can puncture the hull, sending your delicious air into the void or breaking electrical and mechanical components.
Avoid using the left or right cursor keys. Just keep in mind that there are a number of system missions that require you to fly close to asteroids without getting hit. You’ll know you’ve done it if the asteroid’s outline turns gray instead of white.
garbage balls
Scrap balls are fused pieces of metal and other materials. Represented by the red-orange squiggle. These were covered in the refueling guide linked above, they are safe to fly into and will fill your warp drive tanks with fuel, albeit with a hefty dose of unit-clogging debris.
Signs from deep space
From time to time, you will see a faint yellow circle pinging the sensors on the left or right side of your ship. This indicates that an unknown signal has been detected. It is important to note that the circle only provides the general direction of the signal source and not the exact location. Slowly move towards it until it begins to decode.
Once the “decode signal” message appears, it remains in the same place until the yellow bar fills to the top. This doesn’t take long. Once you have done this, the boat will automatically identify the type of signal location. It will be an abandoned ship (a sunken ship with valuables on board for rescue) or a distress beacon (where another captain is having trouble with a mechanical failure or an alien infestation and needs your help).
You will be given the option to ignore it or have the ship automatically head to the source. If you choose to sail towards the sign, you will not notice the boat heading in another direction, this is normal, just continue.
Key HUD Alerts
There are a number of key HUD alerts that you should always be aware of when flying between planets. They could save your life, make you money, or sometimes both!
Each system in the game has a series of missions or objectives. Any that can be completed while traveling through space will appear here. In the image above, the player would earn a cash bonus for answering three distress calls.
This is the ship’s oxygen gauge. It should be green and filled to the top. The fact that it is red and falling is very bad news. The pilot should go out and fix it.
This shows the temperature in the ship’s reactor. It should be about five bars long and say “Normal.” A higher reading suggests there is a blockage or damage. This is not necessarily fatal at this level, but it could suddenly get out of control. Always keep an eye on it and have your soldering iron handy.
This is like in your car. It tells you that something is wrong with the engine, but unlike your car, it’s never safe to ignore until you can call a mechanic to take a look. You should fix it as soon as you can.
If all this talk about flying spaceships has you wanting to go back to Starfield, here’s how to cheat on the pilot test here at MyFullGames.