How to assign crew to an outpost in Starfield

Trying to assign crew to an outpost in Starfield? Keeping your outposts manned is crucial if you want to make effective use out of them. But with so much to do in Bethesda Studios’ new space-faring RPG, most players aren’t going to have time to manage every aspect of their bases by themselves.

For this task, you’ll need to bring in Starfield crew members. These NPCs can man your Starfield outposts, taking on various jobs and roles, and turning a profit on your resource-heavy investments. Here, we’re going to walk you through the process, and explain how to assign crew to an outpost in Starfield, and how to make the most of those assignments.

How to assign crew members to outposts

To assign crew to an outpost, you need to make sure you have a crew station there, and then assign them through the crew menu. The crew menu is a little hidden away, but once you know how to navigate to it, it’ll make the whole process a lot smoother. Just follow the steps below to get to the crew menu.

• Open the Ship menu by pressing Tab on PC (Menu on Xbox) and then move to the bottom left corner. Then, press C (Y button on Xbox) to bring up the Crew Roster menu.
• Here, you’ll see all your crew members and the ships or outposts they have been assigned to. Crew members like Heller and Lin have unique skills.
• Select a character and assign them an outpost location based on their skills.

From here, you’ll get an overview menu showing you all of the crew that you’ve recruited so far. This will range from your Starfield companions and important NPCs like Sarah Morgan, Vasco or Barrett, to named and unnamed characters who just serve as workhorses.

In this menu you’ll be able to see each crew member’s abilities and skills, as well as where they may currently be assigned. Crew members help with running an outpost in your absence. Try picking crew members and companions with skills in Geology, Outpost Management, Outpost Demolitions, or Outpost Engineering to oversee mining operations. You can assign or reassign your workers at your leisure from this menu, placing them anywhere you like. We’d recommend reviewing their skills though and trying to put them at bases and outposts where they’ll provide performance bonuses.

Crew stations and modules

To actually find the space to assign crew to an outpost, you need to have that space to begin with. This is where crew stations come in. Crew stations are a modular component that you can add into outposts, creating workspaces for crew to operate from. There’s a bit more finesse to these stations, but for the moment, let’s just focus on how you can use them to assign crew.

Crew will automatically be assigned to any open crew stations at an outpost when you’re trying to send them to an outpost. All you need to do, therefore, is build one. You’ll need two Iron, five Aluminum, and three Nickel to do this, so make sure you have these resources first. Then add it to your outpost from the construction menu.

If you want to increase the number of crew members you can assign, you’ll need to upgrade your Outpost Management skill. Once you reach Rank 3, you’ll gain the ability to assign further crew members.

Still can’t assign a crew member?

If you still can’t assign a crew member to an outpost, there could be a few reasons why.
The most common, besides a lack of crew stations, might be that the outpost isn’t established. If you haven’t placed an outpost beacon down at your outpost, it won’t show up as a completed structure.

That covers everything you should need to know in order to assign crew to outposts in Starfield. While they’re busy slaving away to earn you mountains of Starfield credits, you’ll be free to continue exploring the many Starfield systems and planets. Ah, the joys of space capitalism.