How to hail ships in Starfield

Trying to hail ships in Starfield? Hailing ships is a useful skill if you’re not intent on blowing every starship you meet out of the sky. But how exactly do you do it?

Here, we’re going to walk you through how to hail ships in Starfield, so you can at least try putting that Diplomat Starfield background to use in Bethesda’s new RPG before you turn on your weapons systems and do things the fun way. Make sure you’re clued in on the rest of your ships operations beforehand though, like a breakdown of all the Starfield starship weapons, where to get Digipicks, where to sell ships, how to dock, and how to assign weapons groups in Starfield.

How to hail in Starfield

To hail a ship, you need to lock onto it, then press the corresponding hail button. On Xbox console you’ll need to hit A to open your scanner and lock on. Then hold A to hail. For PC, open the scanner with F, lock on with the E key, then hail by holding E. Keep in mind also that you’ll need to be out of combat to do this, and you’ll need to be relatively close to the ship you’re trying to hail.

Once you’ve opened a line of communication, you’ll be able to speak with the captain of the ship. Depending on your dialogue choices, this can be a great way to get out of a sticky situation without a bloodbath. Make sure you’re familiar with the persuasion system for this, or that you’ve got a good chunk of Starfield credits stashed away for bribes.

That covers how to hail in Starfield. It’s a really useful early game skill to master, but it’s not the only one. If you’re still getting to grips with building your first Starfield outpost or want to learn how to lockpick, how to sell items, where to get Digipicks, what is Quantum Essence, or how to switch ships, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.