How to pilot your spaceship in Starstruck Vagabond like a pro – Avoiding hazards, responding to distress calls & more!

Now you've got the ship all gassed up, you're going to want to take that puppy out for a spin in the procedurally generated galaxy of Starstruck Vagabond. Read this guide to find out how to pilot your spaceship in style.

How to be a pro pilot in Starstruck Vagabond

You can't be a flying ace if you don't have the basics down right. Let's make sure we've got those covered first. Sit yourself down in the captain's chair and log into the navi-computer. Assuming there are no pressing maintenance concerns, we can skip right over diagnostics and click on System Map.

Controls

The first thing we're going to do is turn the ship to a new bearing. Note the straight white line beaming from the front of the ship. This shows you the direction in which you'll be traveling. Once you engage the impulse drives, you can turn it to the left or right using the A and D keys or the left and right cursor keys.

Point it where you want to go, most likely a planet or other point of interest, and move 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 point the same direction as the red arrow, the faster the possible maximum speed.

You would normally want to go as fast as possible except where your route is going to intersect with an asteroid belt or debris field, in which case you might want to slow down to increase your maneuverability. Move down to 'engage' and hit the space key.

Interstellar Hazards

Now you're underway. The command console view zooms in on your ship, the white icon shown above. As you progress along the selected bearing, hazards will be identified and show up on the screen. The list below shows you what each hazard is, what it could do to you, and what you should do about it:

Dust Clouds

These are clouds of choking dust and particulate debris, which are represented as fluffy blue shapes. Dust clouds will clog up sensitive equipment on your ship, such as the oxygen pumps, resulting in death or engine failure. Steer around them using the left and right cursor keys.

Asteroids

These are chunks of space rock hurtling at insane speeds. Asteroids are represented by the white potato-looking shapes. if they hit you, they can hole the hull, sending your delicious air screaming out into the void or breaking electrical and mechanical components.

Avoid using the left or right cursor keys. Just be aware that there are a number of system missions that require you to fly close to the asteroids without getting hit. You will know you've done it if the asteroid outline turns grey rather than white.

Junk Balls

Junk balls are fused lumps of metal and other matter. Represented by the orange-red squiggle. These were covered in the refuelling guide linked above, these are safe to fly into and will top up your warp engine tanks with fuel, albeit with a hefty dose of drive-clogging residue along with it.

Deep Space Signals

From time to time, you will see a faint yellow circle ping on the sensors on either the left or the right side of your ship. This indicates an unknown signal has been detected. It's important to note that the circle only gives the general direction of the signal source and not the exact location. Slowly move toward it until it begins to decode.

Once the 'decoding signal' message appears, it remains in the same place until the yellow bar has filled to the top. This does not take long. Once it has, the ship will automatically identify the type of signal location. It will either be a derelict (a wrecked ship with valuables aboard for salvage) or a distress beacon (where another captain is having trouble with mechanical failure or alien infestation and needs your help).

You will be given the option to either ignore it or have the ship automatically head to the source. If you choose to navigate to the signal, you will not notice the ship heading in another direction, this is normal, just keep going.

Key HUD Alerts

There are a number of key HUD alerts that you should always keep an eye open for whenever you are flying between planets. They could save your life, or earn you money, or sometimes both!

Every system in the game has a number of missions or objectives. Any that can be completed while travelling in space will appear here. In the picture above the player would earn a cash bonus for attending three distress calls.

This is the ship's oxygen indicator. It should be green and filled all the way to the top. The fact it is red and falling is very bad news. The pilot should get out there and fix it.

This shows the temperature in the ship's reactor. It should be about five bars and say "Normal." A higher reading suggests there is a blockage or damage. This isn't necessarily fatal at this level, but it could suddenly spiral out of control. Always keep an eye on it, and keep your welder handy.

This one is just like in your car. It tells you something is wrong with the engine but, unlike your car, it's never safe to ignore it until you can get a mechanic to take a look. You should go fix it as soon as you're able.

If all this talk of flying spaceships made you want to jump back on Starfield, here's how to cheat the pilot's exam right here on Pro Game Guides.