Traveling to destinations through the vast reaches of space can be a daunting prospect, especially in the expansive universe of Starfield. Luckily, spaceships are the game’s primary mode of transport, and they can Grav Jump from one solar system to another at lightspeed. This can only be achieved by powering up the Grav Drive, one of the most useful functions on any ship.
Grav Jumps in Starfield, Explained
Grav Jump allows you to fast travel between systems in Starfield. This is useful for avoiding ship–based conflict or getting to destinations as quickly as possible. While travelling through space is fun, I’ve found myself using Grav Jump and other fast travel mechanisms a LOT in Starfield due to the sheer size, and sprawling nature, of both the map and missions. You get access to the Grav Jump when you first get access to the Frontier ship from Barrett in the first mission, ‘One Small Step,’ and soon after, you’ll become acquainted with flight controls and obtain the star map.
Once the star map is obtained, the Grav Drive will also become available. These two features go hand-in-hand as the star map is used to select a destination to jump to. This star map is part of the main menu, accessible by pressing the escape key or menu button on an Xbox controller.
How to power up the Grav Drive in Starfield
If you’re trying to Grav Jump but seeing a message in the middle of the screen saying, “Grav Jump pending. Power up Grav Drive,” there’s an easy fix. This simply means you don’t currently have enough power allocated to the Grav Drive which is what enables the Grav Jump in the first place.
The Grav Drive itself is accessible on the bottom left side of the ship’s interface, labeled GRV; this is one of the six systems that are powered up using points. At least one point must be allocated to the Grav Drive in order for Grav Jumps to be enabled, but additional points can be used to make it charge up faster.
Ship systems are highlighted using the left and right buttons on either a keyboard or controller D-pad. The Grav Drive is the right-most system on the list and can be highlighted by simply pressing left once—assigning points to it is done by pressing up. If there are no available points, scroll to other ship systems unassign points using the down button, and reassign them to the Grav Drive.
Once the Grav Drive is activated, a countdown timer will be shown on the screen before the jump is executed. This time is dependent on the points assigned. The Grav Drive takes you from one orbit to another. In order to land on a planet, the star map must be used again. Simply highlight the closest planet by clicking the right mouse button or pressing A, and select the landing point that’s right for you.
