Starfield: How to level up Ship Command skill

Every ship captain will need this skill.

The Narwhal in Starfield, a large blue and white cargo ship, boosting toward a planet.
Screenshot by Dot Esports

Star ships are an essential part of Starfield, acting as a means of defense in deep space and as your primary mode of transportation. This makes leveling up your Ship Command skill essential to bettering your ship’s crew capacity and function.

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Ship Command is a tier four skill in the Social category, meaning that you will need to invest plenty of points into other Social Skills before gaining access to Ship Command. Thankfully, other Social Skills, such as Persuasion and Commerce, are equally as useful. If you are trying to complete the rank challenges to level up Ship Command in Starfield, this is what you need to do.

How do you level up Ship Command in Starfield?

Image of the Ship Command skill in Starfield fully unlocked.
A fully upgraded Ship Command will make it pretty jam packed inside | Screenshot by Dot Esports

Like all other skills in Starfield, you will need to complete specific rank challenges before you are able to invest Skill Points into Ship Command. The rank challenges surrounding Ship Command primarily involve destroying or boarding enemy ships. Below are the exact requirements to level up this skill:

  • Tier One – Unlocked by investing one skill point
  • Tier Two – Destroy or board five ships with a crew of two or more
  • Tier Three – Destroy or board 25 ships with a crew of four or more
  • Tier Four – Destroy or board 50 ships with a crew of six or more

Given the sheer number of ships that you will need to encounter and destroy, you will likely be at this for awhile. I recommend taking on faction missions, such as the Crimson Fleet questline, to help speed this process up.

What is the Ship Command skill in Starfield?

Ship Command allows you to have more crew members on board your ship. Each crew member contains a specific skill that can benefit you in some way. For example, the potential crew mate Omari Hassan contains the Shield Systems skill which helps regenerate shields faster. The more crew you have on board, the more skills you have access to.

Even if you purchase, earn, or steal a ship that can fit more than four crew members, you are still bound by your Ship Command skill level. You cannot add more than three active crew members unless you have upgraded the Ship Command Skill. Below are all four tiers of this useful skill:

  • Tier One – You can have up to four active crew members
  • Tier Two – You can have up to five active crew members
  • Tier Three – You can have up to six active crew members
  • Tier Four – You can have up to eight active crew members

Just note, you will need to find a ship that can accommodate all eight crew members if you have fully upgraded this skill. You cannot stuff eight crew mates into a ship only made for four crew members.

Once you’ve fully upgraded Ship Command, all that’s left is for you to get out there in the star field with your crew and explore.

Author
Image of Blaine Polhamus
Blaine Polhamus
Staff Writer for Dot Esports. Avid gamer for two decades and gaming writer for three years. I'm a lover of anything Souls-like since 2011. I cover everything from single-player RPGs to MMOs.