Crew Explained: What Do Crew Members Do?

Crew members provide useful skills in your ships and outposts in Starfield. Learn more about crew members, how to assign crew to outposts, how to increase crew size, and how to get more crew in this guide.

Crew Members Explained

Their Skills Benefit Ships and Outposts

Crew members provide useful skills to their assigned ships or outposts. Let's say you hired a crew that has the Shield Systems as one of the skills. Your ship will receive the perks of the Shield Systems skill when you assign that crew to your current ship.

The same goes for outpost-related skills. If you hire and assign a crew that has an outpost-related skill to one of your outposts, that outpost will receive the perks of the skill.

When you assign a crew member to a ship or outpost, their related skills will be highlighted. This is to indicate that the highlighted skills are being used in wherever they are assigned to.

List of All Skills and Skill Trees

Combat-Related Skills are an Exception

You won't gain the benefits of the combat skills your crew members have, as it only affects themselves. If a crew member has a Pistol Certification skill, it only affects that crew member.

The best thing to do is to equip crew members with the right weapons so they'll receive the proper benefits their skills provide.

How to Change Companion Weapons?

Some Skills Are Not Taking into Effect Due to Bugs

Bugged Crew Member Skills
Outpost Engineering	Outpost Management

Some crew members' skills are not taking into effect even when they're assigned to your ships and outposts. This might be a potential bug that will be fixed by upcoming patches!

All Bugs, Glitches, and Known Issues

Assigning Your Crew

View all available companions and hired crew members by going to your ship menu, then press the Y button on Xbox to open the Crew Roster. From there, you'll be able to see and assign your crew or companions to your ships and outposts.

Companions have better skills than most, and are really useful for when you're out on the field.

Best Companions and Crew Members

How to Get Crew Members

Hire Crew at Bars in Cities

You can find and hire crew at bars found in major cities for a price. You can reduce these prices through successful persuasions, so having the Persuasion Skill is a huge help in these situations.

All Cities and Maps, Settlements, and POIs

Named and Unnamed Crew

Named Crew	Unnamed Crew
Marika Boros	Payload Specialist

There are named and unnamed crew for hire, with the named ones having more than one skills and the unnamed crew with only one skill. Unnamed crew will instead be named after the skill they have, followed by "specialist" as their name.

Companions Can Be Crew Members

Companions that aren't following you can be assigned to ships and outposts. Some are better as followers, but other companions have excellent skills that you ships or outposts can benefit from.

List of All Companions and Crew Members

How to Assign Crew to Outposts

Crew Stations Required on Outposts

You'll need to build Crew Stations on your outposts before having the option to assign your crew members to them.

Go to your ship menu and open Crew to open the crew roster. From there, you can select the crew you've hired and your available companions and assign them to your outposts.

How to Increase Crew Size

Add or Replace Ship Parts

Increasing crew size in your ships fall under two stats in ship parts: Crew Capacity and Crew Stations. Crew Capacity tells you how many crew members can board your ship, while Crew Stations indicates how many you can assign to your ship.

If you want to have six crew members boarded and assigned in your ship, you'll need a minimum of 6 in both Crew Capacity and Crew Stations.

Ship Building and Customization Guide

Add Crew Stations in Outposts

Building Crew Stations within your outposts allow assigning crew members to those outposts. Increasing the rank of your Outpost Management Skill allows you to build more crew stations at each of your outposts.

Starfield Related Guides

Tips and Tricks

All Tips and Tricks