Highlights
Destroying ships in Starfield creates landing zones on nearby celestial bodies, adding to the game's interesting features.
Ship combat mechanics in Starfield become accessible after the player invests points in the Piloting skill, granting access to advanced features.
The landing zones for auto-generated Spaceship Debris contain consistent wreckage, but the loot quantity and quality differ based on the number and level of destroyed spacecraft.
Procedurally generated landing zones on celestial bodies are created when ships in Starfield are destroyed, as observed by a keen fan. This recent finding adds to the growing list of fascinating discoveries made by players since the game's release in September. Starfield, like other expansive RPGs, offers intricate ship combat mechanics that allow fans to engage in thrilling space dogfights. Players can access this system by investing points in the Piloting skill, which in turn grants access to advanced features such as module targeting and ship thrusters, as well as more sophisticated vessels.
Unknown to many players, when they destroy a ship in the game, it will cause the game to generate a crash site on the surface of the celestial body the ship was orbiting. Recently, this feature was highlighted by a Reddit user named sterrre, who demonstrated it in a gameplay clip. They triggered the spawn of a crash site on Thren, the third moon of Montara in the Cheyenne star system, by destroying a Crimson Fleet Haunt II ship while orbiting Thren. Through further experimentation, the player discovered that the generated wreckage is always the same, regardless of the type of ship destroyed. Additionally, the game only creates one landing spot per fight, regardless of how many enemy vessels are destroyed in that skirmish.
The amount and quality of loot found in the wreckage seems to vary depending on the number and level of destroyed spacecraft, as reported by players. In simpler terms, it would be worth investigating the auto-generated Spaceship Debris landing zones in Starfield's toughest star systems with high-level fleets after battles, but otherwise, it can be ignored for safety.
With hundreds of fans voting to highlight this discovery on the r/Starfield subreddit, it seems that a significant portion of the game's player base was previously unaware of this feature. Reflecting on their find, sterrre expressed a desire for more variety in the types of crash sites generated by the system but still regarded the feature as a pleasant surprise. Once the Starfield Creation Kit is released in early 2024, it is likely that the modding community will be able to enhance this functionality.
Starfield is available now on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
