Erlkönig: Starfield: Ship Stealth

“ Happy holidays all! I made like 500 jumps and fasts travels while trying a variety of approaches to see how the ship stealth mechanics really work.

Many people said stealth doesn't work or is broke, but it really isn't as you'll see below, it is just not intuitive, has some hidden rules and unfortunately the games tutorial didn't explain it well at all. I wanted to explore it a bit more to help others.

Enjoy! I hope you find some fun with stealth as I did when I did my first vanilla run.

ASSUMPTION: All the below assumes you have a relevant bounty or are entering areas with hostile forces.

HOW TO ENTER STEALTHY SHIP MODE:

• Power down all systems but 2 pips in engines if you want to be safe, or otherwise all systems below 2 or 1 pips. Shields and grav need to be as low as you can go.

DETECTION:

• Pips in different systems appear to count towards some threshold, that when you pass it allows enemies to detect you at greater distance

• In tests, in a Class A ship with 600 mass, I was able to stay undetected outside of 500m of an enemy ship with 2 pips each in three weapon systems, 1 pip in engines, 1 pip in shields, but then putting 1 more in grav got me detected. I was undetected again with 1 pip in engine, 1 in shield, 2 in grav, but then adding 1 more in a weapon system got me detected. Grav drive pips seem to count for greater signature.

• No idea if mass, class or other factors affect things. Let me know if you figure that out.

TRAVELING IN STEALTH MODE:

GRAV JUMPING:

• Grav jumping, even in stealth near major cities/ports will get you spotted unless you quickly reduce your grav power to one pip BEFORE jumping. The issue is your ship tries to put as much power into grav as it can before jumping if there is power available.

• If you jump with full power, even though your ship removes that power after arrival, its too late and they spot your signature.

• If you jump in with one pip grav, you can still get unlucky and jump in with a patrol very close by that will spot you. That can happen occasionally even with fast travel. It seems more likely at busy ports.

INTRA-SYSTEM TRAVEL:

• Local (within the system) traveling is where stealth is most effective as you don't risk jumping in with your grav powered up.

• So, jump into quiet areas, then stealthily local travel to hostile areas in the system.

• Indirect approaches such as stealth travel to POIs in orbit (starstations, radiants etc) seem to avoid spaceport shutdown for major ports like New Atlantis even when scanned, meaning you can still land (you will be hostile on the ground if they catch you)

SPACEPORT SHUTDOWNS AND LANDING:

• Major ports like New Atlantis will shut entry if you approach them directly with a bounty almost no matter what. They know you are there, they just can't find you.

• Other cities will generally not shut down entry at all (maybe they can't afford to or just don't have the security protocols) , some you can even enter while in combat. So if you are stealthed you can still land of course, but with the added benefit of avoiding ship combat.

• Sometimes even smaller cities will shut entry. I saw this for example with Gagarin where every once in a while they'll shut entry as soon as I enter even when stealthed.

ALERTED DOES NOT MEAN SPOTTED:

• When stealthing into orbit of a planet with a customs scanner they will detect your signature and be able to scan you, but they will not be able to spot your exact position due to your weak signature. If you have a bounty you'll hear them call out that you are hostile and in orbit, then ships will start searching for you. This is very similar to when NPCs are alerted on land. You are still stealthed and can sneak around if you want.

• I was able to get about 450m close to a hostile ship before they spotted me to start firing.

CONTRABAND

• If you fail a contraband scan you will be SPOTTED instead of just alerted. This part actually seems like a bug to me as it doesn't make sense with the rest of the system. But the result is more challenging as smuggling with a bounty, you need to both be stealthed and evade contraband scans.

• Not a big deal as I think most players that would care about contraband will be able to evade scans most of the time.

ATTACKING FROM STEALTH:

• If you suddenly push power in weapon systems from zero pips you won't have any ammo/charge for the attack.

• If you plan on attacking, keep 2 pips in each of your weapon systems, but you may need to lower your engine to 1 pip instead of 2 and definitely don't have any in grav.

• For the attack, I suggest powering shields first, then weapons systems.

• Shields will be low when you attack so you had better have the firepower advantage or be close to a straggler and not near a large group.

A FEW USES FOR SHIP STEALTH:

• Smuggling play, to bypass attacks due to bounty hostility, land at certain cities and sneak in

• Approaching hostile POIs or when entering radiant space POIs so you can scan enemy ship cargo (rank 4 scanning) to see if they are worth fighting.

• Avoiding hostility when surveying a system, travel undetected throughout the system landing freely.

• Avoiding hostility from random encounters, for example bounty hunters when they entered will alert to your presence, but they are not able to spot you immediately.

EXAMPLE - AVOIDING BOUNTY HOSTILITY TO LAND AT JEMISON FOR SELLING CONTRABAND

Let's say you have a bounty but want to go sell some possibly illegal goods on a planet without exploiting fast travel.

• Jump to a quiet moon or area in the faction controlled system like Alpha Centauri

• Power down all systems, but you can leave 2 engine pips

• Local fast travel to The EYE near Jemison

• They'll be alerted to your presence but won't be able to attack until they spot you. Remember they'll spot you if you fail to evade contraband scans.

• You can select the planet (or go to map) and land at New Atlantis even before the scan completes

• Run and hide till they forget about you, then sneak to somewhere you can sell.

FINAL NOTE:

If you want to just exploit fast travel or play with no fast travel restrictions then ship stealth won't matter in many cases, but is still useful for approaching hostile POIs if you think you'll be outgunned!

Have fun y'all! To the stars!