How to power up your grav drive and grav jump in Starfield

The majority of travel between star systems takes place in Starfield is automated and you’ll do it through the menu(s) using your grav driveYou can also find out more about the following: grav jump between systems. Sometimes, though, there’s one extra step.

The following are some of the ways to improve your own ability. Starfield grav drive guide explains how to power up your grav drive for a grav jump, plus an explanation of what that pesky “grav drive pending” warning means, and a rundown of the grav drive’s limitations.


What is Grav Jump?

Starfield’s Starmap showing the Alpha Centauri system with four planets circling the star and information about planet Jemmison displayed in a panel on the left side

Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

If you’re visiting a brand new star system for the first time, it involves selecting the star in the menu and jumping to the system. Then, select a world (or moon) that you want to explore, before landing at your landing target. Once you’ve done all that, you can fast travel to that landing target again with a lot less work.


What is the best way to charge your Grav Drive?

To perform a gravity jump you must have enough power for your grav drives. While piloting your ship, you’ll see your power distribution in the lower left of your HUD. This is how you’ll balance out power to your weapons, shields, and engines during combat (by using the D-pad). It’s also where you’ll assign power to the grav drive.


What ‘grav jump pending’ means

Starfield grav jump pending warning with an arrow pointing to the powered down grav drive.

Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

If your grav drive is completely powered down and there’s no extra power from the reactor available, you’ll get a warning on your screen that says “grav jump pending.” This just means that you’ve picked out a destination in the Starmap menu, but the grav drive doesn’t have power. As soon as you free up power and assign at least one slot of juice to the grav drive, the countdown will start and you’ll jump away.

Remember, the countdown speed is not measured by seconds. It’s actually a measure of how much power you have assigned. If you only have one notch allocated to the grav drive, it’ll tick down slowly. If you max it out, it’ll count down quickly — helpful information if you’re trying to grav jump out of a firefight.


How high can you jump?

You have a limited amount of distance that your ship is able to jump. Mostly, you’ll see this as warning on the Starmap saying you can’t take the trip your plotting.

It’s never really clear, though, how to resolve the issue(s). Three things are involved in the limitations: You can also find out more about the route by clicking here.The grav drive jump rangeYou can also use your fuel.

Route

Starfield Starmap with an “Unexplored Route” warning

Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

If you hover over a distant star in the Starmap, you’ll notice that the route it plots for you isn’t a straight line — it bounces between stars in shorter (grav) jumps that eventually end up at your target. But you can’t make any trip that jumps through a star system you haven’t visited before and, if you try, you’ll see an “Unexplored route” warning.

This is represented visually by certain legs of your trip turning red (parts you’re able to jump are in white). Trace that red part of the line back to where it stops being white, and that’s the first system you haven’t visited yet.

Grav drive jump range

Starfield Starmap with an “Out of Range” warning.

Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

The next, slightly more intuitive limitation comes from your ship’s grav drive. How far your ship can jump — its jump range — is the maximum distance between two stars (legs on that long route) your ship can handle. If you try to make a jump that exceeds your jump range, you’ll see a “Out of range” Starmap warns you when there is a problem.

Your ship’s grav drive you have determines the maximum that its range can be, but the mass of your ship will reduce it. In order to increase your jump range, you’ll have to upgrade to a better grav driveShip Builder

Fuel

The jump range (above) is the maximum distance that each of those legs can cover. last limitation is fuel — and it’s much less clear how this works. The route you take to get between systems is made up of smaller jumps through systems you’ve visited before (see above). The maximum distance covered by each of those legs is determined by your grav drive’s jump range (above). The NumberThe number of legs you can take on a trip depends upon your ability to travel. fuel.

Starfield Starmap with an “Out of Fuel Range” warning.

Image: Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks via Polygon

The maximum amount of fuel you can carry limits how many jumps each trip will involve. If you try to plot a route that uses more fuel than your ship can carry, you’ll get a “Out of fuel range” warning.

You’ll need to upgrade your fuel tank(s) in the Ship Builder to take those really long trips.

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