Starfield Will Not Have A Rover For Planet Exploration

Bethesda's recent Starfield Direct showcase gave players a very detailed look at the interstellar RPG's features, from a highly flexible ship customization system to the most-detailed character creator to ever appear in a Bethesda game. But the showcase failed to address an important feature many players assumed would be included in the game at launch: a rover-esque vehicle to explore the surface of the game's many planets. Today, Bethesda CEO and Starfield game director Todd Howard confirmed that no such vehicle will be available to players.

In an interview with Kinda Funny Games, Howard was asked if players had any options--from Mass Effect-esque rovers to tamed alien wildlife--to help them traverse the game's expansive environments a little more quickly.

"There is not [any vehicle or wild mount]," Howard replied. "But we do have the Boost Pack. You saw some of that in the [Starfield Direct] video, and you have the skills for [upgrading] the Boost Pack. So the Boost Pack almost acts like this vehicle."

The Boost Pack is a jetpack attached to the player-character's spacesuit, equipped with thrusters that become more powerful as the player upgrades them. The Boost Pack can be seen briefly in some parts of the game's trailers and the Starfield Direct, though most shots are brief, and only show a player aiming down at an enemy mid-jump. No in-depth footage of the Boost Pack being used solely for planetside traversal has been released yet.

"[The Boost Pack is] super fun," Howard continued. "You can fly through [the environment], and then the low-gravity planets are just something really, really special in the game."

With over 1,000 procedurally generated planets for players to explore, some are bound to be high-gravity environments, which could make navigating via Boost Pack a little more difficult. Unfortunately, Howard did not provide details regarding the Boost Pack's performance on large planets with high gravity.

There's an obvious solution for players who are frustrated with the lack of any sort of groundside transport in Starfied: mods. Bethesda games are known for their active modding communities, and Bethesda's Creation Club gives console players the ability to obtain mods for games like Skyrim--often free of charge. PC players will likely be zooming around on fan-made rovers in a matter of days after the game's release, but console players will have to wait for any rover or alien mount mods to be approved by Bethesda and uploaded to Creation Club. There's also no guarantee that Bethesda will approve planetside traversal mods for Creation Club, but Howard's comments on the matter seem to suggest that Bethesda is excited for modders to get their hands on the game.

"I think Starfield is going to be a modder's paradise," Howard said when asked about player-made additions to the game. "It's part of our DNA here, we've been doing it for over 20 years. It's important for us to not just enable [modding], but to participate, right? To make it easy for [modders] to make this [into something] where it's not just a hobby, but a career. We've had a lot of great success there, so [we're] looking forward to what everyone's going to do with Starfield."

Given Howard's comments, it seems very likely that mods will be available to console players via Bethesda's Creation Club storefront. But whether these Bethesda-approved mods will include a rover or alien mount remains to be seen.

Starfield is set to release for Xbox Series X|S and PC on September 6, 2023.