If you play Starfield on PC, you can get more out of your boost pack and fly further with a simple key assignment.
The absence of vehicles can make exploring a planet in Starfield quite sluggish, as you have to walk long distances and your stamina is not unlimited.
Your boost pack can be quite useful when exploring planets – and jumping is much more fun than walking, especially in low gravity. There is a trick that allows you to fly longer distances with your boost pack without changing anything in your equipment.
Jump further with an alternative key
How does the trick work? In Starfield on PC, you have the option to assign a primary and an alternative key layout on the keyboard for each action – such as jumping, melee combat, or sneaking.
For some reason, your jetpack’s boost is significantly more horizontal when you use the alternative key instead of the primary key. The primary key gives your boost a more vertical direction. This means that with the alternative key, you cover a greater distance in the forward movement.
We captured how big the difference is in a short video:
In our test, we left the primary key on the “spacebar” and assigned the “Alt” key (left) for the alternative layout.
With the boost itself, we noticed that the character jumped several meters further from the same jumping point (a gray line on the ground) when we pressed “Alt” instead of the “spacebar”.
We also measured how long it takes to cover a distance when we sprint, jump with the normal boost pack layout or with the alternative boost pack layout.
- sprint: 06.97 seconds
- normal boost pack layout: 07.04 seconds
- part of the distance had to be sprinted, as the boost pack could not cover the entire distance
- alternative boost pack layout: 05.38 seconds
What is the trick good for? As we found out, the trick allows you to cover a greater distance with the jetpack and get from one point to another faster. Especially in low gravity, you can cover larger distances more quickly.
You can also combine the two jumps, first reaching a higher point with the vertical jump, and then covering further distances with the horizontal jump without having to land.
Moreover, the enhanced horizontal boost allows you to navigate more easily between elevated objects. For example, you can try to jump from the airlock of your outpost to your landing spot without having to land in between and potentially use the stairs.
If you don’t have an outpost yet, we explain here how to build one:
Starfield: Build outpost – How to establish your own base on an alien planet
