If you're coming into the Free Lanes update expecting Bethesda to have put 'Starfield 2.0' out into the world, then there's a chance you'll be disappointed. Rather than some sort of massive overhaul to core elements of play, the studio has focused on around nine core revisions that touch everything from space travel to customization and personalization. If you go into this free update with an open mind, you may just find that the base game has improved enough that you'll be tempted to give Starfield another shot. And if you already loved what Bethesda put out into the world, then you're about to find a far improved experience, well worth another dive into the Unity to meet universes beyond.
Exploring the Future of Starfield: How Bethesda Game Studios is beginning to breathe new life into its most misunderstood RPG
There's a lot of ground to cover here, so what I've done for you is focus on the five biggest changes introduced through the free Starfield Free Lanes update ahead of its launch on April 7 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X players. Better yet, I'm joined by lead creative producer Tim Lamb to help give you some much needed context and insight into each of them.
He tells me that these changes are driven by player feedback that Bethesda has gathered over the last three years. "Unless there's some technical hurdle that we can't overcome, we always want to say 'yes' to the player in as many ways as possible – that mindset helped guide us."
1. Interplanetary travel between systems
The most significant change coming to Starfield as part of the Free Lanes update concerns space travel. Bethesda Game Studios has heard your feedback about wanting more to see and do while you're in your starship, and it has responded. Now you can activate a Cruise mode to travel from planet to planet within systems, unlocking more cohesive deep-space exploration whilst reducing time spent in menus.
During my time at the studio, the Starfield team was quick to highlight the number of activities you should expect to find while cruising interplanetary lanes (and fun connective tissue to the Terran Armada DLC, where Incursions can disable your Grav Drive and draw you into new encounters). But what truly impressed me is how cruising unlocks more immersive opportunities to role-play in this universe.
Punch in your destination, activate cruise mode, and clamber out of your cockpit. You're free to chat with companions, mess with your storage, and otherwise customize your character as you're moving at light speed – a siren blaring to indicate threats and opportunities, willing you back to the pilot's seat. There's also some lush visual flourishes, from the way planetary gravity wells impact ship velocity, to the way locations warp into view upon arrival. Small touches that sell the Starfield fantasy like never before.
2. More variation and POIs
Exploration could feel unrewarding in Starfield. While it's certainly true that creating a sense of isolation was a central component of the fantasy Bethesda was trying to engineer, the lack of location and encounter variety could too easily swing the experience from wanderlust towards boredom. "A big piece of feedback that we heard was around the frequency with which locations appear on planets," admits Tim Lamb, lead creative producer. "So we went back and looked at the cooldown system."
For some context here, Starfield is supposed to use a system that puts major Points of Interest (POI) and other elements on a cooldown once you've encountered them for a set period of time, pulling other named locations and NPCs into the rotation of what you might find. Bethesda didn't get the balance right at launch, as I'm sure any of you sick of exploring Abandoned Cryo Labs can attest to.
"We looked at how the game applies those cooldowns to different planet surfaces, the spread of POIs, and how frequently they can appear. We adjusted that, and added more POIs for greater variety too. So you should see POIs and dungeon encounters increase significantly. The increased variety is there for players to discover more things" says Lamb. Better still, Bethesda has introduced a new Moon Jumper vehicle with massive boost capabilities to make exploration feel even more rewarding.
3. Outpost Improvements
Bethesda is making major improvements to outposts, and greatly improving your ability to track, maintain, and manage your resources. "We've done a lot of different things for our outpost players, split between cosmetic, functional, and practical," says Lamb. There's a lot of minute changes here, but the biggest is undoubtedly the addition of cross-outpost storage. "A big request from fans was that they wanted it to be easier to transfer inventory from one outpost to another," Lamb continues, "so now any outpost where [you have] built this shared outpost container will share your inventory throughout."
It's a fantastic addition, but what use is having cross-outpost storage if you can't remember what resources you need and what planets you have settled? This is where a new database comes into play, which Lamb describes as "your one stop shop for all of the data that this character has learned in this universe." The database lets you delve into everything from inorganic materials native to a discovered planet to your crafting recipes. It also lets you see what is being tracked in your research labs, tag the materials required for crafting a specific item or upgrade, flag which star system the resource can be found, and let you immediately travel over to a relevant planet to hunt them down.
While this doesn't entirely remove Starfield's reliance on navigating menus and loading screens, it does appear to take some of the sting out of the busy work inherent to the crafting and outpost systems. "Another big piece of feedback that we received was that players don't know which planets have settlements on, which ones have outposts, and so on – so we now allow you to favorite planets and track them here," says Lamb.
4. X-Tech resource for finer upgrades
"We want to encourage exploration, customization, and quality of life – that's been our focus with the Free Lanes. So one of the things that's new to the game is a resource called X-Tech," says Lamb. This new resource, accrued from chests and legendary enemies, can be used to upgrade weapons, ship modules, the quality of your suits, and plenty more besides. And given that Free Lanes also introduced more robust encounters, new enemy tiers that come equipped with powerful performance modifiers to make combat more tactical at higher levels, you'll need all the help you can get.
There's another new form of loot introduced in Free Lanes – upgrade modules. Lamb tells me that these "allow you to increase an individual attribute to a suit or a weapon", combining nicely with X-Tech that can then be used to customize (and roll for) different legendary effects. Bethesda has also added two more quality tiers for weapons, furthering the degree of personalization available. "We wanted you to be able to take the things that already existed in the game, not just all the new stuff we added, and be able to customize it to your taste," says Lamb.
One of the best changes as part of this new X-Tech system? You can upgrade suits that you love the look of but have otherwise fallen behind the power curve to be more viable later into the game. "Let's say you have something you love wearing from your initial playthrough, that you're never going to wear again because it only protects against five points of damage or whatever it is. Now you can come in and use X-Tech to pump the level of that up to the highest level, do all your mods, and continue," he says.
5. A more compelling New Game+
Those of you who are yet to complete Starfield (or are otherwise yet to have the way Bethesda handles New Game+ conditions spoiled) you may want to turn away now. For the rest of you, I've got some good news: Bethesda has finally made stepping into the Unity more rewarding. While the original endgame loop had a certain romanticism – leaving your universe behind to emerge as a Starborn anew, with little more than your skills and memories – it could be unrewarding.
"It's a big investment," says Lamb. "Some players just didn't want to leave all of the stuff that they had found behind." So in an effort to compel players into the unknown, Bethesda will let you build a Quantum Entanglement Device. "This will allow you to take most inventory items through the Unity and into the Lodge when you arrive on the other side," says Lamb, noting that the 50 capacity device will accept most (but not all) items, letting you keep hold of your favorite weapons and suits, as well as key resources.
Bethesda has also taken steps to better bring "Quantum Essence into the economy, to give it more power and make it more meaningful." This rare item could be accrued by defeating Starborn enemies, but didn't have all that much value beyond power regeneration. Not only will you now be able to get Quantum Essence from destroying Starborn Ships, you can also use it to upgrade Starborn powers, taking the sting out of going through the Unity and reclaiming the associated artifacts each time.
