Starfield bug gives one player an unexpected pet: "A tiny asteroid that's been following me for the past 30 hours"

A Starfield ship flies through space with a floating asteroid next to it. — (Image credit: Bethesda / ReverandRoo)

Bethesda bugs have taken a surprising and surprisingly cute turn in the form of a tiny asteroid that’s been floating alongside some Starfield player’s spaceships. A literal pet rock that you sadly can't pet.

Redditor ReverendRoo shared the adorable tidbit on the game’s subreddit: “In one of my weirdest Bethesda glitch experiences, I've got a tiny asteroid that's been following me for the past 30 hours.” The accompanying screenshots (see below) show the small asteroid zooming through space side-by-side with the player’s ship - the interstellar equivalent of taking your dog for a walk. “Even through loading screens, as you can see, genuinely feels like one of my companions now.”

In one of my weirdest Bethesda glitch experiences, I've got a tiny asteroid that's been following me for the past 30 hours from r/Starfield

ReverendRoo isn’t the only asteroid parent out in space. Another commenter explained that they had an entire herd of rocks following them: “When I was mining asteroids, I ended up getting about 8 or 9 various sizes following me around,” said RedemptionXCII in response. “Even landing on planets they were there, floating around my ship.” It sounds like the bug probably causes the asteroids to get sucked into your ship’s orbit. Either way, should you want a family of rocks orbiting around your ship’s gravitational pull, then blasting apart asteroids might just trigger the bug.

While the petite asteroid is weirdly adorable, I imagine anything bigger would feel like a cosmic horror chomping at my rear. I’m also curious to see how these asteroids affect dogfights. Will my asteroid belt block incoming damage? Can I ram these rocks into enemy ships? Plenty of unanswered questions. Other users found the humour in the bug, though. “Mine just had a baby, am grandpa now,” said one commenter. Another joked that the rock was “just your FBI agent watching you in-game.” There aren’t any phones in Starfield, as far as I’m aware, so that makes sense.

If cool ship stuff is what you want, check out our Starfield ship customisation guide.

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.