Starfield’s latest update brings new Surface Maps, Extreme Difficulty, Display Settings and more!

Still navigating the vastness of Starfield? If you are, today you’ll be treated to the latest update – one that adds in a host of new features, options and more. 

Starfield finally launched on Xbox, Game Pass and PC back in September 2023. After waiting years, the community was then split with what was delivered. For us, we got on well with Starfield, throwing in tens of hours of play – tens of hours which have now moved to hundreds. For that reason alone, the latest update should be of interest. 

New update?

So what’s available in this latest update for Starfield? Well, we’ll list everything and anything down below, but main focus points should be on the updated Surface Maps, the new difficulty options (including Extreme), ship customisation tools and opportunities to mix things up in terms of the Xbox Series X display settings, prioritising either visual quality or performance. 

Expect to find all of the following in the latest Starfield update, rolling out right now…

• Updated Surface Maps – Surface maps are improved and replace surface dots with terrain markings. These markings combined with visual points of interest on the map makes navigation and pinpointing locations much easier. Additionally, new markers have been added in the major cities to show the locations of vendors and each of these markers acts as a fast travel point. Players can immediately warp to these destinations from their Scanner or the surface map.
• New Gameplay Options – The new update also gives players more freedom and flexibility to customize their gameplay experience. Players can now adjust vendor credits and carry capacity or access ship cargo from anywhere through the player inventory. For players looking to finetune the difficulty, new survival features are added like adjusting the effects of food and environmental hazards as well as new combat settings to make space combat harder and run-and-gun combat easier, for example. Finally, there’s a new Extreme difficulty above Very Hard. These settings can be tuned to focus on the style of gameplay players enjoy the most.
• New Ship Interior Customization Tools – In Starfield, the player ship is home. The May Update expands interior customization available to ships. There are also new completely empty hab modules to decorate from scratch, allowing players to further customize their ship’s layout with more openings available for doorways.
• Xbox Series X Display Settings – Xbox Series X players now choose between prioritizing visual quality or performance. For each of these, a Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) Display running at 120hz or above is highly recommended.
  • Frame Rate Target: Players can now choose between **30, 40, 60 or an Uncapped** frame rate on VRR displays. Players without a VRR display running at least 120hz will still be able to select from 30 or 60. Screen tearing may occur at times when selecting 60 on a non-VRR display.
  • Prioritize: Players can now prioritize between **Visuals and Performance** while trying to maintain the frame rate target. Performance mode is suggested if choosing a frame rate target of 60 or above. Prioritizing Visuals keeps the highest resolution while maintaining full detail for special effects, lighting, and crowds. Prioritizing Performance lowers internal resolution and detail for special effects, lighting, and crowds. Both modes may adjust internal resolution dynamically when scenes or action get heavier as well.
  • VSync: Players can now toggle between VSync off or on. Choosing off will separate the game frames from the monitor’s refresh rate and may result in screen tearing. Toggling On will synchronize the frame rate to the monitor’s refresh rate avoiding screen tearing but limiting number of frames.
• New Game Plus Trait Respeccing – Replayability is huge in Bethesda Game Studios games, and in Starfield the universe expands even morewith New Game Plus. Now, after players enter the Unity, they will have the option to change both their appearance and Traits. This gives players the opportunity to continue refining their characters visually, and experiment with different playstyles after every play-through.
• Quality of Life Improvements – In addition to the major features in this May Update, there are also numerous quality-of-life improvements like the ability to toggle the dialogue camera off so players can watch scenes play out from their chosen perspective. There are also new tabs in the Container and Barter menus, making it easier to see where you’re navigating to when quickly cycling through the menus.

More to come?

There’s more though and you should keep an eye out for official mod support for Starfield upcoming, as well as the Shattered Space expansion. 

Are these new features and updates enough to get you back into Starfield? Let us know in the comments. And if you haven’t yet played the game, hit up the Xbox Store and grab a download right now. It’s free on Game Pass so you’ve got no excuse.