Bad news everyone, Starfield's latest update aims to send your pet asteroids to a butterfly farm
They’re not gone, they’re just in a better place now.
Sorry folks, Starfield’s latest update aims to do away with the infamous and quite cute pet rock bug that’s been entertaining players to no end since they first started exploring the cosmos.
If you’re out of the loop, the game has long been home to happy little space rocks that can end up somehow getting scooped up in your ship’s orbit and accompanying you on your travels. Some players have ended up with just one impromptu companion, while others have found themselves being trailed by whole asteroid families.
Sadly, in the notes for update 1.8.88, Bethesda says it’s now “addressed an issue that would cause space matter to become stuck to [the] player's ship during space travel.” It adds that: “loading a save will now remove the space clingon”. So, it sounds like you might not even get a chance to say goodbye to your little buddies before they go.
That said, if the bit of matter that’s become attached to your ship isn’t just a bit of regular space debris but the entirety of New Atlantis instead, you’ll get to keep it for a bit longer, with Bethesda revealing: “a fix for that [particular bug] will be released in a later update.”
Meanwhile, the pint-sized update does include a fix for an issue that’s been causing those playing versions of the game from the Xbox and Microsoft stores to “experience crashes while saving during long playthrough without going through the Unity.”
It also aims to tackle an outpost-centric bug that could stop “random guns from spawning in a newly created Weapon Case after loading a save.”
If you're disappointed at the loss of your asteroid friends, you might want to try firing up the game before holding a funeral for them, as a couple of players on Reddit have reported that theirs still seem to be hanging around after applying the update.
Regardless of whether your pet rocks come along for the ride, if you want more stuff to do in space, make sure to check out this Starfield mod that’ll let you become a professional ship designer, as well as our recent interview with some modders about Skyrim’s new Creations initiative.