By 2026, Starfield's most memorable moments often happen between missions, when a player's ship drifts into an unexpected signal and a tiny story unfolds. Those random space encounters remain one of the game's warmest, strangest, and most underused ideas. More than a year after Shattered Space expanded the Va'ruun corner of the Settled Systems, the broader conversation has not faded: Starfield is a space game whose space still feels too quiet. 🚀

A Galaxy Full of One-Off Wonders

Space, in Starfield, is a brilliant conversationalist who keeps getting interrupted just before the punchline. The Settled Systems have stories to tell, but the game rarely lets them finish the sentence. Players can meet a party cruise ship and, after a quick chat with the captain, turn off gravity for a zero-G rave. And hey, a zero-G rave is exactly the kind of silly sci-fi joy the game needs.

Grandma, bless her tea-loving heart, remains a fan favorite. She invites players aboard for tea and conversation, a small, gentle detour from the rinse-and-repeat loop of traveling to a point of interest and shooting Spacers. The Valentine Sea Shanty offers another welcome oddity: a roaming pilot and singer who serenades the player. Faraday's Budget Tours and a Magic School Bus-style vessel with an exasperated teacher are not sprawling quests, but they give players a reason to actually fly around in space rather than treat the ship as a fast-travel menu.

Encounter	What happens	Why it matters
Party cruise 🪩	A captain offers a zero-G party	Pure silly sci-fi joy
Grandma ☕	Tea and conversation aboard a quiet ship	A human pause in a loud galaxy
Valentine Sea Shanty 🎵	A pilot-singer serenades the player	Charm without combat
Faraday's Budget Tours 🛸	A budget tour ship hails the player	A tiny world-building moment
Magic School Bus-style ship 🚌	An exasperated teacher tries to manage chaos	Comedy in the void
Pale Lady 🕵️	A horror story on a derelict station	One of the game's best hidden tales
Colander 👾	An alien called the Interloper	Gross-out body horror in space

Probably two of the best random encounters are ones that most players will never see, even after hundreds or thousands of hours. The Pale Lady abandoned ship is a spooky detective-style mission tied to popular culture. The titular figure is never directly seen, but she can be heard, and audio logs detail a compelling story players may never actually play. The Colander introduces the Interloper, a grotesque alien with the same body-horror energy as the Entangled mission. These are not side dishes. They are the meal.

The Empty-Space Problem

That's the problem. A player can spend hundreds of hours in Starfield and still miss some of its best random space encounters. That is a testament to how pointless space can feel, and for a game built around exploration, it comes just shy of failing at its main purpose. Critics have long complained that the Settled Systems lack enough interesting points of interest. Reddit threads featuring rare biomes have become some of the most upvoted posts in the community, which says plenty about what players are hungry for.

Honestly, that is a shame. The excuse that a mostly empty galaxy would be realistic does not hold water in a game that is supposed to be engaging and fun. After Cyberpunk 2077 became a common comparison point, Starfield's weaknesses became more apparent. Night City is a far more restricted world, but it is packed with interesting content around nearly every corner. Even its pseudo-radiant missions usually include a fun encounter or two along the way.

Shattered Space was exciting for players who wanted more Va'ruun lore, but it did not fully answer the larger complaint. The galaxy has a pulse. Players just need more reasons to check it. Bethesda has never shied away from parody or satire, and there are still science-fiction franchises it could pull from for inspiration.

What Could Save the Settled Systems

A modest fix would be free DLC packs that add random space missions. These could range from simple intercom chats with other ships to detailed quests like the Pale Lady station. That bar may seem low, but for Starfield it could be meaningful. More random space encounters would not magically solve every criticism, yet they would make the ship, the scanner, and the vast dark between planets feel less like a loading screen and more like a stage.

It doesn't have to be complicated. A strange signal. A nervous captain. A teacup. A scream in the dark. Space should be the best part of a space game, and Starfield already has the ingredients. It just needs to let them speak.