Star Citizen hosts a large variety of locations, from outposts to cities, that offer services for you and your ship. This guide will focus on these key locations; however, you will be able to apply what you learn here to landing your ship anywhere across the surface of planetary bodies across the ‘verse.
Quick Navigation Links:
- Locate a Landing Zone
- Request Authorization to Land
- Landing in the Designated Area
- Ship Docking
- Coupled vs Decoupled Flight Mode
For assistance with navigating around the 'verse, check out our guide on How to Quantum Travel.
Locate a Landing Zone
Once you arrive at a planet and begin your decent from orbit towards one of the major city locations, such as Area18 or Lorville, be on the lookout for the beacons pulsing with light; they will guide you towards the landing zone location for that city.
No-Fly Zones
Be aware that certain locations in Star Citizen, particularly cities, are protected by No-Fly Zones – areas of the planet or city that players are unable to fly within. When entering a No-Fly Zone, you will receive an on-screen notification warning you that continued traversal in this area will result in your ship being impounded. We recommend that you keep this in mind when exploring cities as losing and recovering a ship can be a hassle.
Request Authorization to Land
Major locations will require authorization to land which you can do by contacting Air Traffic Control (ATC), which is also referred to as Landing Services. There are a variety of ways to contact ATC when attempting to land:
- Use your ship’s Communications MFD to contact ATC.
- Pull up your friend's list via the mobiGlas and select ATC from there (it will appear at the top).
- Press Left-ALT and N together on your keyboard for the default hotkey shortcut.
Typically, you will need to be within a 5km-7km radius of the landing location before Landing Services will appear on your Comms list. Once granted, ATC will assign you a landing pad, docking port, or hangar, depending on the size and type of ship you are piloting.
Note: Outposts and other locations may not have Landing Services. In these cases, you can simply land on any available pad. Just be mindful of any other ships already present!
Using Your Ship's Multi-Function Display (MFD)
Most ships will have access to multiple MFD screens that will display a variety of information, of which you can switch between at your discretion. By holding F on your keyboard and left-clicking either arrow location on the bottom left or right of each screen with your mouse, you can cycle through them until you reach COMMUNICATIONS. If you are within hailing distance of the Landing Services, the option to contact them will appear on the list.
An example of the communications MFD, highlighted in red above.
Using the mobiGlas
The mobiGlas is your own personal assistant that allows you to access anything from contracts to ship services to your Comms channel. To access the Commlink page, press F11 on your keyboard and the mobiGlas page will pop up. So long as you are close enough, Landing Services will appear on the left-hand side under your Friends menu. The closest spaceport will always be at the top of this list. Select the arrow next to the Landing Services to hail them.
Landing in the Designated Area
If the Landing Services of the location are especially busy, you may be placed in a queue. Once you have been granted authorization to land, an in-game marker will appear directing you towards your hangar or landing pad.
When approaching your assigned landing area, be sure that you lower your ship's landing gear before attempting to land. This can be done by pressing N on the keyboard by default.
Your ship MFDs display lots of information, including shield status, power distribution, and the speed limiter.
Getting to grips with the speed limiter will help when attempting more controlled landings. Pressing and holding Left-Alt on your keyboard then scrolling up/down with the mouse wheel will allow you to adjust the maximum speed of your thrusters. It is advised to lower the speed slightly above the 0m/s dead zone when approaching your hangar. This will give the pilot much more control using minor movements, leaving less room for error.
Once you have been authorized to land and have been assigned a hangar, try to position your ship directly above or in front of the hangar entrance. Use the Spacebar on the keyboard to move your ship upward and Right-Ctrl to move downward. You can continuously hold the key to keep moving in that direction. This will greatly help you to fully maneuver your ship into position. Once you are positioned correctly, we can begin the landing!
A good tip when landing is to make use of the 3rd-person camera. Press F4 on your keyboard to switch to this view. You can tap Z on your keyboard to enter free look mode, which will enable you to move the camera using the mouse without moving your ship along with it. Tap Z again to exit this mode and return to controlling your ship. Alternately, you can hold the Z key continuously while looking around, letting go once you are done.
Once you are confident that there are no obstacles in your way, press Right-Ctrl on your keyboard to descend into your hangar. Try to aim for the center of the pad if possible, to ensure you don't clip your wings on the sides. If you need to stop quickly for some reason, hit the X key to engage the space brake.
Do note that certain hangars will have a horizontal approach instead of the vertical approach as was shown here. The procedure to land in these hangars involve much of the same skills.
Upon a successful landing, you will receive a confirmation from ATC. You are now free to power down your ship and exit!
Ship Docking
In some locations, such as Orbital Space Stations, ATC may assign you a Docking Port if you are in a larger ship with docking capabilities. In these cases, you will still receive an in-world marker, but also be presented with the following UI.
As you approach the docking port, you will notice the red dots move around both the outer circle and the two lines. The aim is to line your ship up with the docking port until they all turn green; the two lines meeting in the middle, with the circle in the south-east position.
You will then want to move closer to the port, until the square grows in size to match the dimensions of the circle. As you line up correctly, the segments will start to turn green.
At this point, pressing N on your keyboard will initiate the final parts of the docking process, until the docking clamps are enabled and you are fully docked.
Coupled vs Decoupled Flight Mode
These two flight modes offer some different control methods that will impart a very different feel for your experience while flying a ship. By default players will fly their ships in Coupled mode but can switch to Decoupled mode and back by hitting the C button on the keyboard.
At a very basic level, coupled mode allows the ship to slowly come to a stop after all control inputs cease, while decoupled mode allows the momentum and inertia of a ship to continue under the same circumstances. If you find your ship controls feeling quite different, it's possible this mode was toggled on by accident! There are benefits to both, but many players like decoupled mode because it gives a more realistic flying experience. Just be prepared for the drifting if you switch to decoupled flight mode!
The instructions above were given with the default coupled flight mode in mind.