Crafting is the centerpiece of Starfield, generating a lot of different resources, ammunition, and consumables for you and your crew. However, getting a reliable workbench on a planet can be nearly impossible.
The hoops that you need to jump through to access ones of these crafting stations at any given time is usually a bit much. Thankfully, there is a way to put a workbench on your ship so you can craft on the fly.
Workbenches are required stations that allow you to craft multiple elements. There is a spacesuit, industrial, and weapons version of the crafting station. If you want to experience all that Starfield has to offer, you’re going to want a workbench on one of your ships.
Where to Get Workbenches for Your Ship
You get workbenches at the same place that you put them on your ship in Starfield: at ship technicians located on each and every planet. You can purchase them and install them within the same Ship Builder menu.
You can see the selection of bench options by going to a ship technician, viewing and modifying your ship (like you would if you were going to rename your ship), and swapping to the Ship Builder option by hitting the button indicated bottom right. Choose the “Add” command to bring up a menu of ship parts you can get and install – or, if you have habitations yourself, you can simply scroll onto your ship until you find its center HAB module and select it to open your part options.
Once in this menu, head to the HABS tab to see what they have to offer for the center habitation module of a given ship. The different modules offered will have somewhat different workbench opportunities. It depends a lot on the make and module.
If you want a ship with all three different workbench types, you’ll need a “Workshop.” These have all three workbenches, but no labs or any additional ship slots.
Not all ship technicians are built the same. Depending on which planet you land on, you’ll get very slightly different prices, branding, and quantities of HAB modules that you can install.
The company that builds the workshop for you will not influence it at all mechanically. It will influence what name gets painted across it, though. So, if you have a specific ascetic or dream brand deal that you want to enforce, you totally can.
Adding a Workbench to Your Ship
In order to add a workbench to your ship, you need to go to a ship technician, view and modify your ships, and swap to the ship builder menu. From there, tab over until you see the “HABS” option, which will show you all of the additions that the ship technician can make to your habitation module. You’ll be looking for one with the “Workshop” category, since that’ll have all three workbench types.
There will be a few workbench options for most technicians, with the three categories being “Industrial,” “Spacesuit,” and “Weapons.” They upgrade or adjust manufactured materials and structures, your suits, or your aggressive gear, respectively.
“HABS” sits between Grav Drives and Reactors, similar to how your ship is pasted together in the above diagram. From there, scroll down until you see a ship habitation module that you like. Hit left and right to scroll through the variants. Depending on the company, you could have upwards of 10 that you’ll need to cook on.
To put one in, while in the Ship Builder, you can select the center module that you want to replace and tack it on through the menu. Ship building is difficult without Starship Design, but you can usually always replace a ship’s habitation module with another one. Alternatively, through the Add menu, you can purchase a new module that you can stick in there.
Again, if you want workbenches, you want a Workshop-type HAB.
Expert Tip
There are a few other types of habitation modules available. They include:
- All-in-One Berth: More crew slots.
- Armory: More weapon displays and extra storage.
- Captain’s Quarters: Nav console and bed.
- Computer Core: Decoration.
- Control Station: Decoration.
- Infirmary: Pharmaceutical and Research Lab.
- Living Quarters: Galley and more crew slots.
- Science Lab: Pharmaceutical and Research Lab.
- Workshop: Your workbenches and a reasearch station.
It’s a good idea to have a ship available that can hold at least an Infirmary or Science Lab and another that can hold a Workshop. Though, having crew slots is a pretty good idea, if you want crew buffs – outside of building a million outposts.
