Starfield is a relatively enjoyable game, albeit a bit complicated for new gamers due to its complex navigation and upgrades. However, due to the internet being quite beneficial these days, it is easy to find anything you want.
For example, several features in Starfield, such as HUD, Inventory, UI, and Maps, can be used in favor, making your game incredibly easy and entertaining.
If you’re one of those gamers trying to navigate through Starfield and cannot discern what is what and how certain functions come in handy during situations, you’re in the right place.
In this guide, we will go through a few essential functions of Starfield, including HUD, UI, Inventory icons, Map icons, and more. So, buckle up and jump into the hyperspace along with us.
Starfield: What Is HUD and How You Can Use It?
HUD stands for heads-up display, which will make your exploration extremely easy if you know how to use it effectively. For starters, Starfield’s HUD offers two important main components: Compass HUD and Combat HUD.
Compass HUD:
Like its name, Compass HUD acts like a mini-map for players, and you can access it from the bottom-left side of the screen. It works in every way, from exposing possible enemies to helping you locate new regions. Here are the four primary functions of Compass HUD:
- Radar: It indicates enemies, nearby missions, objects, and landmarks through its markers.
- Stamina Bar: The stamina bar in Compass HUD shows you the oxygen level, thus informing you when to sprint and when to save your energy.
- Day and Night Cycle: It simply represents the daily cycle of the place you’re in the game and provides you with a good understanding of whether it’s day or night.
- Hazards and Conditions: This function is crucial to locate radiation and other corrosive areas that you need to avoid and also displays the alerts on the health bar if it starts depleting.
Combat HUD:
While we learned how Compass HUD works, Combat HUD should also be quite obvious. It appears at the right-bottom side of the screen and lets you access all combat-related key functions, such as weaponry, explosives, and more.
- Weapon Interface: You can choose or switch weapons depending on your necessity. It also lets you reload the weapons and displays the bullet count.
- Health Bar: The health bar is present right above the weapon interface, and you can use it during combat to apply health and other medical packs.
- Jetpack Bar: It determines how much fuel you have left to make jumps and lets you refill it.
Starfield: How to Use UI, Inventory, and Map Icons?
While using HUD gives you a certain amount of control over the game, Inventory and Maps take it to the next level. Let’s go over each for a detailed comprehension.
Inventory Icons:
- Weapons: You can access weapons and see their stats.
- Helmets: Equip helmets for defense.
- Spacesuits: Used to select armors and spacesuits.
- Apparel: Usual clothes worn under spacesuits.
- Ammo: You can refill and count ammo.
- Aid: Includes items from first-aid kits to stat buffs, such as food and beverages.
- Throwables: Contains explosives such as grenades, landmines, and ice bombs.
While the icons mentioned above all include the categories of items, you can find the rest inside each category and access them to learn their use. Simply put, these inventory categories contain options like Favorite, where you can easily add frequently used items.
Map Icons:
- Level: Informs the difficulty of a certain planet from the map and the hostile environments.
- Space Station: Shows undiscovered space stations so that you can hunt and scavenge for more items.
The Galaxy Map only contains these two icons, as Starfield has yet to add more options to the interface. However, the map should be relatively easy to use with few icons and from the explanation.
The UI stands for User Interface, which helps the players navigate with components and accomplish their desired gameplay. In short, everything you’re witnessing in the game is possible due to UI.
Since Starfield has been testing out many features lately, we can expect tons of other exciting additions to Ship upgrades as well as new map locations soon enough.
So, how is your experience of playing Starfield? Are you able to navigate through the galaxy without too much trouble?
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
