After a brief delay, Bethesda has released Starfield’s biggest update yet via Steam Beta, which consists of well over 100 bug fixes and improvements to enhance players’ spacefaring experiences.
Bethesda has been teasing a slate of Starfield updates for some time now, with this version (1.9.47.0) marking the first of a “steady stream” of patches which are planned to release approximately every six weeks. Eventually, this will lead to some pretty exciting fresh features and settings, including “new survival mechanics” and “new ways to travel” being added to the role-playing game. There’s nothing of the sort present in this update, however, although it certainly sounds like the changes will bring some extra polish to the game.
One of these changes is yet another fix that attempts to stop random asteroids from following players’ ships around in space. This amusing bug has stuck around since launch - although an update rolled out in December aimed to fix it, it clearly wasn’t entirely effective. At the top of the latest patch notes, Bethesda noted: “We believe we got that pesky asteroid follower this time.” So much for having a pet rock companion, I guess.
Otherwise, four crashes have been addressed, such as one which could occur when loading a quicksave while using targeting mode, and one which (on PC) could happen when switching to DLSS while simultaneously having dynamic lighting active. Importantly, a rare issue on PC which could result in save game corruptions has been ironed out.
Some visual elements should look a little better now, too, with flickering issues associated with certain VFX (like those attached to waterfalls and sandstorms) fixed, as well as improved water reflections and eyes and skin on characters in crowds. Ironically given the simultaneous, separate following asteroid fix, “a rare issue that could cause rocks to disappear near the player on the surface of a planet” has been sorted, too.
The full list of fixes is absolutely enormous, but if you want to check them all out, you can find them on the official patch notes. While this update is only available via Steam Beta for now, Bethesda previously stated that it’s planned to be rolled out to everyone in around two weeks, so those on Xbox Series X|S shouldn’t have to wait too long.
For more games like Starfield, be sure to check out our recommendations for the best open-world games on PC, as well as the best RPGs.
