Starfield: How to Wait & Pass Time

Starfield is a gigantic game packed with quests to find and complete, collectibles, and silly side stories that occur organically around the player. It’s just like every Bethesda RPG while simultaneously being completely different and so much better than anything that’s come before.

However, one thing the game doesn’t do well is broadcast to players how simple mechanics work. One of these is waiting, and it drove us mad for over 20 hours before we finally figured out how to get it to work. In fact, we’re slightly embarrassed it took us so long.

Related: Starfield Complete Guide – Quest, Lore, Story & Trailers

How to Wait in Starfield

To wait in Starfield, players need to find a seat or bed, interact with it, and then press the Wait button (Y on Xbox). This will bring up the wait menu, where players can choose how many hours they’d like to wait.

While waiting, time will pass at a rate of one hour every two or three seconds. It’s far from seamless, but it does avoid players needing to wait for dozens of in-game hours for something to happen. We’ve found that there are seats pretty much everywhere in Starfield, even on ships, so there shouldn’t ever be one too far away if players are desperate to pass the time.

In past games such as Fallout 3 and Skyrim, it’s been possible to wait by simply pressing one button. For some reason, Bethesda chose to make the mechanic work differently in Starfield. This may have something to do with all the extra features the game packs in that take up more buttons on the controller. We initially struggled taking screenshots because of this because the screenshot button changes the player’s perspective instead.

When do You Need to Wait in Starfield

There are two main reasons for players to wait and pass the time in Starfield. The first is to wait until a specific time for a mission. We had to do this in the Red Tape Blues quest, which is actually when we figured out how the mechanic can be triggered.

The other time players will need to wait and pass time in Starfield is to restock Credits with vendors. For example, the Wolf Den Trade Authority will take all a player’s contraband, but they only have a finite number of Credits. Players can wait for 48 hours to restock the vendor’s Credits and sell even more contraband before moving back into regulated space.