How to Wait – Starfield

There are many reasons you might want to skip or pass some time in Starfield. Most NPCs in the game have set schedules that they stick to, so you’ll find them in different places at different times of the day. Waiting until nightfall for a stealth mission is often a good idea for this reason, since many of the NPCs will be asleep. Vendors in the game also respawn their inventory and credits every 24 hours, so waiting that long can allow you to buy or sell more items.

But how do you wait in Starfield? We’ll cover three different methods in this guide.

Keep in mind that there are two ways of measuring time in Starfield: local time and universal time. Local time is based on the day cycle of the planet or moon you’re currently on. Universal time, or UT, is basically the 24-hour Earth clock, and is consistent across the Settled Systems. If you’re waiting for vendors to respawn, be sure that you wait at least 24 hours UT rather than local time.

How to Use the Wait Menu

Waiting in Starfield is not like in Skyrim, where you can wait at any time. It’s more like Fallout 4 where you have to be seated before you’ll have the option to wait.

Luckily there are places to sit everywhere, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding one. Just look for a bench, chair, stool, or couch, and interact with it to sit down. Then you’ll be prompted to press the wait button ( / / by default).

This will bring up the Wait Menu where you can choose how long you’d like to wait. The time will pass in just a few moments, and you’ll find yourself a few hours in the future. Who knew time travel was so easy!

How to Sleep

You can also sleep in a bed to pass the time. Sleeping has the added benefit of granting you the Well Rested buff, which gives you 10% increased experience gains for 24 hours UT. This buff goes up to 15% if you’re married to one of your companions.

Sleeping can also help heal some afflictions, but only if your prognosis is good. Severe injuries will need to be treated with aid items instead.

To sleep, locate a bed that you can use, such as the one on your ship or in the Lodge. You can add a bed to any house, outpost, or ship you own. You’ll also find them in various places across the Settled Systems – even NPCs sleep, after all.

Activate a bed, and you’ll bring up the Sleep Menu, which is functionally the same as the Wait Menu.

How to Wait Through the Console

You may find yourself wanting to wait when you’re unable to access a chair or bed. Maybe you’ve encountered a bug and want to try to fix it by forcing some time to pass. For that, there are console commands.

Keep in mind that opening the console will disable achievements until you exit and relaunch the game. Note also that you must be using a keyboard to access console commands.

Open the console with the tilde ~ key and type in showmenu sleepwaitmenu. Hit enter and you should see the wait menu as if you had opened it while sitting down.