Most of the hardcore Bethesda fans who’ve invested thousands of hours into Skyrim and Fallout 4 couldn’t wait for the chance to blast off into Starfield.
No matter whether you paid for early access or jumped into the game on September 6, odds are, if you’ve avoided spending all day downloading mods, you’ve likely already blazed through a lot of missions and moulded your character into a hardened spacer.
You might also have been getting up to all kinds of wacky hijinks as you explore the cosmos, such as building a sandwich-shaped spaceship or swimming through a milky way made of literal milk. Or, you might have joined the legions of players being followed around by a cute pet rock.
Have you managed to adopt a pet asteroid in Starfield?
This wonderful potential bug has risen to prominence thanks to a post on the Starfield subreddit by user ReverendRoo, who’s shared a heartwarming gallery of pictures showing a little asteroid that’s somehow become stuck in orbit next to their ship.
As a result, they claim that it’s ended up accompanying them on their adventures through space for the last 30 in-game hours, even failing to be dislodged by loading screens. In a heartwarming touch, ReverendRoo added that the slightly clingy space rock: “genuinely feels like one of my companions now.”
Based on the responses their post has garnered, it certainly seems like they aren’t the only Starfield player to have attracted such a buddy, with some of those in the thread reporting having had several chilling out in their craft’s vicinity at once.
“I found when I was mining asteroids I ended up getting about [eight] or [nine] of various sizes following me around,” revealed user RedemptionXCI, adding: “Even [when I landed] on planets they were there, floating around my ship.”
Some of those in the thread have even had a crack at coming up with theories to explain the phenomenon. So far, these range from the attraction of orbiting asteroids being a subtle commentary on the bulkiness of certain ships to conspiracies about them being disguised spies covertly keeping tabs on the player.
Regardless of whether you’re exploring the Settled Systems with a pet rock in tow, make sure to follow us for lots of guides to the Starfield's world, mechanics, and quests, as well as updates on its DLC.
You can also check out our latest mods of the month.