How to scan in Star Citizen
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Star Citizen is delighting players with its vast universe to explore, with plenty of places to go, and combat and weapons. Cloud Imperium Games’ title is an epic, large scale journey that keeps its fans coming back for more even in its current alpha phase.
If you’re just getting started, it can be a bit much to take in, especially scanning objects. Maybe you’re a long-time fan who needs a bit of a refresher on all the features. Either way, here’s what you need to do to scan in Star Citizen gameplay.
Star Citizen – How to scan
Scanning is vital while out in your starfarer to find valuable items in space, as well as your radar which will show your own signature out in space. You’ll need to be piloting your spaceship to be able to scan, so if you’re hanging out in a spaceport, hop in your ship cockpit (repair and refuel in the mobiGlas menu if you need to) and get moving.
Once you are out in the universe, simply hit the V key on your keyboard to bring up the scan. This is the default key, but you can change your key bindings if you wish. Once you are in scan mode, look above the monitors straight ahead and you’ll have two options to switch between:
- Scan
- Ping
Scanning is pretty self-explanatory, this will inspect objects the mouse is pointed towards by holding the left mouse button. Hold this down until the item is finished with the scanning method, and you will get the amount of information available which is determined by the signature, or the vertical bar on the left of the scanning focus. Move the mouse wheel up or down if you need to shift the scanning focus elsewhere.
Pinging is used by hitting the Tab key, and this will send out a ping from your ship to highlight objects that are too far away to scan so they’re easier to find.
Note that scanning isn’t possible if you’re using quantum travel, at least in the Star Citizen alpha, so if you calibrate the destination first and use this method, you won’t be able to scan any objects.
What can you scan in Star Citizen
Star Citizen players can scan pretty much anything that is out in the universe, and you can easily find out which objects are available for scanning by using the pinging feature. Common objects include mineable asteroids, ores, planets, moons, and ship systems. You’ll even get information from the crew by scanning ships. Get into the pilot seat of your ship and see what you can salvage.
