There is a whole myriad of unique and powerful weapons that you can acquire through your journey in Starfield. But, switching between all these weapons manually can be a tiring process. And that is why you need to learn how to assign weapons to hotkeys in Starfield. Almost every new point of interest that you visit will reward you with a new weapon you probably haven’t seen before so you are gonna want to switch between them often.
In this guide below, we will show you how to assign weapons to your hotkeys on the keyboard and also show you how you can access these weapons quickly on the controller using the Quick Slots feature.
How to quickly switch weapons by using hotkeys in Starfield
Switching weapons without using hotkeys in Starfield can be a real task. You will have to pause your game, navigate the menu, select your weapon, and then unpause the game. This can break your immersion and also the flow of the combat. By using hotkeys, you will be able to switch between a maximum of 12 different weapons by merely pressing a button.
If you take a look at the Quick Slot menu shown above, each slot is assigned to a button on the keyboard. So for example, if you want a particular weapon to be equipped or switched to when you press ‘3’ on your keyboard, the weapon should be in the corresponding slot.
Here is how you can assign weapons to these hotkeys in Starfield:
- Press the ‘i’ button to open your inventory.
- Navigate to the ‘Weapons’ menu and find the weapon you want on your hotkey.
- Once your desired weapon is selected, press ‘B’ to open up the favorites (Quick Slots) menu.
(Image via Bethesda Softworks) - Now, you can either click on the slot you want it assigned to or simply press the button that corresponds to the slot (For example: pressing ‘5’ will assign it to that button and its corresponding Quick Slot).
- You will now have that weapon on your hotkey in Starfield and you won’t need to navigate the menu in order to switch to that weapon.
How to switch weapons in Starfield using Quick Slots on the Controller
Since you do not have nearly enough buttons on the controller, you cannot assign weapons to single buttons. However, you can still switch fast enough in mid-combat without breaking the flow or going into the menu. But, you will have to set up these weapons first on the Quick Slots.
Here is how you can use Quick Slots on the controller to switch weapons fast like keyboard hotkeys in Starfield:
- Open the inventory by pressing the ‘Menu’ button and navigating to the inventory section.
- Choose the weapon you want on the Quick Slot, then press ‘Y’ to open the Quick Slot menu. Choose the slot you wish the weapon to be assigned in.
(Image via Bethesda Softworks) - Once assigned, you can now use any button on the D-pad in-game to open up the quick slot menu
- Navigate this using the D-pad itself and press ‘A’ on the weapon you wish to switch to.
That is all you need to know on how to assign weapons to hotkeys in Starfield. Since you might be stockpiling all the various weapons you get in the game, you might as well know about all the Trade Authority locations in Starfield so you can go sell all your unwanted weapons.
