How to hold, move, rotate, and throw items in Starfield

Before you clutter your spaceship with intergalactic knick-knacks, it’s worth learning how to pick up, hold, and move items  in Starfield without adding them to your inventory. It’s an especially useful skill for styling your ship and getting things out of your way. Once you’ve picked up an item, you can also throw it, which is a great way of taking out your frustrations when a companion accidentally screws up a stealth mission for you. Here’s how to hold, move, rotate, and throw items and objects in Starfield.

How to hold, move, rotate, and throw items in Starfield

To hold an item in Starfield and move it around, hold down the E key on PC or A on an Xbox controller while looking directly at it. Provided you’re close enough, this will cause you to pick up and hold the object in front of you instead of adding it to your inventory. You can then let go of the key/button. Take a look in third person and you’ll discover that you’ve magically developed telekinesis. 

You can press the same input again (E on PC or A on Xbox) to drop the item in its current place. Handy, but sometimes you need to apply a bit of finesse to get your trophies and showpieces in just the right spot.

Once you’re holding an item in Starfield, you can then rotate it by using the left and right mouse buttons on PC, or the left and right triggers on an Xbox controller. This only rotates in one axis by default, but you can press Shift on PC or click in the left joystick on an Xbox controller to change the axis of rotation. It takes a bit of fiddling but you will be able to get any items you want set up in the places you like. Perfect for when you’re adjusting your ship feng shui.

Finally, you can throw items that you’re holding by pressing R on PC or the X button on an Xbox controller. Do this while running forwards and you’ll add some extra oomph to the thrown item. It’s worth noting that this isn’t a great way to deal with enemies in Starfield, but it is fun, especially when used to pepper your companions with various bits of space junk. Look, how you choose to put this talent to use is up to you!

Now that you know how to hold items, why not continue your Starfield fix with a look at these amazing custom ships?

Henry Stenhouse

Associate Editor

Henry Stenhouse serves an eternal punishment as the Associate Editor of AllGamers. He spent his younger life studying the laws of physics, even going so far as to complete a PhD in the subject before video games stole his soul. Confess your love of Super Smash Bros. via email at henry@moonrock.biz, or catch him on Twitter.