How to Wait and Pass Time in Starfield

Day and night cycles are a wonderfully dynamic way to bring life to game worlds, and Starfield is no stranger to this. Any Bethesda Game Studios titles worth their salt have consistently got events in motion where major events, inventory renewals, and even animosity from allies fade over time. But you’ll find in this game, you can’t just hit ‘T’ and be done with it like in Fallout 3. In Starfield, to pass the time there’s a very specific method you have to use to wait, and it’s thankfully very easy.

How Do You Wait to Pass the Time From Night to Day in Starfield?

Sit in any chair by pressing ‘E’ on PC or ‘A’ on Xbox, then press ‘B’ on PC or ‘Y’ on Xbox to wait in Starfield. Beyond that, you’ll be given a slider where you can select however many hours you wish.

Related: Starfield Review

Use this to pass entire days, relative to how long a day takes to pass locally on your current planet. Everything is scaled to Universal Time (UT) but with additional time based on a 24-hour system, with Akila days taking 28 hours to pass.

Why Wait Instead of Sleeping in Starfield?

While waiting doesn’t bestow the same healing benefits of sleeping, you can’t reasonably sleep outside of a bed (or similar surface) just anywhere. This is as much the case in the game as it is in real life, and sometimes you just want the time to pass.

I used this in recent instances to refresh Rowland Arms’ inventory to find an Old Earth Shotgun. I also unexpectedly found out Andreja was no longer mad at me through an in-game message after waiting, although I’m unsure what I did aside from some mild petty theft.