[Updated] Starfield 'Groundpounder' mission bugged or not progressing? Here's how to fix it

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on September 4, 2023) follows:

Starfield players have raised concerns about a potential progression bug in the “Groundpounder” mission.

However, initial reports suggest that this might be more of a design flaw than a bug.

Killed all the spacers, and now I am stuck, the NPC (Lezama) hasn’t opened the door. there are locked doors that require a keycard (U3-09) and there are some spacers behind one of those doors, but I cannot get to them. (Source)

I’m on the mission groundpounder and I defeated all of the spacers that were in orbit near Altair V and I and my objective now is to defeat the spacer invasion after I cleared the outside and the inside of the outpost the way point brought me outside but nothing happened a Spacer ship landed nearby but nothing is happening any ideas as to what to do? (Source)

The “Groundpounder” mission is a side quest in the Altair system in Starfield. Players are tasked with answering a distress call and eliminating the Spacer’s threat.

They must land on Altair II and head to Research Outpost U3-09, where they confront hostile spacers.

After dispatching them, players are supposed to explore the facility and rescue Private Mahoney, who then sends them on a mission to save other crew members.

Unfortunately, players (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) have encountered multiple softlocks preventing them from progressing as intended.

To address the softlock issue upon landing on the planet, some players recommend returning to their ship and landing again.

After reloading, they should fly to Altair and follow the mission’s natural progression.

Fly to new Atlantis. There, go to your missions and select the Altair 1 orbit killing part and it will tell you to fast travel back to new Atlantis for some reason. After re-loading back to new Atlantis you’ll see some ships landing near you with a blue marker above them. Wait until one of those ships takes off and immediately get into your ship and go into orbit. There you’ll find the remaining ships to kill but instead you’ll be in Jamison’s orbit. Super weird but it worked (Source)

Additionally, players are also having trouble finding the keycards needed to open doors in the facility after saving Private Mahoney.

This, however, is not a bug but rather attributed to what players describe as poor level design.

There are two keys in this mission. U3-09 Facility Key and U3-09 Security Key. You get the Facility key first, when you get to Lezama and the doctor dude. The door the Facility key opens is near where they are, but really easy to miss. It’s on the immediate right when you backtrack a little bit, literally like a u-turn around a corner. I also thought the quest was bugged but found it eventually. Bad level design for sure though. (Source)

As of now, there has been no official statement from the developers regarding these issues. We will monitor the situation and provide updates if any further developments arise.

05:23 pm (IST): There’s another potential workaround that has helped some players, so you can give it a try:

Quest was stuck for me at the Defeat Spacers. I went inside, flew off planet, landed on planet at a different site, went back the quest marker, and finally another spacer racoon landed and I was able to complete the quest.
Source

04:52 pm (IST): There are players for whom the quest even disappears after getting stuck, being unable to complete it.

Same thing happened to me on my first playthru. When I got a better ship I went back and they weren’t there. I checked back a few times with no luck and eventually the quest just disappeared.
Source

Feature image source: Bethesda

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