Fix Starfield Groundpounder Bug with Locked Door and Missing Spacer Ships
Starfield Groundpounder is a side mission that starts with a distress signal from a person called Private Mahoney. During this quest your goal is to defeat a group of Spacers near the huge research station Freestar Collective Research Outpost on Altair II. But while trying to complete this quest we came across two issues: our Starfield Groundpounder quest marker disappeared, and we couldn’t open the door and progress through Groundpounder. If you have the same problems as we did and can’t progress through the mission, take a look at our Starfield Groundpounder guide for solutions.
Starfield Groundpounder Bug – Destroy the spacer ships marker gone
The first issue we run into was while destroying spacer ships in orbit at Altair 3 and Altair 1. Once we destroyed the first group the quest send us to destroy the second one but the location marker disappeared. We flew around the planet, even land on Altair I, but there was no enemy ships in orbit. The solution that we found thanks to afraser33 was to land in New Atlantis. Once you land there, look for a ship with a blue quest marker above it. Just wait until that ship lifts off and get into you ship and go into orbit. There you will fight the last group of spacer ships and complete this step.
If the game indicated that the Spacers are in orbit around New Atlantis and you defeat them there, you’ll come across another problem. The mission log will still tell you to defeat the spacers in orbit around Altair. In order to fix this bug you’ll have to unlock any other mission in the same system that also deals with Spacers. After completing that one, Groundpounder step will no longer be stuck.
Groundpounder Bug – NPC not opening the door
The second problem in Starfield Groundpounder quest was during the step where you should clear the Spacers and talk to Lezama. Most players think that this step is bugged because they defeat all enemies, even some behind the locked doors, but NPC Lezama still doesn’t open the door. This is not a bug, you just need another U3-09 keycards. The first one U3-09 FACILITY KEYCARD you will get from the soldier near the doctor. The second key U3-09 SECURITY KEYCARD you will get from Sergeant Dasari upstairs.
Also, we got another solution from Dragonfly187 in the comment section: Private Mahoney will warn you not to attack UC soldiers. If you did so, reload your game before entering this area and don’t kill any of them. You’ll be able to complete the step and get the card.
As you can see this mission has several problems, and if you have a new one or have some better solution for the listed issues above, please leave a comment below.
Thanks for posting this. I was going crazy with this one!
If you get the missing ship bug, and it doesn’t show up in New Atlantis like the article says, it’s likely what happened to me… I docked with and captured one of the spacer ships. I registered and customized it. While I was using it as my home ship, it would not show up.
What tipped me off is that eventually, my new ship disappeared from the dock in New Atlantis and a waypoint to my ship pointed to another planet I had an active mission to travel to. I switched back to the Frontier, and in seconds the missing Altair spacer ship landed. I took off in the Frontier, destroyed it (after a Save of course, hoping it wouldn’t destroy my ship I spent so many credits on). After destroying the ship above new Atlantis, I landed and was able to switch back to my custom Spacer ship.
I believe there is no bug in the game as some people claim online that you cannot proceed if you attack the UC soldiers. I also faced this issue as I killed all the soldiers and then went back to Private Mahoney’s closet. However, she warned me not to kill the UC soldiers after I killed everyone. So, I reloaded the game before entering the area and made sure I didn’t attack them. As a result, everything worked out fine. I was able to clear the area, open the door to get the card, and proceed further.