Star Citizen Settings & Keybinds Guide

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December 4, 2025 at 5:50 am #4120

Keymaster

Welcome, Pilot.

There are different perspectives on how to configure Star Citizen settings and keybinds. While Star Citizen claims to be controller agnostic, many factors determine your best strategy. Dual sticks and pedals offer excellent versatility, but claims that you can’t be a PVP contender with anything less are certainly short-sighted, if not hyperbolic.

This guide will help you eliminate hidden performance killers, maximize combat visibility, and ensure your settings aren’t putting you at a disadvantage before the fight even starts. While our primary goal is to help new competitive pilots with optimal game settings and keybinds, all pilots will benefit—flying a starship is, after all, central to Star Citizen.

1. Gameplay Settings

1.1 Camera & HUD Cleanup

If you are using head tracking you should disable anything that introduces artificial movement or visual disruption. Otherwise utilizing look ahead features can help you quickly locate your next target.

Turn OFF:

Cinematic Cameras
Camera Vibration
Camera Spring
Enter/Exit Labels (optional)
Subtitles (optional)

Crosshair Mode: Always On
Crosshair Opacity: 100%

1.2 Ship Defaults

Critical Toggles

Setting	Value	Reason
Automatic Slowdown	No	Prevents unintentional braking.
Decoupled Mode	No (or Yes with toggle)	Avoid accidental drift.
ESP	Yes	Essential for precision aiming.
G-Safe	No	Never allow G-limit constraints.
Boost disables G-Safe	Yes	Ensures G-Safe stays off.
Cruise Mode	No	Not used in combat.
Space Brake Enables Boost ⁽¹⁾	No (or Yes)	Prevents boost drain when holding space brake.
Speed Limiter ⁽²⁾	No (or Yes)	Never restrict SCM speed ceiling.
Proximity Assist	NO	This ruins knife-fighting — MUST be off.

Notes:

Conserving boost during emergency braking consumes minimal boost. If you are consistently draining your boost, carefully consider your flight tactics and power management.
There are valid reasons to restrict the SCM speed ceiling during PVP AND PVE. For example in an asteroid belt and during landing operations. Digital inputs are adequate.

1.3 Advanced HUD

Use Advanced HUD: Yes

Provides critical centralized combat information. Enable both SCM and NAV modes. You may also want to include the Advanced HUD prefers labels and the HUD Course Prediction options, set both to ON.

1.4 ESP (Enhanced Stick Precision)

Recommended Starting Values

Strength: 1.0
Curvature: 0.0 (majority of competitive pilots)

Increasing the curvature widens the target window which makes your target harder to center. Slowly increase the curvature to a comfortable level.

1.5 VJoy Settings

VJoy Visibility: Always Visible
Yaw/Pitch Range: 4–14
Mouse Deadzone: 0 – 1.25

1.6 Velocity Indicator & Weapon UI

Setting	Value
Velocity Indicator (TVI)	Always On
Magnified UI	Off
Precision Lines	On
Staggered Fire	No
Lag Pips ⁽¹⁾	No (Lead pips for PvP)
Individual Pips	Optional
Fading Pips	No

Notes:

Lead pips are helpful for managing roll as you want to keep your lead pips vertical to your nose. Lag pips allow for a better visual indication of your target. It is preferred that you set a toggle to switch between them as the situation demands.

1.7 Targeting Info

Ensure full visibility:

Target Locked Heading → Yes
Target Distance → Yes
Target Name → Yes

1.8 Look-Ahead & Camera Movement

Disable ALL artificial cockpit movement.

Turn OFF:

Pilot Look-Ahead if using head tracking ⁽¹⁾
Look-Ahead Strength if using head tracking ⁽¹⁾
G-Force Induced Head Movement
Afterburner Zoom
Global Camera Shake
Auto Zoom On Locked Target

Set all sliders to 0.

Note:

Pilot Look-Ahead is highly recommended for pilots forgoing head tracking. Use a value of approx 50-70 for Strength – Look At Target and Target Tracking. Set a value of approx 10 for Look and Roll into turns. Again, experiment until you find the right mix. And don’t forget to include a key binding for releasing your target lock to return your HUD view forward.

1.9 Nameplates & Detection

Party Name Plates → Yes
Contact Names → Yes
Emission HUD Values → Yes (Shows how far away you can be target-locked — vital when hunting stealth ships.)

2. Graphics Settings

Recommended Graphics Essentials

Field of View: 100–116 ⁽¹⁾
- 105 is a balanced competitive choice.
Motion Blur: Off
VSync: Off
Chromatic Aberration: Off
Film Grain: Off

These eliminate visual noise during dogfights.

Notes:

Wide screen users may prefer to set the FOV to its max value of 130 and then set an analog key bind to zoom in and out. Zoom out to aid in target selection and situational awareness and then zoom in to engage.

3. Audio Settings

Turn OFF:

Audio-Driven Camera Shake → 0

4. Keybind Guide

Keybinds are personal — but critical function priority is universal.

Your binds must be:

reachable instantly
require minimal hand movement
ergonomically comfortable

4.1 Critical Combat Keybinds (Non-Negotiable)

These must be on comfortable, instant-access keys.

1. Boost

Most-used key in a dogfight.
Will be pressed/held almost constantly. ⁽¹⁾

Note:

If you adopt flight maneuvers that depend heavily on boost then you should be prepared to adjust your power management to favor your engines over both your weapons and shields. With the introduction of heat management you may also find yourself overheating. Just saying.

2. Fire Weapons

Must be on M1 / trigger / primary button.
Must set a toggle for weapons groups 1-4.

3. Cycle Master Mode (SCM ↔ NAV)

Essential for disengaging mid-fight.
Put somewhere you can hit without searching.

4. Target Selection

Primary Bind:

Cycle Lock → “In View / Under Reticle”

This is the single most-used targeting function.

Optional secondary targeting binds:

Nearest Hostile
Friendly Target Cycle
Pin/Unpin Target
Closest attacker

4.2 Scan Ping (SCANNING)

You should be spamming this constantly in fights.

Why?

Keeps contacts visible
Prevents friendlies/hostiles from disappearing
Detects enemy cross-section before lock
Primary hunting tool in the PU

→ Bind this to a very easy key.

4.3 Countermeasures

Decoys (Flares)

Primary missile defense.
Must be QUICK to activate.
You also need a fast way to group decoys (3–4+ for big missiles).

Noise (Chaff Cloud)

Creates a radius where enemies cannot target lock you.
Best used when turning away to flee.

4.4 Power Management

Power is critical today.

Recommended binds:

Tap/Hold Max Power to Engines
Tap/Hold Max Power to Shields
Tap/Hold Max Power to Weapons

Place on spare hats or modifier keys.

5. Summary Checklist

Disable:

ALL camera shake
ALL look-ahead if using head tracking!
Proximity Assist
Speed Limiter, or use key binds to increase/decrease as necessary
Cruise Mode
Motion Blur
VSync
Film Grain
Chromatic Aberration
G-Safe

Enable:

Advanced HUD
ESP
Velocity Indicator
Emission HUD
Target info overlays

Critical Keybinds (Top Priority):

Boost
Fire Weapons
Cycle Flight Mode (SCM/NAV)
Target Under Reticle
Scan Ping
Decoys
Noise
Power Quick-Set

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