Best Starting City in Star Citizen: Area18, New Babbage, Lorville or Orison?
Neon streets, snowy horizons or a home above the clouds? Find the Stanton city that suits your first adventures—and understand what your residence choice actually changes.
Area18’s neon streets, New Babbage’s frozen lake, Lorville’s enormous factory skyline and Orison’s cloud gardens make very different introductions to Star Citizen. You can visit all four, but the city you select as your primary residence takes on a more practical role: it becomes the place you start organising your life in Stanton.
If you are joining friends, start near them. For a solo newcomer who wants a bustling city and a clear destination to learn, Area18 is our first suggestion. Choose New Babbage if microTech’s landscape and surface excursions appeal more; Lorville if you want to base yourself around Hurston; or Orison if Crusader is where you want to spend your evenings.
This comparison covers Stanton’s four starting cities. Other starting options exist in Pyro and Nyx, but their less forgiving surroundings make Stanton the more approachable place to learn.
Choose a home, not a permanent flight plan
Your primary residence determines the initial location of your ships, equipment and regeneration point. It also fixes the location of your personal hangar under the current system. Changing where you regenerate later does not relocate that hangar or bring your stored belongings with you.
You can still operate elsewhere. Visiting another spaceport gives you access to a public hangar, and you can move equipment to the places you use regularly. The important distinction is between where the game establishes your home and where you choose to work. Picking Area18 does not commit you to an ArcCorp-only career.
| Starting city | Choose it for | Learn this destination |
|---|---|---|
| Area18 · ArcCorp | A dense urban base and city shopping | Riker Memorial Spaceport |
| New Babbage · microTech | A high-tech city beside a snowy landscape | New Babbage Interstellar Spaceport |
| Lorville · Hurston | A Hurston base with access to the surrounding surface | Teasa Spaceport |
| Orison · Crusader | A floating city and a base around Crusader | August Dunlow Spaceport |
If you already fly with an organisation, ask where its members keep their equipment before confirming your choice. Starting together is often more useful than selecting a city from somebody else’s “best spawn” list and then spending your first session travelling to the group.
Area18: start among the neon
ArcCorp gives you the city-planet fantasy immediately. Area18’s plazas, advertising and towers create a wonderfully crowded backdrop to what may initially be a very modest adventure: buying a few supplies and finding your ship. This is the choice we would make for a newcomer who likes an urban setting and wants to learn one recognisable route through it.
From Adira Falls, head towards ArcCorp Plaza, then follow the CityFlight signs for the spaceport service. Riker Memorial is the destination to remember. Once through customs, the ASOP terminals let you retrieve your ship and identify its assigned hangar.
The reason to choose Area18 is the city itself and the part of Stanton you want to use. It is less appealing if the first thing you want to do is drive out into open countryside. For that kind of start, microTech or Hurston makes more sense.
New Babbage: glass domes and the open snow
New Babbage offers a striking change of mood. Its clean architecture and sheltered interiors sit against microTech’s severe weather, with a frozen landscape beyond the city. If the idea of leaving town in a ground vehicle is part of the appeal, this is an especially attractive home.
The Nest is the habitation building; the MT Metroloop connects it to the spaceport. Follow the Spaceport line, leave at the spaceport stop and take the lifts through security to the departure area. Remembering that route is more useful on your first evening than trying to memorise every shop.
microTech rewards a little preparation. Its winter weather belongs in your plans when you leave the sheltered city, especially on foot. Bring equipment suited to the conditions rather than treating an excursion beyond the doors as another walk through the Commons. You do not need to turn the first session into an expedition, but the option is part of New Babbage’s charm.
Lorville: make your base on Hurston
Lorville is industrial, imposing and unmistakably a company town. Hurston Dynamics’ Central Tower dominates the skyline; outside the walls, the setting is desert and polluted coastline. Pick it because you want to spend time around Hurston, or because that is where your crew already operates.
For the city-to-ship route, leave the L-19 habs and follow the Metro Center signs to the Spaceport line. Teasa Spaceport contains the retrieval terminals, with hangar lifts beyond the New Deal area. The city also has surface vehicle facilities at its perimeter gates. Use the appropriate garage route for an outing on the ground; the spaceport route is for reaching your ship.
There is a particular appeal to returning to that enormous skyline after a flight. There is also no reason to pretend that its industrial atmosphere suits everyone. If you want greenery, bright interiors or a resort-like home, choose somewhere you will enjoy coming back to. You can visit Hurston without making Lorville your residence.
Orison: a home above Crusader’s clouds
Orison is the scenic choice: platforms, gardens and a spaceport suspended above a gas giant. It is a strong fit for someone who wants Crusader as their local area and enjoys the journey through the city as much as the departure.
The Green Circle habs sit at Cloudview Center. From there, the shuttle to Providence Platform takes you towards the lifts for August Dunlow Spaceport. Follow the departure and hangar signs to reach the vehicle terminals. Learning the platform names makes the trip much less confusing than trying to recognise every garden and walkway.
Choose Orison because you like that setting and want to operate nearby. Avoid treating old advice about ascent times or a particular patch’s performance as a timeless verdict on the city.
What if you change your mind?
You can fly elsewhere, move the equipment you need and set a different regeneration location at an appropriate clinic or hospital. Your personal hangar remains at the selected primary residence. A medical registration change is not a household move.
For a first relocation, take the supplies you expect to use rather than filling the ship with everything you own. Our inventory and personal-hangar guide explains the different storage locations and what happens to equipment taken into danger.
And if you have already picked a city, there is no need to restart your plans over a recommendation in this article. Learn your route, meet your friends and get out into Stanton. Our first-session guide takes over from there, while the landing-permission guide helps with the return trip.