Starfield contraband: How to smuggle and sell your yellow-marked items without getting caught

Contraband can be useful in Starfield – or it can get you in big trouble (Picture: Bethesda)

Starfield has got off to a flying start since its release this week, with more than six million people playing the game according to makers Bethesda – and over 1 million people playing at once on Steam during its official launch on Wednesday.

All of which means people are getting to grips with the gameplay, creating their characters, exploring the planets its makers described as purposefully ‘boring’ and even trying to figure out which of the game’s characters they can have a romance with.

More specific aspects of the game have also been keeping us busy – such as learning how to store weapons and other items, or how to get and boost a jet pack.

But how can you find and store contraband in the game – especially if you have no shielded cargo?

Here’s what you need to know…

How to smuggle contraband in Starfield

It’s possible while playing Starfield that you will discover you have some illegal contraband on your ship – such as drugs, for example, or harvested organs, which can be found in enemy buildings and ships.

Contraband is marked in the game by a yellow marker in your inventory – in much the same way as stolen items are marked red.

While you can travel freely with it to many places, if you land somewhere like Neon or new Atlantis your ship will be scanned by patrols before you do so – putting you at risk of arrest if it’s found.

The game has already been a best seller (Picture: Getty Images)

Which will mean in those cases you’ll need to smuggle it across the border – unless you have shielded cargo, which will prevent it from being found.

There are a number of ways you can try and keep your contraband under wraps – for example by taking out a Deception Skill, which will make your ship less susceptible to scans and decrease your chances of being found out by a certain level, depending on how far along you are in the game.

You can upgrade your ship so that the scanners don’t detect your contraband – but you’d have to put it in the cargo hold – or you can also buy a scam jammer to evade capture.

Given you potentially face arrest and jail time, or a fine and the loss of XP points, if you’re caught, all of these are good options, or you could just sell it to avoid any trouble in the first place.

How to sell your contraband

You can sell your contraband in Starfield at The Trade Authority – which you’ll find on all of the major systems you visit during the game.

However, you should be aware that traders have only a certain number of credits, – around 11,000 – which may limit how much you can sell.

You can either buy items off the trader to increase this amount, or wait a set period of time for their credits to reset before you sell more.

There are also some specific locations you can sell contraband, such as The Den – a space station located in The Wolf System, close to Sol and Alpha Centauri.

How to get shielded cargo

There’s a couple of ways you can do this.

One is take control of an enemy ship, either by stealing it or killing its occupants, and checking for a shielded cargo hold in the ship overview screen, once you’re in the pilot’s seat.

If it has this facility, visit a ship technician and make it your Home Ship – freeing you up to use it for contraband.

Once you’re in charge of a ship you can see what’s available in its inventory (Picture: Bethesda)

Alternatively you can pay a visit to the Red Mile on Porrima III, in the Porrima System, where ship technician Lon Anderson will be able to help.

Simply choose ‘I’d like to view and modify my ships’ from the conversation options with the character – and you’ll be given a catalogue of ship parts you can purchase, which will include shielded cargo parts.

You can then add these to your ship to give yourself more smuggling power.

Starfield is available now (from September 6) on Xbox Series X/S and PC

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