Starfield: How To Make Money? [5 Tested Methods]

Credits are the main currency in Starfield, and they are required to buy almost anything there. Getting enough money is not hard, but some things need you to have deep pockets. This guide goes through the best methods to make the maximum extra money in Starfield so you never run out of it.

Looting & Selling Items

Looting and selling various items is the most basic way to make money in Starfield. There are several ways to loot items, including scavenging dead bodies, pickpocketing people, and raiding ships. Refer to the following vendors to sell stolen items.

Vendor	Location	Aspects
Trade Authority	– They are available in every major location – Kiosks are present near every established landing location.	– Merchants carry about 11,000 credits. – You can sell Contraband to them if you get there safely. – They are located almost everywhere. – They sell and buy every item.
Ship Services	– Near every established landing site.	– Only vendor to buy or sell in ships. – Only deals in ships. – Can buy stolen ships. – Doesn’t give much profit in selling stolen ships.
Centurian Arsenal	– Residential District, New Atlantis City, Jemison	– It has 12,500 Credits. – Decent variety of weapons – Only deals in weapons
Zuri’s Essentials	– Key Space Station, Planet Suvurov, Kryx System	– It has 14,000 Credits. – Sells and buys every item. – Deals in Contraband items. – You can only access it after joining Crimson Fleet.
UC Distribution Center	– Commercial District, New Atlantis City	– Deals in every item. – You cannot sell Contraband items here. – It has only 5000 Credits.

“Commerce” is one of the best skills that can greatly help in this task by adjusting the prices you buy and sell items in your favor. The discount rate goes up as you rank up this particular skill. It can go to a maximum of 25% more value when selling items and a 20% discount when buying items.

Scavenge Dead Bodies & Take Random Loot

As you already have seen, there is a lot of random stuff lying around in places in Starfield. Most of these items are useless or even invaluable, but some are quite expensive. You can pick these up and then sell them to the vendors later to earn a profit.

The only drawback of this scheme is that you can carry a limited amount of goods; if many of them are lying around, you must re-visit the place to pick them up. Just make sure not to overload yourself, or you won’t be able to fast-travel to your ships.

Additionally, you can find some precious items or extra weapons on the dead bodies that you can scavenge and sell. There are credits present in the loot of dead Crimson Fleet members and Spacers as well that may contribute to your extra cash. Always go for higher-ranking items as they give more money in return.

The following items are good choices to look for when looting:

• Weapons
• Body Armor like Helmets and Space Suits.
• Boost Packs
• Any other item with a Legendary or Very Rare rating.

Pickpocket NPCs

Starfield has many NPCs roaming around; you can even pickpocket them to make credits. This is a risky task, but it can be worthwhile without getting caught. Remember, if you get caught, the security will be after you.

Raiding Ships

Another similar method is to raid enemy ships roaming in space to get looted items or hijack the ship to sell it. You can look for cargo to contain anything valuable and then take it to your ship. Firstly, disable the ship’s weapons and engines by directly shooting at them.

Once they cannot move, board the ship and kill anyone there. Loot their bodies and look for other expensive stuff on board. If you think the ship is worthy, you can take it and sell it or its parts, but first, you must register it to your name for a certain fee.

Mission Board Quests

Aside from the main storyline quests, Starfield has a decent number of side-missions as well to keep the players busy. Additionally, they can give some significant money rewards in Starfield. These are not difficult tasks and often pay well, depending on the nature of the objectives.

The common tasks you might have include delivery, killing people, defending the locals from pirates, and much more. A few of them are related to their relevant factions, while others are general in nature. These mission boards are present in most settlements and a few mysterious places.

Outposts

Outposts are safe houses that can do a lot of tasks. For example, you can build extractors there to mine important minerals from planets for your usage or sell them. Find yourself a resource-rich planet and construct a system of extractor and storage powered by a source.

You can assign a companion to it to automate the process. Therefore, it becomes one of the easiest ways to get minerals and money simultaneously without much effort. Although you can only build up to 8 outposts initially, you can increase this by increasing your skill points.

Selling Contrabands

Contraband items are unique items that are normally illegal to sell in the market. These are usually yellow colored when placed in inventory and may include human organs, drugs, special parts, and artistic pieces. A few vendors take such items, like the Trade Authority, and you can find them at the following places.

Location	Celestial Body	System
The Well, New Atlantis City	Jemison (Planet)	Alpha Centauri System
Akila City	Akila (Planet)	Cheyenne System
Neon City	Volii Alpha (Planet)	Volii System
The Den	The Den (Satellite)	Wolf System
The Key	The Key (Station)	Kryx System
Cydonia	Mars (Planet)	Sol System

Moreover, there is also a high risk of getting caught with them as they are mostly illegitimate. Hence, you must have a safety measure to transport them to the vendors safely. You require a Shielded Cargo so security cannot scan and confiscate your Contraband items.

These rare items are usually in locked boxes, secret locations, or locked rooms. You can encounter them while raiding ships or exploring planets. The high risk and rarity of these are why they sell for extremely high prices.

Planet Survey Data

Selling Planet’s survey data is another option to get money in Starfield. To get the data, you must scan the planet while staying in its orbit, and the objects you must scan include the planet’s resources, flora, landmarks, and fauna. An easy way to do it is to go to an asteroid or a place where you cannot land and scan it, which will do the work.

Once done, you will get a Survey Data item specific to that celestial entity in your inventory. Afterward, you can sell it to Vladimir for around 1000 Credits or more in the Alpha Centauri system at The Eye Space Station around Jemison. Moreover, the Trade Authority Vendors will also buy it for half the price compared to what Vladimir offers, which is a better choice.

This sums up my guide on How To Make Money in Starfield. You might opt for the easier methods like outposts or try your luck with the riskier contraband items. Also, make sure to sell the excessive items in the inventory to keep the cash coming while keeping free space for more goods.

Do check out other guides on Starfield:

• Starfield: All Landmarks [Earth, Apollo, & Mars]
• Starfield Best Legendary Weapons [Top 10]
• Starfield All Powers [Complete Guide]