05 September 2023 , 18:00
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The world of Starfield has many laws, one of these being about what you can and can't smuggle between planets, luckily there's more than one way to bring contraband to different planets undetected.
During your time in Starfield you'll no doubt be picking up any and all items you can get your hands on. While the majority of the items available in the world of this Xbox exclusive are pointless tat you can sell for small amounts of credits or useful resources like Lubricant and Ship Parts needed for upgrading gear, you'll sometimes happen upon illegal contraband items. These can be easily denoted by the little yellow symbol.
As you may have noticed when you first flew into New Atlantis at the start of the game, your ship was scanned for any potential contraband, which clues you in that transporting contraband around the stars will be easier said than done.
The first place you're likely to run into contraband is in New Atlantis. Viewport owner Nyssa Marcano will give you a side quest to get some impounded cargo from a storage area near where you landed. In that same room you'll find a resource called Mech Components, which are illegal contraband. So if you're unsure about what signs to look out for to determine if something is contraband, look there.
You can sell this illegal contraband at the Trade Authority outposts. You'll run into one very early on in the game if you venture into The Well on New Atlantis and follow the mission to investigate breaker boxes. Eventually you'll meet an NPC called Zoe Kaminski who will take these illicit goods off your hands.
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How to smuggle contraband in Starfield
So there's a few ways to successfully smuggle contraband. The first one is to level up your Deception skill. This skill is one of your Advanced Social Skills and every rank will make you better at smuggling. With Rank 1, enemy contraband scans are 10% less effective, Rank 2 bumps that to 20%, Rank 3 goes to 30%, and finally Rank 4 will make them 50% less effective, so the chances of getting caught with Rank 4 Deception are dramatically lower.
Other ways to reduce your chances of getting caught is by purchasing specific items for your ship. Namely a Shielded Cargo Hold and a Scan Jammer. Scan Jammers come in different levels, with the highest one giving you a 50% bonus without the need for Rank 4 Deception, while placing those items into a Shielded Cargo Hold lowers those chances even more.