Starfield contraband explained – How to smuggle and sell

How do you smuggle contraband in Starfield?

Smuggling contraband in Starfield is an essential skill of being a space pirate. You may have noticed that when you enter certain areas of the game, you’ll be greeted by scanners that will check if you’re holding any illegal goods.

But how do you smuggle cargo in Starfield? Read our guide to find out.

Starfield Guides:

Starfield New Game Plus | Starfield Contraband | Crimson Fleet quests | Ryujin Industries quests | Freestar Collective quests | Starfield fast XP gain | Starfield boost pack | Starfield console commands

Starfield contraband explained: How to smuggle

Smuggling in Starfield is a bit of a gamble. There are some items in the game that increase your chances of the scanners in each system ignoring the dodgy cargo that you’re bringing in, but even then, it’s only a chance.

You can invest in the Deception skill, which increases your chances of getting away with a smuggling effort, but even then it’s only to a point, that you’re never going to be completely guaranteed to smuggle items into huge areas like Jemison.

If you’re looking for a ship with a shielded cargo hold, which further increases your chances of getting away with smuggling, we recommend you complete The Mantis, an early quest that gives you the Razorleaf ship.

Starfield contraband explained: Where to sell contraband

In Starfield you can sell contraband at the trade authority. You’ll find the trade authority on all of the major systems that you visit. They’re often found near Enhance and the other shops that are local to that planet.

Once there, you can sell anything you’ve managed to smuggle into the planet to the Trade Authority.

Though you should be aware that each vendor in Starfield has a limited amount of credits which can be found in the top right-hand corner, you can only sell as much as that trader has the credits to buy.

You can obviously offset this by buying some things off the trader.

Starfield contraband explained: What happens if you’re caught?

If you’re caught with Contraband in Starfield then there are a few different things that can happen. Firstly, this depends on how much contraband you’re trying to smuggle.

If you’re smuggling a large amount of cargo, there’s a chance you can be arrested. Being arrested in Starfield can actually lead you into a quest, which is worth doing. For more information on that, check out our Crimson Fleet guide. 

If you’re not carrying much, you have the option to pay a fine and surrender the goods.