Use our Starfield Smuggling guide to easily understand how to smuggle and sell Contraband in Starfield.
In Starfield, some items are illegal and can get you in trouble if found. When you enter guarded places like New Atlantis or Neon, your ship gets checked for illegal stuff, marked with a yellow symbol. Not all planets have these checks, and if you own a house on Nesoi, you can stash your illegal items there. But you can also sneak them in with Starfield Smuggling as stolen items usually don’t trigger the checks. Our Starfield Smuggling guide tells you how to hide illegal things like Contraband from scans and where to sell them.
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How to smuggle and sell Contraband in Starfield
To smuggle contraband in Starfield, you need a Shielded Cargo Hold on your ship. This module shields your cargo from scans during planet entry. If any item in your inventory has a yellow icon, it means you have contraband on board.
However, it’s a bit tricky because there’s no surefire method, but here’s the deal: You can’t stuff your Shielded Cargo Hold completely with illegal stuff. It’s like hiding something illegal in a truck in real life. If it’s buried under lots of legal stuff, it’s less likely to get noticed by the authorities. But if the whole truck is packed with illegal stuff, it’s a dead giveaway. This idea works the same way for Starfield Smuggling.
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In the game, your Shielded Cargo Hold’s capacity matters when carrying contraband. If it’s close to full (around 80-90kg+), you might get flagged during scans. But if you carry just 20kg of contraband, you’ll likely pass unnoticed. To boost your chances for Starfield Smuggling further, use Scan Jammers along with a Shielded Cargo Hold. They won’t work with a standard Cargo Hold but, with a Shielded one, adding these gadgets reduces the risk of failing a scan with contraband.
There is one more simple way of Starfield Smuggling, the Deception Starfield skill which is in the social category, row two. To get it, you need to spend four skill points on social and one more for Deception. Each level of Deception makes contraband scans less effective, starting at 10% at level one and going up to 50% at level four. If you want to be a pirate, it’s a good skill to have. But if you are just a part-time smuggler, focus on other skills at the beginning.
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