Trading and smuggling in Starfield can be a long-winded affair of gathering goods from all across the known galaxy. While traveling from planet to planet, you may come across contraband that you want to sell, but ordinary stock ships won’t help. Luckily, early on you can take a few perks and ship parts that will help you evade some of those tricky security measures. For starters, you can take on the deception perk, and add a shielded cargo hold in order to maximize your efforts. From there it’s a matter of a few other sneaky methods.
In Maximizing your smuggling build, make sure to take perks such as commerce and bribery. This will work in order to make sure you can get the most out of this contraband you’re hauling. Different ports around the galaxy will give the player different black market materials and upgrades which can help overcome those tedious scans. Finally, smuggling can be a great asset to any playstyle as the goods run for extremely high prices. The cost, however, is an extreme risk of getting caught by the planetary defense forces.
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How To Smuggle
When trying to smuggle items into Starfield you have a few different options. However, there are two main things to keep in mind. Generally, the deception perk will help you stay out of the way of city sensors while sensor hammers and shielded cargo holds will do the rest. At first, this will be a very difficult task until you have the skill points to put into the perks or enough credits for the parts. Even so, contraband is a great way to make money fast, and you can spot it by the yellow square with an arrow through it. Without these upgrades, SysDef is very likely to catch you.
Smuggling Perks
There are quite a few different perks that can assist you in the task of smuggling, including the ever-potent deception perk. Besides this, you can increase the value of your contraband via the commerce perk. Gaining access to new areas is as simple as running the persuasion perk which allows you to gain a silver tongue. Finally, the bribery perk is useful for getting passed by security once you’ve been caught for having this level of contraband. Besides this, perks like Payload can increase your cargo hold’s maximum capacity, giving you more space. Just remember that all of these perks when combined with special parts make you especially effective at smuggling!
Deception
The deception perk is key to making sure that you’re able to move contraband through major colonies on planets. Each time you pick up the deception perk, you gain a ten percent bonus for evading detection scans that allow you to pass safely. This can go all the way up to fifty percent in a detection bonus, making contraband a coin flip when it comes to success. You run the risk of getting caught by the authorities if you don’t have it. You can increase deception by passing contraband through security, which is easier if you upgrade your ship.
Shielded Cargo Holds
The social skill tree has deception under the second tier. You’ll need three skill points in the social tree, which you can easily fill up with persuasion and commerce. Once you have this skill fully upgraded, you can easily bypass any form of security when you have the shielded cargo hold. To increase this perk’s effectiveness, you can get the bribery perk as well to make your smuggling just a little bit easier.
Bribery
The bribery perk is especially potent when it comes to getting caught by the authorities while carrying contraband. The best way to put it is that spending some credits on a bribe can save your character from losing the contraband at the SysDef security facility. Bribery can affect how much you have to pay to remain off the radar from gaining a bounty. Fortunately, the more you use the bribing system, the higher the level you can get it, requiring less money in each transaction. When used in tandem with the commerce perk, and the persuasion perk you can easily evade most of the red tape crime creates. Bribery can be acquired at tier two under the social tree and gives the player ample flexibility when breaking the law.
Commerce
Using the commerce perk is a great way to build up how much items are worth, and how much you’ll sell them for. Luckily, commerce is one of the easiest perks to level up since you just need to sell stuff. Of course, the more you buy and sell, the more capital you’ll earn, allowing your smuggling operations to run smoothly. This perk makes everything from buying ship parts to buying and selling contraband easier. From time to time, this perk can give you better rates and deals. This simple perk can get you a lot done. It’s under the social skill tree.
Persuasion
Another perk that’s great for opening doors in smuggling operations is the Persuasion perk. This unique ability allows you to gain a silver tongue that can both open doors and make your life easier. You’d be surprised just how often Persuasion can save you from a fight or get you out of a tight spot. Just remember that talking won’t save you from every engagement. So when mixed with the bribery perk and deception you can Easily overcome any situation. Finally, don’t forget that when moving contraband there is more to it than just credits and talking. The best ship parts make for the best results.
Scan Jammers, aka Sensor jammers are great for avoiding the city detection systems
Payload
The payload perk can make your cargo hold far larger which is great for some of the smaller shielded cargo holds you can acquire. You can get this perk in the second tier of the tech tree, and increase your cargo capacity by ten percent per upgrade. This can really make the most of your contraband carrying as a little goes a long way. When paired with the commerce perk, this can allow a player to easily become rich. The payload can be increased by making grav jumps while at 75 percent capacity or higher. For this reason, if you’re a good trader, this perk will be especially easy to upgrade.
Security
Another one of those perks that can really come in handy when smuggling is the security perk. This can be of extreme use if you get caught and departed from your precious contraband as you can simply break the lock and get inside. This can be a risky maneuver requiring stealth and timing, but with enough practice, you should be able to get your equipment back easily. When digipicking remember that you will upgrade your skill simply by picking more locks. Besides everything else, this is a fun mini-game and a great way to get high-ticket items! Security can be found at the first level of the exploration skill tree and can be acquired very early on.
Starship Design
Starship Design is one of the best ways to make unique smuggling ships that really change the flow of combat. As you get better at using these vessels, and make larger runs you’ll want to outfit your ship with rarer and more valuable parts. Luckily the Starship Design perk can really help with this as you can access unique equipment on your vessel. Additionally, this allows the player to make their ship a lot more armed, or powered as you upgrade their overall potential. You can find the Starship Design perk in the exploration skill tree on the third tier. It is one of the pricier skill points and can be upgraded by putting unique parts on ships.
EM Weaponry is great for pirating ships and finding contraband
Piloting
The piloting perk is by far one of the best acquired in Starfield without question. Granting the player increased mobility and engine power with increasing reactor specifications sprinkled it. Any self-respecting smuggler will take note of these good quality ships and try to make the highest quality C-class vessel they can. Mix all the other perks together when designing your ship to build a long-hauling war machine. Regardless of your playstyle, piloting is a must for smugglers.
Ship Parts – Smuggling
When trying to smuggle goods perks are only half the battle as you’ll spend countless amounts of credits on quality smuggling parts. These ship parts can make detection of contraband harder, and increase your overall cargo hold. The two main things you’ll want to keep in mind are shield jammers and shielded cargo holds. Both of these things can define how well your ship can move contraband from one system to another, but also how much as well.
When buying your smuggled parts, you’ll also have to keep in mind that they are often costly for your reactor. So buying engine and shielding upgrades that match this will be essential. If you don’t sacrifice something for this smuggling ability, you’re going to lose your speed or weaponry effectiveness. Finally, you’ll need to keep a firm understanding of pirate ports around which can sell you these black market parts.
Deception Perk
Shielded Cargo Holds
One of the major parts you’ll want to invest in is known as shielded cargo holds. These unique upgrades will allow the player to maximize the detection and evasion of your ship. Shielded cargo holds can be rather expensive restricting your cargo size to shield generators that stop sensors. Starting out, the smaller versions can carry 165 pounds, while the larger classes can carry 1600 pounds. It only works if the item is physically inside the shielded cargo hold, otherwise, it will be detected. Expect to spend anywhere from nine thousand credits to twenty thousand credits on one of these unique cargo holds.
Sensor Jammers
Sensor jammers or detection disruptors are another major ship part; they block out detection on your whole ship. These fancy devices draw a lot of power from your reactor but actually disrupt your shield. These can be found primarily in crimson fleet locations, and run for about fifteen thousand credits per ship. Luckily, you only need one of these per vessel, and it greatly increases the likelihood of evading detection. These are useless when your shielding goes out. Shielding jammers are considered unique parts, so you’ll need Starship Design.
EM Weapons
Finally, a bonus piece of equipment that can make your ships especially potent is the adage of electromagnetic beam weapons. With these impressive beam weapons, you can shut down enemy ships so you can search for contraband. Undoubtedly, if you are smuggling, you are probably also doing pirate missions which EM weapons help with. Electromagnetic weapons can be incredibly expensive, however, they grant the player more to salvage or steal than simply destroying wreckages. In this sense you can smuggle entire ships, selling them for a fair amount of credits.
Contraband comes in many shapes and sizes
Obtaining Black Market Parts
When running a smuggler build, it can be hard to know where to start when acquiring these specialty parts. Black markets are sure to follow whenever there are pirates or mercenaries in charge. You can get black-market supplies on systems like Kryx and Wolf. As well as being a great place to get black market parts, they’re also good for unloading. Remember that because they’re not defended by one faction or another, you might have trouble finding discounts. Finally, note that black market parts can get particularly expensive fast.
Contraband – What To Expect
Contraband can be a mixed bag of items from mech parts and harvested organs to Aurora and other drugs around the galaxy. You’ll find that things like stolen paintings and other goods will also have contraband as a listed title. You can tell if something is contraband because it will have a yellow square identical to the red one of a stolen item. Contraband is exceptionally expensive and can make a quick profit for the seller if they can get past security. Unfortunately, contraband can be intercepted, tracked, and taken by any system that isn’t tricked when scanning you. For that reason, as a smuggler, it’s important to move this contraband cautiously and to know your systems.
How To Acquire Contraband
Acquiring contraband can be a hard task when you’re starting out, especially if you don’t have a way to offload it. Luckily, every so often when raiding a ship, or an abandoned facility you’ll find some contraband just lying around. Additionally, it can be found in black market vendors’ inventories, and in contraband chests in security offices. Very often these materials can be overwhelmingly expensive to buy, but hard to sell off. For this reason, acquiring contraband is as easy as taking it like any other object, provided you understand a few things.
-source: Gamers Heroes
Once you’ve acquired said contraband, you’ll need to keep in mind that you can’t just jump into a colonized system. You’ll have to find a system that doesn’t have this sensory input so you can offload it until you’ve got the parts you need. Even when you’re starting out, go for the safer option rather than the harder one. You’ll also need to keep in mind that contraband limits your ability to fast travel into some systems without the deception perk.
Offloading Contraband
The final part of smuggling is the payoff, getting rid of the contraband and making a fat stack of credits. Sadly, this can be harder than you’d initially hope, especially seeing as you can’t just sell them at full price to most vendors. Two main issues associated with contraband selling are Vendors not having enough cash, and most vendors not accepting contraband. Make all your purchases with them before you sell your contraband. You’ll need to find a network of fences that want these goods, like Crimson Fleet. If you want to offload contraband, Wolf is the easiest system since the space station will take it. Other than that, the trade authority will trade quite literally anything.
Contraband can be quite expensive and gives a good payout if you can get it to a trader
