Starfieldcan be incredibly exciting to play, especially if you like to play with a stealthy gameplay style. Between skills like Theft, Dueling, and Scavenging, there are many tools at your disposal to play a melee, stealthy specialist. With all of this of course comes pick pocketing and stealing items and contraband.
If you are caught with stolen items and contraband and you fly out into space, you may be scanned by officials and arrested. They may make you pay a fine, taking you into jail, or hunt you down. Before heading out too far from the planet you are on, you will want to get rid of any stolen goods you may have in your inventory. We will discuss how to identify what items are stolen or contraband in Starfield, and where to sell these items safely.
Which Of My Items Are Contraband or Stolen?
The easiest and quickest way to find out which items you currently have in inventory that are stolen and you could get caught with and fined for, is to first open your inventory under the “All” section. This way you will not have to check every category that you have.
From here, scroll down through your inventory and identify any stolen goods by noting the red square icon beside them, indicated in the image below. If you do not see this icon beside any of your items, you are good to go.
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If you find any items in your inventory with a yellow icon beside them, these are contraband. These are strictly prohibited and any contraband scans in space will identify these. If there is a contraband scan on you and you only have stolen goods, you should be free to go.
Where To Sell Stolen Items & Contraband in Starfield
You can sell illegal items, or “illicit goods” (contraband) at a Trade Authority Desk. These are different than Trade Authority Kiosks, which are green ATM-like machines you can find on many planets shortly after landing your ship. A Trade Authority Desk will have a person working there, which you can talk to and discuss the selling of these illicit goods. When you open up their shop, you can sell these stolen and contraband items to the shopkeeper for credits.
One specific location of a Trade Authority Desk is in Neon Core. This is a location on the planetVolii Alpha. Early quests take you here, so you may have already explored it and missed the desk. Look for the large yellow sign in the City “Neon Core” to find this specific shop. The planetVolii Alphais located in theVolii Star System.
Note that as usual, the amount of credits they are willing to pay will vary versus the value you see in inventory. Each shop values different items separately and may pay much less than they appear to be worth in your inventory. Even at lower prices this is a great way to grab up a lot of items and sell them before you leave the planet you are on for some quick cash; Just make sure you remember you have them in your inventory and to get rid of them before you take off in your ship!
What Happens If You Are Caught With Contraband?
If you are caught with contraband items you will be on the run from the authorities and will end up needing to pay hefty fines and/or be taking to a holding cell and will lose the items you have. Sometimes there are officers of the Freestar walking around on the planets you are on. If they find you when you have a bounty on you due to stolen goods, they will apprehend you.
If you take off on your ship while a bounty is on your head for stolen items, the Trade Authority ships may find you. Depending on your reputation among the galaxy, these ships may open fire on you, determined to take you down. Otherwise, they will apprehend you and ask you a series of options for you to answer with, depending on the route you want to take:
Choose your own adventure! One quick tip is that if you do choose the second option and you are sent to jail, you can actually sneak back behind the desk and steal back the items again! If you know there is a safe place to sell your stolen items on this planet, then this is a good alternative to get them back and still be able to make some credits on them. Here is a quick video example:
How To Smuggle Contraband On Your Ship
This information is given in the help menu of Starfield:
“Guard ships will frequently scan you for contraband. If you fail a scan and guard ships detect contraband on your ship, they may attempt to arrest or attack you.
If you are carrying contraband in your personal inventory, guards will always catch you. To have a chance at smuggling, you need to place your contraband in a cargo hold with Shielded Cargo capacity. you may view your ship’s Shielded Cargo capacity by viewing your Ship Overview in the Ship menu.
There are various ways to further increase the chance of successfully smuggling contraband past guard ship scans:
While Shielded Cargo and Scan Jammers are seldom for sale, you can find (and even commandeer) ships that already have one or both installed.”
