Starfield is huge and there's lots to spend your money on, so this guide will show you how to make money in Starfield.
If you enjoy this guide you should check out some of our other guides on similar games. We've covered the basics of games like Forever Skies to help you survive as long as possible, or you can check out our Palia guides if you're more in a cozy MMO sort of mood.
There are a few different options for making a lot of creds quickly (relatively) in Starfield, and we've laid out the best ones for you below.
Trading
One of the easiest ways to make money in the early game is to sell pretty much everything you can get your hands on. While you're exploring you can find items with a high value sitting in containers and on shelves, and you should pick up as much as you can to sell.
Familiarize yourself with the major stores. It's likely that your first store will be “Jemison Mercantile” in New Atlantis, not far from the starport, but you can find stores in most major settlements that'll take your creds or goods.
If you want to be a "proper trader" then you'll need to check out the mission boards in major settlements, pictured above next to the bounty remover. The Trade Authority will post contracts here for you to ship goods across space, assuming you have the hold space to do it that is.
Smuggling
Basically trading on steroids. Smuggling will get you much, much more in the way of credits, but you'll need special equipment and contacts to actually do it right. Most important, is having shielded storage on your ship to get past contraband scans.
You can pick up illicit goods on most planets, but Neon, Cydonia, and The Key are hotspots for illegal products. You can also check out The Well in New Atlantis if you're still very early on in the game.
To sell stolen goods you'll need to know a fence. You can find them in lots of cities, but by far the easiest to access are the markets on The Key, or the gang merchants on Neon. Both of the aforementioned options require you to be 'in' with the factions that control them slightly.
If you're struggling with smuggling on your own, check out our Contraband Guide for more information in making money without any morals.
Questing
Another amazing way of making a lot of money is taking on specific questlines, or completing side-missions. Most factions have quest boards you can use to make quick cash once they give you access, as well as the generic boards posted all over the galaxy.
Below are some of the best questlines for making a lot of cash:
- Crimson Fleet/UC Investigation Questline (finishing can net you upwards of 250,000 credits.)
- Freestar Collective Ranger Mission Board (lots of bounty and rescue missions back-to-back)
- Ryujin Job Questline (Head to Neon and attend the Ryujin interview or interact with the Ryujin Terminal)
How to Cheat Money
If you're playing on PC and want to get more money at any cost, you can use the console (Shift + ') and enter the following command:
- player.additem 000000f ###
Change ### to whatever value you'd like to add to your inventory. It's a good thing that credits don't weigh anything.
If you like these commands, check out our Console Command Guide as well.
That's it for this Starfield guide, but check out more below:
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