The Best Ways to Make Money in Starfield
Making Money in Starfield is fairly easy. There are so many ways to earn credits (the intergalactic currency in the game). You earn credits for almost every mission you complete. You can pick up missions from main quests, side quests, and mission boards. Not just the regular mission boards you see throughout cities, you can unlock mission boards from different factions and side quests, too.
Completing missions earns the best money. Starting with the main quest line, you’ll earn more credits per mission as you level up. Through the main quest line, you will meet other NPCs and branch out to complete more quests, find new areas to explore and loot, ultimately earning more money. These are the best ways to earn money in Starfield without using a glitch.
Mission Boards in Starfield
Constellation Mission Board – can be placed and accessed in your home and outposts. Constellation exploration missions pay the most, up to 11,000 credits.
Mission Board – can be placed and accessed in your home and your outposts and can be found in major cities and starstations.
Ryujin Mission Board – This can only be accessed after you complete the Ryujin missions. The Ryujin Mission Board can only be accessed in your office at the Ryujin building in Neon.
Freestar Mission Board – Can only be accessed in The Rock, the Freestar Rangers’ headquarters, in Akila City
UC SysDef Mission Board – This can only be accessed on the UC Vigilance Starstation after you complete the “Legacy’s End” mission, officially siding with UC and eliminating the Crimson Fleet.
Crimson Fleet Mission Board – This can only be accessed in the Reckoner’s Core at The Key. The Crimson Fleet Mission Board is available after you accept the UC SysDef mission to infiltrate and collect evidence on the Crimson Fleet. Don’t have to side with them at the end of the questline in order to access the mission board. However, if you side with the UC SysDef in Legacy’s End, then you will no longer have access to this mission board. Crimson Fleet missions can pay a max of 5568 credits so far.
Make Money from Resource Delivery Missions
Delivery missions are also a great way to make money. You can unlock delivery missions for different companies as well. Delivery missions usually entail delivering resources.
Trident Luxury Lines. You will encounter Trident Luxury Lines Staryard while completing an espionage mission for Ryujin. Trident Luxury Lines Staryard is orbiting just outside of Akila. The first delivery will be for 2000 iron. The iron will have to be in your ship’s cargo hold to be delivered. This first delivery pays 4000 credits.
Deimos Staryard. While completing the mission Red Tape Blues in Cydonia on Mars, you will have to apply for the Executive Assistant position at the Deimos Staryard. While applying you will see an option for delivery jobs on Deimos computer that will instruct you to talk to the Deimos sales representative, Sandra Fullerton, to pick up a delivery job. The first delivery gig is for 478 Argon. The pay for this delivery is a humble 978 credits. But there will be more in the future, as the computer you learn about the job from also has a list of needed resources.
Taiyo Astroneering. Taiyo Astroneering is a subsidiary of Ryujin that builds starships. Visit Taiyo Astroneering in the Ryujin building on Neon and go to the sales kiosk. The sales kiosk will prompt you to talk to sales representative Vern Sobakin. Vern will ask you to deliver 5000 aluminum. The aluminum must be in your ship’s cargo to be delivered.
*We will update when we find more*
Make Money by Boarding Ships
By now, you should know that you can board other ships in Starfield. Whether you board to rob them or to steal their ship entirely, searching the ship can be incredibly lucrative. Even boarding friendly ships can yield a few thousand credits or more. You’ll find the best loot in the Captain’s storage.
If you’ve just started playing Starfield, don’t go stealing everything just yet. Make sure you’ve visited a few cities first. This way, you will have more options for offloading the goods you steal, including contraband.
Though it can be fun to loot any and everything not nailed down, it’s best to loot the items that will earn you the most credits. Spacesuits, helmets, packs, weapons, and contraband are high-value items you can sell. These items also are the heaviest.
Selling Contraband in Starfield
When searching some ships and facilities, you will come across some contraband. Contraband, like in the real world, is illegal in Starfield. You can tell an item is contraband because it will have a yellow symbol on it. Do not get caught with contraband on your person or your ship.
If contraband is illegal, how do you sell it? Here’s how to sell contraband in Starfield. The Trade Authority is the only vendor that accepts contraband. Before leaving the planet or moon you are on, find the nearest Trade Authority to offload your contraband. If there is no Trade Authority near you, travel to The Den, a space station in the Wolf System to sell contraband. The Den is considered neutral territory, so your ship will not be scanned when docking. Each major city and colony has a Trade Authority vendor.
So, just where do you find contraband in Starfield? You can find contraband almost anywhere. However, the best places to find contraband in Starfield are:
Neon Security Headquarters
Doing UC Missions Bounty Missions to take down Crimson Fleet and Spacer ships
Other bounty missions that take you to pirate outposts and hideouts
The Almagest
The Almagest is a casino floating outside of Nesoi in the Olympus system (if you have the Dream House trait, you should be able to find Nesoi pretty easily). The Almagest is occupied by space pirates called Spacers. To get to the Contraband Cache, you will have to battle through the hostile spacers after you dock. And yes, this is repeatable. The contraband and spacers respawn after a week in local space-time.
The UC Missions Bounty Board can be found in the Viewport lounge in Jemison and the Freestar bounty missions can be found in The Rock on Akila. These bounty missions usually involve starship combat to disable the ship’s engine and then docking the ship to take over. Sometimes, these involve destroying the ship.
Sometimes these bounty missions will lead you to spacer or Crimson Fleet outposts where you will have to clear the place to find and neutralize the leader. These outposts usually have contraband. So, searching each cache, locker, and body is the key to finding the contraband on these missions.
Like other vendors, there’s a limit to how much money they have. If you deplete the vendor’s money, you can wait 48 hours and continue selling your items to the vendor.
Like every Bethesda Games Studio game, remember to loot safes, and storage boxes, and look on tables, shelves, lockers, and even the floor for credsticks. Doing these things, even without glitches and console commands, making money in Starfield is easy enough.
CAUTION About Stealing Starships to Make Money
DO NOT steal a ship thinking you’re going to make a lot of money reselling it. In order to sell a ship, you have to register it by paying a hefty fee. And when you sell the ship after paying the registration fee, you barely get that back. There is no lucrative way to flip starships. At least not yet.
One of the most useful skills to have to help increase your money-making efforts is the Commerce skill. Make sure you have the Commerce skill. Commerce Rank 1 skill allows you to buy for 5% less and sell for 10% more and Commerce Rank 4 skill allows you to buy for 20% less and sell for 25% more. Also, the Theft skill increases the success chance of pickpocketing, which means more loot.
