Not sure how to earn money in Starfield? Life in Starfield can still be manageable without a lot of credits in your account, but the question is, do you want to scrimp and manage only in Bethesda’s sci-fi RPG? Having loads of money in Starfield is essential to live out a virtual life in space worth remembering. You can scrimp and save, or you can do things like buy your own house and spaceship. Money, like in real life, is important in Starfield as well.
If I were to come to the strictly practical side, you need money in Starfield to buy important supplies like ammo, Digipicks, and weapons. It’s needed for ship repairs and bribes. You can’t ignore it altogether. Hence, to shore up on that cash in Starfield and stay rich, here are some tips.
Looting Off Baddies
One of the easiest ways to earn money in Starfield is to loot. All the bad guys you drop are good for you, not just with their deaths but also the credits and other items they carry. Spacers, Ecliptics, The Crimson Fleet members, gangs, etc. You know the kind. Besides money, these guys could be carrying some rare weapons or armor too. All that you can loot after you have killed them.
Looting their corpses for credit makes you instantly flush with funds. In addition to that, you could sell their guns and armor to vendors at a good price to make more money. In this way, a dead baddie can be a ‘good’ buddy who’s always there to fulfill your money needs. Sounds morbid? But hey, the cash, ammo, and other items you get from them are the spoils of war. You are not looting civilians and good people here. One less bad guy is good for the world.
Loot Items in Abandoned/Hostile-Occupied Buildings
Whenever you enter such buildings or areas in Starfield, make sure you pick up all the items that will get you a good price in the market. Just make sure it’s not private property you are lifting.
If you keep this thing in mind, no one is coming after you with charges of thievery so loot all you want. Then, go and sell them off to a vendor. Even coffee mugs and cigarette packs count. But make sure that you don’t sell the Digipicks in a hurry, as these are needed to break into locked areas.
Keep Your Inventory Light
Dump resources that are not of much value and free up your inventory. This would help you make room for items that can be sold for a good amount of money. Try to travel light in Starfield, which brings us to our next tip.
Also Read: Is Starfield Coming to PS5? All You Need to Know!
Sell To Vendors Often
You can’t expect to travel light always if you are not selling stuff you picked up on the go. If you are thinking that you could just make one trip to the vendor and unload all the items there, that may not work. Or else, you will have to face a 24-hour delay before you can get the money.
The strategy here is to not try and sell off a lot of things in one go but keep selling frequently to keep the stream of credits flowing. In New Atlantis, you can go to Amoli Bava at Jemison Mercantile to buy and sell things. Similarly, there are such shops in cities where you can sell off the items you’ve picked up.
Finish Main Quests To Earn Cash Rewards
Sometimes (every time, actually), you have to work diligently to earn the right to earn. When you finish a certain main questline in a story mission, you’ll be rewarded with credits. This is the most straightforward way to earn credits. For example, when I finished the Back To Vectera story mission (where you can recruit Heller), I got 6,000 credits as a reward. Similarly, there will be other story-based missions for The Constellation, UC Vanguard, Freestar, etc. It’s one of the most legit ways to earn money in Starfield. The added benefit of completing a quest is that you earn XP and progress towards leveling up also.
Also Read: How to Recruit Supervisor Lin in Starfield
Increase the Game Difficulty to Get More Money
When you play Starfield on harder difficulty levels, you’ll get better rewards. If everything you do in Starfield has to be honest and above board, then try playing the complete mission in a harder difficulty setting. But if you want to get high amounts of loot while facing less challenging enemies, you can switch to Very Hard difficulty, go inside the building/area, and then lower the difficulty level again. In this way, the enemies you meet won’t be that hard to beat, and you get hefty rewards too.
Get the Skills that Help Bring in More Money
You need Scavenging, Commerce, and Negotiation skills to increase your chances of getting more money in the game. So, make sure that you unlock these skills as soon as you can.
For example, when you unlock the Commerce skill, you can buy for 5% less and sell for 10% more. With Scavenging, your chances of finding extra credits in containers increase. Basically, to earn money in Starfield, you’ll have to become a seasoned haggler.
Also Read: Why You Should Go For Starfield Digital Premium Edition
Hunt for Pirate Bases in the Wilderness
If you are really short on cash and for some reason don’t want to do any main or side quests, you can check for pirate bases in the wild, go in, kill all the baddies there and loot the entire facility. But how do you look for these pirate bases?
To find such bases, land in an unexplored territory, away from the cities, get outside, and open up your scanner. When you find something marked as Unknown in that area, go and explore it. Chances are these are abandoned buildings occupied by Pirates, Spacers, or Ecliptics.
As I mentioned just above, you have to clear the whole area of them. Kill them all, loot them and loot the entire facility. You will find costly items plus credits. There are high chances you also find apparel, weapons and armor. If you are playing at Hard or Very Hard difficulty, there are higher chances to get Legendary level weapons and spacesuits. Now, you have to decide what items to sell from the loot to vendors.
Earn Money Through Trade Commission Requests
In Starfield, you can pick up Trade Commission Requests to earn cash quickly. To do this, you need to go to The Well in New Atlantis and get in touch with Zoe Kaminski at The Trade Authority building. The Well lies underground and can be accessed through the elevator that’s between Jemison Mercantile and TerraBrew Coffee building.
After you’ve had a chat with Zoe, go check the Mission Boards (you can find them in bars, easily). The tasks you get aren’t that complex and can fetch you good money.
Complete Faction Missions to Earn Money
To be able to earn money via faction missions, you would have to join with a group like the Freestar Rangers and UC Vanguard. Their mission boards have got several missions such as the likes of killing some outlaw captain, gang leader or Crimson Fleet Captain. There are hostage rescue missions also.
The Constellation has also got a mission board. You just need to get to the basement of The Lodge to find it.
Make Use of Starfield Glitches
If you like the idea of a cloud burst of money in Starfield (yeah, everyone likes that, actually!), there are ways to do that in unofficial ways. Game glitches through which you come across huge amounts of money have been seen in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as well.
As part of the glitches, you will find hidden chests in unusual locations that are difficult to get to. Raiding them would easily net you several thousands of credits. But in places like Akila City, chests were hiding in plain sight before the glitch was patched. For example, the puddle right in front of Shepherd’s General Store and the area left to The Hitching Post had hidden chests earlier, but since the glitch has been patched, you won’t find them now.
Several of these glitches have been patched, but if you find one working, then there is easy money for you.
Commerce Skill is a Boon!
Starfield has plenty of skills for the player to unlock, just like any good sci-fi RPG and Bethesda game. However, if you really want to get rich in your Starfield playthrough, you need to unlock the Commerce skill.
This skill helps you reduce the buy price for items and allows you to sell at a certain price higher than the market price for a particular item. Moreover, since the skill can be upgraded multiple times, the buying and selling percentages decrease and increase, respectively. This means you pay less when buying and sell for a high amount!
For example, unlocking the skill for the first time will give you the chance to buy items at 5% less than their market price. And, you’ll be able to sell your wares (that you’ve gained in open-world exploration or missions) at 10% more than the market price.
At the highest level, you can sell your gained items at 25% more than the market price. Moreover, when you buy an item, you can haggle and get 20% off!
Surveying is a Must
Since Starfield is a space exploration game, it only makes sense for you to visit thousands of worlds that are procedurally generated. The best part here is that you’ll be able to survey the planets on missions (like Back to Vectera or the Mantis Quest).
And, surveying isn’t just for side missions. In fact, The Constellation is always looking for more data on what’s out there in the vast expanse of the universe. So, since you’re a space-faring Freestar Ranger, it presents you with the perfect opportunity to explore these new corners of space.
The more you survey, the more data you collect. Following this, you’ll be able to sell this survey data to The Constellation. Depending on the type of planet and the kind of data you collect, you’ll get a decent amount of credits to build your bank balance in Starfield. Of course, you also get to collect rare weapons and other trinkets!
Final Thoughts
You must have heard often in life that get-rich-quick schemes don’t usually work. We can say the same for Starfield if you are playing the space exploration game in a legit way. By legit, we mean not using cheats or glitches.
In Starfield, you can have a non-linear journey, which maintains the surprise for the events that you are about to experience. And that includes some good money.
I’ve already told you that the story missions can fetch you good amounts of money. Hence, if you want to, you can take the linear route. That means skipping the side quests and giving full attention to the main questlines. Plus, keep selling the stuff you picked to vendors, and your bank balance will keep enlarging.
Speaking of story missions, The Old Neighborhood is an important one where you go in search of a UC Vanguard pilot who’s gone missing. How that mission ends is of vital importance to the main storyline of The Constellation and Starfield in general. To help you out in your journey through the stars, check out our guide on how to get Artifact Beta in Starfield.
Plenty of new missions and questlines have opened up in Starfield, and I’m really excited about what I’m about to discover. Keep watching this space for more Starfield updates.
