Want to make money fast in Starfield? We may have spread beyond Earth and colonized dozens of new star systems, but the universe still revolves around money. Credits in Starfield aren’t exactly hard to come by, which is a very good thing considering how much you can do with them. But if you want to really maximise your money-making schemes and get rich quick, there are a few particular methods that you should use.
In this guide we’ll reveal the very best ways to make money fast in Starfield, so you can get to purchasing new gear, parts, or even whole spaceships – or just taking care of your dear old parents – without putting a dent in your finances.
How to get rich quick in Starfield
Here are the best ways to make money fast in Starfield:
- Loot everything
- Unlock the Commerce skill
- Complete missions
- Raid ships to steal cargo
- Sell survey data
- Bonus: Use cheats!
Loot everything
If there’s one thing that is common among all Bethesda RPGs, it’s that money comes quick when you sell everything. Just killed an enemy? Loot their corpse! A bunch of crates containing nothing but mugs? Mugs equal Credits, friend!
Bethesda make primarily dungeon crawlers at heart, after all, and dungeons need some kind of treasure or reward at the end. Fill your inventory with loot while on your travels, and then sell it to the first trader you meet. In the wise words of Whiterun’s Belethor: “Some may call this junk. Me, I call them treasures.”
Unlock the Commerce skill
After filling your inventory and hauling your precious goods back to a trader, you’ll want to sell for the highest possible price. That’s where the Commerce skill comes in, with just one point in this skill allowing you to buy items for 5% less and and sell items for 10% more. This increases as you rank up the skill, to a max of buying items for 20% less and selling items for 25% more.
Use mission boards
It’ll come as no surprise to anyone that completing missions will net you Credits as a reward, but there’s no need to just stick to the main quest. Starfield also has Mission Boards scattered around Space Ports and allied bases, where you can get infinite radiant quests.
These radiant quests could entail a variety of tasks. Maybe you’ll ferry goods between systems, or hunt down some pirates who’re terrorising the local area. Whatever you’re asked to do, there’ll be some Credits waiting as a reward when you return.
Raid ships to steal cargo
While attacking ships in space, you can focus fire on their engines to leave them stranded in the inky void. Once they’ve come to a halt, you can board the enemy ship and clear it out on the inside. Kill the crew and loot their corpses, and even clear the cargo hold and transfer goods to your own ship.
Of course, few things are so simple. These stolen items will be marked as Contraband, and will show up on scans when preparing to land on colonised planets. While most cities will have somewhere to sell stolen goods, you’ll need to get the Shielded Cargo upgrade for your ship to successfully sneak past the scans.
Sell survey data
The standard Bethesda loop of looting and selling goods is stretched across over 1000 planets in Starfield, and you can scan the various lifeforms and plants that you find while exploring each planet. Completing these scan checklists will grant you survey data specific to that planet, which you can then sell to Constellation for a pretty penny.
This will no doubt be familiar if you’ve previously played space games such as No Man’s Sky, but those coming from Skyrim and Fallout 4 could easily forget to sell this extra data while clearing their inventory. They’re generally worth at least 1000 Credits, though, so they’re worth selling whenever you return to your Constellation buddies.
Bonus: Use cheats!
For those on PC who don’t want to run around collecting Credits, and just want to have essentially infinite money with which to buy everything in the universe, cheats are your friend. While playing, press the ‘ key (the same key as the @ sign) to launch the command console, into which you can enter Starfield cheats to unlock or change things in-game. If that key does not work, others have reported that using the ~ key may also work.
With the command console open, you can spawn Credits in your inventory by entering player.additem 0000000F 100000. That will instantly grant you 100,000 Credits, but you can of course enter any amount that you wish. Need a million? 10 million? Just keep adding zeroes!
Beware that enabling cheats will disable achievements, so be careful if you’re after those Steam ‘cheevos.
Follow the above steps, and you’re sure to be rolling in Starfield credits in no time. For more help, take a look at our guides on how to get the boost pack in Starfield and how to fast travel in Starfield. If you’re planning a new character and want some guidance, check out all Starfield traits and backgrounds, along with our list of the best builds in Starfield.