Starfield: How to earn credits quickly? Starfield guide, tips

Earning credits quickly will allow you to purchase new ships, weapons and better equipment earlier in Starfield. In this guide, we have compiled the best ways to get rich fast.

Last update: 31 August 2023

As you progress through Starfield, you could be searching for faster money earning methods to afford new gear, upgrades and spaceships. On this page of the guide, we've explained how to earn credits quickly to afford new things.

• Selling goods to merchants
• Selling stolen items and contraband
• Pickpocketing
• Completing quests
• Researching planets

Selling goods to merchants

1. The first method is obvious - gather loot while completing quests and exploring the world. Loot items found out in the open, in containers (especially locked ones) and on enemy corpses. Make sure to pick up all high-quality loot, like rare or legendary. Give heavier things to your companions or stash them on your ship.
2. Sell gathered things in large cities and outposts where you can find many traders. Each merchant has a limited number of credits, but they regain their money every two days. You can easily bypass this by sleeping two full days in a row.
3. We recommend you to unlock and upgrade the Commerce skill. Each rank increases your selling prices of items. At the highest rank, you'll be getting 25% more credits for every sold item.

Selling stolen items and contraband

Selling illegal goods is more complicated, but can be very profitable. We've described it in more detail on separate pages of our guide:

1. Where to sell stolen items? - They're marked with a red icon. This page lists some fences who'll buy stolen goods off of you.
2. Where to sell contraband? - It's marked with a yellow icon. We describe how to avoid losing contraband and where to sell it.

Pickpocketing

1. This method is particularly useful early on, when every credit counts. You need to unlock the Theft skill. Ranking it up will reduce the risk of being detected. You can then sneak up behind NPCs and browse their personal inventories.
2. Most characters carry credits and other stealable items, such as ammo or weapons (only after maxing out Theft). Stolen items can then be sold.

Completing quests

1. Another reliable way of earning money is accepting quests. Side quests and faction quests are the most profitable, as they're significantly shorter than main quests.
2. You'll be usually rewarded at the end of the quest, a few thousand per mission at the start of the game. Some quests also let you make some extra cash, for example, by passing Persuasion checks and taking bribes.

Researching planets

1. This method is a bit less intuitive, but still rather useful. Visit the Cydonia base on Mars, specifically the Broken Spear bar.
2. Phil Hill will tell you how to make money by surveying planets. After fully exploring the planet, you don't need to return to Hill specifically - sell the research data (found in the notes tab) to any merchant.