In Starfield, you will come across special items known as contraband. These are illegal items that are prohibited to possess, use, and trade. They can not be sold to normal vendors and you need to access the black market to smuggle and sell contraband. To get there, you will need to hide your contraband in Starfield so you do not get detected.
Mars, Akila, Jemison, and Volii Alpha are the planets that will scan your ship. If you are carrying contraband, you will be stopped and taken in. You will either have to spend time in jail or carry on with a bounty on your head.
There are many ways in which you can hide your contraband to get it across to the black market.
Hiding Contraband in Starfield Explained
Contraband items include harvested organs, xenowarfare tech, and more. There are several ways in which you can hide and transport your contraband in Starfield. These include using a specific perk and modifying your ship. This will prevent your cargo hold from being scanned.
Use the Deception Perk/Skill
The best way to hide contraband is to use the Deception perk in Starfield. This perk is part of the social skill tree and can be acquired relatively early on in the game. Like most perks/skills in the game, you can improve it further to increase its effectiveness. It has four ranks, each with varying degrees of effectiveness.
Rank 1 – Rank 1 makes contraband scans 10% less effective
Rank 2 – The next rank up doubles this value. Contraband scans will be 20% less effective
Rank 3 – Rank 3 makes Contraband scans 30% less effective
Rank 4 – the final rank makes contraband scans 50% less effective
This perk is an excellent way to hide your contraband in Starfield, as it does not require the provision and implementation of other items and resources but is important to note that even the highest rank won’t make you fully immune.
Acquire a Scan Jammer
Another way you can hide your contraband is by acquiring a scan jammer in Starfield. The Scan Jammer is only found with one vendor in Starfield. Make your way to the Porimma System and land on the planet known as Porimma III.
Head to the Red Mile, where you will find an NPC named Lon Andersson. He will have the scan jammer. This device comes in three different variations and requires different levels of the Starship Design rank.
Single Frequency – The Single Frequency Scan Jammer has an evade percentage of 10%.
Dual Frequency – This variant has an evade percentage of 30%. You can get by easier with this jammer.
Multi-Frequency – This is the highest-tier variant. The Multi-Frequency Scan Jammer has an evade percentage of 50%.
Like the Deception Perk, Scan Jammers will not make you completely immune. But they will give you a chance of slipping by unnoticed.
Acquire a Shielded Cargo Hold
The third and final way to hide contraband in Starfield is to acquire a shielded cargo hold. Your entire cargo hold will be constructed of materials that disrupt scans. So when anyone scans your cargo hold, they will find nothing out of the ordinary. However, it does not have a 100% success rate.
There are many shielded cargo holds that you can purchase in Starfield. Like the Scan Jammer, shielded cargo holds are also acquired from Lon Andersson on Porimma III. To be fully successful in hiding your contraband, you will likely have to use all methods recommended in Starfield.
