Starfield

There’s nothing more exhilarating in Starfield than smuggling contraband. Watching that scan run over your ship whilst simultaneously crossing your fingers is such a thrill. That said, successfully smuggling contraband isn’t exactly straightforward, so let’s run you through the process.

Firstly, you need to know what contraband is. Contraband isn’t stolen sandwiches or weapons, contraband is an actual separate thing in Starfield, and they come in the form of swanky briefcases - you can tell if it’s contraband if there’s a small yellow symbol next to the item when you look at it in any inventory.

Secondly, you need to know where to get it. Contraband can be found in numerous places, but the best bet to regularly find it is to board enemy ships, destroy the crew, and loot anything valuable - look out for black briefcases and what not. This is usually contraband. For a more detailed guide on how to board and commandeer ships, check out our Starfield - How to board and commandeer ships guide.

And finally, how do you smuggle it (for the achievement) and where do you sell it (not for the achievement, but for sweet, sweet cash).

First things first, in order to sell contraband you need to visit a Trade Authority on any planet - and by that we mean a Trade Authority store, and not a Trade Authority kiosk. The New Atlantis one is in The Well, the Akila City Trade Authority is in the back alleys of the wild west town, and the one on Neon is on the strip.

Now, there are multiple ways to smuggle for the purposes of the achievement:

• The Exhilarating Way - This way involves buying Shielded Cargo and going through the scanners at the major cities and settlements, so you can make it to the Trade Authority. For a more detailed description of how to do this, and where to get Shielded Cargo, check out our Starfield - How to smuggle contraband guide.
• The Easy Way - Go and visit the Den in the Wolf system (just right of Sol; and up and to the right from Alpha Centauri) because they don’t scan there and there’s a solitary Trade Authority there too.

We’re assuming the latter counts as smuggling - we did it the hard way, so can’t confirm - but if it fails, you know what to do otherwise.

Before we leave you to it though, a few more tips and things to note:

• Contraband does not sell for the price that’s quoted in your inventory, so don’t get your hopes up too high. If you have the Commerce skill though, you will be able to get a bit more money.
• Apparently, according to the load-screen text, the Payloads skill (which is there to increase your ship cargo hold size) is also meant to make it harder for authorities to detect contraband.
• If you have contraband on you, avoid planets that have cities and large settlements on them, as you’ll automatically be scanned as you enter the orbit of the planet. If you forget you have some and they're mid-scan, quickly fast-travel out of there before the scan concludes. I can't tell you how many times I completely forgot I was packing an insane amount of contraband with no Shielded Cargo. Oops!

Anyway! Smuggle one bit of contraband successfully and this achievement is all yours. Just bear in mind that it’s not a 100% chance either, so maybe save before trying this.