Starfield: How To Earn Easy Money With Pickpocketing

Credits aren’t easy to come by in Starfield, and one of the easiest (and earliest) ways to build up your bank account is with pickpocketing. By unlocking the Theft skill, you can immediately begin robbing vendors of their hard-gotten gains. Theft unlocks a new option that only appears when you’re attempting to sneak — Pickpocketing. With the right marks, you can earn 7,000~ credits in about a second of work. Just don’t get caught or you’ll have to pay a steep fine and lose all your stolen goods. Not that you’ll need to steal many items in Starfield. The credits are what we really want.

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How To Earn Easy Money With Pickpocketing

Pickpocketing is one of the simplest ways to earn money in Starfield. Before you start attempting to steal, you’ll want to unlock the Theft Skill. Theft is a Tier 1 Social Skill.

Theft: Unlocks the Pickpocket ability. Rank up to increase pickpocket chance success.
Rank 2: 10% greater chance to successfully pickpocket.
Rank 3: 30% greater chance to successfully pickpocket.
Rank 4: 50% greater chance to successfully pickpocket. Can now pickpocket holstered weapons.

You’ll also need to unlock Stealth. The Stealth Skill is a Tier 1 Physical Skill. Unlocking this makes you 25% more difficult to detect and adds a Stealth Meter. Press [B] to crouch and begin sneaking. This is incredibly useful for pickpocketing.

How To Pickpocket: With the Theft Skill unlocked, crouch and place your cursor over an NPC. Instead of talking or interacting, you will now get a Pickpocket prompt. Press [A] to begin pickpocketed.
You must be in Stealth to pickpocket. Otherwise, your pickpocket chances of not being caught will the significantly lower. Unlock the Stealth skill to make hiding easier. When in the pickpocket menu, you’ll be alerted if you’ve been detected.
When pickpocketing, a percentage will appear next to each item in the NPC’s inventory. This is the chance of a successful pickpocket. Simple items or low credit amounts are easier to pickpocket. Yes, you can even pickpocket when you’re detected but the odds won’t be in your favor.

You can easily steal any number of credits. Quicksave before attempting to pickpocket. Crouch to enter stealth, then pickpocket and select Credits. Early in the game, most credit pickpocket attempts have 50% or 60% chances of success. Quicksave, then attempt. If you’re caught, reload your save and try again. Usually, it will only take two or three tries maximum to succeed.

NOTE: You can also steal from any Galbank Kiosk with the Security Skill. Use a Digipick with Security Rank 2 to hack any ATM. Most ATMs contain about 800 credits. You can earn many more (without using a Digipick) by pickpocketing.

What we’re really after are credits. While it’s fun later to steal valuable guns from tough enemies, if you want to make some easy early credits, we’ll target credits.

Easiest Pickpocket Method: To make pickpocketing easier, target vendors in enclosed spaces where they are the only NPC. Wait until night in large settlements and find stores that are instanced. An instanced store is in a separate area (through a loading screen door) than the rest of the map. This will make entering stealth much easier.
NPC Vendors typically carry about 1,000 credits or more. High level vendors can carry 7,000+ credits. Quicksave and steal. If you succeed, enjoy your reward and find another mark.

You’ll need to pickpocket 5 NPCs to unlock Rank 2 Theft. Each rank of Theft you unlock, the easier pickpocketing will become. At Rank 4, you’re practically guaranteed to always successfully pickpocket money. A little grinding and you’ll be rolling in cash very quickly. It takes time to begin, but eventually it becomes so easy vendors become walking ATMs.

Progress further and unlock the Concealment Skill. This is an extremely skill under the Physical Tab. This Tier 4 Skill makes you a master of stealth, able to enter stealth at any time. With this, you’ll be able to pickpocket even in broad daylight. Alternatively, you can also eventually unlock Stealth Suits that turn your character completely invisible.

Finally, if you are stealing items, make sure to sell them at any Trade Authority. Trade Authority Kiosks and vendors will purchase stolen items. If you’re caught by security, or if your ship is scanned and caught with contraband, all stolen items will be automatically removed from your inventory. Alternatively, you can sell stolen items at an unlockable fence in the hidden Crimson Fleet settlement. Get caught stealing in a UC settlement like New Atlantis, and you can be contracted into joining the Crimson Fleet — and learning about many new pirate and crime contacts.