Contraband is an item category in Starfield. Contraband items are almost always illegal to have in the player's possession, and will incur fines and other penalties if the player is caught with them. Contraband items are marked with a yellow symbol in their name bar.
Overview[]
Several items in Starfield are banned through various methods. For instance, Mechs were banned by treaty after the Colony War. Regardless, these items are considered taboo and having them is highly frowned upon. Certain shady groups (Ecliptic, Crimson Fleet, or Spacers) may disregard these norms and have contraband anyway.
There are eight contraband items total: Aurora, Black Market Antiquities, Harvested Organs, Mech Components, Sentient AI Adapters, Stolen Artwork, Va'Ruun Heretic Writings, Xenowarfare Tech.
Gameplay[]
Contraband items are illegal everywhere. The main exception is Neon, where it is legal to buy contraband, but not to leave the city with it. Neon is an enthusiastic market for the contraband drug Aurora. The United Colonies and the Freestar Collective are largely the same in how they deal with contraband. If the player's ship is scanned, and they find contraband, they will confiscate the contraband and fine the player. The player does have an option to keep their contraband and fight their way out, but this can cause other issues. It will not incur a bounty to pick up contraband, but it will incur a bounty to get caught with it.
On the flip side, Contraband items are often worth a lot of credits. The Trade Authority will buy contraband, but a player usually has to get past either UC SysDef or Freestar SysDef to reach them. If the player thinks this simply isn't worth their trouble, they can either drop it on a planet's surface and leave it, or eject it from the cargo hold prior to entering controlled space.
The Den in the Wolf system is a risk-free location to sell Contraband as it contains a Trade Authority and does not scan ships on approach, despite being United Colonies outpost.
Porrima III, Specifically Red Mile is another location that lacks any oversight by any factions, run by the ambitios Mei Devine, the Ship Technician Lon can furnish your Ship with shielded cargo modules and the Barperson; Sati Chandra will be happy to buy your Contraband.
The player can obtain Contraband in several ways, in certain outposts on planets, on many enemy ships, and in contraband stashes.
It is possible to smuggle Contraband items to settled planets, though one must make use of Shielded Cargo holds.