The Best ways to make credits in starfield!

[CosmicMeteor]

my question for you guys today is, what is your favorite method of earning credits in Starfield?

https://youtu.be/VFxVaeXvV7k

[Nite69]

all you need is the first level of the scavenger perk, I get way more then I need just looting containers with it, adds up fast

[The92Ghost]

I personally, level the skills and talents that help me with selling items and then when I go exploring and surveying planets I complete caves and installations gathering all the gear I can see and weapons, once done I simply go and sell it to the Trade Authority NPCs until I get my inventory free.

[DANEDANGER]

Im making the most out of loot, i dont take anything less then 1500cr and everything above goes into the pocket. Yes this does mean im over encumbered 90% of the time but it is fairly easy due to Personal Atmosphere power.

[Dollop of Mayo]

I just run around killing enemies and doing the occasional side quest and sell 3 guns to a merchant and get all their credits and eventually get fed up with that particular tedium and press ~ and then type player.additem f 500000 and then build a new ship for fun

[everett]

I've been through multiple NGs and my primary goals usually start with generating the capital to build my ship anew. My methods aren't likely to be the most efficient, but they've worked enough.

* Survey planets and sell the data to Vladimir on The Eye.
* While surveying, collect all spacer and pirate weapons and gear. Negotiation may be required. Collect up gear in your cargo hold, then sell at mercantile-heavy planets like New Atlantis and Neon. If all vendors are broke, sleep for two days (Hotel Volii is a good spot) then go sell more.
* Get the first rank in Scavenging. This increases what you get from loot.
* If ethics aren't a problem, the Crimson Fleet pays better than anyone else.
* If ethics *are* a problem, join UC Vanguard. They pay really good.

[Doombringer]

Get to high level (outpost/craft cheese or something).
Kill high level enemies that drop guns, sell all those guns for more credits than vendors actually have...
(You can mod them to increase value if you want to, doesn't make sense on low-level cheap guns though.)
(Drugs, contraband, credits, ammo are also worth grabbing.)

Or weapon crate cheese in a base at high level to skip the combat part and just get the loot.
Or armory hab spam/modify ship cheese for a similar effect.

As a note on vendor reseting: they reset at 0:00 UTC if you talk to them >24 UTC hours after last trading with them.

[jonnin]

its all about early game, because after level 30-40 or so all your drops start being advanced gun versions and each one clears out one vendor's credits.

early game, your best bet is probably picking smart bounty missions to kill pirate or spacers on planets. Once you know the maps well, specific maps (cryo lab is a favorite, the chest is out side the building so you can grab and run) have contraband caches worth 8-15k or so that you can offload on wolf system (near AC).

These missions tend to pay 3k flat but you get a ton of loot too.

The thing is that credits are all but worthless after a short time. Once your ship is in good order, there isnt much to buy except rare crafting stuff which costs peanuts or ammo which can be pricey but still less than a couple of guns' worth (basically trade guns for ammo and end up 5k richer after its all done). There is no need to grind out millions, as there is not a lot to buy. The most expensive stuff is if you want to make several top notch ships.

This last new game I tried manufacturing just for variety. Its not good: I can make comm relays and sell them for about 15 each (I forget, I quit doing it) but ..
- it takes hundreds of ore to make even 5k credits worth
- that takes a LOT of cargo space
- which then DOUBLES or worse when you convert it from ore into goods...
- ^^ if you had the money to make a cargo ship capable of hauling enough to clean out new atlantis, you wouldn't need money. I suppose you can make a depo outside new atlantis and hoof it back to sell, but that is seriously arm twisting. The good news is that that quantity of crap levels you rapidly, as you get like 300 xp per stack (100 per each part and 100 for the final product). It also takes commerce ranked up, which you can exploit to rank up rapidly by modifying your ship and selling off the misc junk over and over. Getting the ore is easy, just sleep and collect it from an outpost.

[Doombringer]

True. A max ship is what, 600k-800k?
After that you really don't need money.

For direct outpost resource selling: Plutonium or Europium or Dysprosium are $5/cargo base, that is the best you can do early (uniques can be up to $6/cargo).
Dyprosium has a surprisingly small exclusion area for an exotic, so you can get more extractors down than you would expect.
The money isn't really good, but it is super low effort passive income.

Outposts are mainly for xp cheese.
Top-end crafting is 8-10xp each, so 99x that per E click E.

[Langkard]

I just go to a planetary system, 5-10 levels higher than I am at the time. Land and head to the nearest abandoned facility. Kill them all, loot them all (not armor, it weighs too much for the value). Rinse and repeat until ship's hold, all companions and crew (I use Constellation members as my crew) and my personal inventory are full. Fly off to sell, a loop from the station at Wolf, to the New Atlantis shops, to the Neon shops, to the Akila shops and sometimes Mars if needed. Then back to another planet landing again. Several hundred thousand credits easily plus the added benefit of gaining experience while doing it.

[Soondead]

1. Pay attention to loot value divided by weight; why carry one space suit or minigun when you can carry 20 inflictors instead? 2. Explore the cities to find where all the vendors are, Neon in particular has a lot of them within a small area. 3. Do sidequests.

[Xmasbeer]

I like shooting people in the face, good gear, space combat and in this game specifically: boarding action.
So to me personally a good and fun method is to fly to Serpentia system, that is actually a home system to Varuun (but Bethesda will probably release it as DLC). Then whenever you jump from planet to planet, you will trigger a spawn of 2 or 3 varuun ships. Levae the highest level for last and board it. Enjoy murdering around 15 snake worshippers and enjoy their rather good loot.