How to Get a Shielded Cargo Hold in Starfield

A cargo hold with a shield?

Starfield Ship Builder
Image via Prima Games.

While transferring goods of fairly legal standing can make you a lot of money in Starfield, the risk of travelling with contraband items comes with a much, much stronger value. To be able to sell those items though, you’ll first need to be able to get them through contraband scanners located outside of each planet. Here’s how to get a Shielded Cargo Hold in Starfield.

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Where to Find a Shielded Cargo Hold in Starfield

Starfield Lon Anderssen
Screenshot by Prima Games.

There are two ways that you can score yourself a Shielded Cargo Hold, with one way being the clearly better option. That is to of course buy one, though you’ll need to go a little off the beaten path to do so. First things first, make your way to the Porrima system and land at Red Mile, located on the planet of Porrima III. Once there, make your way to the airlock at the front door and head on in.

Related: How to Increase Ship Cargo Hold Space in Starfield

Once you’re inside, you’ll find a Ship Services office almost immediately. Head inside and you’ll find a man named Lon Anderssen. Speak with him, and he might go on a bit of a spiel about how he’s not happy with the direction Red Mile is going. For the purposes of this guide, you’re safe to ignore that conversation. Instead, you’ll want to proceed until you get a few options similar to the Ship Services Technicians across the galaxy. Select “I’d like to view and modify my ships.” and you’ll bring up the Ship Builder.

From here, you’ll want to access said Ship Builder and press the Add key listed in the bottom right. Navigate to the Cargo section, and you’ll find a handful of Shielded Cargo Holds. It’s important to note that Shielded Cargo Holds are a bit more expensive than their standard counterparts, and tend to hold less Cargo space overall.

Why Do You Want a Shielded Cargo Hold?

A Shielded Cargo Hold is very useful for those of you who like to dabble in the less-than-legal side of Starfield. With a Shielded Cargo Hold installed, any contraband items stored within your ship will be impossible to detect by Contraband Scanners outside each planet. This means you can bring those expensive goods down to the planet and make a clean bit of cash. Just be sure to watch out for other scanners on the planets themselves and find ways around them, as a Shielded Cargo Hold won’t protect against that.

If you’re working more on improving your ship, check out our guide on how to assign weapons to a group in Starfield.

About the Author

Shawn Robinson

Shawn is a freelance gaming journalist who's been with Prima Games for a year and a half, writing mainly about FPS games and RPGs. He even brings several years of experience at other sites like The Nerd Stash to the table. While he doesn't bring a fancy degree to the table, he brings immense attention to detail with his guides, reviews, and news, leveraging his decade and a half of gaming knowledge. If he isn't writing about games, he's likely getting zero kills in his favorite FPS or yelling at the game when it was 100% his fault that he died.