Thievery is one of the social skills that allows you to commit petty thefts and remain unnoticed. You can choose the honorable path and refrain from touching others' property, or you can turn your character into a full-fledged pickpocket. And we'll tell you how to do it.

About the Skill

The thievery skill can be very useful if you want to acquire extra credits and even valuable resources.

If you still want to turn your main character into a thief, we recommend selecting a character creation background with three useful starting skills: Stealth - classic stealth, Security - lockpicking and infiltration skill, and Thievery, which we mentioned earlier.  

You can learn about all the Starfield backgrounds in a separate guide.

How to Steal from NPCs

To steal from NPCs, you need to approach them from behind. The popping panel will display all possible actions and items stored in the NPC's inventory that are available for theft. 

Your success is not guaranteed. The following instructions will help you refine the new mechanic and increase your chances of success:

• Try to choose NPCs who are standing alone, not in plain sight of a crowd. It's preferable that they are not moving but standing still;
• Save the game before each theft attempt - in case something goes wrong;
• Pay attention to the percentage chance of successful theft - it will be displayed when approaching an NPC;
• As soon as the character you are trying to steal from is marked with "Detected," immediately stop the action;
• To avoid quick detection, level up the Stealth skill.

If you are detected, you can still commit the theft, but the success rate decreases by 25%.

You can steal only one item from any NPC at a time. Possible resources include credits, weapons, ammunition, food, medicine, and magazines.

By the way, if you realize during the inventory check that the NPC doesn't have the resources you need and there's nothing to steal, you can safely walk away - you won't be noticed or condemned.

Consequences of Getting Caught Stealing

Security in the cities is maintained by Security Guards who are always nearby. If your theft attempt is noticed, the nearest guard will search for you and try to arrest you.

If you get caught, you will have to pay a fine and serve time in a security checkpoint. All stolen items will be confiscated, even if they were acquired before the attempted theft that got you caught.

But confiscated items can be retrieved - they will be stored in a Stolen Item Locker in the security checkpoint.