Dragging an item counts as stealing in Starfield. But nudging it along the floor with another item is totally legit.
As in real life, wandering into someone’s house and shoving all their stuff into your pockets is frowned upon in Starfield. It will result in a nasty ticking off, possibly involving bullets.
Grabbing hold of an object and dragging it across the floor to somewhere out of sight will also raise the alarm. That tactic might have worked in Fallout: New Vegas, but Bethesda is wise to it here.
However, there is a way to steal things right from under the noses of non-player characters. And it involves some hockey skills.
Reddit user Dave78905 was one of the first to work out the method. By grabbing and holding a bin, they were able to nudge a rifle off a cabinet and then push it across the floor – right in front of the unconcerned NPCs, who seemed to pay little attention to the bin hockey going on in front of them. Once the rifle had been pushed through a door and out of the NPCs’ eyelines, it could be picked up with impunity.
Others have since been having fun with the trick. Here’s Twitter user @Googleygareth nudging a hat past the unsuspecting NPC fools:
Ah, you think you're slick Todd? Making it so dragging an item you don't own counts as stealing it, so I can't pull a Silver Rush and throw them all into a room out of sight to steal?
You FOOL. pic.twitter.com/ueWYwpBTcK
— GoogleyGareth (@Googleygareth) September 6, 2023
But perhaps the best example of the trick I’ve seen is this Japanese player sweeping Credsticks into a space laundry basket, and then carrying the basket off into a corner to help themselves to their ill-gotten loot:
JP Players have also innovated pic.twitter.com/3xMRmn1wWM
— Flare3500 (@Flare3500) September 6, 2023
Of course, you could simply wait for the NPCs to turn their backs and steal their stuff when they’re not looking instead of hockeying it across the floor. But where’s the fun in that?
Read more: Starfield | You can’t land on planets from space – but you can fly inside them
