'Starfield' Storage Tips: How to Increase Cargo Space and Carrying Capacity

Starfield has dozens upon dozens of weapons, items, and resources you’ll need to collect on your lengthy adventure through the galaxy. Because Bethesda’s new game has a focus on crafting and building outposts, on top of all your unusual items, it’s extremely easy to become over-encumbered preventing you from fast travel. One of the first things you’ll want to do is increase your personal storage and carrying capacity, as well as the amount of storage you have available. Here’s everything you need to know about increasing your storage in Starfield.

How to Increase Personal Storage

Weight Lifting should be one of the very first skills you unlock.

The simplest way of increasing your storage is to invest in the Weight Lifting skill. You’ll need four skill points to upgrade the skill completely, and the first level only grants 10kg of extra carrying capacity. Once you unlock the skill you’ll need to spend a certain amount of time running with at least 70 percent of your carrying capacity full, in order to unlock the next tier. Once you have every tier unlocked, you’ll be able to carry a total of 100kg extra, which will absolutely help.

The other way to increase your own carrying capacity is by finding “Peak Performance” magazines scattered across the galaxy. Each of these magazines you own will increase your carrying capacity by an extra 5kg.

Keep an eye out for Peak Performance magazines as they provide an instant boost.

If you want to carry more while exploring your best bet is to bring along a companion to act as a pack mule. Companions have their own inventory and you can trade items with them freely. Don’t be afraid to load them up with items then transfer them to storage later on.

Finally, you can create outposts with storage options if you want to drop some supplies on any planet. You can build outposts by opening the scanner with LB and then pressing X. You’ll need to set an outpost beacon and landing pad to access it properly, then can create any kind of storage items and facilities you want. Just keep in mind, if you want to get the items you’ve stored you’ll need to return to that outpost, and won’t be able to just access it from anywhere.

How to Access Ship Storage

As long as you’re near your ship, you can access the cargo hold at any time.

Each ship you own has its own cargo hold, and there are two different ways of accessing it. The easiest way is to open the main menu, select the “ship” menu, and then press the “cargo hold” option. As long as you’re near your ship, or in a major settlement like New Atlantis, you’ll be able to do this at will. From the cargo hold menu, you can remove any items and transfer any items from your inventory.

The second way to access your cargo hold is to simply board your ship and go up near the cockpit, then interact with the cargo hold panel on the left side, which will bring up the same menu. Your cargo hold does have a limit, however.

How to Increase Ship Storage

Payloads is on the second branch of the Tech skill tree, so you’ll need to spend a few points before you can access it.

The simplest way to increase your ship’s storage is to invest in the Payloads skill, which functions exactly like Weight Lifting, just for your ship. Each tier of this skill will increase the amount of storage in your cargo hold, up to an increase of 50 percent.

Past that you can simply buy, or steal, a bigger ship with a larger cargo hold. That’s not always an option, of course, as you’ll need to have a bunch of credits to buy a ship or stumble upon some hapless strangers while exploring.

Luckily, there’s an easier way to expand storage by simply upgrading your current ship. At all of the major cities, you can find a Ship Services Technician at the landing pad. Talk to the technician and pick the dialogue option that says you want to upgrade your ship, then select Ship Builder.

Buying another cargo item is a quick fix, but you’ll need to make sure your ship can fly properly.

Here you can purchase individual parts and attach them to your ship, including extra cargo holds. You’ll need credits and the ship will have to be able to fly, so you can’t just attach 20 cargo holds. But it’s a quick fix for getting more storage.

The Lodge Has Infinite Storage

Your room looks like every other in The Lodge, but it’s the only one with a storage chest.

Something very easy to miss in Starfield is that you actually have an infinite storage chest in your room at The Lodge. If you didn’t find your room at the start of the game enter the lodge and head up the stairs, then take the second door on the right and head down the hallway. At the end of the hallway hang a left and find your room at the second to last door on the left. It’s straight across from the miniature ship display.

Again the wall on the right side is your storage chest, and there’s literally no limit to how much you can put in. It’s a good idea to regularly head back to the lodge to dump some items or take advantage of when the story forces you to return.

Starfield is currently available on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Game Pass.