When smuggling illegal items in Starfield, Shielded Cargo Holds are necessary to prevent Contraband Scans on planets controlled by the United Colonies or the Freestar Collective from detecting the Contraband on your ship. These scans do not identify stolen items or even stolen ships, so you don’t have to worry about that.
Where to Get Shielded Cargo Holds: Find Jazz or Lon Anderssen
Note: Contrary to Scan Jammers, Shielded Cargo Holds don’t seem to be prohibited, as they are produced by legit ship component manufacturers. However, their availability seems to be limited to Lon Anderssen, Jazz, and your outposts Landing Pad with Shipbuilder.
There are only two Ship Services Technicians in the whole Settled Systems that supply Shielded Cargo Holds. The first one is Jasmine Durant (Jazz) at The Key (Survorov‘s orbit in the Kryx system), so you must be a member of the Crimson Fleet (complete Deep Cover and Rook Meets King to do that) to interact with her.
Thankfully, there is a second option for those who don’t want to join the Crimson Fleet (or just haven’t yet). You can find Lon Anderssen at the Red Mile casino on planet Porrima III in the Porrima System.
The alternative to these two SSTs is to build your own outpost and install the Landing Pad with Shipbuilder module.
Note: Both Ship Services Technicians also sell Scan Jammers, another ship module that can boost your chances to evade Contraband scans (more on that below).
Another Note: Jasmine Durant/Jazz is the only seller in the game that sells pirate ships (Crimson Fleet models). Most of the ships you can buy from her come with Shielded Cargo. (Extra note: The ship version you will find depends on your level, so there are some version II ships below.)
- Crimson Fleet Reaper:
- Shielded Cargo Capacity: 240
- Price: 128,775 Credits
- Crimson Fleet Ghost II:
- Shielded Cargo Capacity: 340
- Price: 92,700 Credits
- Crimson Fleet Haunt:
- Shielded Cargo Capacity: 190
- Price: 72,350 Credits
- Crimson Fleet Phantom II:
- Shielded Cargo Capacity:
- Price: 70,225 Credits
- Crimson Fleet Specter II:
- Shielded Cargo Capacity: 320
- Price: 177,806 Credits
- Crimson Fleet Banshee:
- Shielded Cargo Capacity: 340
- Price: 224,305 Credits
How Shielded Cargo Holds Work
A Shielded Cargo Hold comes with its own capacity, which is added to your total Cargo capacity. When you move Contraband items to your Cargo Hold, they automatically go to the Shielded Cargo Hold; you don’t have to perform this task manually (and I think you can’t unless there is a Shielded Cargo Hold device somewhere in my ship and I haven’t found it. fact-check: You definitely can’t).
What matters here is the Shielded Cargo Hold Capacity. As long the amount of Contraband in your ship’s Cargo Hold is less than the capacity of your Shielded Cargo Hold, there is a 59% chance that you will evade a Scan.
Note: As long as your Contraband mass is lower than your Shielded Cargo Hold capacity, you will always have a 59% chance to evade Security Scans, while this percentage can be increased with Scan Jammers and the Deception skill.
As long as you are below your Shielded Cargo Holds’ max capacity the chance to evade scans won’t decrease by adding more mass in your Cargo Hold.
Warning: Don’t Carry Contraband & Don’t Add it to the Captain’s Locker
Your inventory or followers’ inventories are also scanned, while the Captain’s Locker may sound like private storage that may evade scans, but it won’t. Every single piece of Contraband must be in your Cargo Hold. Otherwise, the scans will 100% detect you.
How to Increase Your Shielded Cargo Effectiveness: Scan Jammers
Apart from reducing the amount of Contraband, you can also install a Scan Jammer ship module on your ship. You will find three different Scan Jammers sold by Jazz and Lon Anderssen:
- Scan Jammer – Multi-Frequency
- Increases your chance of Evasion by 50%
- Requires Starship Design (Rank 2)
- Scan Jammer – Dual-Frequency
- Increases your chance of Evasion by 30%
- Requires Starship Design (Rank 1)
- Scan Jammer – Single-Frequency
- Increases your chance of Evasion by 10%
Note: The Scan Jammers’ effects don’t stack so install only one on your ship. Additionally, the percentages don’t seem to be flat. For instance, if your Shielded Cargo Capacity and Contraband Mass lead to a 30% to evade scans, the Multi-Frequency Scan Jammer will raise to 45%.
How to Further Increase Your Shielded Cargo Effectiveness: Deception Skill
Unlocking the Deception Skill reduces the effectiveness of Contraband Scanners, thus increasing your Shielded Cargo effectiveness transitively. Increasing your Deception Skill further reduces the effectiveness of Contraband Scanners, up to 50% at Rank 4. Here is the full Deception Ranks, Rank Effects, and Rank Challenges table.
| Rank | Rank Effect | Rank Challenge |
| 1 | Ships 10% stronger will automatically surrender to piracy demands. Enemy contraband scans are 10% less effective. | Convince 5 ships to surrender. |
| 2 | Ships 20% stronger will automatically surrender to piracy demands. Enemy contraband scans are 20% less effective. | Convince 10 ships to surrender. |
| 3 | Ships 30% stronger will automatically surrender to piracy demands. Enemy contraband scans are 30% less effective. | Convince 20 ships to surrender. |
| 4 | Ships 50% stronger will automatically surrender to piracy demands. Enemy contraband scans are 50% less effective. | You have mastered this skill. |
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