Knowing how to improve your carrying capacity in Starfield will quickly become one of the most important items on your cosmic agenda. Your starting spacesuit has incredibly small pockets and, in classic Bethesda fashion, there’s too much stuff lying around to simply ignore.
Luckily, there are a few ways to improve your carrying capacity, some of which can be accessed very early in the game. This is the best quality of life improvement you can make in the early stages of your adventure, and deepening your pockets will allow you to live out all your hoarding dreams.
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Ships And Companions
Your first port of call to improve your carrying capacity in Starfield is to use your companions and your ship’s cargo hold. Your ship is the best option as even the Frontier, your small starting spacecraft, has a decent carrying capacity of 450kg, and any materials in the hold will be automatically used when you’re crafting.
That’s not the case for companions, who can carry a shade more than 100kg of stuff each.
When you’re deep into a mining facility picking up dozens of Spacer rifles to sell on back in Akila City and get that dreaded pop-up warning you that you’re encumbered, passing off a few bits and bobs to your loyal friend is a quick short-term fix.
As you can only move items to your ship’s cargo hold if you’re in its vicinity or on board, companions act as a perfect additional pocket when you’re far away from home. Just remember to take all that stuff back off them afterwards.
Skill Points
The simplest way to improve your carrying capacity is to put your skill points into the Weight Lifting skill. Part of the Physical tree, rank one increases your total carrying capacity by 10kg, rank two by 25kg, rank three by 50kg, and rank four by a whopping 100kg.
The challenges to rank up this skill involve sprinting for long distances with a nearly-full backpack, which you’re likely already doing, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.
It’s worth noting that the Payloads skill in the Tech tree has the same effect on your ship’s cargo hold.
Upgrading Your Spacesuit
The final way to improve your carrying capacity is by upgrading your spacesuit. Simply find a Spacesuit workbench – there’s one in the basement of The Lodge – and add the Extra Capacity mod to your Boost Pack. This has a few prerequisites: you need to have researched Pack Mods 2 for starters, and then arrive with 3 Aluminium, 3 Polymer, and 2 Sealant in order to install 10kg of extra bag space.
Slot 4 on your spacesuit mods also gives you the option of adding the Pocketed mod. This requires researching Spacesuit Mods 2, and needs 1 Polytextile, 2 Sealant, and 1 Adhesive to craft. This gives you an additional 5kg of capacity. Both of these require two points into the Spacesuit Design perk, but if you really need to carry that extra bottle of wine, then every little helps.
