Starfield: How to Clear Bounty?

Starfield doesn’t stop you from living your dream life in a futuristic Sci-Fi world. You can become a noble hero, a thief, a pirate, or even someone in between. However, regardless of how you choose to play this major RPG, you will always end up committing a few crimes. Whether you were caught in a failed pickpocketing task or the space police detected some contraband on you.

Chances are that you will end up getting a hefty bounty over your head, even after killing an innocent NPC. In any case, the police will always catch you no matter how far you travel in space. Furthermore, having even a small bounty will make it hard for you to travel in space and visit other planets. Therefore, this article explains all the ways to clear bounty in Starfield, their consequences, and which method is best suited for you.

What is Bounty in Starfield?

Even though Starfield is based on a fictional world, it takes inspiration from real-world systems. Bethesda ensures to keep things as realistic and role-playing as possible, as seen in Fallout and Skyrim. In this regard, the bounty system is based on various factors; you must pay the price according to the extent of your crimes.

You can get a bounty if you commit one of these crimes:

• Trespass on owned property
• Kill or injure a friendly NPC.
• Hacking into owned objects
• Get caught during pickpocketing

Furthermore, if the police catch you, they will take into account your reputation, faction background, designation, and even the degree of your crimes. In short, if you get caught in the act of committing a crime, a bounty will be placed for your arrest. So, it is up to you whether you pay the dues and return all stolen goods, hire a bounty removal service, bribe the police, or serve your jail time.

Otherwise, police and other bounty hunters will pursue and try to eliminate you no matter where you travel. However, they won’t catch you if you know how to fast travel in Starfield. Still, these invaders will try to eliminate you as soon as you set foot on a planet or head into outer space. As a result, it would be wise to pick the best ship in Starfield while you travel to clear your bounty.

How to Clear Bounty in Starfield?

Now that you understand the importance of clearing your bounty, it is time to learn how to remove it and come clean. There are numerous ways to get a bounty over your head in Starfield. Fortunately, you can easily remove it in many ways.

However, each method comes with its own set of pros and cons. So, you should consider all possible ways and choose the one with the least impact on your character. Here are all the ways to clear bounty in Starfield:

Pay the Bounty:

The most obvious way to clear your bounty is to pay for your crimes. You will get the prompt to pay the bounty fee when a policeman catches you. However, the value can often be too much if you catch a habit of stealing everything valuable. Furthermore, besides paying the bounty fee, you will lose all stolen and contraband items from your inventory.

However, it is also the best way to come clean in Starfield; if money isn’t a problem and you don’t want to travel to distant planets, this option may just save your life. Keep in mind that you will lose all your stolen goods and even the best weapons (if stolen) from your inventory.

Self-Service Bounty Clearance terminal:

Money can’t buy happiness, but it can clear your criminal records in Starfield. The good news for players with sticky hands is that you get to keep all your stolen goods and items with this method. However, you must travel to far-away galaxies and star systems to find such terminals.

Basically, all you need to do is visit the nearest Self-Service Bounty Clearance terminal and interact with it to bring up the menu. Next, choose the faction for which you wish to remove the bounty. The bounty price is shown in brackets in front of each bounty.

Secondly, you can only clear your bounty as long as you are within another faction’s territory. For example, if you have a UC Vanguard bounty, you must travel to either Freestar Rangers or Crimson Fleet’s ship and use the terminal there to remove it. The same goes for other factions, so be ready to jump on your best ships and head to distant planets.

Here is a list of all Self-Service Bounty Clearance Terminals in Starfield:

Serve Jail Time:

This method is your last resort if you are broke or trying to make money in Starfield. However, depending on your crimes and all stolen items, you will lose a bunch of your XP. The good news is that you can trigger the Crimson Fleet questline and get clean without spending even a single penny.

To serve jail time, you must get arrested by one of the police (evade the bounty hunters). Next, choose the serve jail time option from the dialogue menu. Afterward, you will see a cutscene in jail and spend a couple of in-game hours until your serving period is over. Finally, you will be freed and stripped of all your stolen goods, and the weapons in your inventory will be returned.

Bribe the Police:

You can choose this method if you aren’t willing to pay the whole bounty money, and the stolen goods are far too valuable to return. However, it is a risky task, and if you fail to persuade the officer, the bribing money will increase, and the police will try to arrest you anyway.

However, if you are careful enough, you can get a clean criminal record while spending only a portion of the total sum. So, if you are interested in bribery, you must boost your Negotiation and Charisma by leveling up or choosing a suitable background. Next, when the officer approaches you, choose the offer a bribe option and fire up your negotiation skills.

Console Command to Remove Bounty:

The last method may seem a bit unethical, but it will save both your credits and time. So, if cheating or modding isn’t a problem for you, you can easily remove all your bounty without ever getting caught. There are a few ways to clear your bounty with console commands, depending on your preferences. Here are all the steps:

Bring up the command console by pressing the ~ button and use the following commands:

Access the Faction ID for every faction by typing:

help “(Faction Name)” 4

Here are all Starfield Faction IDs:

• 0017CF8D for Crimson Fleet
• 000638E5 for Freestar Collective
• 00096529 for Freestar Rangers
• 0017CF8D for Neon/Ryujin Industries
• 001D5AF9 for United Colonies
• 0022892D for Xenofresh Corporation
• 0022E53D for Trade Authority
• 002758C5 for House Va’ruun
• 002B209D for Red Mile

Once you get the Faction IDs, the next step is to check your total bounty for various factions. You can get this info from the following command:

getcrimegold Faction ID

This command will display your current bounty value for the selected faction. Alternatively, if you wish to clear all your bounty, you can either check with the Self-Service Terminal or input each ID one by one.

Now that you know the bounties, the next step is to clear them without losing your money. There are two ways to clear your bounty, but you must have more credits than the bounty for this command to work.

First, add the total required bounty credits with the following command:

player.additem 0000000f X (X= the amount of credits)

Once you have the credits, you can clear the bounty for each faction with this console command:

player.paycrimegold 0 0 Faction ID (the two zeros are compulsory)

Alternatively, you can use the safe method if you don’t want any glitches. Simply head to the Self-Service Terminals and pay the bounty for each faction. Once you have cleared the bounty, use the add credits command to regain your money.

Conclusion:

Starfield doesn’t limit you from living your Sci-Fi life with complete freedom. Even if you choose to live as a noble hero, you will commit a crime, even if unintentionally. From something as meager as pickpocketing to killing innocent NPCs, pretty much anything can get you the wanted status. Therefore, this article provides all possible ways to clear bounty in Starfield.