Highlights
- A player in Starfield discovered an exploit to steal clothing items without breaking the law by abusing the game's physics engine.
- This exploit involves using physics objects to repeatedly hit an NPC without them becoming hostile or reacting to it.
- While the player demonstrated it by obtaining an Akila Security uniform, this exploit could potentially be used to eliminate nearly any NPC in the game.
A Starfield player stumbled across an exploit that lets them steal an Akila Security uniform, or any clothing item for that matter, without technically breaking the law. They discovered that by abusing Starfield's physics engine, they could kill and rob NPCs without earning the attention of simulated law enforcement.
Xbox has bragged that Starfield has fewer bugs than any other Bethesda game. However, it still has a lot of the weirdness that players have come to expect from the studio's open-world action RPGs. The physics engines, in particular, have long been open to abuse. Many Bethesda fans still remember the old trick of putting buckets on the heads of Skyrim NPCs before literally robbing them blind. Now, it seems that Starfield features a similar exploit.
Reddit user --Qwerty demonstrated this trick in a short clip uploaded to the game's subreddit. It shows him taking a metal box and swinging it at an Akila Security guard multiple times. The player needed to build up some momentum before each strike, but every hit deals damage without causing the guard to be hostile or constitute a crime. Eventually, the guard dies, and the player can simply loot the uniform from his body. None of these actions are a crime, and --Qwerty presumably could have done it in the middle of a crowd without any reaction from NPCs.
Starfield players can grab physics objects by looking at them and holding down the E key on the keyboard or the A button on a controller. This lets them move the object around in the environment but does not constitute equipping it as a weapon. Since hitting NPCs with a physics object doesn't count as an attack, NPCs will not react to it even if they are the ones being targeted.
Qwerty used this exploit to snag a uniform, but Starfield players could theoretically use it to eliminate any NPC for any reason. For example, one player suggested it might be a fun way to deal with the Paradiso board members during Starfield's First Contact mission. Those NPCs are immortal, however, so hitting them with boxes would only be for entertainment value.
Bethesda might patch this exploit out eventually, though there is no guarantee the studio will get around to it. After all, Skyrim's bucket exploit survived multiple re-releases and even showed up in Fallout 4. If Starfield matches Skyrim's longevity, players could be hitting people with boxes for years to come.
Starfield is out now on PC and Xbox Series X/S.