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A Starfield player standing on a planet. But should you visit the Moon?

Starfield Tried to Murder Me Over a Cardboard Box

Firing up Starfield, I was prepared for a lot of things. I expected NPCs to spew information as I walked past, so much so Iā€™d have five quests before I actually spoke to anyone. I also figured I’d fall through the surface of a planet or two. But Iā€™d have never predicted that StarfieldĀ would try and murder me for picking up a discarded cardboard box.

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Admittedly, I did have nefarious intentions, though thereā€™s no way the security forces, who descended on me en mass, could have known that. It all started when I discovered the bucket trick wasnā€™t as effective in Starfield as it was in The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.Ā 

If youā€™ve not experienced the sheer, ridiculous joy of Skyrimā€™s shoplifting dodge, Iā€™ll elaborate. You can hold the activate key to manipulate objects (without adding them to your inventory) and place them over shopkeepersā€™ heads. This blocks their vision and allows you to literally rob them blind.

After attempting this in Starfield and failing miserably, I illogically decided it was my choice of receptacle that was wrong. It wasnā€™t that Bethesda had grown wise and given NPCs X-Ray vision, it was that Iā€™d shoved the wrong item onto this particular shopkeeperā€™s head.

Related: Bethesda Considered Making Starfieldā€™s Earth the One From Fallout

So, poking around The Well (New Atlantisā€™s underground trading area in Starfield), I spotted a cardboard box sitting by a dumpster. I lifted it gently into the air, and all hell broke loose.

I canā€™t remember what clued me first, whether it was the screaming or that everyone, apart from one remarkably chill guy, started running around like headless chickens. Youā€™d have thought the Reapers fromĀ Mass EffectĀ had just turned up.

I was still gawping at the mayhem when the United Colonies’ security forces turned up. I didnā€™t get so much as a ā€œStop right there, criminal scum!ā€ before they started blasting.

My immediate and slightly idiotic reaction was to keep hold of the cardboard box and try to use it as a shield. Ducking behind the dumpster didnā€™t help, so after trying and largely failing to shoot my attackers, I resorted to running around randomly.

Maybe I had a chance of blending in with the public who were fleeing Yakety Sax-style. To no-oneā€™s great surprise, it didnā€™t end well, and I met my demise for the heinous crime of touching an empty cardboard box.

On a parallel playthrough, I axe-murdered the inhabitants of a trading ship and got a polite hail inviting me to pay a fine. But this? Judge Dredd would have dismissed murdering me over a cardboard box as too. Life may be cheap in Starfield, but a corrugated cardboard box apparently isnā€™t. Maybe the United Colonies are really tough or recycling.

Thatā€™s my best in-universe guess, at least. But practically, it smacks of overzealousness on Bethesdaā€™s part. The difference, as I eventually discovered, between Starfield and Skyrimā€™s object manipulation is that the latter doesnā€™t doesnā€™t care who owns an object.

People will grumble if you start waving objects around, but itā€™s not a crime. If you pocket an object, absolutely. As long as you set an item down afterwards, no swords are drawn, but Starfield counts manipulating objects as theft.

Starfield People Fleeing

If someone owns an item and you lift it by so much as an inch, it counts a crime, and the game brings the hammer down. My theory is that Bethesda was well aware of all the bucket-related theft going on in Skyrim and this was their attempt to fix it.

They may have taken things a teeny tiny step too far; hence the hail of bullets. In Starfieldā€™s eyes, I was every bit as guilty as if Iā€™d ram-raided the New Atlantis branch of GalBank. Overkill doesnā€™t begin to cover it.

Still, now that I’ve done the timeā€¦ maybe it’s time to make a withdrawal? I wonder if bench guy is still around? He seems like heā€™d be good in a hosta– er, crisis situation.


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Image of Chris McMullen
Chris McMullen
Chris McMullen is a freelance contributor at The Escapist and has been with the site since 2020. He returned to writing about games following several career changes, with his most recent stint lasting five-plus years. He hopes that, through his writing work, he settles the karmic debt he incurred by persuading his parents to buy a Mega CD. Outside of The Escapist, Chris covers news and more for GameSpew. He's also been published at such sites as VG247, Space, and more. His tastes run to horror, the post-apocalyptic, and beyond, though he'll tackle most things that aren't exclusively sports-based. At Escapist, he's covered such games as Infinite Craft, Lies of P, Starfield, and numerous other major titles.