Starfield carry weight – how to increase your carry capacity

Want to know how to increase carry weight in Starfield? As you dart back and forth across the Settled Systems, you’ll hoard a silly amount of stuff in your inventory – spacesuits, packs, helmets, clothing, food, healing items, resources, and general junk. To satisfy your looting urges, you’ll need a carry weight to match.

We’ll explain how to increase carry weight in Starfield. If you’re in need of some other early game pointers, check out how to lockpick in Starfield, how to pickpocket in Starfield, how to change weapons in Starfield, and how to change home ship in Starfield.

How to increase carry weight in Starfield

There are several ways to increase carry weight in Starfield:

• Spend skill points on the Weight Lifting skill to increase your total carrying capacity
• Equip packs that increase your carry capacity
• Consume Aid items to temporarily boost your carry weight
• Use console commands

Weight Lifting skill

The best way to increase your carry capacity in Starfield is to sink skill points into the Weight Lifting skill on the physical Starfield skill tree, which increases your ability to carry weapons and equipment in space and on planets. It’s indicated by a dumbbell symbol. There are four Weight Lifting ranks:

• Rank 1 – Increase total carrying capacity by 10 kilograms.
• Rank 2 – Increase total carrying capacity by 25 kilograms.
• Rank 3 – Increase total carrying capacity by 50 kilograms.
• Rank 4 – Increase total carrying capacity by 100 kilograms. Gain 50% resistance to stagger.

Carry capacity boosting packs

Next, you can equip packs that offer a smaller boost to carrying weight in Starfield. For example, the Fastened Calibrated Ground Crew Pack boosts carry capacity of your personal inventory by 20 kilograms. This method is a little less reliable than dropping skill points into Weight Lifting because there’s no guarantee you’ll have the right pack mods and finding them is down to luck and RNG.

Consumables and aids

Finally, you can temporarily increase carry weight in Starfield by consuming certain Aid items. Obviously this isn’t as effective a choice as spacesuit mods or skill point investment, but it’ll do in a pinch. Here’s a list of carry weight boosting consumables we’ve come across so far:

• Bourbon – +6 carry capacity for 5 minutes.
• Red Harvest Single Malt Whiskey – +4 carry capacity for 5 minutes.
• UC Battlemeal Multipack – +6 carry capacity for 8 minutes.
• Departure Time – +4 carry capacity for 5 minutes.
• New Arrival – +4 carry capacity for 5 minutes.
• Viewport Original – +4 carry capacity for 5 minutes.
• Dink Pack: Vodka – +6 carry capacity 5 minutes.
• Dink Pack: Vodka – +6 carry capacity 5 minutes.

Use console commands

This one is of course cheating, but it nonetheless works. You can use console commands in Starfield to increase your carry capacity, solving the issue permanently, though it’s significantly easier on PC than Xbox. To use this option, just follow these two steps.

• Open up the console command prompt window with the tilde ( ` ) key. This is usually the one above your TAB key on a keyboard.
• Type the following command: player.modav carryweight X

X here is going to be the variable you decide on, as you will replace the letter with whatever number you see fit. It will determine the specific mass increase of your carry capacity. If you type 20 in here, you’ll gain an extra 20KG mass carry capacity. If you type 100000, you’ll gain an extra 100,000KG carry capacity. How you use this command is ultimately up to you. Be aware though that using console commands can lock you out of achievements in a playthrough.

How to bypass your carry capacity problems

As a final workaround, you can always bring some Starfield companions with you. They can carry a limited amount of items for you, which will allow you to bypass pesky carry weight problems. To do this, use the dialogue prompt “let’s trade gear” when speaking with them.

You can also put excess items into a ship’s cargo hold or similar storage container. Of course, this is only viable when you have access to your ship cargo, such as when travelling between spaceports or Starfield planets. You’ll still need to be careful if you’re carrying contraband too – as long as you know how to sell items quickly and covertly, it shouldn’t prove too great a problem, however.

Lastly, regular clear-outs will help you maintain a lower carry capacity. Be sure to drop or sell unwanted junk at regular intervals if carry capacity is a serious problem for you.

That covers how to increase carry weight in Starfield. Be sure to check out our Starfield powers list and also our Starfield Lair of the Mantis puzzle solution guide to grab an excellent early game ship and suit.

Is carry weight important in Starfield?

Carry weight is pretty important in Starfield, as being over encumbered is a serious detriment to speed and mobility.

Can you become over encumbered in Starfield?

You can easily become over encumbered in Starfield by carrying collect items which add up to more than your character’s carry capacity.