If you got a kick out of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’s bucket-assisted robbery you’ll be happy to hear that you can also use buckets to shoplift in Starfield. However, it doesn’t quite work the same way. So if you’re wondering how to steal things with a bucket in Starfield, I’ve got the answer.
Here’s What You Need to Know About Bucket-Assisted Robbery in Starfield
If you hold down E on the keyboard or A on joypad you can pick up objects, such as buckets and other relatively light items. Then you can use left mouse and right mouse on keyboard (left trigger and right trigger on joypad) to rotate them left or right. And, as in Skyrim, you can put buckets on storekeepers’ heads. However, in Starfield, this doesn’t seem to block their vision. They will still know if you steal an item.
Instead, here’s what you need to do, as spotted by Redditor Dave78905. Find a store that’s either got a back room, or an upstairs, or is a seamless part of a bigger area (so there’s no loading pause when you open the front door). I’m going to use UC Surplus in the Well (beneath the MAST area in New Atlantis, Jemison) as an example.
Find a bucket or a bin and, out of sight of any NPCs, hold down E/A to pick it up. In UC Surplus, there’s a bin by one of the storage area doors. The catch is that, unlike Skyrim, if someone sees you lift an item into the air, that’s counted as theft. So make sure you only hold down E/A when the shopkeeper can’t see you. He’ll follow you into the sideroom after ten to twenty seconds.
But once you’ve got the item floating in front of you, you can take it anywhere. Instead of putting the bin or whatever on the shopkeeper’s head, use it to nudge one of the rifles off the table and back into the storage area. The shopkeeper won’t object at all. If you drop the bucket you’ll need to lure the shopkeeper into the storage area then dash back and E/A it again.
Now, head back into the storage area and drop the bin (E/A again). You can now pick up the item and it’s yours. Not every item can be bumped in this way but it’s much easier than trying to kick them which, in my case, ended with them stuck under a table. In the Well you’re near a Trade Federation store, so you can repeat this process and sell your ill-gotten gains over there.
This won’t work in all stores. Centurion Arsenal on New Atlantis, for example, has no back area and has a brief loading screen when you exit. You can still put buckets on shopkeepers’ heads for the comedy factor but it’s not the foolproof method it was in Skyrim. And that’s how to steal things with a bucket in Starfield. For more shenanigans in the game, check out what this player did with a ridiculous number of potatoes.
