Bethesda RPGs have many staples that exist regardless of the game’s specific setting. The pickpocket, or stealing an item directly from an NPCs inventory, is one such staple—so of course it had to be included in Starfield.
Stealth has always been a favorite build since the days of Morrowind, and that isn’t likely to change this time around. Starfield includes all the classic stealth mechanics that players have come to love, though there are some very slight changes. One of these changes is the necessity to obtain a specific skill before you even have the option to pickpocket.
Pickpocketing in Starfield, explained
In Starfield, you have to unlock the Theft skill within the Social tree to pickpocket (because nothing says “social butterfly” like stealing items straight out of someone’s inventory). Sure, it technically could be considered “social” because it takes two to pickpocket, but personally I was worried it wasn’t possible to pickpocket for a while because it was almost the very last place I thought to look.
Thankfully, Theft is located in the Basic tier of the Social tree, meaning that there is no level/tree advancement required—you can unlock the ability at any time, provided you have a skill point available. Just don’t expect to be any good at it off the bat.
Once you have unlocked the Theft skill by spending a skill point, pickpocketing will work just like it does in any other Bethesda game—activate an NPC while crouching to access their inventory.
How to improve your pickpocket (Theft) skill in Starfield
In Starfield, you have to actually use skills before you’re able to unlock higher ranks of that skill. For Theft specifically, you must successfully pickpocket five times before you can purchase rank two, which grants a 10 percent increased chance of success. The same is true of higher ranks—you have to actually use the skill and succeed before you can get better at it.
There isn’t an exact blanket chance of success when it comes to pickpocketing in Starfield. Rather, odds are dependent upon specific items and their weight. Conveniently, your chances of successfully pickpocketing any item will be displayed in percentage value next to that item. At rank one, you will have chances ranging from zero percent for very heavy objects, up to around 40 percent for very light objects. Whether you are detected or not DOES matter greatly. While undetected, I have a 62 percent chance of successfully stealing a guards ammo. When detected, it dropped to 37 percent.
You’ll have to continue picking more and more pockets at each rank before you’re able to unlock the next. At rank four (the final rank), your chance of success is increased by 50 percent. That does not mean a 50 percent total chance, but a 50 percent increase from the starting chance. This means that at rank four of Theft, you should have about a 50 percent chance of pickpocketing very heavy objects, and a 90-100 percent chance of swiping very light objects.
For the player, all of this pickpocketing means you get to actually feel like you’re training, and the RPG satisfaction hits peak levels. There’s something about getting caught pickpocketing and being punished that’s actually more fun than if it always worked. If it was simply about acquiring items, there are quite frankly better ways to do so. Players want to experience the RP of being a street urchin, and part of that means needing to learn your trade.
