As you level up the Social skill tree in Starfield, you’ll have the opportunity to unlock Negotiation. The Negotiation skill allows you to bribe NPCs to make them do what you want or look the other way when committing a crime. It’s a helpful skill, but it can be challenging to level up as you need to bribe characters 18 times to reach rank 4 successfully. This guide will cover the best people to bribe through persuasion in Starfield.
Best People to Bribe for the Negotiation Skill in Starfield
The best people to bribe through persuasion for the Negotiation skill in Starfield are the guards in Neon City in the Volii star system. All you need to do is commit a petty crime, such as stealing from a store, and then when you encounter a guard, select the persuasion dialogue option.
This method will allow you to bribe the guards and have them look the other way, which can quickly level your Negotiation skill. The only downfall is that sometimes bribing the guards costs more credits than surrendering, usually falling within the ballpark of 3,000 credits. The good news is that you will get to keep all your stolen goods.
Related: Starfield Commerce Leveling Guide | Best Method to Buy and Sell Unique Items Fast
The reason I suggest Neon City is because it seems that this is the only main city that has corrupt guards and allows bribery. Feel free to try other cities, but New Atlantis and Akila City both did not work for me when committing petty crimes.
If you want to follow this method and are short on credits, there are quick ways to make a ton of money. You can steal enemy ships and sell them to a Ship Technician, complete main and side missions, or sell a ton of goods at the nearest vendor.
Negotiation Skill Leveling Requirements
As you bribe guards and people in Starfield, you will level up your Negotiation skill and reduce the bribery cost as a reward. Below you can find all the requirements for each rank of the Negotiation skill.
- Rank 1 – You now have access to Bribery in speech challenges (Spend 4 points in Social).
- Rank 2 – Reduces bribery cost by 25% (Bribe 3 times).
- Rank 3 – Reduces bribery cost by 50% (Bribe 5 times).
- Rank 4 – Occasionally, bribery won’t cost any money (Bribe 10 times).
So, as you level Negotiation, you will have to pay the Neon guards less. Remember that you must also spend one skill point whenever you want to reach a higher rank in Negotiation.
