Is Aurora worth smuggling off Neon in Starfield?

Whether you have a Space Scoundrel background or you grew up on the streets of Neon, or both if you’re like my first character in Starfield, then the temptation of smuggling and selling contraband is just too much to pass up.

Upon picking up any piece of contraband, I find myself dropping whatever I’m working on to find the quickest and most efficient way of selling it. Like any good smuggler would know, it’s important to determine when goods are too hot, or when they’re not worth the effort it takes to smuggle them.

Any local Neon resident knows all about Aurora, the drug that’s only legal to purchase and use on Neon. But is it worth the effort to get it off the planet?

Is it worth smuggling Aurora off Neon?

The short answer is no. If you’re like me, you might have considered the most simplistic way of smuggling Aurora: buying some from the Astral Lounge and sprinting through the security checkpoint to your ship. You’d figure that an illegal drug that’s not allowed on other planets would sell well outside of Neon, right?

Alas, upon arriving at The Den and realizing that the Aurora I spent 700 credits on would only sell for just over 100, it became clear that this method was absolutely not worth it, and that didn’t even include the cost of the bounty I now had on Neon.

There’s a method of acquiring Aurora without buying it, though. To learn the recipe for Aurora, you will have to start and complete the questline that begins with Loose Ends. This quest turns up when you first land on Neon, when you see Neshar Omani being apprehended by law enforcement at the checkpoint. Head to the jail in Neon Security to talk to him.

Eventually, this leads you to the Xenofresh factory underneath Neon, and after completing the associated questline, you’ll get the recipe for Aurora and the ability to craft it at any Pharmaceutical Lab:

• 2x Hallucinogen
• 1x Benzeme
• 1x Stimulant
• 1x Chasmbass Oil

But even Aurora you craft yourself isn’t worth it; it still only sells for 100 credits. I don’t know why this valuable drug that costs 700 in a place where it’s legal sells for a fraction elsewhere, but it’s clear that it is not worth smuggling and selling Aurora in Starfield.