Throughout Starfield you’ll have access to a wide variety of drugs and contraband that can make you a fortune like Aurora. Most of these substances are hard to find, thus making them incredibly difficult to keep a reliable supply of. Luckily, Aurora is one of the premier substances in Neon City, and a little bit of questing can see you making it yourself. It’s true that there are multiple ways to get a hold of this substance between vendors, the black market, and the Astral Lounge itself. However, behind the scenes, each of these methods pales in comparison to making it yourself.
The majority of the materials used to make Aurora are over-the-counter. Under this stipulation, you can easily acquire all of the supplies you need in order to start a contraband empire! The catch is, like Skooma in Skyrim, you will have to deal with acquiring at times rare materials such as Chasmbass Oil. Beyond this, once you make the right connections you can stand to make a tidy profit off the most popular drug in Starfield.
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What Is Aurora?
Aurora is one of those specialty drugs that has been collectively outlawed by most factions in Starfield. Acting as a form of stimulant that slows down time and grants an extreme sense of euphoria, it is dangerously addictive. This makes Aurora one of the most popular forms of contraband as one taste will often create repeat customers. Unfortunately, the substance comes from the activation of fish oil which causes a time-slowing effect on its users. Beyond this, Aurora is popular because of the sheer amount of ways it can be consumed by users.
Able to be drunk, smoked, inhaled, or injected with the substance is a problem for anyone after prolonged use. Worse off besides the dangerous effects of the drug is the addictive factor which is unavoidable. One shot of Aurora will force the player to become addicted to it, lowering the quality of lights and ambient sound until consumed again. It’s clear that the substance is meant to resemble modern hallucinogenic sedatives, however only in one place is it truly thriving. Within Neon City, you will find a growing market for the drug, where it’s the defacto leader and profits off of the Aurora Trade.
Aurora Varieties
There are three basic forms of Aurora that can be found around Starfield. The first is the ever-present pure Aurora variety, which has been purified and made into a powdered form. Unrefined Aurora is a version of the substance that is more rocky, and crystalline; and not fit for proper consumption. Lastly, Aurora has a drink variety called Blend. This is exclusive to a merchant in Neon City where you will learn the recipe. Overall, each offers the same general effect but in varying periods of time. Blend grants you a very limited effect, whereas pure Aurora gives the best duration.
Pure Aurora
Pure Aurora is the most common variety of contraband found around the settled systems. It comes in a bottle clearly marked “Aurora” with purple outlines, and comes in a powdery form. These powders have a blue appearance, similar to a particular real-life substance from Breaking Bad. That being said, it is highly valuable and even used as a form of trade material by some vendors and addicts. Pure Aurora can be dangerous to consume in large quantities, and its addictive nature makes it a blight on communities it comes across.
Unrefined Aurora
Before Aurora can become the flourished party drug of the settled systems, it is made in an unrefined state. It’s clear that the process to make this version of the substance can give the player the desired effect though at a visibly lower duration. That being said, unrefined Aurora can go for a decent price on the market compared to its Blend variety. Unrefined Aurora appears very similar to the basic pure variety however is in an unlabeled container with noticeably rocky particles. You get the same basic effects as the base variety however it’s notable that unrefined Aurora is not as addictive.
Blend
Finally, we have the drink variety of Aurora, made by Yannick in Neon City. This specialty drink is one of the many attempts in Starfield for barkeeps to one-up the local authorities. Holding only a trace amount of the substance Aurora in a carbonated drink or alcohol. Blend will only give the player a very limited version of the effects of Aurora, but can noticeably be moved between systems without suspicion. This drink becomes important to the player if they want to produce Aurora because this is where it all starts. You get a questline through the city based on the drink itself, giving you access to the recipe for unrefined Aurora.
Yannick produces Blend, a specialized drink that uses Aurora in it. He is your ticket to learning the recipe, through his questline. He can be found in Neon City in his liquor store.
Blend appears in a purple can that has its logo splashed across the side. If it existed in the real world, it’d probably be treated like lean or absinthe. As a club drink or party drink, Blend is not only highly addictive but also limited in its effects. Due to that, it’s potentially more dangerous than Aurora as it could be marketed to the wrong crowd. It’s easy to see this substance marketed to alcoholics, or college goers producing a new and dangerous substance abuse.
Unrefined Aurora Recipe
It’s unsurprising that a substance that resembles another simple-to-make household substance in the real world would be comprised of easy resources. What is surprising is just how little goes into the process of making this unique contraband. However, only one of the ingredients will require you to go out of your way, and that’s the Chasmbass oil. Other than that, you’ll get an easy-to-produce contraband that’s worth a lot. Keeping in mind however that this is an unrefined version of Aurora, you won’t be making very much of a profit off of it.
Unrefined Aurora recipe: X2 hallucinogen, 1x benzene, 1x stimulant and 1x chasmbass oil
Aurora can be crafted once you have done the quest for Xenofresh by getting the job there.
Legrandes Liquors
Owned by the titular Yannick Legrandes, this liquor shop is your key to learning more about making Aurora. This place is the shop that produces the unique drink known as Blend. Because of this, Yannick will require a constant stream of unrefined Aurora which he turns into the drink. It’s unclear what the process is for making this unique consumable, however, this place proves valuable as a shop. Ultimately however it turns into a repeatable quest when you create unrefined Aurora for Xenofresh.
Xenofresh
Primarily, the Xenofresh facility is responsible for all of the production of Aurora within Neon City. As a major hub for production, they use the byproducts of these production lines in order to produce food of questionable properties. When going through the questline in order to unlock the recipe to make unrefined Aurora, you will need to get a job here. With that in mind, you will meet a contact who will help you along your way by giving you drop boxes. These boxes contain packages that contain the Aurora needed for the Blend Drink.
Chasm Bass *spoiler*
The main ingredient required to make Aurora as useful as it is is the Chasmbass oil. It’s ironic that the most popular drug in the settled systems comes from this one breed of fish however this presents a few problems. This usually docile fish comes from a remote planet that is slowly being fished out of the precious species. Secondly, this requires transportation across the galaxy to Neon City in order for it to enter production. These creatures are vital to the production chain, and because of this, Neon City’s leaders have created breeding grounds beneath the city. Because of the oceanic state of the planet, this is ideal however it creates an all-new issue.
Casmbass, the unfortunate victim of the Aurora Trade
Learning The Recipe
To learn the unrefined Aurora recipe, you’ll have to first undergo the supply chain questline for Yannick at his liquor shop. This will see you getting a job at the Xenofresh factory after doing an interview. From there it’s a simple process of just creating the Aurora and putting it in the box in a timely manner. This process is especially menial in your spacefaring adventure but rewards you with one experience posting per crafting. Additionally, once you know the recipe, there’s nothing stopping you from acquiring the ingredients yourself.
This being the point of interest for most players, you’ll have the chance to make as much as you want. There are a few things to keep in mind when you have this recipe. Casmbass oil is extremely rare and only found on the black market in good quantities. Secondly, you’ll have to come across shielded cargo or have a stash house as these are contrabands hard to move off a system. Lastly, unrefined Aurora, while valuable, is nowhere near as valuable as its pure counterpart.
Starting The Quest Chain
You can start the questline by either visiting the smuggler in the Neon Security jail or by visiting Yannick directly. The first method will see you having to go get a package from a storage crate while the latter requires a credit payout. Both options will see you paying out at least two thousand credits, but the quest chain is profitable enough. From there, each time you complete the supply chain activity you will receive pay from both Xenofresh and Yannick. This can be a great way early on to build up a smuggler-run playthrough.
Working for Xenofresh you’ll learn the recipe for making Aurora
Quest Prerequisites
There are two things you’ll need in order to properly do this questline, not counting the credits for gaining access. Firstly you’ll need some digipicks so you can get through some locks to make certain parts of the quest easier. Secondly, you’re going to need research completed on stimulants and enhancers. If you don’t have the latter finished, Yannick will give you the ingredients in order to finish the project.
Beyond this, just keep the Xenofresh clean suit on your person at all times and make sure to finish the quests in a timely fashion. You can complete this quest as many times as you want as a solid repeatable means of gaining income. Additionally, you can only work one shift per couple of days after a certain point.
Uses for Aurora crafting/ Smuggling
Aurora has several key uses outside of its direct consumption. For one, as a popular drug, it can be used to entice partygoers and bar patrons to give information more freely. Additionally, outside of Neon City if you can get the stuff off the planet it can be worth a small fortune. Luckily, another benefit of the contraband is that it is used in many piracy missions making it great for added bonuses. Finally, you can use Aurora as a stimulant in order to slow down time during a conflict. It’s notable that you will be able to get far more critical off than normal due to this and gives you precious reaction speed. The only downside is that Aurora is highly addictive.
-source: NefasQS
Dangers Of Aurora
For the most part, you as a player should avoid Aurora except as a sellable item. The substance is highly addictive, and illegal, and can lead to negative effects. Prolonged Aurora use can affect your character’s aim, and ability to draw weapons which can become problematic. There’s also the issue of its production causing the death of an entire species, all for a single vial or the powder. Despite its profitable outcome, Aurora grips thousands of spacers and causes more than addiction. Several companies in Neon City use Aurora as an alternative to credits as a means of paying employees.
Due to this, the status of the drug in most systems is contraband. Without shielded cargo, you will be arrested for having it, even if you try to bring it to Neon City. This makes the substance incredibly risky to have on your person. That being said, if you have all the resources to make the drug, you could manufacture it on a world scale and sell it before leaving.
Aurora can be mostly found in the Xenofresh plant, in neon city in high quantities.
