Starfield: Deimos Armored Transport mission guide

If you’re thorough about exploring some of the first galaxies you visit in Starfield, you’re likely to stumble across the Deimos Armored Transport - a mysterious ship with some serious problems. On this page, we explain how to make the most of the discovery.

How to find & board the Deimos Armored Transport in Starfield

You’ll be able to find the Deimos Armored Transport in the Alpha Centauri system, which is the United Colonies controlled system that’s also home to New Atlantis, the first major hub world Starfield’s story missions take you to. 

The abandoned ship can be found in the orbit of the planet Bondar.

Jump to Alpha Centauri (don’t forget, it’s a UC system, so Contraband is not permitted), and then make your way to Bondar. In its orbit, you’ll find the Deimos Armored Transport. It doesn’t respond to hails, but fly close to the ship and you’ll be able to press and hold the X button on an Xbox controller, or your mapped equivalent, to board the ship.

Unraveling the mystery of the Deimos Armored Transport

As soon as you board the ship two things become clear: first, the Deimos Armored Transport is seriously damaged. The anti-gravity system keeps failing, so every fifteen to twenty seconds it’ll turn on and off, meaning as you navigate the ship you’ll sometimes be floating through and sometimes have your feet on the ground.

Second, it’s clear that this ship is damaged most likely because it was attacked by pirates - and many of them are still present. You’ll need to fight your way through the ship defeating them. Don’t forget that, in zero gravity, you can use your boost pack in combat to move around more quickly and get out of danger. 

Beyond this, however, it doesn’t look like there’s much to do here - some loot to grab, but nothing exciting. There’s no named mission associated with the ship. The Deimos does hold some secrets, however…

Accessing the Deimos Armored Transport’s Vaults 

When you first enter the Deimos Armored Transport, you’ll likely notice that there is a locked door that can’t be opened - but if you head into the guts of the ship, it’s possible to unlock this door - and it leads to the treasure of this mini-dungeon.

You should make a point of exploring all of the rooms you can easily access. There’s the odd weapon here, plus the stuff you can loot from the spacers, plus one truly unique and useful item: the Vanguard Space Tactics 04 book, which once picked up bequeaths you with a 5% buff to all damage dealt by ship missiles. This is on a desk in a side office, and despite being a flimsy piece of paper is not impacted by the gravity losses.

Keep working your way through the ship, and keep an eye out for an elevator. Because there’s no power, the elevator will be dead and the buttons won’t do anything - but look up. There’s a hatch at the top of the elevator. Open it, and climb up either with a jump or when the gravity cuts out.

You’ll be able to use the lack of gravity to climb up the elevator shaft to the top floor of the ship, then work your way back down somewhat, though some giant fans, until you reach an area where there’s a computer. You use this computer to unlock that earlier locked door.

From this point you need to backtrack, back down the elevator shaft - be careful not to hurt yourself with fall damage on the way down. Then head back to the area with the locked door.

In here there’s vault-style two doors - one which will require a Master Lockpick to open with some loot inside, and one you can freely open. Both will contain some loot, which will be level and progress dependent for your character.

Finding 25,000 Credits’ Worth of Secret Contraband in Deimos Armored Transport’s Hidden Room

You might think the vaults are all the Deimos Armored Transport has to offer - but there’s actually one more secret hidden in its belly. However, it’s an illegal secret.

In the earliest areas of the ship, you’ll see a room with a diagonally-oriented entrance, as pictured above. This room is a dead-end with computers and such inside - but it actually holds a secret of its own.

Look up in the room, and you’ll notice an open hatch and pathway above, as pictured below). Wait for the ship’s artificial gravity to cut out, and then float up.

Up here, you’ll find a Contraband chest. These special blue-colored chests are quite rare, and they always contain illegal goods - and the contents are always worth a lot of money. It has an expert-level lock, so you’ll need to do a bit of lockpicking to get at the items inside.

The contents may vary, but for me it held Mech Components and Sentient AI Adapters that had a total worth of more than 25,000 credits.

To sell Contraband you’ll need to either smuggle it into a settled system and take it to the Trade Authority, or you can take it somewhere less reputable - such as to the Crimson Fleet. The quickest and easiest place to sell it is probably The Red Mile, found in the Porrima system. 

Can you commandeer and pilot the Deimos Armored Transport?

For the avoidance of doubt - no, unfortunately, you can't take control of the Deimos Armored Transport and add it to your fleet of ships.

Plenty of the ships you board can be taken control of and taken back to space port to register them as your own - but this one is too big, and you can't actually reach the cockpit anyway.