How to sell Phil Hill survey data in Starfield

Starfield features many planets and moons, which provide ample room to tell all sorts of stories. While many of those tales focus on characters who feel larger than life, like smugglers and pirates and starship captains, others explore the common folk. These folk include brave settlers who are looking to find a new life for themselves, with a little help from less adventurous individuals such as Phil Hill. You can help them all. Here is our guide telling you how to sell Phill Hill survey data in Starfield.

Starfield – how to sell Phil Hill survey data

When you visit Cydonia on the planet Mars, you will find the city devotes most of its resources to mining. However, there are entrepreneurs with other projects. Phil Hill is one such individual. He wants survey data so he can help settlers find habitable planets and earn a commission. To sell Phil Hill survey data, strike up an acquaintance in the bar and then conduct surveys of habitable planets throughout the galaxy.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Meet with Phill Hill

You can find Phil Hill in the Broken Spear. When you first enter the bar from the main corridor leading through Cydonia, head down the stairs to the main area where patrons gather. Phil is seated at a table. There are books piled along it. Talk to him to learn about his career and a bit about his interesting life.

A thorough discussion with Phil Hill activates the Top of the L.I.S.T. mission. There are several objectives. The first one is to identify a potential LIST recruit by eavesdropping.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Sign up a settler to L.I.S.T.

Listen to the various patrons in the bar. You’ll find one who is dreaming of a better life. You’ll find one such person seated at a table near Phil. Talk to her and earn her confidence to satisfy the ‘sign up settler for the list‘ requirement.

The next objective is to survey a habitable planet. You must accomplish this task before you can sell your survey data to Phil, naturally.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Obtain survey data for qualifying planets

Head to space in your ship to start scanning planets. Move from one system to another and scan planets and moons when you get within range. It is easier to get to work on this task if you use the Astrophysics skill to scan the fast way. You don’t even have to land on a planet to scan it. However, you still need to know what Phil is looking for before you devote a lot of time to exploration. You must use your scanner to 100% explore a planet and generate survey data. Phil won’t buy survey data for planets that don’t quite meet his requirements.

Phil wants Planetary Data scans for planets and moons that have O2 atmospheres and signs of life. I had a hard time finding planets that meet those requirements. However, Tirna II worked for me. Leviathan IV looks like it should also qualify. Most planets have multiple biomes. Fast travel around the planet’s surface to more quickly fill out the biomes and complete your survey data.

When you finally conduct a suitable survey, you can sell the data to Phil. He pays handsomely (3366 credits for my Tirna II survey data). As a bonus, gathering all that data probably helped you go up a level or two, and your first sale also nets you 200 XP on top of that. Selling survey data to Phil is a great way to pick up some extra credits. Remember that you can also sell standard survey data to Vladmir.

Starfield is available to purchase on Steam and the Microsoft Store.