Finding caps?

[GunnerofLife]

Sooo ridiculous how scarce caps are in this game. There are so many quests (Moira's quests or Blood Ties) that give unwanted s***! And some of them don't even sell for a good price! Is there some tips or pointers you guys can give me? Or a mod? I'm on the verge of cheating, and I really don't want to do that, not on this playthrough.

[ThePesmergia]

Sooo ridiculous how scarce caps are in this game. There are so many quests (Moira's quests or Blood Ties) that give unwanted s***! And some of them don't even sell for a good price! Is there some tips or pointers you guys can give me? Or a mod? I'm on the verge of cheating, and I really don't want to do that, not on this playthrough.

 

Don't cheat, it removes a lot of the games funness, difficulty of finding caps and stuff to sell is a huge part of the game.

 

Here's what I do:

 

The world is huge, and there's many, as a matter of fact, at least 50 different locations not even related to the main quest line, that are there simply for exploration and looting stuff to sell and use. Just go out exploring, go in random buildings/sewers. On the way while traveling you will run into stuff to kill and loot for money, as well as inside.

 

You can make a good haul, just make sure you have good STR to carry a lot (I reccomend starting the game with 8 STR, regardless of build, since you can get the bobblehead and Ant Might to cap it), since every point of STR is = to 25 more weight you can carry.

 

Start off near Megaton and go through the school northwest of it. Work your way east, do the Survival Guide quests. Max out sneak asap, don't be afraid to steal stuff from houses or shops, save before an attempt on pickpocketting someone, reload of it fails. You need extremely high sneak and Silent Running to pull off some good grabs off civilians in towns.

 

Don't be afraid to pick the lock in Rivet City marketplace at night past midnight and go inside and loot, try not to get caught though. Most of my money came from looting armor/weapons and selling the useless ammunition like the 5mm rounds and the .38. Also a lot came from selling nuka colas, and food I find, disarming mines near the beginning of the game can net you a real good chunck of cash on the bridge east of Megaton, and in the minefield quest area northeast of Megaton.

 

If you find yourself at a shop with a full inventory and the shop owner has no caps, just exit the town, and hit T, and wait for 3 days and a couple hours, and save, then go back in, they will be restocked.

 

Hope this helps.

[7thsealord]

My own advice ....

 

First. IMO, a beginning FO3 character has to be a vacuum cleaner. Look everywhere. If there is a building or wreck thereof, look inside. If there is a box or locker, open it. If you find anything not nailed down and worth more than one cap per unit of weight, take it. If you overload, you can always drop or cache the cheap-ass stuff.

 

Second. When you kill something (or upon finding something already dead), the fourth thing you should do (after reloading, checking your back and checking health) is take its stuff. If you can't use whatever you find, you can probably sell it.

 

Third. Improve and use your Repair skill as much as possible. If you have the bits and pieces, do your own repairs - various people out there can do the work, but they cost caps. If you have lots of loot to carry, see if you can use any of it to repair other items. It means you lose one item (and its weight) and the quality / value of the item being repaired goes up. You might lose some money overall doing that, but it means having to drop a heckuva lot less.

 

Fourth. If in Megaton, one automatically thinks of Craterside Supply (Moira) as the place to sell off loot. But, remember that both Doc Church and the Brass Lantern can handle this - not as much as Moira, but worth keeping in mind. Especially if you need Stimpacks, which they both stock anyhow. Keep this in mind elsewhere - you might think of Doctor-types as only being for medical transactions, but they can do limited trading as well.

 

Fifth. Get a place ASAP. Extremely important early on, to store the stuff you don't or can't sell right away. Your very first improvement (if you use the Megaton House or the Tenpenny Apartment) should be 'My Little Infirmary' - as long as you can get to that, your medical bills will be zero.

 

Sixth. Prioritize and KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Don't try to buy up ammo and equipment for every possible contingency and weapon type you can imagine. Just pick a couple of favourites and either sell or stockpile the rest.

 

That's what I do, generally, and it works fine for me. Just using the first three principles means I always have a lot of valuables to sell after escaping from Vault 101.

Edited July 28, 2012 by 7thsealord