How to make money in Fallout 4

For a post-apocalyptic wasteland of desolation and despair, the world of Fallout 4 can be an expensive place to pitch your tent. With ammo to buy, resources to procure, and Legendary weapons like the Big Boy to purchase, you’re gonna need a whole lot of caps to get the most out of your experience in the Commonwealth. Thankfully, Fallout 4 offers many options for developing affluence.

Level Up.

To ensure your character has the best chance of procuring the greatest amounts of caps possible from the start, make sure you show your Charisma S.P.E.C.I.A.L. some love. This base stat will help you get better deals at vendors when both buying and selling all items. Also, make sure to dump points into the Cap Collector and Fortune Finder (Luck) perks as you level up. With these stats in place at the start of your adventure, you’ll be in the most optimal position for gathering endless bottlecaps throughout your endeavors.

Fallout 4 Perk Chart

Loot, Loot, Loot.

Take weapons. Take armor. Kill bad guys (or good guys) and take their stuff, too. Take it all! After you’ve grabbed your full, dump your spoils onto a companion, then loot some more. Selling items you’ve grabbed throughout your adventures is the easiest, most natural way of making quick cash early in Fallout 4. One Pipe Pistol may not be worth much, but ten pipe pistols, ten Raider chest pieces, and twenty road leathers add up to some significant dough for you to turn into ammo. Later, when you’re swimming in caps, you can start using those guns for resources with the Scrapper perk.

 Vendors pay big for the Fat Man

Sell your Junk.

Fallout 4’s new resource system gives the miscellaneous garbage of the gameworld more purpose than its predecessors. However, things like Pre-War Money and Cigarette Cartons are probably best traded for caps. With every unit of Pre-War Money valued at 8 caps, every Pack of Cigarettes at 12, and a full Carton of Cigarettes bringing in a whopping 50 caps, these Junk-classified items prove far more useful at the vendors than in your crafting workbench. 

No need to waste…

Manufacture Purified Water.

This currently seems to be the most effective way to passively make money in the game. Once you’ve discovered Sanctuary, gathered a plethora of resources, and leveled up your Science perk, you will be able to create an Industrial Water Purifier through the settlement workshop. Each unit requires Oil, Ceramic, Water, Copper, Steel, Cloth, and Screws to create. Set up three or more of these purifiers, then a medium generator for each, and voila – you have yourself a Water-Purifier Plant! Every half hour or so, you can check back at your workbench to see how much Purified Water your plant has accumulated, grab the lot, and sell it all for 7+ caps apiece. Waiting in a chair or Sleeping does not help pass the time, though, so while you wait, get back out there and keep looting!

Industrial Water Purifier Tutorial

What have your economic experiences been like in the Commonwealth. Have any other tips on how to stack mad caps? Let us know in the comments!