Bottlecaps are essential in Fallout 4. You need them for gear, ammo, trading, and settlement upgrades. This Fallout 4 Money Guide explains how to earn money efficiently through looting, settlements, perks, trading, and quests. These methods work in normal play and remain useful from early to late game.
Table of Contents
Why Bottlecaps Matter
Bottlecaps are the only real currency in Fallout 4. You spend them more often than you might expect, usually in small amounts that add up quickly. Over time, this constant drain becomes noticeable.
Caps are mainly used for:
- Weapons and armor
- Ammo and crafting materials
- Settlement upgrades and shops
- Bribes and dialogue options in certain quests
Looting with Intention
Looting is the most natural early income source in Fallout 4. Almost every location has something you can sell. The problem isn’t finding loot but deciding what’s worth carrying.
Items with a high value-to-weight ratio are usually the safest choice. Pre-war money is a classic example. It weighs nothing and sells well, making it hard to justify leaving it behind.
Items that are usually worth picking up include:
- Pre-war money
- Chems like Jet, Psycho, and Buffout
- Ammo you don’t actively use
- Alcohol, unless you want the Charisma bonus
- Weapons with attached mods
With weapons, it’s often worth removing the mods before selling. Mods can be more valuable than the base gun. Careful exploration also helps. Safes, locked containers, and side rooms often hide items that turn a trading run from decent to profitable.
Making Money with Settlements
Settlements take time and resources to establish. At first, they can feel like a money sink. Once they are running properly, they become one of the most reliable income sources in the game.
Water production is the most well-known method. By placing industrial water purifiers in rivers or lakes and powering them with generators, your settlement automatically produces purified water. Any surplus water is stored in the workshop and can be sold.
To keep production efficient, you should pay attention to a few basics:
- Settlement defense should be higher than food and water combined
- Low defense reduces production speed
- The system also works in Survival Mode, just more slowly
Mutfruit farming works similarly. Mutfruit plants are lightweight, easy to grow, and sell for a reasonable price. Assigning settlers only to Mutfruit and linking settlements with supply lines lets you collect everything in one place and sell it in bulk. Eating Mutfruit is possible, but selling it is usually more useful.
Trading Efficiently
Merchants are where all that loot turns into actual caps. Each trader in Fallout 4 has a limited amount of money, and their inventory refreshes over time. Understanding how this works helps you avoid wasted trips.
In general:
- Ammo and junk restock after about 24 hours
- Caps and gear take closer to 48 hours
- Sleeping or waiting speeds up restocks
It’s worth spreading your sales across multiple merchants. Settlement shops become especially useful once you unlock higher-tier vendors. One important detail is the Barter Bobblehead, which improves buying and selling prices by 5%.
Perks that Support Your Income
Some perks increase your income directly. Others make your economy smoother overall. Fortune Finder increases the number of caps you find in containers and on enemies, which adds up over time. At higher ranks, enemies can even drop caps when killed.
Scrounger works well alongside this by flooding you with ammo. Ammo you don’t use becomes easy money. Cap Collector raises prices and unlocks better settlement shops, making large-scale trading easier.
Several perks support income indirectly:
- Local Leader allows supply lines and shared resources
- Party Boy boosts Charisma through alcohol without addiction penalties later on
- Higher Charisma improves both buying and selling prices
Before selling a large haul, it’s worth boosting Charisma with clothing, chems, or alcohol. The difference is clear.
Earning Caps Through Quests
Quests provide a steady flow of money throughout the game. Not every quest pays well, but many reward bottlecaps, valuable gear, or both. Faction quests are often the most reliable for this.
Particularly useful quest sources include:
- Brotherhood of Steel missions
- Railroad operations
- Institute assignments
Radiant quests are especially practical. They reset and can be completed repeatedly, providing consistent caps and experience without locking you into permanent story decisions.
Pickpocketing as a Side Income
Pickpocketing is optional, but it can be profitable. With a high Perception score and the Pickpocket perk at rank four, your success rate improves significantly.
You can steal more than just caps:
- Ammo
- Weapons
- Equipped armor
- Miscellaneous valuables
NPC inventories reset over time, allowing repeat attempts. However, getting caught can escalate situations quickly, so it is best treated as a bonus income source rather than a primary strategy.
How Fallout 4 Money-Making Changes Over Time
The way you earn caps changes as you progress. Early on, looting and selling unused ammo usually cover your needs. In the midgame, settlements, Mutfruit farms, and vendor stalls matter more. In the late game, optimized trading routes and large-scale water production become the most efficient options.
If you own the DLCs, they expand this even further:
- Far Harbor offers valuable loot and strong quest rewards
- Nuka World introduces passive income through raider systems
- Contraptions Workshop allows manufacturing items for resale
Earn Caps Faster with PLITCH!
If you want more control over your economy, PLITCH’s Fallout 4 cheats offer several useful options. Instead of grinding for hours, you can adjust the systems that slow you down.
For money-focused runs, +5,000 Bottle caps give you an instant boost. Infinite carry weight lets you loot everything without worrying about inventory limits. +1 Charisma increases trading prices, while +1 Luck improves loot and cap finds. If you want faster progression, +1 Perk point and +500 Experience help you unlock income-related perks sooner.
Check out this blog to learn more about PLITCH and our Fallout 4 Trainer Showcase on YouTube to see our cheats in action!
Happy Gaming!
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