How to get Junk?

[Mars]

Hello,

I recently started getting into crafting with an INT build and always run out of something I need in order to craft anything.

My CHA is one point away from learning the Local Leader perk and I have no experience with Settlements and managing them. Is it worth learning that perk just to get junk?

What are your tips ?

[MoonC A T]

Definitely worth it, especially in survival where you don't want to be running all around getting stuff. I always have at least a level 3 trader in my settlement.

Grab the charisma bobblehead if you haven't already, although it's one of the hardest ones to get.

[Zotliatlicor]

Dont pick up Raider Armour and worthless pipe guns as you down enemies. Focus on the junk. And drop very heavy junk items like extuingishers and brooms, buckets and so on. There is endless amounts of junk in the world, and you really should not run out.

The investments in Local Leader "may" eventually get you to a point where you have all the traders in all your settlements, so you can buy copies of Shipments (weightless) for all junk, but that is far ahead.

You can "mark" hotkey specific junk so it will glow when you are near it, this is useful for those junks you use the most, like adhesive and other that are rare or hard to find.

And scrap worthless items. If you have Scrapper Perk it is a solid invesment for Survival, it yields a lot of useful items when you scrap weapons and armour that have mods on them.

[Chaosium]

Scrapper rank 3 is honestly overpowered, you get sooo much good stuff, they key is to collect weapons that have advanced mods, they have a better yield.

Local Leader is a comfort perk to link your crafting resources from one settlement to another, that saves you the trouble of moving your resources manually.

Remember that some vendors sell junk (an easy accessible duo would be Trudy and Trashcan Carla near Concord), and it's relatively cheap. You can also sell your abundant resources like steel to make some easy money and invest it to buy better quality junk. Else scavenge all your heart's content in dungeons!

[Some Idiot]

You can make adhesive by crafting Vegetable Starch at a cooking station.

Heavily modified weapons can be scrapped for more advanced materials like aluminum, so pick up the modded stuff. You can scrap these at weapon stations you find around the map. You can sell the wood and steel to whatever vendors you come across.

Most of us keep a mental list of which junk items contain useful parts like nuclear material or fiber optics. If you need one thing in particular, the Fallout 4 fandom website usually recommends a good spot for finding it.

It's cheaper to regularly buy and scrap tape and glue than it is to buy an adhesive shipment. I don't know if that's true for other materials.

[Ellorien]

Scrapper ranks — max out ASAP — and you will never run out of anything. Tons of rare components for free. That’s the best perk if you are into crafting.
Local Leader is another must have.
Strong Back — max out to fast travel over-encumbered, unless you play on survival.
Then you can strip the place off anything not nailed down and still be able to run and fast travel while carrying enormous amounts of junk.

[RubrumCustode]

Use the search tag for specific components that you might need. Any junk with those components will have a small magnifying glass next to the name.

Be on the look out for junk with a variety of components; cameras, typewriters, telephones, etc. Buy them from vendors any chance you get. Don't bother with junk items that are mainly steel, wood, and cloth; those materials are superfluous within your own settlements.

Local Leader is a must have for three reasons; It helps you pool resources, enables you to craft workbenches and shops, and is essential for managing multiple settlements.

[DouglasGrave]

If you're building your settlements with concrete structures, buy the shipments of concrete from vendors; you can't easily find enough of it any other way.

[The Inept European]

And (unlike most others) those shipments are cheap and good value.

[The Inept European]

You can also get additional junk by building Scavenger Stations and assigning settlers to them, though personally I think it's a poor use of settler labour.

If you are going to be mostly buying junk,

- improve your CHA
- get and wear gear that improves CHA - there will be some in Sanctuary, more to be found from loot and vendors
- find skill magazines that increase barter
- get the Speech Bobblehead from rescuing Nick
- for big transactions use chems/alcohol to increase CHA (but beware of addiction)

[wtiger27]

Originally posted by DouglasGrave:

If you're building your settlements with concrete structures, buy the shipments of concrete from vendors; you can't easily find enough of it any other way.

Good point. Which is one reason doing the Vault 88 quest, is so valuable. Concrete and Nuclear Material.

[Malkor2]

Assuming you have the Far Harbor DLC and play without any mods, here is another tip: At the chemist station you can make Caltrops which have a value of 25 caps. If you put one perk point into the Chemist perk (needs 7 INT and no, increases from items do not count) you will be able to make Poisoned Caltrops which have a value of 40 caps. Both traps only cost you 5 steel to make them. The sell price at the vendor for these traps depends on your charisma but all the ways to improve that have already been pointed out.

Until you can afford to turn Sanctuary into a high production center for Purified Water you can use all the steel you find to make Poisoned Caltrops and sell them. Then you buy all the shipments of steel you can find until you run out of money and start the same process again. Rinse and repeat a couple of times to make lots of money. Use that money to buy shipments of whatever crafting materials you need. Use those to turn Sanctuary into a Purified Water factory. Get even richer by selling all that Purified Water and never have to worry about picking up any junk item ever again.

Regarding mods: if you want to use that method it would be a good idea to get a mod that increases the amount of caps the vendors have or selling all that stuff will become very tedious. There is also a mod that makes junk items weightless so they have zero weight. Oh and crafting all those traps at the chemist station will give you lots of XP. It's only 3 XP per trap but since you will probably craft hundreds of them you will get a couple of levels out of them.

[The Inept European]

You will need reasonably high barter skills even to make a profit buying steel shipments to sell poisoned caltrops. The buy-sell spreads are punitive in this game.