Fallout 3 - Best way to make money fast

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Well I have my house and I'd like to buy a few things for it but everything is too expensive for me. As soon as I get a few caps I end up spending them on repairs for items I don't have spare parts for, buying stimpaks and other medical supplies, or other things I need.

Any tips for making a lot of money fast?

 

The two reasons you gave are the reasons why I tagged Repair. Plus Repair helps to carry the loot around when you reach your limit and make the items so much better and more valuable. It really costs you an arm and a leg if you have to pay for the items to be repaired.

Speech can help getting more money from quests (which can give you caps, ammo and stuff).

Barter doesn't seem to be totally useless, but I don't know how many points you need to make it worthwile and there are just too many skills that are more useful. Kill some raiders, loot them, doesn't matter if you lose a 25% discount, you wouldn't have made that cash without the points invested in combat.

Other than that I found out that if you could break into some NPC's stash you could get some easy caps.

A minor tip to make a few caps in Megaton (maybe you've already done it):

Spoiler

There are 300 caps to be taken in the safe in the Brass Lantern, all you have to do is to get into the computer to unlock the safe.

I haven't finished the game yet, I'm really taking my time. I've been a really naughty boy, erm, girl (I started over and I'm now playing a girl, a really badass one) and I don't have any problem with caps so far.

 

I tagged repair, lockpick and speech, and I've taken a rank in gun nut. That keeps my weapons in good repair, and I'm good enough to pick most locks, speech usually goes pretty well. I found "Naughty Nightware" that I keep as back up apparel - it has +10 to speech and +1 to Luck; it has been making a lot of my speech checks automatic lately.

The two skills I wish I could put more of the precious skill points into are Science and Barter. I've passed a few computers I couldn't hack into. Money isn't a huge problem; I am a wasteland scrounger! I pick up everything! I take raider armor and repair it to 90-95% then sell it. My Barter is low, so I take a 50% hit in buying and selling.

Awesome game! Whenever I finish a big quest, Three Dog gets wind of it and broadcasts it! I also like that lockpick and hacking require skill points to allow the attempt, but you still have to figure out the code or bobby pin angle on your own.

I'm taking my time too and having a blast!

 

Thanks for the tips Caradhras, and Sir Belisarius

Actually I have a pretty high repair skill - the problem is finding replacement parts for some of the weapons (the good ones that is). As soon as I find extras I almost always repair old ones immediately but there always seems to be a few that I have to pay to repair.

I forgot about the safe - I had to restart my game and I had unlocked the computer terminal in the first game but not in the second. I'll go back an grab the 300 from that rat owner of the pub. (Rat in the mental sense that is )

BTW - After I first opened this thread I went to the Arlington Library and made a load of cash so I guess I just needed to be a little more patient.

 

You're welcome.

Patience seems to pay in that game. Still I felt the urge of playing a real bad, bad character and I tried to make her very good looking just for the fun of it (I wanted her to look like Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta).

I'm still roaming the Wasteland trying very hard not to go on killing sprees every time I feel the urge of hitting 'V' (for Vendetta?) on my keyboard and scoring a few headshots... That's fun and that's a nice (maybe not so nice after all) way to get caps and stuff.

Pillage, pilfer and plunder!

 

i have come pretty close to completing the game about lvl 12 at the time, and money is very good when you start finding the big weapons and armors, so it is really no real problem at that time.

for money earlier on i scavenged it was not a lot but it was more then enough, just go through every building you can find and take all items from raiders and stuff like that, IIRC the poison glands from scorpions are worth quite a bit, but they are a pain to kill

 

looting + repair is the way to make money. I literally have to run from town to town selling off my merchandise because I'm taking all their caps.

 

Have you found all the bobble heads? I have 5 so far. I'm 12 level too, but I don't think I'm anywhere near finished...I haven't entered DC proper yet or even Rivet City. Caps are not much of a problem now - my repair is 98, so I strip everyone and repair all the equipment and sell it for the most I can. I've even invested in the trader caravan businesses, and they bring better armor and equipment around...This is such a fun and absorbing game!!!

 

i have only found 1 bobblehead the intelligence one, you can get a display thing for them in megaton btw.

 

You can find the Str one in Megaton.

 

I've managed to collect Big Guns. Small Guns. Speech. Luck. Intelligence. Medicine

Spoiler

Medicine is on your dad's desk just before you take the G.O.A.T in vault 101

I also know where the science is, but I'll be damned if I'm going to get it.

 

Why don't you want to go get the science one Magister? That one is pretty easy. I've got about 12 Bobbleheads so far. I had to make sure that I don't get some skills past 85 before I go and grab the bobbleheads that I don't have because I'd sure hate to waste the points.

BTW I'm no longer having any problem with money. In fact I have a henchman along with me just to carry all the extra loot I'm picking up so I don't have to make so many trips.

 

It's not that it's hard to get it's just the place it's in is...well...creepy

 

Gary?

 

Here's a tip for fast money. Collect ALL the ammo you can. And I mean ALL of it. I'm guessing you'll only specialize in one of the weapon categories, so sell all the ammo you are not (or can not) use. Seriously I don't buy anything anymore, I just trade ammo for things.

And the best thing about this strategy? Ammo had no weight. Not even a Mini nuke weighs anything. So go and sell that ammo

 

Money is much less of an issue later on, making Barter fairly useless. At the higher levels, you often have more loot than a merchant has caps to pay you for.

There are numerous collectors in the game. There's Walter, the water plant guy in Megaton, who will pay you for scrap metal. There's a librarian who will pay you 100 caps for every pre-war book you bring her, and there's others. So just pick up every pre-war book you find and hang on to it until you find the library; keep those Sugar Bombs too! They'll come in handy.

The Scrounger perk is really good for money. It seems to double the ammo you find. Ammo is weightless and there's no way you're going to use all of it, so you'll have mountains of the stuff to sell for caps.

 

If you play evil, money is not an issue. If you play on lower difficulty settings, money is not an issue.

It is an issue if you play a goody two shoes on Very hard and don't loot everything that is not strongly attached to the floor.

That being said, Barter makes a difference in the long run (saving a few caps on some items and ammo adds up) you can also get better deals at some points saving you hundreds of caps.