6 Fallout 4 FAQ to Thrive in the Commonwealth
With the success of Bethesda Games Studios’ Fallout show on Amazon, the Wasteland is seeing new players across the franchise. The Fallout games got a huge boost from the TV series to the tune of five million new players. According to Steam Charts, Fallout 4 peaked in April with over 164,000 concurrent players.
With new and returning Wanderers comes lots of questions about survival in the Commonwealth. Here are some FAQs from new-to-Fallout players I’ve seen throughout groups, forums, and Discords.
Diamond City
Fastest Way to Make Money in Fallout 4
In almost every RPG, making money is very important to your survival. In Fallout 4, it’s no different. And the number one question I’ve seen from the newest Fallout 4 players is “What’s the fastest way to earn caps?” If you’re just starting to play, here are the best ways to earn caps fast.
Earn caps by completing quests.
Loot everything and sell what you don’t need at vendors. Armor and weapons usually net the most caps.
Grow vegetables at your settlement and sell them to vendors.
Sell unused ammo to vendors.
There are perk cards that can help increase your cap-earning potential.
Put points in Luck and Intelligence
Cap Collector
Fortune Finder
Scrounger to find more ammo in containers.
How to Scrap Junk
Nothing’s truer in the Fallout franchise than “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” Throughout your adventures, you’re going to need to scavenge and scrap junk for much-needed crafting and building resources. Scrapping junk is easy.
Go to one of your settlements.
Head to the Workshop and select Transfer.
On your left, scroll over to My Junk and select the junk you want to scrap. You can also scrap other items in your inventory.
Drop the item you want to scrap.
Open the build editor/workshop.
Target the item you want to scrap.
There should be an option to scrap. If there is no option to scrap, then that item cannot be scrapped.
*Caution: scrapped items stay in that settlement’s storage and are not shared with other settlements.
If you want to scrap weapons or armor, you can scrap weapons at a weapons bench and armor at an armor bench. GGEZ.
Where to Find Copper
Copper is one of the most essential resources needed for crafting in Fallout 4. The best way to farm copper is to go to consumer electronics places throughout the Wasteland. The junk items that scrap into copper are:
Fuses
Vacuum tubes
Pre-war lamps
Streetlamps in your settlements
If you have the Scrapper SPECIAL Perk, you can also scrap weapons for copper and other resources. The best locations to find junk items to scrap for copper in Fallout 4 are:
Hospitals
Cabot House
Wattz Consumer Electronics
How to Make Ammo
Before the Contraptions DLC, it was impossible to make ammo in Fallout 4 without a mod. And finding ammo without the Perk was frustrating. Now, you can make ammo at your Settlements, and here’s how.
You will need to unlock both Gun Nut and Science perks. Rank 1 is enough.
Open the Workbench and go to Power > Manufacturing > Machinery > Ammunition and place the Ammunition Plant.
Power it.
Connect a Conveyor Storage to the Ammunition Plant.
Place a Terminal to control the Ammunition Plant and connect it.
Store materials to craft ammo in the Ammunition Plant (for example: 10 mm requires Lead and Fertilizer).
Go to the Terminal and select the ammo you want to craft.
Pick up your ammo from the Conveyor Storage.
How to Take Photos Without HUD Visible
Unlike Fallout 76 and most games upon release today, Fallout 4 does not have a photo mode without a mod. You can still, however, take amazing photos without the HUD. To remove the HUD on the PC,
Open Console Command (usually the `~ key)
Type tm and press Enter.
Take a screenshot (via Steam’s overlay) by pressing F12.
To bring your HUD back onto the screen, follow the same steps.
How to Remove Dead Bodies from Settlement
One of the most annoying aspects of fighting enemy invaders is seeing their corpses littered throughout your settlements. Is there a way to remove bodies from a settlement? Yes. Though it can be tedious and cumbersome, it can be done. The following instructions are for PC players on how to remove dead bodies from settlements in Fallout 4.
Go to the body you want to remove. Make sure nothing else is obstructing the area.
Face the direction you want to walk in, press and hold E for a second, raising the body with your mouse so that it’s floating in the air. You may have to play around with it.
Walk outside of your settlement until you find a suitable place to drop the body. The further you walk the less likely the body will respawn.
Press E to release the body.
In the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout 4, survival means more than just scavenging—it's about thriving. From earning caps to crafting essentials, mastering these strategies is key to your success. Whether you're scrapping junk for resources or farming copper for crafting, these tips will have you dominating the wasteland in no time. So, gear up, venture forth, and conquer the Commonwealth!
