Adjustments to the caps system are among the many changes that have come to the Appalachian Wasteland since players first emerged from the vault in 2018. The few passing years have brought changes to the max number of caps, the NPC vendor cap pool, and generally what’s valuable or worth your time selling (and what isn’t). Not knowing where to farm caps can leave you wasting time, running out of supplies, and still just as broke. Here’s a guide on How to Farm Caps in Fallout 76 in 2022.
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Farming Caps in Fallout 76
The wastes of West Virginia may be different, but the need for caps in Fallout 76 is still the same.
Having a healthy stash of caps is crucial for buying supplies from NPC vendors and other players. You’ll also need caps for fast traveling unless you want to hike the fourth largest map in the Fallout series. Finally, taking full advantage of the recently added Aristocrat’s legendary effect for weapons and armor is going to require stockpiling caps.
Farming caps in Fallout 76 can be done quickly and efficiently for players who know what to do. The keys to this are maximizing your sales, selling the right things or everything to NPC vendors, knowing what to sell in your C.A.M.P. vending machines, and taking full advantage of public events, seasonal events, and Fallout Seasons.
Selling to NPC Vendors
The most tried and true method, selling loot to NPC vendors, remains the most effective way to farm caps in Fallout 76.
The shared daily pool of caps for NPC vendors is 1,400 caps. Be watchful for the Caps-a-Plenty Special, where the shared NPC vendor limit is increased to 2,800 caps per day!
Optimizing NPC Vendor Prices
Before selling anything, it’s important to ensure your character is buffed to get the most possible caps from each transaction. The trick to getting good selling prices is to maximize your charisma.
A cheap and accessible way to do this (that can be crafted) is by taking some Grape Mentats, which not only boost a player’s charisma but also gives additional bonuses to selling and buying prices with NPC vendors.
Another important trick in maximizing NPC vendor prices is through using the Hard Bargain perk card. This perk gives players not only a boost to their charisma but also provides up to a 25% increase in selling prices when trading with NPC vendors.
Farming Caps by Selling Mutation Serums
Selling at around 450-500 caps a piece, mutation serums are one of the most valuable items per unit you can trade with NPC vendors. Better yet, they can be (or rather must be) crafted. Selling mutation serums, you can empty an NPC vendor’s caps by selling just 3-4 serums depending on your character.
While easily crafting such a high value item is great for high-level characters, obtaining the recipes and materials required for crafting them can be an obstacle for lower-level characters. Fortunately, there are many other ways to easily farm caps in Fallout 76.
Farming Caps by Clearing, Looting, & Selling
When short on caps, be sure to loot everything and sell it to an NPC vendor. This remains the best way to farm caps for characters of any level, but especially for low-level characters fresh from the vault.
A lot of time can be wasted searching for the most lucrative locations. Some of the most worthwhile places to clear are West-Tek Research Center, Camden Park, the Tyler County Fairgrounds, and any of the three power plants.
Clearing any one of these places will quickly fill you with weapons, armor, and junk to sell.
Clearing all of these places will probably leave you loaded beyond the vendor cap limit for a few days, so be sure to plan your runs to avoid being over encumbered.
Farming Caps by Crafting & Selling Foods/Beverages
Selling certain foods is another way to fill up on caps fast.
Farming purified water is a nearly effortless way to make caps that simply involves selling excess purified water collected in your travels or produced in your C.A.M.P. Up to 5 purified water can be produced per hour by one large purifier, but be sure to check it each hour as it tops off at 5 until you empty it.
Before getting into which foods to sell, it’s important you know to always ensure food is cooked before selling it. Cooking food not only gives you a tiny bit of experience, but food sells for significantly more caps when it’s cooked. Each train station (where you’ll often be selling loot) has a cooking station, which makes this a convenient way to farm caps.
Cooked meats from high-level enemies, such as from a scorchbeast, sheepsquatch, or deathclaw, are especially valuable to sell.
Selling brahmin meat cooked into ribeye steak is another fast way to farm caps in Fallout 76. Flatwoods has 9 brahmin that can be found, cooked, and sold in under 5 minutes.
With the Super Duper perk equipped in addition to being buffed for max caps, players can quickly produce over 30 steaks gaining them a few hundred caps with little effort.
Finally, fast traveling to areas with a lot of plants (like farms) can net some fast caps without much fuss. One way to do this is to go to Aaronholdt Homestead.
After killing just a few ghouls here, you’ll have access to a field with over 100 razorgrain that can be pulled and sold. They may only be worth 1 cap a piece, but that’s over 100 easy caps that can be very useful when you need cash fast.
Faming Caps by Crafting and Selling Weapons and Armor
Sometimes you’re doing better with materials than caps. If this is the case, it can be a good idea to just craft your own loot to sell.
One of the highest value items to do this with is marine tactical helmets. Unfortunately, the plans can be somewhat difficult to find and tend to spawn in more difficult areas of the map. Harper’s Ferry is one place where many players say they’ve found their copy of the plans.
Nonetheless, any player who is able to get ahold of these plans can have a goldmine on their hands given the supplies, with many players claiming the ability to clear NPC daily cap pools in around 10 minutes by selling crafted marine tactical helmets.
Stronger weapons, like assault rifles, gatling lasers, or .50 cals, also sell to NPC vendors for good prices, but these can get pricey on materials. If you have the spare junk and need caps, though, these can be some of your best options for farming caps.
Player Vendor Sales
Sales between players using vending machines placed in C.A.M.P.s is another post-release addition to Fallout 76 that adds another dynamic to the ways caps can be earned.
Farming Caps by Selling Legendary Items in Vending Machines
Legendary items are some of the most lucrative items you can keep in your vending machine.
They’re great not only to sell, but also as bait to potential customers now that players get a preview of how many 1-star, 2-star, and 3-star legendary weapons and armor pieces you have in stock.
You can obviously farm legendary weapons and armor to try and find the rarest and most sought items for your vending machine, but that’s not the only way legendary items can help you farm caps through player vending.
Another (possibly better) way to farm caps through player vending is to keep low-grade legendary items in your vending machine rather than turning them into legendary scrip.
The reason for this is because many people hop vendors seeking just this type of relatively low-cost item they can turn into legendary scrip. This type of C.A.M.P. hopping has increased with the new Daily and Weekly Challenges calling on players to collect a certain amount of legendary scrip, which have been driving players to vending machines across the map for legendaries to quickly cash in.
Farming Caps by Selling Low-Value, High-Demand Items
The primetime items aren’t the only way to farm caps with player vending in Fallout 76. There are many other items in high demand, albeit that sell for fewer caps per unit.
Stimpaks always sell well, and they can net you 10-20 caps a pop according to many players.
Ammo, which you’re unable to sell to NPC vendors, is another item that has been popular in player vending machines since they were added. You can be especially successful by selling high-demand ammo like 5.56 and .50 cal rounds.
Demand is frequently changing, so it’s worthwhile to keep an eye on what the community is seeking. There have even been reports of players selling saltshakers (used to craft some foods) for 100s of caps a piece and still being unable to keep them on the shelves (for perspective, saltshakers sell for a few caps to NPC vendors).
Alternatively, fusion cores used to be among the top items for vending machines, selling fast and for high prices. Many in the community describe this as not the case any longer. Given the high weight per unit of fusion cores relative to how long they’re staying on shelves (taking up stash space), these are an example of an item not to sell in your vending machine.
Farming Events for Caps
Like selling to NPC vendors, events are a caps source that has remained one of the best ways to get money since the game’s release.
Look out on the map for yellow hexagons representing public events, which have a chance to reward caps. Stay especially watchful for the yellow hexagons with exclamation points in them, as those offer a better chance for caps and also reward gold bullion.
Farming Seasons for Caps
Yet another way to make decent caps in Fallout 76 is by making sure to complete each level of the currently available season. Every season there are tiers that award increasingly high amounts of caps, eventually totaling 2,500 caps in one shot for Level 81.
Mind the Limit
One of the keys to farming caps in Fallout 76 is not senselessly losing them. Unfortunately, players are capped at 40,000 caps. Any caps gained in excess of 40,000 are lost forever.
While the cap limit of 40,000 is a huge improvement, players still need to be mindful of how many caps they have before doing any of the activities above to avoid watching their hard-earned caps disappear.
These are the latest tips in making sure you have the best ways to Farm Caps in Fallout 76 in 2022. If you found this guide helpful, be sure to check out the Fallout 76 section of our website for more!
