Do I really have to drop all my junk and then scrap each item physically from the ground? Why isn't there an option in-menu while you're in a settlement or something?

You do not need to do that. Components that are needed when building or modding will be auto-salvaged from items in the Workbench if available. And the remaining components remain in the workshop.

Well, obviously. But that wastes materials. If I have the economy wonderglue or whatever that yields 4 adhesives and I'm making something that only requires 1, then I waste 3 adhesives doing it that way.

No. As I said the remaining components remain in the workshop.

What?

This changes everything

Thanks for the help, still should be a better way to scrap items IMO

r u sure

I haven't seen enough compelling evidence for either interpretation, whether additional components are or aren't wasted making a thing. It seems like leftover scrap isn't wasted for me, but others have complained it works the other way.


What I *did* try to do was built a structure in which I could dump all of these scrap items, which would be funneled to a single pile, and then in Build mode, I could just aim the pointer and keep hitting the "scrap" button without having to constantly reposition. But things would drop outside of the makeshift thing I made. It was hard to make, and it turned out to be a waste.

Maybe something one could mod in later. It'd have to be an environment item, immune to scrapping. Or I just need to look for a good natural terrain feature that kinda works.

Actually no you don't. Any left over materials get sent to the workbench. So if you need 1 adhesive, and all you have on hand is the economy wonder glue, 1 gets used and the other 3 go to the workbench.

I agree that having to drop stuff on the ground is a poor way to go. You can scrap weapons and armor at the proper workbenches why not junk items? If your on the PC there is a mod that adds a scrapping workbench that does scrap all your junk without dropping it on the ground first.

Yes I could just dump all my junk in the workbench and not mess with it again. The issue is when you want to take materials to build something at a different settlement. If all you have on hand is junk items your going to be stuck carrying around a lot of weight from the materials you don't want/need. I prefer to scrap the junk and only take the materials I need.

This.

Nothing is gained by throwing in on the floor other than wasting your time.

Chuck it all in the workbench...

'It just works'

Throwing everything in the workbench works for me. And that workbench also connects to every other workbench in the settlement.


So essentially the chemistry station, cooking stations, armor and weapon workbenches are all connected with the same junk items.

Supply lines are glitchy if your running the beta patch. They show up on the map but you do not have access to the items in the other workbenches. Just the items in the one you currently at. I generally don't bother with supply lines any way.

Usually, it is exacty how you say.


However, and this is probably not a common situation: one mod I tried for some reason DIDN'T seem able to access whatever scripts that make the game detect and junk the appropriate items in one's workbench network to build a thing. Which is to say: if I had 500 Targeting Cards, but no basic units of Circuitry, then that mod's building mechanism said I had 0 Circuitry.


So to make it work while I was testing it out, I had to actually junk a bunch of circuitry-bearing scrap as well as some Shipments of Circuitry. Or I could have cheated (more than I already am).


FWIW, this was one of the Robot building mods, with an admittedly interesting and challenging system of perk requirements and infrastructure components needed to build and operate whatever robots you built.

You'll also notice when using scap your carrying, like first time you access a workbench, you'll see a message when stuff is broken down. Like if you build a generator you might see the message "gas can removed" or something like that. If it had 3 steel, but you only needed 2, when you went back into your inventory you'd see the gas can removed, but also find you now had 2 steel

Additional components are absolutely NOT wasted when junk is broken down to build something. I've done a thorough test of this myself.

I forget the specifics now, but I used Sanctuary and Red Rocket, neither of which were connected to any other settlements. I emptied both workbenches into a container. I put all of the components needed to build a turret aside from two screws into the workbench at Red Rocket. In the workbench at Sanctuary I had a desk fan (which has two screws, and some other components). I built a turret at Red Rocket. It used the materials in the Red Rocket workbench, broke down the fan at Sanctuary, and left the remaining components in the workbench at Red Rocket.

So basically the gameplay interpretation is that the provisioner brought me the desk fan, which I then broke down, and left the remaining components in the RR workbench.

Seriously, this topic was discussed to death right after the launch of this game. There is absolutely no benefit from dropping everything on the ground and scrapping it all manually. I did this at first (as did most of us), but we quickly found out that it was a complete waste of time. Just put all of the junk in the workbench and let it scrap itself as needed.

For what it's worth, scrapping everything is more detrimental than just depositing it into the workbench. Crafting some items requires actual junk, rather than junk components. Crafting Mentats requires Abraxo Cleaner, and NOT the junk that comes from scrapping Abraxo Cleaner. Crafting Baseball Grenades requires baseballs, and not the junk that comes from scrapping baseballs. There aren't a lot of examples of this, but it can be really annoying when you scrap 40 Abraxo Cleaners and then find out that you need some Abraxo Cleaner to craft some Mentats.

What beta patch? There is no current beta patch that I'm aware of. My game is up to date and my supply lines are working fine.

If Sanctuary and Red Rocket are connected by supply lines, and you have a desk fan in the workbench at Sanctuary, you won't be able to actually withdraw the desk fan from the Red Rocket workbench. You'll be able to use the desk fan to craft something at Red Rocket though without needing to get it from Sanctuary.

there needs to be a way where you can put everything in the workbench and then a "select" option to scrap everything so instead of putting it all on the ground and scrapping it one piece at a time, once its in the workbench and you make sure nothing is in there you don't want scrapped, you just select option to scrap everything or a "machine" a seperate container just for scrapping items, so you can put all your junk in there and push a button and it scraps it, kinda like a recycler, not sure why they haven't thought of that, having to scrap 300 items one by one isn't the best way.

Personally, I don't really see a need for anything like this. There's no need to scrap everything in the first place. All this is going to accomplish is a neater looking list in your junk slot, which I suppose has its merits, but it wouldn't really be an improvement in my opinion. Like I mentioned above, some items require actual junk, rather than junk components. Mentats require Abraxo Cleaner, and not the scrap from Abraxo Cleaner. But sometimes I might want the scrap from Abraxo Cleaner for building other things. You need baseballs to craft baseball grenades, but sometimes you might need the materials that you get from scrapping the baseball instead. There already is a 'store all junk' button which lets you store all the junk into your workbench with one button. Scrapping everything accomplishes nothing, provides no benefit, and could result in a lot of "dammit, I wish I hadn't scrapped that _________" moments.

thats not the same, when they're scrapped its itemized so you know what you need, if you need more fiber optics, aluminum etc, just dumping everything in the workbench unscrapped, yeah it does work for making itsems but its very insufficient for itemizing what you need in order to be efficient, just having a combinations of fans, clocks, microscopes etc isn't a good way to know what specific components you have, i like to make sure i have a few hundred of each junk item like aluminun, oil, screws, crystals, etc so having it broken down lets me know if i need more of a certain item or not, so i know if i need to buy shipments or whatever. so its not a good way to just dump everything there unscrapped if you're into modding things, that would be a nightmare.

I'm about as into modding and settlement building as it's possible to be in this game, and I can't say that this has ever been a problem for me. If I'm trying to build something and I can't, it tells me what components I'm missing. I'm sure someone will add a 'scrap all' function to the workshop with a mod, but I highly doubt that we'll ever see anything like this from Bethesda. Even if it was there, I wouldn't use it anyway.

you can disagree but when its not scrapped you don''t know exactly how much of each item you have, i doubt you mod as much as me, i make muiltiple mods for each weapon for all my settlers and continue to upgrade them as i level up to better weapons, i need to know exactly how much aluminum i have, screws, optics, crystals, etc, i don't have to look at bunch of microscopes, clocks, fans and other gadgets and try to figure out how much of each junk item i have, i'm not saying you can't do it your way but i you're modding a lot of weapons it uses up a lot of material, just mod one laser pistol into an upgraded lazer rifle, you need lots of everything, or, taking scopes off of assault rifles, putting on longer stocks, better receivers, all that takes a ton of material to do that for each settler so i can't just have some ballpark idea, when i know exactyl how much i have i can do other things until i need to resupply, your system would not work for me, it would end up taking me a lot more time, its like looking at a pile of radios and trying to say, ok i think i have 300 resistors, 50 pieces of gold, 70 pieces of glass, its all a crapshoot that way, its not exact enough.

throw down like 4-200 mines/nuke mines and then pile all your junk around that area, then shoot a mine. Enjoy!

I have almost every single one of my settlers at all of my settlements equipped with fully modded polymer combat armor and a fully modded array of guns that are tailored to their respective positions within the settlements, so I think it's safe to say that I mod as much as you. I've done this for hundreds of settlers over about 600 hours of game play, so I've got a bit of experience with it. Obviously opinions are going to vary from person to person, but I'm doing exactly what you're doing and I have no problems with it. I don't need exact counts of my materials. If I run out of something, the game will tell me. Then I'll have to find more of that given material.

I've built numerous gigantic mega settlements, scrapped them all, and built them again. My fortress on Spectacle Island literally takes up roughly half of the landmass of Spectacle Island, so I've done a fair amount of building lol

If you prefer scrapping everything manually, then by all means continue.

I must've missed the memo. I don't get on forums that often, I just play the game lol

Honestly i prefer manuel scrapping, WAAAAAY easier to keep track of resources and really itsnt too time consuming.


Rather than trying to figure out what you can make out of 12 coffee cups, 2 mr handy oils, 5 militray grade circut boards etc etc

you could just peek at the resources and see what you have.


At first it isnt too useful, but once you have quite a number of settlements with varying starting resources it becomes useful.


Ex: Wood to Jamaic Plain, Concrete to the Castle etc etc

You know what? Why not just a "scrap all junk" button while you're in a settlement? Honestly, that would be so easy to patch in and would make crafting twice as simple.

Are you kidding? Do you know how many complaints there would be once people start accidentally pushing the scrap all button? But I stored my legendary blah and blah weapon so that settlers couldn't get it! But I can't find my baseballs to build baseball grenades anymore!

The system is fine as it is, maybe another stat to show how much of each component you have overall available, but no matter what, people will complain anyway.