I want to build some large generators for power in my settlement but to build them I need 'Gear' and not 'Gears', and they are two separate things?

I bought lots of items from vendors (eg typewriters etc) which say they have 'Gear' and I dropped and scrapped them, but when I look in my pipboy it says I have 'Gears'

How do I get 'Gear' and not 'Gears' as I want to build generators. Can I turn Gears into Gear?

Gears are gear. All of those work for generators. Not the only typo in the game.

There is a separate, very heavy, "Gear" that is good for nothing except scrapping for steel.

If you look at the gears item, they have gear, so I assume they are the same thing.

edit: ninja'd.

A simple way of answering this would be to try it lol

Yes, they are the same thing. If you have more than one gear, you have 'gears'.

Note also that you don't have to drop the items and manually scrap them. Just store it in the workbench and it'll automatically break the items down as you need them.

Thanks for the replies. I looked at building a generator, I had 5 Gear and 179 Gears and it says I had 179 available so I guess I can use Gears for building generators even although it says Gear lol

For settlements, how do supply lines work. I have Sanctuary Hills connected to 6 other settlements. I have the Castle connected to 6 different settlements. If I get one of Sanctuary Hills's 6 settlements to run a supply line to one of the Castle's 6 settlements then would that mean that the Sanctuary Hills and the Castle got connected too? Also, once you create a supply line, can you remove it or change it to a different settlement?

I have 6 Overdue Books. What are they exactly? Thanks.

Except that sometimes it makes sense to connect to the nearest settlement - all of mine are daisy chained. Each settlement only goes to one other.

I expect the only way to change a route is to give the provisioner a different job.

There are several book drops scattered around. You will find one in the Boston Library.

Use it to return books.

I daisy-chain all of my supply lines. If it's connected to one settlement in the supply line, it's connected to every settlement in the supply line. For example, if you link Sanctuary to Red Rocket, and then link Red Rocket to the Abernathy Farm, Sanctuary and the Abernathy Farm will be connected via the cumulative supply line.

Thanks for the replies. I still don't really understand how supply lines work. I have supply lines from Sanctuary Hills going to 7 different settlements. One of which is Greentop Nursery. I have supply lines from Greentop Nursery going to 7 different settlements. When I look in my Workshop at Sanctuary Hills its empty. When I look in my Workshop at Greentop Nursery it has stuff like Wood, Steel, Mutfruit, Purified Water etc. If Sanctuary Hills and Greentop Nursery have a supply line connecting them then shouldn't they share resources and have the exact same resources in both workshops?

Or is there a time difference between Workshops updating each other because settlers need to travel between them?

A supply line does two things:

1. It allows the food and water produced by one to be consumed by any settlement in the network.

2. It allows ingredients stored at one settlement to be used at any settlement in the network.

Your confusion stems from the fact you can't VIEW another settlement's workbench contents, only USE them.

Example: You've connected, say, Sanctuary and Tenpines. You then empty Tenpines' workshop, and chuck some steel, copper, ceramic and rubber in the Sanctuary workshop. You'll be able to build power pylons at Tenpines, but the workshop there will still be empty.

There's no delay.

Ok thanks, I understand now. Is there a way to see how much you have in total across all connected settlements? If I go to build something then does it say how much I have of something across all connected settlements? All the items have to be carried on yourself or in the Workshop, nothing stored in other containers?

Correct. To see how much steel you have in total, select something that requires steel in the build menu.

Workbenches, weapon/armor benches, chem/cooking stations, and power armor stands are "networked" (basically anything you can build in the "crafting" section of build menu, plus the red workbench).

Save your overdue books until you get 50. Then turn them for tokens that you use to buy a magazine. It's at the library somewhere. I've only got 30 so I don't know exactly where.