I've been trying to build a fence all the way around Sanctuary and am almost done but between that and keeping my PA repaired I keep running out of Steel to use. Are there any good steel farming spots in the game? So far I've just been going to raider camps and picking up all the weapons and metal armor I can find to scrap.

You can scrap a lot of stuff in build mode like house parts and cars for steel.

Steel items are also very common junk, go back to an cleared location and farm it for any junk who looks metallic this probably give more steel than weapons.

Yeah I've cleared pretty much everything out of the settlement that I could find and I have it tagged, was just wondering if there happened to be a good spot anywhere to find a large quantity since I keep blowing through the stuff I find that way in almost no time at all.

Since I have yet to try it and others may know.... can you salvage anywhere on the map, or does it need to be in specific locations?

For instance, can I go to the drive-in theater and salvage all the steel cars just sitting there for my own purposes?

just scrap all the weapons directly at a raider base workbench.

Yes but they will be in the workbench for just that area, you will have to pick them all up and move them to the settlement you are working on to use them there. I think there is a way to link the resources of all the settlements but I haven't figured out what it is.

I scrapped every single object in sanctuary before I started building, never ran out of steel afterward, finished my fence all the way around a couple days ago.

Steel and wood are the most common objects to scrap from the junk you find on the settlements, look for old cars

If you get to do a mission for Preston involving a drive-in cinema, do it. The place is littered with posts and cars that you can scrap.

Also guns, all guns give a bit of steel if you scrap them on weapon workbenches, and almost all enemies have guns.

Everywhere bro, just scrap every unsold weapon you come across...

Not to put you out too much, but you're better off doing a smaller fenced in area as settlement attacks seem to spawn inside the town limits, which svcks. I wanted to do the same thing as you but ended up making a smaller base back near the workshop. Until the hopefully patch this it seemed like a waste.

Cans and Tin Cans for some reason give you 2 Steel each (why Tin isn't a material we'll never know), and they only weigh 0.1 pounds per can. Go to any location and just take all the Cans and Tin Cans.

seeing as there are 30 settlement locations, just scrap all items at other settlement locations and pull it out of the workbenches in that location and take it to the workbench where you are building (since each workbench in that area is its own storage and not shared). I build in sanctuary and red rocket. (sanctuary for my people and red rocket as my own mansion overlooking sanctuary). There are around 5 other locations just in the top left quarter of the map alone you can scrap everything at and take it back. I do recommend this.

You can scrap ruined houses to for a buttload of wood. Scrap old cars for steel, even lightposts and mailboxes. Whenever I clean a house out I scrap the mail box in front of it so if I see a house has no mail box --- I've probably already cleaned it out and can scrap the house if I want and it's scrappable. Although you are soon left with nothing in a town but foundations and one or two houses. I haven't been very far in the game so far though, only to Concord and the Red Rocket and Sanctuary City.

Fences don't protect against anything and enemies will spawn right inside the settlement... don't waste your steel or wood on fences.. just build a bunch of heavy turrets (ones with defense rating of 8) in groups and place them in a couple of spots.

*pulls up pants to waist and tugs on suspenders* I'll solve this case!

1) Ok, here's the thing about scrapping and settlements: when you scrap something in a settlement it goes directly to that settlement's storage - not yours. Just go to any settlement you have previously visited and chances are good there will be a ton of steel there. To do this, go to a workbench (any crafting station will do) and select "Transfer" to access it.

2) This tip is amazing I do say so myself I have a few sort-of-rare-but-commonly-used components tagged for search. There are a few ways to do this, but the easiest way is already have at least one of the component you need more of, go to Inventory > Junk and select component view. Then go to the component you need, and hit ""tag for search". You'll see a magnifying glass appear next to it. Here's where it gets amazing: as you travel around the world, when you look at a random object the magnifying glass will appear and you'll know that object has a component you need. It's awesome!

Components I would suggest you tag for search:

Oil

Gears

Fiber Glass

Ballistic Thread

Screws

Most of the other stuff is either incredibly common or rarely used, but to each their own.

OK will if you go to Dimond city you can buy shipments of the things you need. Copper, Screws, Steel and Wood. If you have the caps you can buy instead of having to loot and break down everything. Hope this helps.

I haven't spent much time outside Sanctuary or The Castle so far, in terms of building settlements.

But I think once you establish a trade route to another settlement, that is when you can share its resources. I did my first couple last night.

Just enter workshop mode and task a settler for trade route duty to the Drive-In (best bet for steel) and you can start scrapping there too.

I'm pretty sure this is the case anyway.

Other than that, the factories seem to be a good source of almost everything. Corvega etc.

Abernathy Farm I believe there is a girl there that is a trader, (this also turns into a settlement after their quest), you can request shipments of things, but if you don't have the caps then its not worth it.

I find the things I lack the most are

-Gears

-Screws

-Copper

-Glass

-Adhesive

-Crystal

-Fiber Optics

Not sure how useful building a fence around Sanctuary is.

Attacks only come over the bridge, and I made that into a death trap.

You're supposed to be able to link settlements by taking the first rank of the Local Leader perk, which requires Charisma 6 to unlock. I haven't gotten far enough yet to check how that works.

You're sure about that? I'm seeing conflicting reports - some say it's only over the bridge but others say they sometimes come from the north. I haven't had Sanctuary attacked by anything but a pair of Mirelurks I kited back to test the turrets (they worked. Sweet Zombie Jesus, did they work).

If the only place Sanctuary is ever attacked from is the bridge I don't have to give another thought to defence - the Brotherhood themselves couldn't make it through what I've got in place there.

Speaking only from my own experience - and I get attacked a lot. Seen reports of mobs spawning in the town - never had that happen either. Note: a laser trip wire requires a console to set it enemies only. Otherwise you fry your caravans.

Found an article about a neat little spot for the Fiber Optics, Crystal, and Steel-

http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/31697/article/fallout-4-guide-how-to-get-infinite-fiber-optics-crystal-and-steel/

I haven't tried it yet but it looks promising.