Hope this makes sense. How viable is a Fallout 4 character who is ultimately self-sufficient, in that he only uses items that he/she makes or mods (perhaps just weapons/armor as opposed to all items), and never relies on buying/selling? I've done this in Skyrim with some success, but this type of character makes even more sense in a post-apocalyptic setting like this. I imagine caps may be necessary for some things other than buying/selling items. Just brainstorming an idea here.

Other games have done things like this and players as well, most like to call it "iron man" challenge/mode. I will be doing this in survival mode once I complete, or feel like I've completed/done enough on my first play through to enjoy going back.

Other than ammunition, I don't think it would be difficult at all. I do melee... so guns and ammo aren't an issue for me, and I haven't bought a single thing.

Very viable. I do not buy or sell anything. Perks like scavenger will allow you to get more for the items you break down too.

I rely only on my items... Hasn't been an issue thus far.

You may have issues with ammo if you try to stick to specific weapons, but really it shouldn't be too bad. The food you make from random wasteland animals and the stimpacks that you find are more than enough in terms of healing items. Radiation may give you some trouble if you're also not going to doctors. Early on it can be crippling and finding enough RadAway can be tough (not to mention only mutant hounds give you radiation reducing food, so they aren't easy to get early, either), so you'd probably just have to stay away from ghouls and other common sources of radiation until later on.

It would definitely be a challenge early on, but if you play smart and are careful about radiation and what ammo you use it should definitely be doable.

Vendors don't seem to be super important in FO4? I've done some trading just to get rid of some of the gear that's worth more in caps than in scrap, but I've only really spent money on curing my rads at a doctor.

If I were to set this challenge for myself, I don't believe it would be at all undoable. It just doesn't interest me much.

The only things I have purchased were .308 ammo. That's it.

Aside from ammo, very viable. The only limiting factors will be hard-to-find ingredients and level/rank to make the better stuff.

I didn't intend to do this, but that's sort of how it's playing out. So far, I haven't really bought anything. My character has crafted/found just about everything she needs. She did trade for some ammo -- she needed XXX and she had excess YYY. She swapped ammo with the merchant and the net result was a zero caps exchange.

She's only used caps for extracting a bit of extra info from another character.

I think I'll try to keep it that way. Let's see if I can go through the whole game without actually spending money!

So far I'm the same as others here, I have purchased some ammo and that's about it, TBH I do not know if ammo can be crafted in game Maybe/Maybe not? but if it needs it and a well balanced ammo crafting Mod comes along I reckon (so far) there is no real need to buy anything?

EDIT/PS: Well I've checked and there is no in-game ammo crafting but there is a Mod for it at the Nexus, not tried it as yet?

Working for me. Found, made (or upgraded).

Of course I don't have any caps and I never buy anything in these games anyhow.

Maybe I can make a living selling Jet and all it's derivitives and buffout and all it's derivitives. I have so much of 'em I don't know what to do with it all since I don't use any of the drugs.

I haven't even found many vendors (Of course, 30 hours in, I haven't been to Diamond City yet). Almost everything I use is looted or crafted.

Same here.

I think I may have bought somejunk that had coppper in it, but I have found, upgraded or crafted everything I need so far

I use vendors, but only really as an ammunition source. I bought .308 ammo and some .45 ammo for when I get enough levels in Gun Nut to upgrade this one gun I found.

Other than that, the .38 Pipe gun sniper rifle I made worked well enough until I found a true sniper rifle, and a modded 10mm pistol actually packs a pretty nasty punch. I prefer the look of leather armor pieces, over top of a checkered shirt and jeans with a construction hat and sunglasses, a real "Blue collar Wasteland Hero" kinda vibe. Leather armor can be upgraded quite a lot, even without the Armorer perk, and I plan to eventually get that once I get a few more basics leveled up some.

If only Ammo crafting was a thing in FO4 like it was in F:NV, I'd be a very happy survivalist.

I buy ammo for fusion cells and some other more powerful ammo I'm not running across in the world. I sell drugs I find or craft in order to support my ammunition habit. It also helps me level faster. So I kind of don't buy anything- I barter. I should also try progressing the story a bit- haven't even been to Diamond City yet and I'm Lv 17. Thinking I'll go soon to see if U can open up the major factions, questlines, merchants, etc., and see if I can start finding more fusion cells...

I bartered for plasma cells and I don't even have a plasma weapon yet...

That's pretty much what I do now. All I've bought so far is the occasional Fusion Core and ammo because there's no way to make ammo.

Let's make ammo, Bethesda!

It's easily done in this game...get scrapper and scrounger early, loot everything and don't be careless with ammo and you'll have all you need in no time. Everything I wear and use was looted and modded be me.

I use a variation on that - I use vendors, but I barter. That is, I only take items to the value of what I can sell. I try to do it in such a way that no actual caps change hands.

Partly immersive RPing, partly because bottlecaps are the stupidest currency ever. Anyone with a machine press could destroy the economy in a week. It just makes no sense to me that all these disparate survivors would all come to a concensus that bottlecaps would be imbued with a monetary value. Thus, I trade excess loot for the junk and ammo I need.

Isn't there existing lore about how only pre- apocalypse bottlecaps are accepted?

Only thing I have bought is ammo. I guess you would need a well balanced character with some decent strength for melee if you run out of ammo. Other than that I think it would be quite easy.

Out of curiosity, why "no buy/ no sell?" I know you say self-sufficiency, but a self-sufficient person can still acquire and spend money.

Aint happening on survival mode since not enough ammo and melee means auto death since the enemies can one hit kill you with that weird animation instakill thing they do.

It has more to do with the fact the in my experience with all Elder Scrolls and Fallout Games, at some point during gameplay the economy seems broken. A handful of levels in, you start to acquire more wealth than you could ever spend. Actually I feel like Skyrim was better about this, but I remember having taken over a house in Oblivion and just dumping millions of glass weapons and armor for some day that I would eventually sell it all, and I started to realize it became pointless. In Oblivion with my next character I think I used a rule that I could spend money on training only, but not on 'items'. But I also role played a thief, so I could sell STOLEN items.

But in a post apocalyptic world especially, I have a hard time even imagining WEALTH. So it's a way to sort of roleplay a world that's a little more like my vision of how it should be...you pick up what you can and will use, or you find ways to use everything you pick up. But you don't go around trying to get rich. Hope that makes some sense.