that is not true about the "eg if you have 2 steel and 200 buckets you will only see 2 steel"

in my game i have supply networks set up and although i cannot say pull a bucket out of red rocket workbench if its physically stored at sanctuary and also if you look in the workshop at the settlement you can only see what is actually stored in that particular workbench but you have access to every single junk item in every single workbench you have a supply line too for scrap

eg i just did the taffington boathouse quest for rail road last night, now in my sanctuary workshop i have something like 25ish actual pieces of cloth but when building i had access to 1000+ cloth, because also in sanctuary workshop i have tonnes of pillows/dishrags/teddy bears/prewar money etc etc etc which have cloth component

i cannot pull any of that prewar money out at taffington boathouse but i sure can use it to make cloth items

Ok I have built up lots of settlement with just supply lines and just dumping junk into the workbench without breaking them down and I've never run out of materials. I usually dump all my junk in Sanctuary. I built Starlight Drive In into a fortress with a water plant and electricity without the need to scrap any item and just by dumping junk. I've built up Muttfruit farms by just getting muttfruit stored in Sanctuary so I find it strange that only base materials can by used via supply lines.

thats because it is not true

you cannot pull anything out of a supply line workbench thats in a different supply line workbench but you CAN use any junk item for its base component for building thats in a different supply line workbench

eg say you were at starlight drive in and you have supply line set up between sanctuary and there and you had nothing at all in starlight drive in workbench and all you had in sanctuary was a metal bucket. now you would not be able to get that bucket out at starlight drive in but you most definitely would be able to use the 2x steel the bucket provides to build

Yes they are broken down and no the left overs are not lost. You can throw all of your un-scrapped junk into any workbench or crafting bench and have it available at any other workbench or crafting bench linked by supply lines. I've also put 6 large water purifiers into one of my settlements now have no don't need to provide water at any of my new settlements.

I just upgraded a assault rifle in a settlement with zero junk. The menu when it popped up said that I was using 2 aluminum, a surgical tray (3 aluminum) and 2 bottles of wonder glue (3 adhesive) to upgrade the weapon.

You are using an erroneous interpretation. It may be that Taffington has only the one Supply line to Sanctuary, but that is not as far as Taffington's "reach" goes. It is actually connected to the entire Supply network. So Taffington has not only access to Steel from Taffington and Sanctuary, but also any and all settlements that that can trace a Supply path through Sanctuary and on to Taffington. For example, there is also a route that goes from Abernathy Farm to Sanctuary. Then there is a route from Sunshine Trading Co-op to Abernathy Farm. Taffington has access to the Steel stored at Taffington, Sanctuary, Abernathy Farm, and Sunshine Trading Co-op. LOTS of settlements creates a rather large Inventory of raw materials because it's like all the raw materials are all coming from ONE large central warehouse that stores ALL raw materials from every settlement in the network.

In contrast, I have literally hundreds weapons and armor, each, stored in several settlements' workbenches. But if I am setting up a new settlement and tap out of Steel (which happens often), and I haven't stored any non-raw material items in that local workbench, then I'm just flat out out of Steel -- despite having hundreds of items in other workbenches that scrap down to hundreds of units of Steel.

Now someone will say, "But have you established a Supply link to another networked settlement?" Yes, I have. I know this because when I start planting crops, I have access to MANY more of each plant than what I have stored locally. Can't have those extra plants unless I _also_ have access to everything else that is shared by the other networked settlements. But at the same time I don't have enough Steel to build even one more Bed or Gun Turret.

Damn, some of you have lengthy processes. Each to their own heh. I don't bother with extra storage. Way too many items, and a lot of legendary ones. I should give them to settlers because I know deep down I'll never use them. I don't want to sell them. I just look at them :/
I should start arming my 10+ empty PA frames & give them away, because I've seen that the cores don't deplete if they're on a friendly. So you can give them one with like 5/100 and it's ok - never runs out.
As I see it, any crafting bench within the build zone is connected to the other benches. Supply lines are awesome. Discover new place - travel to somewhere with people, send a person - return to new place - start building.

used as an example only

i have absolutely no nothing at all in other workbenches absolutely everything (except corn/mutfruit/tatos harvested from settlement areas) is stored at sanctuary, when i take a new settle ment i empty workbench and take to sanctuary

so when i build at taffington and see 1000+ ( i think it was something like 1750ish) cloth it is 100% because of all the pre war money/teddy bears etc etc in my sanctuary workshop

same with oil for example for the defenses, i literaly have 0 oil, none at all but when im building at taffington i have access to 458 or so why? becasue of all the paint cans/bunsen burners/blow torshes etc that i have stashed at sanctuary

edit: also when i build say a heavy machine gun turret before i click "ok" how it comes up with the list of what its going to use.. well it comes up with all the junk items its getting the resources from, i nwhich there are none directly in its own workbench which pretty much proves that you can use any junk item from any of your supply line workbenches for their resource components

edit2: saw the weapons and armour thing. weapons and armour ARE NOT JUNK ITEMS!!! even if you have them stored in the workshop at the settlement you are building in they DO NOT COUNT AS RESOURCES UNLESS YOU BREAK THEM DOWN MANUALLY!!

I am talking about junk resources like steel buckets/fans etc etc

so if you take all the steel out of every single workbench you have and then take out every single junk item s othere is nothing at all in any workbench you own, then you grab a metal bucket and put it in sanctuary workbench and then go to abernathy farm (as long as supply line ofcourse) you will now have 2 steel to build with from that steel bucket in sanctuary

i can guarantee you 100% that although you cannot grab any item at all out of a workbench that you are not at despite supply lines you can absolutely use any JUNK item from any workbench in your supply lines for its resource components when building.

LOL. Y'all made a simple part of FO4 into something complicated.

You guys are wasting your time if you are breaking down Junk manually. Just dump all of your Junk into any work station. Does not have to be the red one. Can be a stove, or any of the others. You do NOT have to break it down first. All of your settlements will be able to build using components from un-broken down Junk if they are connected by supply lines. I build A LOT. I NEVER break down Junk. It works like a champ.

Then I can NOT see how it is that I have tons of weapons stored in workbenches (but little in the way of actual Steel), but I also can NOT build things because of that lack of Steel. Yet, when I check the workbenches, the weapons are still there. (Also the umpteen dozen Raider armor pieces that also break down to Steel.)

If its not "junk" it doesn't break down. As I'm wandering I break down all the armour and weapons I have no use for at passing workbenches, and then drop the broken down components in one of my linked workbenches. It saves a dramatic amount of weight doing so.

To clarify:

these things are shared between settlements linked by supply routes,

items classed as "Junk" are shared,

broken down components are shared,

water is shared,

produce - like carrots, nutfruit, etc, etc - is shared,

these items are shared between the benches in a single settlements,

everything.

Any mods weapons, etc, that you drop into one bench will be available at all the other benches in a settlement.

^^Right as rain. While I was just fiddling with my overheating PC -- two venting fans had not been running, and the heat buildup was crashing the PC -- I recalled someone mentioning somewhere in another thread that raw materials and Junk ONLY would be shared as breakdown items. But I think all FOOD items get shared as well. That would include things like raw radroach and mongrel meat. (Which seems to be the case as I have had occasion where locally I only had 2 radroach meats, but I was still able to make Grilled Radroach, which requires 3 meats.

Good grief!

Ha! Glad I started this thread! I learned a 'ton' about scrapping. And happiness and Max size to boot!!!

I know. It is very frustrating at first, just not knowing this stuff. There isn't an in-game mechanic to teach it either.

yep thats exactly how it works, im unsure why some players dont know this as its obvious purely because it comes up with a screen telling you exactly what its gonna use???

you could not of grabbed that surgical tray out of that workbench as to take an item it must physically be there but you sure can use it for its base components when modding/building

i dont have anything in any of my workbenches except sanctuary because there is no need with supply lines (well except home plate as unless im missing something cant supply line to there)

ps. haha your sig the amount of times ive accidently sold/stored/not put back on my clothes, and the only time i know is when piper tells me lol

I have a habit of scraping everything. The only things I do not scrap are Pre-War Money, and more recently Cigarette Cartons & Packs. I intended to use pre-war money to pay for purchases, but instead I have simply been collecting them. I do sell cigarette cartons & packs though... unless I need their components.

The only thing I have been crafting are weapon mods and settlement pieces.

You are saying that 'existing' storage container restock, not one's my make yourself right? I've been storage stuff in containers I made for 100+ hours and never lost anything.

The one thing I wish that would be changed is that you can't break down a raider's "harness" without dropping it on the ground and scrapping it. Clothing items or some hats, that can't be modified, won't scrap automatically since they aren't JUNK and you can't scrap them in the armor workstation because they aren't ARMOR.

Oh and those red bandana really get to me, since you can't scrap them at all...

There is really no reason to break down true 'junk" items as the workbench auto-scrap works fine. I have done extensive research (PC version) and you do not loose extra components, they just don't show up in the workbench storage until after you enter and leave building mode (but they ARE available to be used at crafting stations so it's actually a display glitch).

The items that you want to store and possibly scrap in build mode are weapons and armor as scrapping those from the ground reduces you settlement size (lowers the SIZE meter). NOTE be careful not to reduce the SIZE below zero as that WILL crash your game when you exit Build Mode.

ones you make yourself dont

no containers in any settlement you own restock whether you built them or not

1) Apparently true.

2) Pointedly NOT true. I had a bunch of weapons in one cabinet and armor in another get overwritten and replaced by some caps and Junk items. I also gathered all of the Sanctuary containers I could in one house, which I empty out EVERY time I visit Sanctuary. Between visits half of them get restocked with caps and some with additional Junk and Apparel. On average, each visit yields 50-100 caps plus @ a dozen Junk and/or Apparel items.

I havnt had a single container from any settlement re stock? (5 days 16+ hours worth of playing according to save game, or 136 hours of real life time)

not a single one and i dont mean 99.99% of containers i mean 100%

im using alot of the pre exsisting sanctuary containers to store weapons and armour in aswell and have not lost a single item??

also not a single other settlement i own has restocked/respawned any of the containers

alot of containers in sanctuary cannot be moved (come up with yellow outline and only have "scrap" as option) even if they are able to be built, for example the suitcase in the house with all the crafting benches outside, it is unmovable/pickupable even though i can build suit cases and i have been using that to store clothing since the start of game, and all my clothes are still there. Ive used some of the wardrobes to store clothes in in bedrooms for my settlers and also have filled the first aid boxes with some chems and stims, ammo in ammo tins etc etc for aestetics

im on xbox one, are you different system and are you using mods?

i have been safely storing items in pre-exsisting containers in settlements the whole game and have not lost a single item, nor have i had a single empty container at a settlement restock??

just like other bethesda games where you have "player housing" (oblivion/skyrim/fallout 3/ and obsidians NV for example) they are safe zones for storage as their containers are marked for "no respawn" if yours are respawning/restoring then i honestly have to say there is something wrong with your game or if you are using mods then possibly one of the mods is doing this

Well scrapping it on the ground DOES impact the maximum settlement size, so there is that.

As far as whether unscrapped stuff is or is not shared between networks, I believe I will have to start a NEW character to test this and take notes and screen caps to share whatever evidence I come up with. For how my working hypothesis is that unscrapped items are _not_ shared between networked settlements, but I very well may be wrong.