I'm early in the game so I haven't found a merchant yet but I was thinking about caps in the game so far. For food the new cooking rules seem pretty good about keeping me healed (outside of battle) and some of the more exotic ones might help me heal radiation too (haven't managed that yet). In Fallout 3 you had to build caps to outfit your house but not here right? You build your house or use existing containers which appear to be safe (I'm squatting in the Sanctuary bunker), so we don't need caps for that. In Fallout 3 I bought the occasional big weapon from merchants (probably can do that here too) but if you're crafting weapons, that probably isn't a giant issue in Fallout 4 right?

So if I could I would still buy stimpacks, bobby pins, ammunition, maybe scrapping materials, etc, but it just seems like caps aren't as important. Am I right or is there something that comes later in the game that I need a lot of caps for? Thanks.

So far the only other thing I've seen you can do with caps is purchase a house in Diamond city, however I'm not sure weather you can purchase furniture or you edit it yourself more than likely edit it yourself

u make it, u dont buy it. But i been using caps to buy ammo or supplies.

Caps are really handy for buying junk from traders. This is extremely important when you're trying to craft weapons, armor and set up defense structures. Certain things like adhesive and a few other components are relatively rare.

there's a bunker in sanctary news to me where is it?

use them to buy special weapons and mod them.. or stimpacks.. or fusion cores ect.

What I call a bunker is a fallout shelter behind one of the houses a little past the lone survivor's house which leads to a little underground room. I needed the hint guide to find it. The aggrivating part is that it is outside the range of the workshop. It does seem to be pretty good for radiation protection during radiation storms though. The bed doesn't seem to give me well rested perk though.

whaaa? I didn't know about this little bunker

Exit the Sole Survivor's house and head left along the road. When you get to the cul-de-sac at the end, have the second house Codsworth searched on your right. Ahead of you will be a destroyed house. To the left of it (your left) is another house. Search the back of it for a door to a cellar.

huh gonna have to check this out, thanks man

There is a diner with a sweet sword for sale, but it costs a lot of caps. I have been spending caps on ammo I don't have. You also might need to bribe someone along the way. You might need a few caps to get that special piece of something to mod that item you really want to mod.

In Fallout 3 I got into the habit of always taking my "trade" in ammunition because the vendors seldom had enough money. By the end I had more ammo than I could ever fire. But out of hardcoe mode, ammo was weightless.

Ammo can be fairly scarce at times, so it's always good to stock up on it from vendors. Also, buying certain rarer junk - especially adhesive products - can be helpful. Otherwise, I haven't used caps for much. Strangely, though, I never seem to have a lot because of the amount of ammo & uncommon junk I buy. So I guess it evens out.

I made a mistake here. Turns out the cellar in question is behind the house to the left of the one I directed you to in the above post. It's the blue one to the right of the yellow one Codsworth goes into first when searching the neighborhood (your right as you're facing the door to enter the yellow house).

It's "outside the range" of the workshop and protects from storms because it's a loading screen zone, hence not counted as "outside/topside". Different game cell, or whatever.

I didn't notice the place until I was clearing out Sanctuary for materials. Just a black cellar door in the ground against the back of a house, next to a few wild mutfruit plants. It's very tiny - basically just a small room. I prefer using the Red Rocket down the road, like many others.

Wonder why the bunker doesn't give you well rested bonus? It's true you didn't build that bed, BUT it's not apparently owned (if that is even a thing). It's pretty cosy otherwise.

I am a little confused though. I rode out the radiation storm inside and it only lasted a few hours. But when I tried to go to Lexington (to the SuperDuper Mart) I came right into a radiation storm and I tried to ride it out inside the store. But even after 1.5 days, no dice. In the end I had to fast travel out.

I don't quite understand what was happening. Oh well.

I did find a merchant in a nearby location to Sanctuary but she's not a major dealer. I sold a few things. It makes me want to store away a few "high value" items for that time when I do find a good one. Instead of scrapping everything which I've been doing (even gold bars).

I bought the house in Diamond City, but I haven't visited it yet. I have also bought items on the road from merchants and ruffians I came across.

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I use caps to buy ammo, and rarer materials, like wonderglue or tape (for adhesive) and to unload random junk, like the "special" armor and weapons I collect. I can't savage them, so I sell them.

Pretty much everything the above people have been saying. I rarely need to buy anything in Fallout 4. Merchants are only really good for their junk and the occasional legendary/unique weapon. I've never really used caps in other fallout games except for the houses because I pick up everything and put them in storage. If I need to sell something I do, but most of the time after taking the fortune finder perk, its not necessary. I use to have a hard time with managing stuff in fallout games, but once I learned that I didn't really need to buy anything that I can make do with what I pick up and the right perk or two, I was golden. It is even more noticeable in fallout 4 because you don't need to buy anything besides junk really. stimpacks are easy to find now plus cook helps.

Junk is really only ever needed by me. I find the lack of copper and adhesive for my stuff frustrating. If anyone knows a good cache of these two items let me know.

I use caps for ammo, visiting the barber, visiting the surgeon, and occasionally buying shipments (leather, adhesive, etc), but these are all "add-ons". I'm sure you could easily beat the game without spending a single cap.

For adhesive you should set up a farm with mutfruit, corn, and tatos, as well as a water purifier. Harvest the ingredients then use cooking station to make corn starch. 5 adhesive per corn starch. The plants grow pretty fast and the purified water is automatically put into your workshop. I also loot the other farms when I'm really desperate.

No good ideas on the copper except loot friggin everything (lamps, light bulbs, telephones, etc.)

My big bottleneck seems to be screws. Any ideas there?

It also costs a hefty amount of caps to create a merchant kiosk in your settlement.

I'm a melee weapon guy, where is this diner? Outside of main settlements, I've been to the diner with the woman who's son is addicted to jet, and I've been to a diner run by robots that tried to sit me at a table then cook me so I don't think they sold anything there.

I believe I saw the sword in that dinner. Her name is Trudy.