Barter

Skill
Barter
Fallout / Fallout 2
Modifies	Prices when trading
Affected by	Charisma
Base value	20% + (2 x Charisma)%
Related perks	Master Trader, Negotiator, Salesman
Related traits	Gifted, Good Natured
Fallout Tactics
Modifies	Prices when trading
Affected by	Charisma
Base value	0% + (4 x Charisma)%
Related perks	Master Trader, Negotiator, Salesman
Related traits	Gifted, Good Natured
Fallout 3
Modifies	Prices when trading
Affected by	Charisma
Base value	2 + (Charisma x 2) + ceil (Luck / 2)
Related perks	Master Trader, Scoundrel
Fallout: New Vegas
Modifies	Prices when trading Various dialogue options
Affected by	Charisma
Base value	2 + (Charisma x 2) + ceil (Luck / 2)
Related perks	Pack Rat, Long Haul
Related traits	positive: Good Natured negative: none
Van Buren
Modifies	Prices when trading
Affected by	Charisma
Base value	20% + (2% x Charisma)
Related perks	?
Related traits	?

 

“Trading and trade-related tasks. The ability to get better prices for items you sell, and lower prices for items you buy.”— In-game description

Barter is a Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout Tactics, Fallout: New Vegas and Van Buren skill.

The Barter skill is primarily used in the buying and selling of items, such as trading with a merchant or scavenger. In general, the higher this skill level is, the lower prices will be when purchasing items, and the higher they will be when selling items. It is the primary factor in price determination, and is also offset by the Barter skill of the non-player character in question. The skill is also used in certain dialogue options with non-player characters, where certain responses require Barter checks.

Fallout and Fallout 2

$\text{Initial level}\%=20+(2\times\text{Charisma})$

Example: A starting Charisma of 5.

$20+(2\times5)=30\%$

Having the Master Trader perk will give the player character an automatic 25% off all goods, and the Good Natured trait will provide an additional 15% to the Barter skill.

Barter is noticeably effective in Fallout & 2 if you have limited funds. With a low Barter skill, item prices may be as high as 700 for Rad-X and 32,500 for combat armor.

Fallout Tactics

$\text{Initial level}\%=0+(4\times\text{Charisma})$

The initial level for Barter is still governed by Charisma, but usually starts out lower than Barter in Fallout.

Barter also determines how much you can sell things for in Tactics, whereas selling prices were always static in the older Fallout games.

Fallout 3

"Never forget to walk away with more than you've brought."

Barter Value

$\text{Initial level}=2+(2\times\text{Charisma})+\left\lceil\frac{\text{Luck}}{2}\right\rceil$

Example: A starting Charisma of 5 and Luck of 5.

$2+(2\times5)+\left\lceil\frac{5}{2}\right\rceil=15$

Derived Values

$Sale~value~\% = 45\% + \left \lceil Barter \times 0.45\% \right \rceil \times Modifier$

$Buy~value~\% = 155\% - \left \lceil Barter \times 0.45\% \right \rceil \times Modifier$

• Modifier is normally 100%, but can go up or down in 10% increments. For example, if you're nice to Gob he'll pay at 120% and sell for 80% of normal.

Barter	Sell %	Buy %
0	45	155
20	54	146
40	63	137
80	81	119
100	90	110

A Barter skill of 11 allows the player to sell at 50% of the rated value of an item. Each 5th point increase in score only increases sale prices by approximately 2.25 percent. A Barter skill of 86% is required to buy ammunition costing 3 caps at value from a normal merchant, while if you have a 10% discount (e.g. in Rivet City) only 57 skill is needed, or with a 20% discount (possible with Seagrave Holmes & Bannon) a measly 21 skill works. However, the Barter skill does not reduce the charge for having merchants repair items.

A high Barter skill is a good choice for player characters with low Strength, since they do not have much room to carry many items and, subsequently, have less things to sell. However, having a companion partially negates this, since you can put around 200 pounds of weight on them.

Barter Based Perks

Perk	Required	Level	Additional Requirements
Master Trader	60	14	Charisma 6

Available Discounts

• Master Trader - 25% discount with every trader in the game.
• Craterside Supply - 30% discount upon receiving the Dream Crusher perk.
• Moriarty's Saloon - 10% discount with Gob if you're nice to him when you initially meet.
• Rivet City - 10% discount with all merchants in the city upon completing research into Rivet City's history.
• Rivet City Supply - 10% discount depending on player choice during the quest Council Seat.
• Potomac Attire - 10% discount depending on player choice during the quest Council Seat.
• Lock and Load - 20% discount upon completion of Economics of Violence.
• Federalist Lounge - 10% or 50% discount by hacking the nearby terminal.

Interactions that require Barter skill

A number of dialog based trading can be altered with sufficient Barter:

• 50 Barter is needed to obtain a 1,000 caps discount from the initial price of 2,000, when buying Charon's contract from Ahzrukhal during the unmarked quest Hired Help.
• 50 Barter needed to obtain a 500 caps rebate on the 1,000 caps price to buy Clover from Eulogy Jones in Paradise Falls.
• 30, 50, or 70 are threshold which, once crossed, can each provide you with a better level of reward in the unmarked quest Zip's Nuka Fix in Little Lamplight.
• 75 Barter will give you a much better bargain when trading cave fungus for strange meat during the unmarked quest Fungus Deal in Little Lamplight.
• An unknown amount of Barter is required to obtain a better deal from Abraham Washington when selling Lincoln's artifacts during the unmarked quest Lincoln's Profit Margins.

Ways to Increase Barter

Permanent

• Leveling up (10+INT (+3 with Educated perk))
• Bobblehead - Barter (+10)
• Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor (+1 or +2 with Comprehension)
• Scoundrel (+5 with each rank)
• Tag! (+15)

Temporary

• Ant queen pheromones (+2-6 depending on current Charisma, a perfect Charisma of 10 will not see any benefit)
• Grape Mentats (+2-10 depending on current Charisma, a perfect Charisma of 10 will not see any benefit)
• Button's wig (+5)
• Roving trader hat (+5)
• Roving trader outfit (+5)

Notes

• The player will eventually have more bottle caps than is possible to spend, so deciding whether or not to put points into Barter during character development is a strategic decision. Barter is best taken early on, to more effectively sell loot or acquire better equipment.

Fallout: New Vegas

$\text{Initial level}=2+(2\times\text{Charisma})+\left\lceil\frac{\text{Luck}}{2}\right\rceil$

Example: A starting Charisma of 5 and Luck of 5.

$2+(2\times5)+\left\lceil\frac{5}{2}\right\rceil=2+10+3=15$

Barter affects the prices you get when trading with merchants. There are also many Barter skill checks in the game that can help you advance in quests by displaying a good sense with money, talking down costs, and talking up rewards. The Barter skill is governed by the Charisma attribute.

General price (before application of reputational fees or discounts) is counted with the same formula as in Fallout 3.

Barter	Sell %	Buy %
0	45	155
20	54	146
40	63	137
60	72	128
80	81	119
100	90	110

Barter in quests and exploration

While hard to tell in the abstract from the following list, in many cases Barter is offered as an alternative dialogue skill check to Speech (though generally involving paying money) or other skill checks. This may be to help compensate for the fact that Barter on its own may not be as useful as other skills.

• 20 to convince Trudy for an additional 25 caps for repairing her radio.
• 25 to convince Chet to help you in the quest Ghost Town Gunfight or Run Goodsprings Run.
• 25 to convince Dr. Klein to have Dr. 0 give 250 bottle caps to the Courier instead of 50.
• 30 to convince Johnson Nash to give you information about the NCR attack on NCR Correctional Facility for just 50 caps in the quest I Fought the Law.
• 35 to convince Beatrix Russell in Wang Dang Atomic Tango.
• 35 to convince Tyrone to give up the chemical ingredients in the quest Don't Make a Beggar of Me.
• 35 to convince Aurelius of Phoenix to allow trade with Decanus Severus. (NCR Dog-tags for food or ammunition.)
• 35 to convince Crandon to allow the start of the quest Someone to Watch Over Me.
• 40 to get medical supplies from Emily Ortal during The Moon Comes Over the Tower.
• 45 to trick Max into giving you Euclid's C-Finder for only 20 caps.
• 45 to convince Squatter Bill (and the other Squatters) to leave for 50 caps in the quest Someone to Watch Over Me.
• 45 to convince Big Sal to release Troike from his contract in How Little We Know
• 45 to convince Private Renolds to give you monetary "encouragement" in the quest Anywhere I Wander.
• 50 to convince Mr. House to pay an additional 250 caps for the platinum chip.
• 50 to convince Old Lady Gibson to give you the thrust controllers for 250 caps instead of 500 for the quest Come Fly With Me.
• 50 to extort 300 caps from Orris in G.I. Blues after an Intelligence check of 6.
• 50 to convince Dr. Hildern for an additional 600 caps from in There Stands the Grass.
• 50 to convince The Lonesome Drifter to give you the Mysterious Magnum during the quest Talent Pool.
• 50 to convince Ralph to craft you a counterfeit passport for The Strip at a reduced price of 375 caps (originally 500).
• 50 to convince Red Lucy for an additional 100 caps after bringing her mantis eggs in the Bleed Me Dry.
• 50 to more easily convince Dean Domino to cooperate in Find Collar 14: Dean Domino.
• 50 to convince Dr. Klein to have Dr. 0 give an additional 250 caps to the player.
• 50 to convince Greasy Johnny (and the other greasers) to stop causing trouble for 50 caps in the quest Someone to Watch Over Me.
• 50 to convince Jack to start creating medicinal chems in Aba Daba Honeymoon.
• 55 to get Cachino's room key from the receptionist for 200 caps instead of 300 in How Little We Know.
• 60 to convince Red Lucy for an additional 100 caps after bringing her radscorpion eggs in the Bleed Me Dry.
• 60 to convince various merchants to sell food at a discount to Farber in the Camp McCarran concourse.
• 60 to earn 200 caps and Cachino's "friendship" after confronting him about his journal in How Little We Know.
• 65 to convince Alice McLafferty to let Janet get out of debt in Young Hearts, explaining to her the possible profit from future trade possibilities with the Boomers.
• 70 to convince Red Lucy for an additional 200 caps after bringing her fire gecko eggs in the side quest, Bleed Me Dry.
• 75 to convince Dr. Klein to have Dr. 0 give an additional 250 bottle caps to the player.
• 80 to convince Red Lucy for an additional 300 caps after bringing her nightstalker eggs in the side quest, Bleed Me Dry.
• 80 to bribe the missionary involved with the quest G.I. Blues.
• 90 to convince Red Lucy for an additional 500 caps after bringing her cazador eggs in Bleed Me Dry.
• 90 to convince Dr. Klein to give you: Fixin' Things, Programmer's Digest, Patriot's Cookbook, 250 additional bottle caps, 2 doctor's bag, 3 stimpaks and one super stimpak.
• 100 to convince Legate Lanius to leave during Eureka!, All or Nothing, or No Gods, No Masters.

Available Discounts

• Reputation: All factions will provide a discount based on your reputation with them, therefore locations with no specific discounts can still have cheaper prices by getting the faction to like you.
• Goodsprings: Trudy will give you a discount for saving the Goodsprings settler during Back in the Saddle, repairing her radio or helping the town during Ghost Town Gunfight. The discount is tied to becoming "Accepted" in the town, not any one specific act.
• Goodsprings: Chet will give you a discount after passing a Barter check of 25 if you agree to help Joe Cobb take over the town.
• Primm: Johnson Nash will give the player a discount for making Meyers sheriff.
• Novac: Cliff Briscoe will give the player a discount only after speaking to Jeannie May Crawford about the Dino Bite gift shop and then telling him she sent the player. The discount will not be lost even if he finds out the player helped kill her.
• Old Mormon Fort: Julie Farkas will give the player a discount when the player becomes "Accepted" with the Followers of the Apocalypse, further discounts resulting in 1:1 ratio when the player joins the Followers.
• New Vegas medical clinic: 1:1 ratio when the player joins or becomes "Accepted" by the Followers.
• Great Khan armory: the Great Khan armorer will give a 1:1 price ratio when Great Khan reputation becomes "Accepted."
• Camp McCarran concourse: Dr. Kemp will give the player a discount if they help during A Final Plan for Esteban. The discount will be bigger if the player doesn't ask Christina for a reward.
• Camp McCarran concourse: William Farber will offer the player a discount after repairing the food processor during Not Worth a Hill of Corn and Beans.
• Hidden Valley bunker: When the player's reputation with the Mojave Brotherhood becomes Mixed, a paladin should approach them and inform them of a discount. This is currently bugged, however, so only the reputation discount is available.

Ways to increase Barter

Permanent

• Leveling up (up to +15 or +17 with Educated)
• Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor (+3 or 4 with Comprehension)
• Empathy Synthesizer (+2 depending on current Charisma, a perfect Charisma of 10 will see no benefit.)
• Tag! (+15)
• Good Natured (+5)
• Skilled (+5)

Temporary

• Salesman Weekly (+10 or 20 with Comprehension)
• Mentats (+2 depending on current Charisma, a perfect Charisma of 10 will see no benefit.)
• Party Time Mentats (+2-10 depending on current Charisma, a perfect Charisma of 10 will see no benefit, can be stacked with Mentats.)
• Absinthe/Beer/Irradiated beer/Irradiated whiskey/Jake Juice/Scotch/Wine (+2 depending on current Charisma, a perfect Charisma of 10 will see no benefit.)
• Moonshine (+2-4 depending on current Charisma, a perfect Charisma of 10 will no benefit, can be stacked with other alcohol.)
• Benny's suit (+5)
• Roving trader hat (+5, earliest acquisition is from Malcolm Holmes.)
• Roving trader outfit (+5, earliest acquisition is from Malcolm Holmes.)
• Vera's outfit from Dead Money (+5 and another +2 depending on current Charisma.)
• Daniel's outfit from Honest Hearts (+5)
• "Mood Light" (+5-9 (depending on current Charisma) for 12 hours or until the player uses the "Smart Lights")

Barter-based Perks

Perk	Requirement	Level	Additional Requirements
Pack Rat	70	8	Intelligence 5
Long Haul	70	12	Endurance 6

Van Buren

In Van Buren, as in Fallout and Fallout 2, Barter did indeed have an effect on store prices. However, it also represented a certain level of knowledge about the caravan houses and trading in general, giving it a small role in dialogue. The intended depth to Barter development came in the perks available at higher skill ranks.

Notable Barter experts

Fallout 3

• Mister Burke (77) - Allistair Tenpenny's right-hand man, asking you to detonate the Megaton atomic bomb.
• Leroy Walker (68) - Leader of 6-man squad of slavers who have occupied the Lincoln Memorial.
• Victoria Watts (63) - The Railroad member, asking your help in protecting escaped android Harkness.

Fallout: New Vegas

• Elizabeth Kieran (98) - NCR Major providing aid to NCR squatters living in Freeside.
• Lady Jane (98) - a caravan merchant living in Freeside.

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