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Fallout 4 adds the kleptomaniac-friendly ability to deconstruct practically anything into useful components. As such, I have built an impressive store of building materials, and enforce a "pick up everything, leave nothing" strategy. This works quite well.

However, a few guys on Live have been recommending I hold on to any copies of the Daily Bugle I find, as there is supposedly an NPC that will pay caps for them. I assume this is the case for both regular and rolled up copies.

I know that in previous Fallout games, there were a few "junk items" that would serve a purpose, often in regards to an NPC that would buy them off you for a fair amount of caps.

Are there any junk items in Fallout 4 that serve any type of purpose other then component scrapping? Are there any particular items I should be holding on to, instead?

I am specifically asking about items that can otherwise be lost through the automatic dis-assembly of junk. Items that fall under the "misc" category, like overdue books and subway tokens, are of no use in this context as there is no great risk of accidentally destroying them.

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  • Somebody might come up with a full list at some point. In the meantime, here's a partial answer: yes. As an example: blue and yellow paint. These can be used in the quest to get green paint.
    – DCShannon
    Nov 17, 2015 at 22:45
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    I think you should maybe add to your title a bit to include "useful junk" as it's slightly misleading currently (as compared to what you're actually asking in the body, in terms of what junk serves a purpose later)
    – Broots Waymb
    Nov 17, 2015 at 22:49
  • @DangerZone makes a good point. I came here thinking the answer would be "yes, all the junk", understanding "hold on to" as "not sell".
    – DCShannon
    Nov 17, 2015 at 22:52
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    There are skulls that can be used to craft a spike-with-skulls decorative item in workshop design mode. If you break down all your skulls into bone materials, you will never have the capability to produce this item. I don't think there's any utility use for any of the junk items otherwise, whether through quests, opportunity, or other mechanics. However if you wanted to spare some junk items for decor (like billiards balls and such), you'll want to set some aside.
    – psouza4
    Nov 18, 2015 at 7:50
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    A quest requires a bloatfly gland, which is a junk item
    – CoqPwner
    Nov 18, 2015 at 21:03

4 Answers 4

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There are many scrappable junk items that can be used whole for other purposes, for instance for specific quests or as a crafting ingredient:

Used for Quests (repeatable quests italicized)

  • A Biometric Scanner and a Military-Grade Circuit Board are required for the main quest The Molecular Level.
  • 4 High-Powered Magnets are needed for the Brotherhood of Steel quest Liberty Reprimed, but they are provided in the Boston Airport workshop.
  • Yellow and Blue paint cans - Abbot (Diamond City)
  • Bloatfly Gland - Doctor Duff (Diamond City)
  • Bag of Fertilizer - Priscilla Penske (Vault 81)
  • Adjustable Wrench, Ball-peen Hammer, Combination Wrench, Hammer, Screwdriver, Wrench - Calvin (Vault 81)
  • Anti-Freeze Bottle, Gas Canister (for Reactor Coolant) - Proctor Ingram (Prydwen)

Used as Crafting Ingredients

  • Abraxo Cleaner - Mentats, Mind Cloud Syringe
  • Anti-Freeze Bottle - Berry Mentats, Berserk Syringe, Yellow Belly Syringe
  • Baseball - Baseball Grenade
  • Bloatfly Gland - Bloatfly Larva Syringe
  • Bloodsac - Skeeto Spit
  • Brahmin Skull - Mounted Brahmin Skull
  • Coffee Tin - Slocum's BuzzBites
  • Molerat Teeth - Mounted Molerat Skull
  • Pencil - Endangerol Syringe
  • Radscropion Stinger - Radscorpion Venom Syringe
  • Skull - Spiked Pole
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The big one that I try to avoid scrapping is Pre War Money.

Cloth is easy to come by, and Pre-War Money has a high resale value and zero weight, which makes it an ideal way to pull caps out of an ATM machine trade with merchants for a few extra caps whenever you come across one.

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Actually, I've found a handful of items worth holding onto, if only for their caps/weight value. If you currently don't need the resources they provide for crafting.

  • pre war money (kinda obvious since its higher value than caps and has no weight)
  • gold anything (watch/locket/flip lighter, if you need gold for crafting, scrap the flip lighters and lockets, since the pocket watch doesn't weigh much and has a really high resale value)
  • synth components (sell them instead of scrapping them. They sell for 50-100 caps each, while scrapping gets you 2 plastic which is super easy to get from a million other things)
  • packets/cartons/boxes of cigarettes & cigars (almost no weight and a decent sale value. they only provide useless cloth if scrapped)

Just a few ideas. basically just compare the weight, scrap components, and sell value to know what is worth picking up/scrapping/selling. I usually dump all of my 'to keep/sell' items on dogmeat as I go (since he's the the only companion that doesn't collect random crap on his own) so when I get back to my settlement I can just dump everything without thinking about it.

Some npcs will trade random junk for caps (like the guy who wants tools) but usually the price isn't worth the time it takes to constantly travel back and forth to drop it off for the petty amount of caps they offer.

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    Some of the tobacco products actually have pretty high scrap value - fiberglass and asbestos among them.
    – LessPop_MoreFizz
    Nov 25, 2015 at 18:43
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Over due library books can be returned at a library in exchange for book return tokens, you can trade in the tokens for misc items like a camera or toys, and if you have enough you can get a Surgical Magazine. I haven't figured out if subway tokens have anything similar yet so for the time being I've just been holding on to them

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  • The question explicitly excludes both of these items, since you aren't going to accidentally throw them in the workshop and auto-scrap them. (Is it even possible to scrap these items? I haven't tried.)
    – MichaelS
    Feb 8, 2016 at 9:24
  • And a quick test says "no, they can't be scrapped".
    – MichaelS
    Feb 8, 2016 at 9:33

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