Barter

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

The  skill is used in the buying and selling of items, such as when trading with a merchant or scavenger. In general, the higher this skill level is, the lower prices will be when purchasing items. It is the primary factor in price determination, and is also offset by the Barter skill of the NPC.

Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics

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

Example: A starting Charisma of 5.


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

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

The Barter skill in Fallout 1 and 2 is extremely useful if you have limited funds. With a low barter skill, item prices may be as high as 700 for Rad-X and 32500 for Combat Armor.

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

Fallout 3
Barter Value
 * $$\text{Initial level}=2+(\text{Charisma}\times2)+\left\lceil\frac{\text{Luck}}{2}\right\rceil$$

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


 * $$2+(5\times2)+\left\lceil\frac{5}{2}\right\rceil=15$$

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


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


 * 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.

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

A high barter is a good choice for players 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 him or her.

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, only the 10% option changes dialog slightly.)

Ways to Increase Barter

 * Bobblehead - Barter (permanent +10)
 * Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor (permanent +1 or +2 with Comprehension)
 * Scoundrel (permanent +5 with each rank)
 * Tag! (permanent +15)
 * Roving trader outfit (temporary +5)
 * Roving trader hat (temporary +5)
 * Button's Wig (temporary +5)
 * Grape Mentats (temporary +2-10 depending on current charisma, a perfect charisma of 10 will not see any benefit)
 * Ant queen pheromones (temporary +2-6 depending on current charisma, a perfect charisma of 10 will not see any benefit.)

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.

Fallout: New Vegas

 * $$\text{Initial level}=2+(\text{Charisma}\times2)+\left\lceil\frac{\text{Luck}}{2}\right\rceil$$

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


 * $$2+(5\times2)+\left\lceil\frac{5}{2}\right\rceil=15$$

Barter affects the prices you get when trading with merchants, there are also several barter skill checks in the game that can help you advance in quests or make your reward greater. The barter skill is governed by the Charisma special.

Barter Skill Used in Fallout: New Vegas Quests
Handel Бартер