Merchant Empire

Merchant Empire is an unmarked quest in Fallout 3.

Detailed walkthrough
Through discussion with Uncle Roe in Canterbury Commons, he can be asked if the traders coming through the area could become a unified group.

If the Lone Wanderer has the Master Trader perk, a high Barter skill, the Black Widow perk or is carrying at least 250 bottlecaps, Roe will offer a map showing the paths of the merchants and their various trade stops and the option of investing into any of the caravans. Investing in a caravan allows that merchant to sell a wider variety and higher quality of items. It also raises their Repair skill, allowing them to restore gear to near perfect condition, as well as the number of caps they have available for trading.

An initial investment of 200 caps can be made in each trader, followed by a second investment of 500 caps (totaling 2,800 caps for all upgrades). The Master Trader perk discounts each investment by half to 100 caps for the first and 250 caps for the second (totaling 1,400 caps for all upgrades).

The first time speaking with a merchant after investing fully in their caravan will present a gift of gratitude. The gift differs for all four caravans, one of which includes the unique helmet, Crow's eyebot helmet.

Caravan merchants
The following merchants correspond to the investments:
 * Armor: Crow
 * Food/medicine: Doc Hoff
 * Misc: Crazy Wolfgang
 * Weapons: Lucky Harith

Rewards

 * Improved caps-on-hand total for caravan merchants.
 * Improved inventories for caravan merchants.
 * Improved Repair ability for caravan merchants.
 * The next time meeting him, Crazy Wolfgang will award between 2 to 6 Stealth Boys, depending on the Lone Wanderer's level.
 * The next time meeting Crow, he will award Crow's eyebot helmet.
 * The next time meeting Doc Hoff, he will award between 3 to 7 stimpaks, depending on the Lone Wanderer's level.
 * The next time meeting Lucky Harith, he will award a mini nuke.

Merchant chart
The amount of caps available depends on the Lone Wanderer's level and is random to a certain degree. Caps replenish every 72 hours, but they are also retained, for example: those who routinely use Crazy Wolfgang for repairs will end up seeing higher available caps totals, in some cases extremely high.

† depends on player's level

Bugs
When talking to each of the merchants for the first time, they might speak their normal introduction. Ending the conversation and speaking to them again will produce the correct reward dialogue.