Merchant

Merchants are the primary source of items and equipment in the world of Fallout, aside from dead enemies. Merchants operate out of either fixed stores or traveling caravans.



Background
The stories for each merchant are unique. These stories can often be accessed through direct dialogue. Merchants often gather their wares by scavenging the wastes or by trading.

Interactions with the Player Character
Some merchants offer medical aid, rent beds, repair equipment, or even sell information (ex. Colin Moriarty). To discover which of these are available, the player needs to interact with each using dialogue choices. Merchants may also give discounts to the player as a result of karma, or sometimes in return for personal favors.

Effects of player actions

 * Killing a merchant gives the player access to the store's wares through a key or directly on the body, but you won't ever be able to buy from the merchant again.

Fallout and Fallout 2
Most NPCs can be bartered with. In addition, almost all friendly towns have 1 or more merchants with a substantial and replenishing selection of items for sale and a large amount of caps. The general store is the most basic shop and can be found in most settlements. Doctors sell medical supplies and are also present in most towns. Weapons and Armor merchants can be found in larger settlements such as the Hub and San Francisco. In both Fallout 1 and 2, the further south they are the better stocked they tend to be. The Gun Runners have the most advanced weapons in Fallout 1 while the stores in San Francisco have the most extensive inventory in Fallout 2. Shops specializing in other wares can be found.

Merchant groups in Fallout 2

 * Caravan Merchant

Fallout 3
In addition to General stores and Medical Doctors most towns also have a food vendor/bartender as well as one person who can repair items. Clothes shops can be found in richer settlements. Weapons/Armor shops are found in Rivet City, The Citadel, and Paradise Falls. Rivet City also has a dedicated Chem dealer.

There are four caravans traveling the DC Wastes. One dedicated to food/chems, another to weapons, another to armor, and the last to junk items. They can be invested in to improve their selection and repair skills but they are vulnerable to attack. In addition to the caravans, wastelanders can be found who will sell random items or sometimes rare items. Some special encounters with doctors, chem vendors, and hunters (food vendors) are also possible. Inventories will scale by level but certain advanced items like advanced power armor and plasma weapons remain unavailable. Price, aside from discounts appear to be constant across stores.

Merchants have a new inventory after a period of three days, and then again after a period of four days, in order to correspond with the length of a week. Their inventories usually update at 12:00 AM, although which days these updates occur vary from player to player.

Most merchants' prices are based solely on a player character's barter skill. There are, however, some merchants who will offer discounts under certain circumstances.


 * Be polite to Gob at Moriarty's Saloon in Megaton during your initial interaction with him - choose the last option the first two times.

Quests

 * Some quests such as The Wasteland Survival Guide are only available through merchant characters.
 * Merchants can also be traders of knowledge. In Following in His Footsteps a merchant can be used to complete the player's quest.

Stores and merchants in Fallout New Vegas
See also Fallout: New Vegas merchants

Merchant Stock
Due to a recent update, the Fallout New Vegas merchants restock their inventory every 4 days, instead of the previous 3. If you need to buy or sell more things just wait four days and return to the merchant once that time has passed. However if you want them to restock faster it is possible to save the game in front of the merchant that you want to have their inventory restocked, quit to the main menu (or it might be necessary to quit the game altogether and restart the game) then reload the save and if done correctly the merchant in question should have their inventory and caps restocked. This can be repeated as many times as wanted or needed so long as you save before each attempt (this no longer works as of patch 1.5).