Barter

Barter is a Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, and Fallout 3 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
Initial Level: Starting Barter skill is equal to 20% + (2% x Charisma). Average characters will have a 30% skill.

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.

Fallout 3
Initial Level (Fallout 3): 2 + (Charisma x 2) + (Luck/2). Item Sell Value Percent (Fallout 3): 45 + ( Barter x 0.45 ). S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Statistic: Charisma


 * %Price rounded to nearest whole number

A Barter skill of 13 allows the player to sell at 50% of the rated value of an item. As the chart above shows, each 5 point increase in score only increases sale prices by approximately 2.25 percent. Further increases in the skill allow further 10% increments when selling to merchants that don't have a discount. The Barter skill does not reduce the charge for having merchants Repair items, however.

Several items also increase the player's Barter skill and can be picked up from fellow wastelanders. For example, the Roving Trader Outfit, Roving Trader Hat and Button's Wig each add 5 points to the skill.

The skill book Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor, 25 of which are found scattered throughout the wastelands each provide one point to Barter when read. With the the Comprehension perk, each book will provide two points.

In addition, some quests, such as Moira's Rivet City History quest for the The Wasteland Survival Guide, will give the player a 10% discount on whatever she buys at Rivet City (and a 10% increase in what these merchants pay for items).

It should be noted that in Fallout 3, the player will eventually have more bottlecaps than is possible to spend, so deciding whether or not to put points into Barter during character development might be viewed as a strategic decision. Barter is best taken early on to more effectively sell off or acquire better equipment.

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.

Handel