Merchant Empire | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Merchant Empire is an unmarked quest in Fallout 3.
Walkthrough[]
Through discussion with Uncle Roe, in Canterbury Commons, you can ask if the traders could become a unified group. You can proceed either with the Master Trader perk, a high Barter skill, the Black Widow perk, or if you are carrying at least 250 bottlecaps. He offers you 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 in addition to raising their Repair skill, allowing them to restore your 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. This totals 2800 bottle caps for all four caravans. The Master Trader perk discounts each investment by half to 100 caps for the first and 250 caps for the second.
The first time you speak with a merchant after investing fully in their caravan, you will be given a gift of gratitude. The gift differs for all four caravans and specializes is the caravans particular ware.
Upgrading the Caravan merchants[]
Investing completely in Crazy Wolfgang will result in him having a wide variety of junk, detritus, and crap as well as the highest Repair skill of any merchant in the Capital Wasteland. He will present you with two to six Stealth Boys for you trouble. Investing completely in Crow will result in him having higher quality armor as well as a larger and more diverse supply. He will give you his eyeboy helmet as a gift.
Investing completely in Doc Hoff results in him having a wider variety of food and a larger supply of chems to deal. He will reward you with three to seven stimpaks as a gift. Investing completely in Lucky Harith's caravan allows him to upgrade his armory supply and carry a wider variety of "hot death". In addition, he gifts to a "micro nuke".
Merchant chart[]
Amount of caps available depends on the player's level and is random to a certain degree. Caps replenish every 72 hours, but they are also retained, for example: players who routinely use Crazy Wolfgang for repairs will end up seeing higher available caps totals, (in some cases extremely high).
| Merchant | Ref ID | Goods sold | Initial | First investment | Second investment | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caps | Repair | Caps | Repair | Caps | Repair | Max condition | Investment gift | |||
| Crazy Wolfgang | 00063c07 | Junk | ≈61-249 | 15 | ≈222-648 | 50 | ≈483-1197 | 75 | 85% | 2-6 Stealth Boys † |
| Crow | 00063c05 | Armor | ≈61-249 | 15 | ≈222-648 | 40 | ≈483-1197 | 65 | 79% | Crow's eyebot helmet |
| Doc Hoff | 00063c06 | Chems | ≈161-399 | 15 | ≈322-798 | 40 | ≈483-1197 | 65 | 79% | 3-7 stimpaks † |
| Lucky Harith | 00063c08 | Weapons/ammo | ≈161-399 | 20 | ≈322-798 | 45 | ≈483-1197 | 70 | 82% | Mini nuke |
† Dependent upon player's level
Notes[]
- If you cannot make the traders appear through waiting at a frequent stop, they are most likely stuck at the tree in Canterbury Commons. Physically go there and stand next to them, then wait 1–2 hours. This should reset them and make them wander around the Wasteland again. NOTE: It is perhaps preferable to keep the merchants in their frozen, non-circulating state, whereby they don't risk death by wandering the Wastes.
- When asking about the traders' locations, if any are dead, Uncle Roe will tell you that he hasn't seen them in a while or "they must have fallen off the map." (Note that a glitch in the unpatched version of the game makes the latter quite literally possible.) A merchant may be counted as "dead" by Uncle Roe if simply separated from his pack brahmin and/or bodyguard.
- Agatha mentions all of these merchants during her radio broadcasts.
- When investing in all merchants in one conversation, it may result in the merchants' inventories and caps staying the same, but still giving rewards and higher repair skills.
- While the Repair upgrade and reward become effective immediately, the inventory upgrade happens with the next scheduled inventory refresh of the caravan traders (every 72h).
- When you talk to each of the merchants for the first time, they might do their normal introduction. Ending the conversation and speaking to them will produce the correct reward dialog.
- Sometimes, especially near Canterbury Commons, the merchant on duty will run from the player as if running from an enemy, and the player must then run after the merchant in order to trade with them.
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