6 Best Shops in ‘Fallout 4’ (& Where To Find Them)

Fallout games always had a lot of scavenging throughout the game to survive the post-apocalyptic world. However, Fallout’s version of Boston and the state of Massachusetts can be draining for many players. Because of the location or requirements of some materials and resources over the East Coast Wasteland, some players trade with merchants or scavengers to find the best possible gear. Of course, that means spending a lot of capes, but one needs to find proper channels to get out of the negotiation with some money left.

In this article, we will bring you the five shops in Fallout 4 and explain the locations of each shop or scavenger in the game, providing you with map locations of each place. If you are interested in this Fallout topic, stay with us until the end of the article.

Atom Cats Garage (Power Armor)

We all know that Fallout games are set in the post-apocalyptic United States of America, and Fallout 4 continues the story of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. Once again, crafting, trading, and looting are the core purpose of Fallout 4, and the game’s versatility in all these aspects are tenfold in the game. Atoms Cats Garage is a goldmine for power armor collectibles, and the Sole Survivor will have a lot to work with when entering that area.

Rowdy, the power armor merchant and trader, is the merchant to go to in that area. She mostly sells already mentioned power armor parts, frames, fusion cores, and Atom Cats custom paint job schematics that you can later use in the power armor station and apply to your gear. This particular paint job is exclusive to the T-60 power armor and other unique T-60 armor like Tesla T-60. Atom Cats garage is located east of Hyde Park and southwest of University Point.

Goodneighbor (General) – Vault-Tec rep

Formerly a door-to-door salesman Sole Survivor meets at the beginning of the game, Vault-Tec rep is a ghoul in the year 2287. The salesman had a really rough life after the Great War, and now he can be seen as a level 4 merchant who resides in Goodneighbor in the hotel Rexford.

One can do a few quests during the stay in Goodneighbor. After finishing them, you’ll be able to purchase a trading emporium (a top-tier store with the widest range of goods) and sell rare junk items like a clean broom, military ammo bag, and military-grade duct tape. All of these items are immensely important for crafting.

Vault-Tec rep also offers a special Apocalypse armor for sale.

Vault 81 (General) – Holt Combes

Vaults in Fallout games are always full of special loot; however, rare Vaults are intact after centuries of living in the post-apocalyptic world. In Fallout 4, one Vault is up and running – Vault 81.

Holt and Alexis Combes are a trader family, merchants dealing with marriage problems. Alexis suspects her husband is cheating on her with another woman in the Vault, and if you save Austin during the Hole in the Wall quest, you will have a 10 percent discount on every item when dealing with Alexis and her goods.

The Combes family is one of two merchants in the game who sell nuclear material and possess great misc. And great parts of weapons and items. One of them includes the “Overseers Guardian” rifle, which is amazing with additional upgrades. Check them out when you stumble upon Vault 81.

Smiling Larry (Weapons) – random

You will see from these last picks that random encounters are quite important in Fallout 4. Smiling Larry is one of them, a merchant that sells various weapons and misc. that are useful in crafting items. 

There are a few locations where you can encounter Smiling Larry (if you’re lucky) – 

• on the railroad under the road bridge near Tenpines Bluff
• near Reeb Marina
• on the road south of Cambridge Polymer Labs
• southwest of Parsons Creamery
• northeast of Boston Police rationing site at a Red Rocket 
• And finally, walking down the road South of Ned-Tek Research

Smiling Larry Cab is useful in trading talks and incredibly valuable regarding Legendary items. The merchant can be assigned to your weapons emporium in your settlement, which he upgrades to level four. He is one of the better merchants in the game for his versatility.

Ron Staples (Food & Drink) – random

When Bethesda released Fallout 4, they introduced the game as one that stands out from previous games – a bigger world, better worldbuilding, and, most importantly, new game mechanics that will enhance the Fallout gameplay experience. The biggest addition to the franchise is the building of settlements, which some players welcomed and some dismissed as a supplement “that deviates from what Fallout truly is.” 

Regardless, most of the newer fanbase and casual Fallout enjoyers liked building settlements and their own compounds where people could live easily. Ron Staples is one of the NPCs that a player can recruit to their own settlements as traders and upgrade their compounds to the upper level. Before that, the player can find the bartender via random encounters:

• in the small house south of Drumlin Diner
• campfire northwest of Westing Estate
• another campfire, this time near Concord, west of Bedford Station
• campfire southeast of ArcJet Systems
• campfire southwest of Peabody house, and more.

Ron Staples is easily around those areas, and you will encounter him multiple times on your journey. He is selling Food and Drink items, mostly beverages that Sole Survivor can find really useful.

Doc Anderson (Clinic) – random

Finally, we have an NPC that could be extremely valuable to any settlement and provide you with great service – Doc Anderson. This traveling doctor can be found in the various random encounters during Sole Survivor’s journey: 

• in the small house south of Drumlin Diner
• south of Mass Fusion containment shed (campfire)
• under a motorway exit bridge east of Walden Pond,
• other locations include campfires where a player could find the previous entry on this list.

Doc Anderson is the best merchant of medical supplies in the game. Her inventory includes items like Psycho, Buffout, Jet, Med-X, Mentants, and more, which is rare for other vendors to have that collection of medical items.

Her recruitment greatly values Sole Survivor’s settlement, immediately upgrades the surgery center to level 4, and gains special items.

I will mention a few more merchants and honorable mentions that can also be valuable during your playthrough:

• Bunker Hill (Deb)
• Nuka-World (Mckenzie, Aaron, and Shelbie)
• Daniel Finch (Finch Farm)
•  Supervisor Greene (Greygarden)

Of course, these honorable mentions are great if you want your settlements to have level three vendors, and the ones we listed are your compounds’ ultimate pick. They are extremely valuable and introduce you to amazing items that could have a huge role in the endgame of Fallout 4.

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