Barter Barter is a " Fallout " , " Fallout 2 " , " Fallout 3 " , " " , " " and " Van Buren " skill . The Barter skill is primarily used in the buying and selling of items , such as trading with a merchant or scavenger . In general , the higher this skill level is , the lower prices will be when purchasing items , and the higher they will be when selling items . It is the primary factor in price determination , and is also offset by the Barter skill of the non - player character in question . The skill is also used in certain dialogue options with non - player characters , where certain responses require Barter checks . " Fallout " and " Fallout 2 " . The skill only affects the prices for the vendor ' s items , the player character ' s items are always worth the same . Having the Master Trader perk will give the player character an automatic 25 % off all goods , and the Good Natured trait will provide a + 15 % to the Barter skill . Barter is noticeably effective in " Fallout " & " 2 " in case of limited funds . With a low Barter skill , item prices may be as high as $ 800 for Rad - X and $ 32 , 500 for combat armor . " Fallout Tactics " . The initial level for Barter is still governed by Charisma , but usually starts out lower than Barter in " Fallout " . Barter also determines how much things can be sold for in " Tactics " , whereas selling prices were always static in the previous " Fallout " games . " Fallout 3 " . Barter Value Example : A starting Charisma of 5 and Luck of 5 . Derived Values A Barter skill of 11 allows the Lone Wanderer to sell at 50 % of the rated value of an item . Each 5th point increase in score only increases sale prices by approximately 2 . 25 percent . A Barter skill of 86 % is required to buy ammunition costing 3 caps at value from a normal merchant , while if having a 10 % discount ( e . g . in Rivet City ) only 57 skill is needed , or with a 20 % discount ( possible with Seagrave Holmes & Bannon ) a measly 21 skill works . However , the Barter skill does not reduce the charge for having merchants repair items . A high Barter skill is a good choice for characters lacking Strength , since they do not have much room to carry many items and , subsequently , have less things to sell . However , having a companion partially negates this , since they can be given around 200 pounds of weight . Interactions that require Barter skill . A number of dialog based trading can be altered with sufficient Barter : " Fallout : New Vegas " . Example : A starting Charisma of 5 and Luck of 5 . Barter affects the prices gotten when trading with merchants . There are also many Barter skill checks in the game that can help advancing in quests by displaying a good sense with money , talking down costs , and talking up rewards . The Barter skill is governed by the Charisma attribute . General price ( before application of reputational fees or discounts ) is counted with the same formula as in " Fallout 3 " . Note that reputation does not affect prices unless that particular merchant is scripted to modify worth based on the Courier ' s reputation . For example , Chet will only use the PC ' s barter skill value to determine prices even if they are Idolized with Goodsprings , but with a mixed reputation ( regardless of how good or bad it is ) , he will offer at 1 : 1 prices . Barter in quests and exploration . While hard to tell in the abstract from the following list , in many cases Barter is offered as an alternative dialogue skill check to Speech ( though generally involving paying money ) or other skill checks . This may be to help compensate for the fact that Barter on its own may not be as useful as other skills . " 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 .