Fallout 4 junk items General information . Junk items refer to the miscellaneous clutter found scattered all over the Commonwealth - toys , housewares , garbage , tools - which the Sole Survivor can collect . Junk items are found in their own inventory section in the Pip - Boy . They cannot be equipped , consumed , or interacted with by themselves like weapons or food , although they can be dropped or sold to vendors . Their primary use is in crafting , either as ingredients for more useful items ( weapons , armor , chems , mods , settlement buildings , etc . ) , or for breaking down into their raw components . After accessing the inventory on a workbench or crafting station at a player character owned settlement , all junk items can be automatically transferred into the workbench and are available for crafting at the settlement , as well as all settlements connected to it via a supply line . Junk items can also be automatically transferred into non - player character owned crafting stations , but they will not be shared between the crafting stations in the area . Crafting components . < section begin = " crafting _ components " / > All junk items consist of one or more " components " , a general term for the materials that make up each junk item . When crafting anything out of junk , the most readily available junk is broken down to its base components , and whatever ingredients needed for the recipe are consumed to make the crafted item . Any components not used are stored in either the player ' s inventory or the settlement workbench , depending on where the player is crafting and where they are storing their junk . There are 31 base components total , that cannot be broken down further into anything else . Although some instances of the following items exist in the game world , they are more commonly obtained by scrapping other items . Additionally , shipments providing larger quantities can be bought from several vendors and are weightless . When scrapping other junk items , you will always receive the components specified . However , when scrapping other items such as . . . . . . you will only receive a fraction of the components which were originally used to craft the item . The types and amounts of components received in these cases is determined by two factors : " rarity " and " scrap scalar " . " Rarity " has four possible values : Additionally , the original amount of components used to craft the item is multiplied by the " scrap scalar " , rounding down , when determining the amount of components received . General information . < nowiki > * < / nowiki > The unit price of a component , when bought as a shipment , is several times its " base " unit price , sometimes even overpricing the value of a simple source item containing the component . Also , the game does not offer any rebate for large shipments ( = no quantity rebate ) . Therefore , it is not necessary to spare money waiting the opportunity for buying big shipments over small ones . E . g : 2 shipments of 100 concrete yield the same overall price as a single shipment of 200 . Buying small shipments also allows building defenses gradually for settlements that are not yet connected between each other , and at a lower cost . The concrete , steel and wood components constitute the 3 base building components for all the major craftable structures in the settlements ( e . g . floors , walls , roofs , stairs ) . Their values , although claimed to be all 1 , are respectively 1 , 2 , and 3 when considering their respective shipments . For this reason , the cost for building each craftable structure can vary largely , and can affect or determine which structure is favored over the others , especially when the amount of money ( caps ) is currently limited and . . . there is an hurry for building up the defenses for a given settlement . Component sources . < section end = " crafting _ components " / > Other junk items . Base game . Legend Far Harbor . Legend Vault - Tec Workshop . Legend Nuka - World . Legend