Fallout New Vegas offers a wide variety of items that can be crafted; a lot more than Fallout 3. You can craft custom weapons, armors, medical and food items, etc. You can convert your low-quality raw materials into high-quality ones and make useful stuff out of them. Of course, before you do all that, you will actually need to understand how crafting actually works, and learn the ins and out of this particular mechanic in order to craft all the valuable items you’re going to need in Fallout: New Vegas. Our Fallout New Vegas Crafting guide will explain all the basics of the system to get you started.
Fallout New Vegas Crafting
You will improve your crafting skills with passage of time and as you acquire more skills, you will be able to craft superior items. It goes without saying but the rarer the item, the higher the quality of the item you craft.
Perks do help though, so you may want to read our Perks guide. In this guide, I will outline the basics of crafting. For this guide, however, we shall go over only the core tenets of crating, and all the various facets that go into it.
It will be helpful to those who are just starting out with Fallout New Vegas. For more help, you can check our walkthrough, armor and weapons guide.
Skill Level
It should be noted that crafting is dependent on your level of skill. Certain items need to be ‘repaired’, so you’ll need to have your ‘Repair’ skill at a certain level in order to fix a few key items. Some items require you to be at Repair Level 20, whereas others require you to be Level 75; you’ll need to continuously improve yourself if you want to be able to craft everything.
The same holds true for your Science, Survival, Melee Weapons, Medicine, and Nuke Chemist Skills. As you progress further and further into the game, gradually increase the level for each one of them so you’ll be in a position where you can’t craft an item you desperately need.
Workbench
Think Workbench as your office table with equipment required to craft new items. You could craft weapons and armor from it before but now you can also make healing items and weapon repairing kits. Workbenches are like campfires and reloading benches – each of them have their own crafting abilities and uses. You can also create ammunition for your energy weapons. You can reloading benches throughout Wastelands.
Reloading Bench
In short, the reloading bench is used to craft high-level ammo by converting low-level ammo. It’s very useful if you can’t find good raw materials. You can break-down the old ammunition you have and convert it into classified bullets. The shells of some bullets can be collected and recycled too. You can find reloading benches throughout Wastelands.
Make a note of the fact that the low-level ammunition only have a few components of use, i.e. lead, powder, and primer – a hull or casing will not be part of the deal
Campfire and Electric Hot Plates
Campfires are usually used for cooking your ingredients. You can make food items and the medical potions using these. This reduces your hunger and increase your HP bar by a lot more than what you get from raw potions and food. These fires are found throughout the map. They are mostly next to some wasteland or next to benches or bedding. On occasion, the campfire will be lit before you even reach it; curious
You’ll also find some cooking utensils and useful items next to them. Electric hot plates work in the same-way, they are just like your house-hold burners and look more convenient but have the same abilities. These Hot Plates are most often found in the Sierra Madre, but you’re likely to come across a few in Big MT. You’re liable to uncover a few ingredients next to these hot plates as well.
As stated earlier, Workbenches, Campfires, and Electric Hot Plates all serve a similar purpose; they can all be used to craft different kinds of items. Please consult a recipe guide to know which is needed for which item.
