Fallout 4 – Screws Farming Guide

Love it or hate it, Fallout 4‘s crafting system is a reality you have to deal with, so long as you don’t mod it out at least. There are a variety of different resources you’ll need to gather if you intend to actively craft and repair while trekking the Commonwealth. Screws are mostly necessary for weapon modding, and, to a lesser degree, in general crafting. 

How should you go about acquiring them? Where in the world are you more likely to find them? Are there any methods for easy farming? As usual, there are a variety of items you’ll want to keep an eye out when searching for screws, and, as it’s often the case with resource hunting, the Scrapper perk is highly useful. The good news is that there’s a plethora of small items to collect that have screws. The bad news is that there aren’t many good locations to exploit.

Locations with Higher Concentrations of Screws

It is generally agreed that the easiest way to pick up screws would be finding Desk Fans. They are widely available on pretty much any office building. Luckily, there are plenty of these buildings to explore. If you are in the hunt for screws (and you should always be), then you want to keep your eyes peeled for Desk Fans and grab as many as you can. 

Sadly, there is no “Desk Fan Factory Inc.” in the Commonwealth, because that would be too easy. So in addition to keeping your eyes peeled in any office building, I’ve listed some a couple buildings that, by my account, seem to have a decent amount of screws to be found.

Office Buildings

While you are out and about in the Commonwealth, every time you are in an office building, those with several desks and computers and such, you should make it a habit to keep your eyes open for Desk Fans, Office Desk Fans, or any other variations of them. They are not excessively heavy and they each will provide some screws. 

A lot of the office buildings spread across the map will also respawn some of its resources once 30 in-game days have passed, so returning to already cleared buildings after a while could yield you some new fans for you to take their screws.

Wilson Atomatoys Corporate HQ & Factory

There are a significant amount of screws in the form of several different pieces of the Giddyup Buttercup toy you can find all around the building, always being mindful of the Super Mutants inside, of course. The Giddyup Buttercup, be it completely or only its body will provide multiple screws, but they are heavy. You can buy more Giddyups from Percy at the Surplus in Diamond City.

When in the HQ, there is a warehouse with shelves on the bottom level, near the door you used to enter the building to begin with, towards the southeastern corner, is where you’ll find the most of the Giddyups. There are around 14 complete Giddyups and around 7 Giddyup bodies, all of which give at least a couple screws each.

Further south from the HQ, closer to Vault 88, you’ll find the Atomatoys factory. The Super Mutants in this location will likely be tougher than the ones in the HQ, so be wary of that. Once dispatched you can go in and pick the Giddyups and Giddyup bodies in here. 

You’ll find a lesser yield in the factory when compared to the HQ, which is a bit odd, if you think about it. But still, both Wilson Atomatoys locations provide giddyups to be farmed. In between both locations you could potentially walk away with 100 screws, 60 in the HQ, and 40 in the factory, give or take. 

Lastly, both the HQ and the Factory will respawn at least some of their giddyups after 30 in-game days have passed. The giddyups in display at the HQ’s foyer and in the development office may not always respawn, but the ones in the warehouse will. If you don’t mind doing the waiting process over and over for the 30 days, this is an easy way to farm the resource. 

The Scrapper Perk and Hoarding Guns

Screws are mostly used in gun modding. So, it stands to reason that scrapping weapons will in turn yield you screws as well. This is where the Scrapper perk comes in, as you are not able to scrap items without it, not to mention that it will also help you find the resources you are looking for. 

Scrapping weapons for resources

As you progress through the game, and start encountering Legendary enemies, you’ll start to notice that each of these Legendaries drop a special piece of weaponry or armor. These typically come with an added special effect besides its stats, and you can still modify them to your liking. With time, you’ll likely be using only these special items. Don’t toss your old regular items out, though. If you can spare the space, and you haul regular weapons back to your storage, you’ll be able to scrap them into some of the most valuable resources like Aluminum, copper, and of course, Screws. 

You will need to have at least a level 5 Intelligence attribute to unlock the first level of the Scrapper perk. With it, you gain the ability to scrap any normal weapon or piece of armor. Special weapons with effects cannot be scrapped. 

The Scrapper Perk (Red)

Once you reach level 23, you can unlock the second level of the Scrapper perk, which lets you get even rarer components (circuitry, nuclear material, fiberoptics) from weapons and armor. But most importantly, this second level will also allow you to “favorite” components in your Pip-Boy and every item or container that has said resource or resources will be highlighted for you as long as they are tagged. 

Lastly, once you reach level 40, you’ll be able to unlock the third level of the Scrapper Perk, which simply yields you “more” from salvaging weapons. This means at least double of the resources, which, over time, does accumulate significantly. Having the Scrapper perk maxed out and hauling regular weapons and armor back to base to be scrapped is an easy way to farm Screws, along with other rare resources.

Below you’ll find a list of all the weapons that will yield you screws when you scrap them. Note: You must have the first level of the Scrapper perk to get the mentioned yields. At Scrapper lvl 3 the yield is at least double than normal.

Items with Screws to Lookout for

The locations indicated above also just happen to have what are probably the best items to keep an eye out for in the Commonwealth. The Desk fan is a good option because you are likely to run into them over and over again, so making it a habit of grabbing those is a good practice. They are also not extremely heavy, at just 3 for weight, they offer at least 2 screws a piece. Then there is the Giddyup Buttercup toy, which may offer at least 4 screws, but at a weight of 8. Using your companion for extended storage will be necessary if you intend to haul all of the Giddyups on both locations. 

But other than those two main items, there is a variety of junk that also has screws for you to find in the Commonwealth. Below I list them them all, and if you are concerned with carry capacity, the ones in bold are the items that give you the most screws for their weight.

Buying Items and Shipments from Vendors

Luckily for you, at least assuming you are swimming in caps and can’t be bothered to gather Desk Fans and Giddyups, then there are a handful of merchants that will sell you a shipment of Screws, to be delivered directly to your workshops shared storage. Unlike some other resources such as aluminum, that only has 2 vendors, you can find up to 4 (depending on your alliances) vendors that have Screw shipments in their wares. 

Buying a shipment from a vendor

These sellers are:

1. Trashcan Carla. She’s a traveling merchant, so she moves around. Can potentially be found at County crossing, Starlight Drive-in, Covenant, Greentop Nursery, Malden, Sanctuary, and in general moving around the Northwest of the map. She could also appear in Bunker Hill if you wait or sleep here. She sells a shipment of 25 screws. She also tends to have Fusion Cores, so it is worth coming back to her from time to time.
2. Penny Fitzgerald. Penny is a stationary merchant out of Covenant. She sells a shipment of 25 screws.
3. Rufus Rubins. Rufus can be reliably found at the Rexford Hotel in Goodneighbor. He sells a shipment of 25 screws.
4. Tinker Tom. Located at the Railroad HQ. He will sell a shipment of 25 screws, as long as you have access to the HQ, that is.
5. Arturo Rodríguez. Located in Diamond City Market, almost directly behind of the Protectron Chef. He sells a shipment of 25 screws.
6. Percy. Also located in Diamond City, at the Surplus. Percy doesn’t sell shipments, but you can buy Giddyups from him, which yield screws, steel and springs.

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