Bottle caps are an important resource in Fallout Shelter, and your main source of income should be a combination of levelling your Dwellers, completing objectives, and periodically returning Wasteland explorers. Rushing is a risky option for providing any kind of regular earnings - as we mention in our general tips page - and so here we'll be focusing on the best, most reliable ways to earn bottle caps, and the equally useful Lunchboxes in Fallout Shelter, mostly by using Objectives.
How to get bottle caps in Fallout Shelter
There are a few ways to get more caps in Fallout Shelter:
- Levelling up your Dwellers grants you bottle caps equal to their new level
- Completing objectives grants either bottle caps or Lunchboxes, which will frequently hold plenty of caps themselves
- Successfully rushing a room grants a significant amount of caps
- Selling excess weapons, outfits, junk, and dismantling rooms also provides varying amounts of caps
- Wasteland explorers will occasionally find caps on their journey
Generally, your main source of income should be a combination of levelling your Dwellers, completing objectives, and periodically returning Wasteland explorers. Rushing is too risky an option for providing any kind of regular earnings, whilst - in the early stages at least - you'll want to hang on to as many junk items, weapons, and outfits as possible for the sake of crafting and equipping.
Fallout Shelter Objectives - easiest, harders, and best Objectives for earning Bottle Caps and Lunchboxes
Objectives in Fallout Shelter are a means of earning bottle caps and, importantly, also the only way to get Lunchboxes for free.
Located under the ribbon symbol in the bottom-right menu on your screen, three Objectives appear at a time, and automatically renew when completed. There's no limit to how many Objectives that can be completed daily, but you can only cancel one Objective - swapping it for another - once per day.
There are a huge amount of different Objectives that can come up, but some of the easier - or at least less management-intensive - ones you should priortise:
- Assigning a certain number of Dwellers to the right room
- Collecting/crafting a certain number of caps/outfits/weapons/stipmaks
- Collecting a certain amount of power/food/water
- Equipping a certain number of Dwellers with weapons/outfits
- Having a certain number of female/male/bald Dwellers in the vault
- Having a certain number of Dweller couples dance in the Living Quarters
- Levelling up a certain number of Dwellers
- Raising a SPECIAL stat of a certain number of Dwellers
- Successfully rushing a certain number of rooms
- Upgrading a certain number of rooms
Other Fallout Shelter guides:
Looking for more guides on Fallout Shelter? Take a look at our main Fallout Shelter guide and tips page, our guide to room functions and room placement, advice on dwellers, SPECIALS, happiness and breeding, explainations of Legendary Characters, Pets, Weapons and other collectibles, how to unlock and use Mr Handy, plus how to earn Bottle Caps and Lunchboxes with Objectives, and our page on Quests, combat, and Daily Quests in Fallout Shelter, too.
Some of the more difficult, inconvenient or situational Objectives - which you should probably look to avoid - include:
- Collecting a certain amount of power/food/water in under a minute
- Equipping a particular weapon/outfit
- Exploring a certain number of wasteland locations
- Finding the Mysterious Stranger a certain number of times
- Killing a certain number of Deathclaws without a weapon
- Surviving a certain number of Deathclaw/Mole Rat attacks without sustaining any casualties
Generally, those difficult ones aside, Objectives can be completed just in the process of playing the game over time. The main strategy here then is to swap out the least attainable, or lowest-rewarding Objective for something else. That way you'll maximise the amount of Lunchboxes or bottle caps earned each time you play.
