The world of Bethesda's Fallout franchise is full of imagery that has now become iconic to fans of the series. From Nuka-Cola to power armor, these gameplay features make recurring appearances throughout almost every Fallout game, helping give the franchise a unique and recognizable identity. One of the most common staples of the series is the use of bottlecaps - regularly shortened in-game as caps - as the standard currency within Fallout's post-apocalyptic world. Players may be surprised to learn of the extensive lore and history behind Fallout's use of bottlecaps as money.
Throughout the course of each Fallout game, players are given the opportunity to scavenge caps from characters or locations across the map. They can even be obtained by drinking Nuka-Cola sodas from the player's inventory. Certain NPCs will give caps as a reward for completed quests or assignments. Caps can then be used to barter with merchants for other items - or players can sell their unneeded junk in exchange for more caps. Almost every game in the series features caps as the most common currency, though there are exceptions to this, such as Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics.
Other forms of currency still exist within Fallout, though not all are as valuable or universally recognized as caps. Pre-War money, while widely considered to be mostly useless, can still be used in automated vending machines from before the Great War. NCR dollars, the currency of the New California Republic, is used primarily along the West Coast - and Legion money, made of scavenged silver and gold, is common used within the ranks of Caesar's Legion in Fallout: New Vegas. The usage of these currencies, however, is largely limited to specific regions or factions within Fallout. Bottlecaps, on the other hand, are recognized on a much larger scale.
What Makes Fallout's Bottlecaps So Valuable
Within the Fallout universe, caps first emerged as a form of currency in 2093, when merchants of the Hub - a large trading city located in Fallout's fictional city of New California - decided to adopt them in the post-nuclear world. This was largely on of their relative scarcity. The technology to manufacture and paint bottlecaps had been largely lost in the time following Fallout's Great War, so counterfeiting efforts were limited; and despite their widespread presence, their finite numbers protected caps against inflation. Most importantly, however, bottlecaps in Fallout are backed by the water - a rare and precious commodity in a landscape ravaged by nuclear devastation. This backing helped give merchants a means to back caps as a common unit of exchange, and the use of them spread rapidly from the West Coast to the East.
Nuka-Cola bottlecaps aren't the only ones available to currency in Fallout 76, making it seem likely that they'll remain a large part of future Fallout games moving forward.
