I've seen many new people around the server looking for help and asking questions "how get that?" "how to get this?" how to do that?". So I thought about writing my own techniques to get items,caps and leveling up. If you wish to add something or correct me just write me a PM.
Ok so, let's start by how to get some free levels. So you start your new character you have no weapons no nothing. How do you level up ? Well for that there are miniquests that will help you make the first 3-4 levels without the need to fight. Some of theese quests are:
Junk for Emma - NCR,Adytum,San Francisco - you need to bring her 2 junk pieces you can take a reward or choose nothing wich will give you 300 XP.
15% Small Guns bonus ! - While you do the Junk for Emma in Adytum make sure you visit Gunrunners and go inside the house and talk to the guy in the corner to get 15% to small guns and a 10mm pistol and some ammo. You will need 3 charisma for this!
A Shovel for Dan - Redding,Hub,Gecko - bring this guy a shovel, to get one talk to one of the NPC's near brahmin pen's to recive one. The rewards are exactly like in Junk for Emma.
2 radscorpion tails for Mark - Junktown, Modoc - You need 2 radscorpion tails - same rewards as above
The Wasteland Band - This quest is taken from Hub inside the Maltese Falcon bar from a guy called Mick he wears a Leather Jacket he will ask you to go in Junktown to find Ronnie and make him join with the band again. If you choose the right dialog sequence you can keep Mick's caps. Also while there you can do the radscorpion tales quest, the guy is in front of an house with a DANGER sign on it. After that you will have to go to SF to meet the next guy which is located in the tanker inside the bar room. While at SF you can do the Junk for Emma quest and get 300 XP. After you return from SF you will have to go to Gecko for the next guy which is located in the local bar. While you need to go there you can make another quest in Gecko to earn extra XP which is called Deliver Message for Elmer you can get this quest from Necropolis in the Watershed area of town, he will ask you to deliver it to a guy called Skeeter in Gecko. Make sure you read the holotape because incase you die you won't fail the quest.Skeeter is located in the easter part of town. Ok once you talk to the guy in the bar in Gecko and made him join return to Mick and if you choose the right dialogs again you can make him give you even more caps so you should have around 1500+ caps. At this point make a bank account at any FLC for the cost of 100 caps and deposit your money there. Also go back to Necropolis and give the tape from Skeeter to Elmer this will earn you 500 xp + 2000xp from the wasteland band quest and + if you did less than half of all the above miniquests you should be about level 3 or half way to 4 !
You should put your skill points in weapon skill like Small Guns or energy or big guns to be able to farm low difficulty encounters and earn some items. If you are on small guns you can craft a BB Gun and some BB's and go at Theme Park and kill molerats and mutated molerats. Aim the eyes to score critical hits. Each critical hit is instant kill for them. Molerats give 120xp and Mutated give 300xp so is a good way to level faster and if you die you can easily replace the items.
Now that we know how to level up let's talk about how to get a tent and caps. Making caps is easy
(or not?) many vendors will buy Fruits you can farm fruits from the brown trees in encounters. Vendors that buy them are located in Modoc,Vault City,NCR,Klamath and Hub. So if you go no caps for gear you can get some fruits sell them and buy yourself some items. Now to get some brahmin hides to build a tent you have to find the right spot for the encounters. The most common area for brahmin's is above Modoc you will find lots of encounters there with brahmins another one is around Hub which has safer encounters and around NCR. To build a tent you need 10 brahmin hides. So go into an empty encounter and use science on the hides to build it. This is your the place where nobody has access to it and you can store your shits...items safely. It is wise to build a tent near a mine in case you have to get minerals and iron ore. If you followed the instructions above about how to level up you should have enough caps for a profession. Learning a profession is a good way to earn more caps. I would recommend getting big guns profession so you can craft rockets. Rockets are asy to craft and don't require many materials. 50 rockets are worth about 8000 caps which you can get very easy by mining a small ammount of minerals and iron ore. Sell rockets to buy better gear and aquire more caps.
You can also do the
Lifting caravan boxes quest and get 100 caps after the end. This is one of the quests you can repeat every 15 minutes. This quest is available in San Francisco,Hub and some of the train stations. Or sell spears and sharpened spears in Junktown for 50 and 60 caps each.
You should also join a player driven faction that are eager to help noobs like you
some of these are Crazy 88,The Sarmatians,Gorgon Enterprises(I'm member of this one) and
Bang Bang Smash(just kidding). I know that there are better guides than mine here but this is how I did and it works for me so it will work for you too if you do I like I said.
I wish you good luck and see you in the Wasteland !
This is some extra ThePhoenix77 added which I forgot to mention.I would recommend if you have 3 charisma to pick up these 3 quests which work quite well with Wasteland band as you have to go to San Francisco and Vault city. I would recommend getting these 3 quests first by foot instead of carrying caps across wasteland at low level.
A Brahmin Herdsman JobGet a weapon you have highest skill in.
Check the billboard (outside police station) in the courtyard of NCR for a job.
Vist Westins ranch (Far left of map) and speak to the guard about a job,
Speak to the door guard of ranch house,Speak to Westin inside buildingSpeak to door guard (he takes you to quest site)Once you get rid of kids don't leave the map yet.Kill the Brahmin, they only attack you 1 at a time once you attack them, you now have over 10 hides for your tent.Not sure of reward.A Man's JobTalk toHammiltonin theBoneyard Libraryand he will ask you to track down and kill one of his workers who has left. He will also show you the closest train station, which is in Boneyard. You must go there and ask four people about this man. The fourth person will tell you he went to theSan Franciscotrain station, repeat the same process and you'll find that the missing person boarded the train to NCR, repeat the same process, go toVault Citytrain station and repeat once again to your final train stop atNCR, there you'll find a shady man who will tell you the location of the man. Exit the area; in the map west of the train station you'll find his hideout. Confront him, you have two options, kill him or spare his life. If you spare his life and have lowcharisma, Hammilton will know and send thugs to kill you, so watch out.2000 expItems if you execute your target:1500 caps and a 14mm pistol with full clip and 15 ammo if your a
slaver.
1000 caps if your not a slaverMedical InvestigationIn Vault City, talk to "Doc" Andrew, the doctor in the outer courtyard - near the bar. He will ask you that with the new
train, he is worried about the health of people near the railroad. You will have to investigate for him. Go in all the train stations and talk to the people there, then go back to talk to "Doc" Andrew to get your reward. For each station investigated,
you will get 100xp and additional xp as well as item reward after you investigate all the stations.100 xp for each station investigated (total of 4 stations).750 xp after the whole investigation done and 300 caps with 3 CharismaOther usefull things from MarkoAt Hub you can water the farmers. It's not a quest that shows up in the Pip-Boy; it's just a job you get and earn some caps. You talk with the farmer standing near the water pipe and agree to bring water to 10 farmers there. You have to keep running back and forth to the water pipe to refill the bag, but you get a few caps this way.
Also at Hub, go to Oldtown (east side) into the lower buildings and talk with the sad wife about finding Joseph. When in Boneyard, go to New Adytum to get Salvagers location from guard. Go to Salvagers and talk with the mean guys who hung a thief in the street. Choose right dialogue and go back to inform the sad wife in Oldtown for xp.
Also important to mention is getting Swift Learner in Hub's library for faster leveling (requires Science 50). And Educated in Boneyard library basement for more Skill Points per level (requires Science 100).
Then there's Shady Sands (NCR). I go in the main [crazy] gate there with nothing on me, and talk with Buster about getting smokes from the Rawhide Saloon. Run there and talk to her about returning her debt to Dusty, but don't mention Buster's smokes yet. Run into Dusty's down the street and return the debt asap. Then talk to Hoss in there and get Awareness! Then run back up to the Rawhide and tell her you returned her debt, and then mention Buster's smokes. She gives you cigs so maybe put them in Slot 2 so nobody steals them as you run back to Buster to return them - you get xp and a combat jacket.