So there you are: halfway through the Warrens, you’ve got a good amount of Payasos cleared out, when suddenly one of your squadmates refuses to shoot. You click a few more times before the realization of your true dilemma sinks in: you’re out of bullets. You open your inventory to find that not only are you out of bullets, but also the very currency that allows you to buy more bullets. In a mad dash, you return back to the Bizarre, selling anything you can bear to let go of just for another meager supply of ammunition.
If you’re playing Wasteland 3, chances are you’ve found yourself in this situation. Having money is synonymous with being able to shoot your guns in this game, but earning cold Colorado cash is harder than it seems. Oftentimes you’ll spend more money shooting bullets than you’ll recoup in loot. Luckily, there’s a few surefire ways to keep your squad rolling in the green stuff.
Loot The Overworld Without Fighting 
The easiest way to save money in Wasteland 3 is to save bullets, but nearly every money making event requires you to shoot some bullets off. One notable exception is the caches and tents you will find in the overworld while driving around in your Kodiak. These caches contain a decent amount of scrap and loot items that you can later sell, all without requiring any combat encounter!
These randomly generated loot caches spawn anywhere on the overworld. Drive around for a bit and you’re sure to run into some. For this strategy to work however, you’re going to need a character with a survival skill of at least 5. This pretty much guarantees that you can dodge any random combat encounters while driving in the overworld, maximizing your potential profits. Some cashes require lockpicking as well, so make sure you have a character with this skill leveled up.
Get That Barter Skill Up
The game drops hints that you should be leveling up your barter skill, and it’s not joking. Each level you throw into barter nets you a 50% boost in the price of goods you sell. By level 10, you’re looking at items selling for 500% of what they did at the start of the game.
The perks for the barter skill also help you rack up the dough. At level three, you can get the Penny Pincher perk, which reduces the cost of items by 20% if you buy at least two. At level seven, the Antiques Appraiser perk gives every junk item you sell a 5% chance of being sold for 50 times their actual worth. When you’re selling hundreds of scrap items at a time, you’re practically guaranteed at least one lucky payout from this perk.
Invest In The Toaster Repair Skill (No, Really)
Out of all the skills in Wasteland 3, the most ridiculous and confusing is the toaster repair skill. It doesn’t let you handle flamethrowers like the big guns skill, nor does it let you rally your troops like the leadership skill. It, uh, lets you repair toasters you find throughout the wasteland. While this may seem like a joke skill, I actually found it incredibly necessary in my playthrough.
In reality, you’re not repairing toasters, but instead salvaging the insanely valuable loot from within. For some reason, the toasters of the Wasteland 3 world are all chocked full of gold components, coins, and other valuables. There’s one in nearly every area, and I also ran into them when I needed some extra cash the most.
Do More Than Just Survive In The Wasteland
There you have it, three solid ways to ensure that your rangers never run out of lead in a fight. With careful investment in the right skills, your squad can stop scraping by on fumes and maybe even manage to have a little bit of cash leftover after your next trip to the Bizarre.
Nicolas Perez is an editorial intern at Paste and opinion co-editor for New University. He’s rambling on Twitter @Nic_Perez_.