Fallout 76: The Easiest Way To Farm Coal
Hundreds of "Fallout 76" crafting recipes require materials scrapped from the junk found all across the ruined Appalachians, some rare, some commonplace, and some worthless after leaving the early game. There are even certain pieces of junk that might seem like they fit into that last category, but actually offer a deceptively useful function — like coal, for example.
At first, players mainly use coal to craft water filters, one-use items that turn dirty water into purified water. Unlocking a water purifier machine that automatically produces cans of purified water when powered renders water filters obsolete later on, however, seemingly leaving coal without a purpose. Unless you consider the fact that it's also used to create scaly skin serums. While you won't want to guzzle these questionable mixes yourself, they sell for a pretty bottlecap and can become a relatively easy source of money with the right setup.
Here's a rundown on the best ways to farm coal for scaly skin serums in "Fallout 76."
C.A.M.P. near a coal deposit and hook up a mineral extractor
In "Fallout 76," you can manually mine the various coal deposits around the map, but setting up a coal extractor on a deposit offers the best long-term solution. A subset of mineral extractors, coal extractors use the same crafting recipe, which automatically unlocks upon claiming your first workshop. The blueprint for a coal extractor only shows up when you set up C.A.M.P. near a valid coal deposit, and requires (per Fandom):
- 1 circuitry
- 1 copper
- 1 gear
- 3 steel
You shouldn't have too much trouble finding these materials — given how common they are, you might even have enough on hand already. While circuitry can prove a rare material to farm, you only need one to create the extractor, which you can get by breaking down a telephone or hot plate, among other items.
Once you have all the materials, you just have to pick a coal deposit location from a handy mineral map courtesy of Reddit and set up C.A.M.P. near the best one to suit your needs. Build the extractor over the deposit, and voila — you'll have a regular, automatic supply of coal. Just make sure to clear out the extractor, as it caps at 10 pieces and won't produce more until emptied.
Set yourself up for regular coal smelting
You'll have to smelt the coal ore into usable coal before you can start your serum-selling scheme in "Fallout 76." This involves taking the ore to a chemistry station and combining it with acid. The recipe calls for 5 ore and 5 acid for a yield of 2 pieces of coal, which means you'll need to have a matching supply of acid to make any use of your mining layout.
Players can mine acid in a similar manner by setting up next to an acid deposit, but this may prove tricky and somewhat inconvenient as you can only have one active C.A.M.P. at a time. Thankfully, you can get a good stock of acid from farming enemies in certain areas as needed. According to PoxiiPro, players should loot the Mire's Tanagra Town and kill the crickets that spawn there. If you'd rather skip the legwork, you can also buy acid from other players through trading forums like the subreddit Market76.
Finally, make sure you have the Chemist and Super Duper perks to maximize coal output while smelting (via Reddit). Otherwise, enjoy your new serum factory — or your source of infinite water filters if that's what you wanted for whatever reason.