Carry Weight
Carry weight determines the amount of equipment your character can carry. This amount is measured in kilograms. Your character's carry weight is determined by strength. You can do several things to increase your carry weight:
- obtain Pack Rat achievement
- use buffout. It will raise your strength by 2 points for a certain amount of time.
- craft/buy and use a leather jacket that has a +20 kg carry weight bonus.
- rare tier 4 armors, such as power armor and advanced power armor will also grant a bonus to your strength (power armor gives +3 strength while advanced power armor gives +4 strength, but do note that your character's strength cannot go over 10).
- after each level your character will gain 1 additional kg of carry weight.
The maximum achievable carry weight in the game is 274 kg. To explain it in detail:
- 133 kg base carry weight for a character with 10 points of strength.
- 23 kg for the Pack Rat perk.
- 98 kg for bonuses coming up from leveling.
- 20 kg is the maximum bonus to carry weight coming from upgraded items (armors).
Note: Although carry weight is calculated in kilograms, the perk descriptions are expressed in pounds. A pound is equal to approximately 0.45 kilograms.
The small frame trait
If your character has the small frame trait, your base carry weight will be reduced.
Carry weight limits table
| Strength | Carry weight | Carry weight with the small frame trait |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31 | 27 |
| 2 | 43 | 33 |
| 3 | 54 | 40 |
| 4 | 65 | 47 |
| 5 | 77 | 54 |
| 6 | 88 | 61 |
| 7 | 99 | 67 |
| 8 | 110 | 74 |
| 9 | 122 | 81 |
| 10 | 133 | 88 |
Penalties
If you manage to pick up more equipment than your carry weight allows (this can happen often while mining, crafting or using CTRL+L), your character will only be able to walk. If you carry too much weight above your maximum carry limit, you will not be able to move at all.
Note that sometimes your current carry weight and maximum carry weight will be equal, but you will still be slowed down. This is because your carry weight in your inventory is shown in kilograms, rounding it to the nearest whole number and does not show the number of additional grams you may be carrying. This causes your weight to appear lower than it actually is. For example, your inventory may show 150/150 kilograms, however the weight of all equipment you're carrying could be 150.4/150 kilograms. This also works vice versa (if you carry 150.6 kg, your inventory will display 151 kg).