Fallout 4 Tips & Tricks

After playing over 400 hours of Fallout 4 throughout the last year, what have we learned that is worth sharing? Great question young wastelander, here is a quick and dirt 6 points breakdown:

1) Gather all meat from dead animals, they can be cooked for easy extra XP + CAPS.

2) As soon as you start setting a base, plant Tato, Mutfruit and Corn so you can produce Vegetable Starch, a good source of XP and adhesive.

Gathering saves you CAPS.

3) Pick the "Scavenger" build we provide, very early.

4) Buy every fertilizer shipment (packs of 25+) you come across. You can use it to make tons of XP + CAPS, ammunition and fireworks!

5) Gather valuable junk for minimizing expenses with traders.

6) Try not to buy ammo! Make it due with what you have.

Legendaries Weapons: These are some very strong weapons you can buy from traders. Use at your own discretion, as they might be overpowered and make the game too easy for you:

Overseer's Guardian, .45 ammo (swap for .308 ammo)

Spray n' Pray, .45 ammo

Kiloton Radium Rifle, .45 ammo (Far Harbor DLC)

Big Boy, mini nukes

Junk Collection:

TAG a material.

As you play you will find many "junk" items that can be scrapped for materials. These materials will be used for building settlement or modifying gear. An important point about materials is that every one of them can be bought from merchants across the Commonwealth for fairly high prices, with the very exception of bones that are not available as shipments. You should tag these materials as soon as possible so you can easily gather them:

Ballistic Fiber - Very rare material that you will use to fortify clothing.

Bones - Common material, useful source of XP and Oil.

Circuitry - Rare material for building/modding any kind of electronic.

Nuclear Material - Rare material for building and weapon modding.

Gold - Has limited uses, but light material.

Silver - Has limited uses, but light material. (Just don't grab silver bowls or silver plates.)

This are optional materials, either for being too heavy to efficiently gather or just cheap enough to buy from traders:

Acid - Common and cheap, used with bones to make oil. (Sold only in Bunker Hill.)

Crystal - Rare and heavy material for weapon modding.

Fiber Optics - Rare and heavy material for building/modding.

Oil - Common, used for crafting explosives (and XP), but very heavy components. It can also be crafted with acid and bones.

Screw - Common, cheap and heavy material, used often for building/modding.

The Scavenger Build:

Highlighted container.

With 70 perks to choose from, how to prioritize? How to even start? Here are 5 Perks that we consider very important to get most out of the game and we strongly recommend you should acquire them in this order, as soon as possible (which is, from level 1 to 5):

Locksmith (Perception 4) will allow you to pick most locks in the game (and there are a lot of them!).

Fortune Finder (Luck 1) allows you to find CAPS in almost every container in the game.

Scrounger (Luck 2) allows you to find ammunition in almost every container in the game.

Hacker (Intelligence 4) allows you to hack computers.

Scrapper 2 (Intelligence 5 and Lv 23) will allow you to see tagged items without opening the container window. Gold and Silver are commonly found in safes, which combos really well with this perk, highlighting those safes for you.

Therefore we recommend starting your character with 4 points in Perception, 4 points in Intelligence, and 2 points in Luck. You will still have 30 points left to personalize your character.

7) Extra: Settlement Management.

Stores + Brahmins.

Build Stores: As soon as possible you want to be building stores to provide you CAPS every day, in every settlement (capped at 50 CAPS a day, per settlement). It might sound little, but days come and go, by the time you actually reach an unfrequented settlement you will have thousands of CAPS waiting for you.

Get 3 Brahmins: You will also want to have 3 Brahmins (use cages, from Wastelander Workshop DLC) in every settlement. They will produce a constant income of fertilizer. You can have more than 3, but the productions is capped at 3 per day.

Remember, we like money, we like looting and we are active settlement builders. But we also want to be efficient without using exploits or spending too much time micro-managing our inventory. This are our suggestions based on this play style, take what works for you and have fun!

Fallout 4 Nuka-World DLC Review

Fallout 4 Nuka-World is the last DLC for the game in which a new location, an amusement Nuka-Cola thematic park, as the starting point of what can be an evil take over of the Commonwealth!

New Nuka-Cola flavors.

With the DLC comes a lot of new armors, some super cool hair dyes and a variety of facial paints. What really stands out though is that now you have a plethora of Nuka-Cola recipes that will take this loved drink to the next level.

You will also find three new raider factions fighting for control over the park. Once you settle who is the boss and who gets what, you can expand your raider control through the Commonwealth. Beware though: Conquering even one Commonwealth Settlement as a raider will make you an enemy of the Minutemen!

Loot chest.

Transforming a settlement in a raider location gives you new structures related to raiders, but unfortunately you get locked out of all the previous settlement building structures. Which is a serious downside considering the diversity of structures. A raider settlement work similarly to a regular one, but there are many differences to be considered that goes beyond the scope of this review. One of the main points though, is that Raider Settlements deposit CAPS directly into your Nuka-World chest, which is a convenient way to have a constant income if you have not invested much energy into settlement building.

Overall Nuka-World is focused on giving you the possibility of going back and being truly evil. The park is a great new location with plenty to explore, "new" creatures to kill and even more gear to play wardrobe. As a big fan of Nuka-Cola, it was a pleasure to end this long journey in such a happy and joyful place.

Here is a Developer Walkthrough of the DLC:

Pro Tip: You can play without worries until you complete the quest "The Grand Tour", after which you have to decide the fate of the Commonwealth, again.

Fallout 4 Vault-Tec Workshop DLC Review

Fallout 4 Vault-Tec DLC is a major update to settlement building, allowing you to build your own vault in a new underground location by completing a very short questline.

Vault 88 entrance.

You are required to first complete a short quest before having access to most objects and structures available. Unfortunately the structure pieces are very finicky and don't really snap to structures outside vault-tec theme. However many furniture objects received clean versions that can be used just fine anywhere.

Special mention to the Vault-Tec Population Management System, a great addition to anyone spending their time with settlements, making finding and assigning settlers fast and very easy. Unfortunately dweller experiments are limited to the quest line, so you are not really allowed to run experiments with your dwellers, despite the trailer making it very credible. Another downside is that the new Vault 88 area is considered an indoor location, therefore you can not build cages from Wasteland workshop.

Despite this limitations we believe this DLC is a good addition to anyone that enjoy building settlements. For an overview of the additions, check this showcase by FluffyNinjaLlama:

And this Developer Walkthrough of the DLC:

Important note: Whichever option you choose for the experiment prototypes during the quest is the ONLY choice you will have after the quest is complete. Console commands can change that, but because they all share the same global variables, each machine type will share the chosen option, does not matter how many of them you build.

Fallout 4 Contraptions Workshop DLC Review

Fallout 4 Contraptions DLC is the second upgrade to settlements. The content is heavily focused on displays, with added structures based on warehouses, manufacturing and some other miscellaneous, like fireworks!

Display racks are provided for weapons, armors and power armors! Posters and signs that light up to make your settlement even more shiny, and fireworks to light up the night! Conduits are a nice addition for those that dredge hanging cables and wires all around. But what takes the gold in this upgrade is the manufacturing machines and logic gates.

Simple manufacturing system.

Logic gates are these little contraptions that transmit power based on inputs, so now you can configure your own circuits for anything you can imagine. Do I hear anyone saying "lights show with background music and fireworks"?? We are still putting ours together... Unfortunately the manufacturing part of the DLC is lacking a bit: Component Sorter only sorts Junk, not weapons or apparel, the Item Sorter is incapable of differentiating a basic pistol from a fully modded pistol, and the Ammo Builder can not craft half of the ammunition types in the game. But thanks to how Bethesda support the modding community, you can find multiple mods that build on this DLC to provide a very robust manufacturing experience.

Again, this is a well worth addition to anyone that enjoys that settlement aspect of the game. If you would like to see every item in the expansion, check out this great showcase made by FluffyNinjaLlama:

And this Developer Walkthrough:

Fallout 4 Far Harbor DLC Review

Fallout 4 Far Harbor DLC is a major update with a completely new location, dangerous new creatures, new legendary weapons/armors prefixes, a new questline for you to tackle and a minor settlement update.

Far Harbor morning fog.

The beautiful island of Far Harbor is a location of size similar to a major zone of the Commonwealth, but extra packed with stuff and enemies. Home to Vim, a strong competitor of Nuka Cola, a dangerous fog and three distinct factions fighting for survival you will have no shortage of people to help and places to explore.

Any decision you made regarding the fate of the Commonwealth in the base game can have little effect in this island, if you choose so. Which allows you to enjoy this content at any opportune moment (you do have to complete the early quest Getting a Clue). The settlement update is limited to a few new structures themed after barns.

Hermit Crabs!!

Maybe due to the scope of this map compared to the base game, this update shines on the consequences of your choices and how your behavior influences the outcome, and the future, of the island. You also get four new settlement locations, one new companion and some of the best sarcastic lines of the game!

Pro Tip 1: Bring Nick Valentine.

Pro Tip 2: You can safely complete all side quests from all factions without having to pick a side. That will come at the end of the quest Best Left Forgotten, after which some quests might not be available.

PS: Bethesda did not produce a Developer Walkthrough for this DLC.

Fallout 4 Wasteland Workshop DLC Review

Fallout 4 Wasteland Workshop DLC is an upgrade to settlements in the game. Most additions comes from structures concrete themed, but there are several useful additions and new mechanics worth mentioning:

Indoor robot farm!

Garden Plot: A small piece of dirt that allows you to expand and customize farmable land with up to four plant spots, allowing you to move crops into specific areas or even plant where it was not possible before. This goes very, very handy for anyone experienced with farming!

Cages: This new structure allows to capture wild NPC's, both creatures and humans alike! This makes for very interesting possibilities, and even the creation of personalized dungeons!

Arena Contestant: The arena platform ties directly with the cage mechanic in order to create death matches. Once you ring the starting bell contestants in red/blue team will start fighting! Make sure you build sits for everyone, because things will get juicy.

Neon: To make shiny welcoming (or not...) sentences.

Water Pump: Remember that area that had no water for a purifier system? Worry no more, with this equipment you can use electricity to pump water from underground! No more dozens of manual water pumps all around.
Decontamination Arc: Stop spending endless money with those radaway and doctor appointments! Build one of this beauties and you will have free, on demand, radiation treatment.

We believe this DLC to be well worth for anyone that enjoy settlements. The garden plots, lettering and cages are by far our most used structures in every settlement. If you would like to see every item in the expansion, check out this great showcase made by FluffyNinjaLlama:

And this Developer Walkthrough of the DLC:

Fallout 4 Automatron DLC Review

Fallout 4 Automatron DLC is a minor update that adds a short quest line to deal with a new threat to the Commonwealth as well as a new mechanic to build your own robots.

Our 2 first robot settlers.

Building robots is straight forward, you create the Robot Workbench in one of your settlements and from there you will have six options to customize a new robot. You will pick between head, torso, arms (both right and left), legs, voice and paint. After building a robot you can assign it as your new companion or send it to one of your settlements, where it will work as any settler, except it does not need a bed, food or water. And since they are robots you can build an infinite amount of them as long as you have the resources (mostly aluminum, adhesive, ceramic, circuitry, steel and rubber). That also means that you can go over the settler limit of 10 + Charisma anytime, as building a new robot in the settlement do not depend on charisma. They are robots after all!

At this point (game version 1.8.7.0) they can be assigned to stores and will generate CAPS, but you will not be able to buy or sell items from them, as they will not give you the proper dialog option.


Here is a Developer Walkthrough of the DLC:

Fallout 4 Survival Guide Book Review

Fallout 4 Vault Dweller's Survival Guide is a hard cover compilation of a lot of information from the game. It provides little details into the mechanics of the game, but the maps make this whole thing worthy.

The first part of the book is just an overview with minor details of how the game works. Every quest is listed and most have additional information regarding consequences or alternative resolutions. Nothing exceptional and, honestly, you can find better information in the wikia.

The second part is where the real loot is. Maps upon maps of every location in the game! Each primary point (places that get marked in game as a fast-travel location) have detailed maps with loot locations. This, right here, is what is going to allow you to explore and enjoy every single cranny of Fallout 4 world. And you will not find this information anywhere else, much less with equal quality.

You also get a digital version through Prima Games website, unfortunately there is minimal update regarding DLC's. Very unfortunate as those detailed maps would be a great addition for exploring Far Harbor and Nuka-World maps.

One huge problem with this book is how thin its paper is. Through regular handling you will be ripping pages and corners. There are also some minor mistakes here and there, like a loot crate amiss. Overall the book is very well written, sharply printed, with the addition of typical Fallout sense of humor whenever possible. We wish the paper quality would be superior, but it is well worth its price. You can always buy a "safe" copy for your vault.

Fallout 4 Review

Fallout 4 is an open world first person shooter (or third) RPG game in a post nuclear apocalyptic wasteland in which your goal is to find your kidnapped son. That is a lot to digest, let's go through it again: In order to find your son, you will shoot a lot of things from a first/third person perspective while role-playing your way through a land ravaged by nuclear war, and with no physical barriers to stop you from moving around the virtual world as you please.

Power Armor.

Fat Man mini-nuke explosion.

You will be shooting, a lot, during this game. Shooting itself is nothing new, but the VATS System is a signature of the game. This system allows you to target and cripple specific areas of the body in a limited slow motion way. Cripple your enemies legs and he will not run after you. In order for you to achieve this insane amount of damage, access to a wide array of weapons and gear is provided, like the Fallout signatures Fat Man and Power Armor. A "bazuca" that shoots mini nuclear warheads and a full body armored suit that will make you an almost invincible soldier, respectively. On top of that you will have access to a wide list of modifications for every single piece of gear, even rare legendary effects that only the strongest of enemies will carry. Found a pistol but wanted a sniper rifle? No problem, just add a scope! Don't have the appropriate bullet type? Why not just change the barrel of your gun then. Adaptation is key to survival! Speaking of survival, all this "surviving" will quickly make you an experienced wanderer and with your new acquired knowledge comes new powers.

Intimidated raider.

The progression system is simple but effective, each new level gives a point that you can use to further customize your character build. Sneaky type? Melee oriented? Guns blazing all the way? Or maybe you rather talk your way out of a pinch? Vault-Tec got you covered! This is where you will strengthen your role and character. Unfortunately there are just a couple of perks that are more than status bonuses and open new mechanics, like placing live grenades into peoples pants or using charisma to intimidate creatures to surrender. Most gameplay changes will come from unlocking a pre-requisite in order to build a weapon, gear or structural modification.

Assigning NPC's to settlement farming.

Which brings us to our next point, the Settlement System. You will be able to scavenge resources from the wasteland for their materials, mostly junk/trash items, but weapons and gear can also be scavenged with the appropriate perk. With such materials you will build a gigantic array of structures where you can have NPC's (non-playable character) come, live and work for you. Basically you can build your own town/HQ/base/city/village/castle/you name it! It is only limited by your imagination and how much your computer can handle. You will have to provide your slav.... citizens with food, water and protection. Because with all those goodies laying around, you are sure to get some unwanted visitors looking for a violent appropriation of goods.

Wasteland trading.

And to chain everything together in a tight loop, we have the currency system. Every weapon, armor, junk or material has a value measured in CAPS (the currency of the wasteland). With money you can buy more ammo, better gear or even materials to improve settlements and gear. One way or another you will be using that money for your survival, and surviving the wasteland most likely means surviving its dangers, which means getting more experience. The more experience you get, the higher your level, more loot you drop, more money you make and so on. The world might have ended, but the grind... The grind never changes.

One great aspect  that really makes this world feel real are the companion NPC's. Each companion that travels with you have unique lines and interaction possibilities that still surprise us every time! Check a spoiler free sample of it here. All this happening in a gigantic world, full of danger, adventure, opportunities, unexpected plot twists and some bugs. But to shave those bugs off (and we don't mean the radioactive kind of bugs) you will have a vast, and we mean a vast option of fan made modifications that you can browse, download and install straight from the game launcher. The potential is infinite, the only limit is time to enjoy it all.

Final Score: 10 out of 10.

Enhanced Review Intro

This month is going to be exceptional!

We will be doing our regular game review, but given the size, depth of content and how much we like the franchise, we decided to do some extra posts. Each one of the six Downloadable Content (DLC) will get their own review, as they add something new that is worth mentioning. Then we will dedicate a whole post with some tricks and tips we scrapped together while playing the game. This will help you reduce, if not completely eliminate, the time you spend micro-managing inventory, storage and other things.

In addition to that we will also make our first physical product review! Because we believe this one item in particular really helps that explorer in you.

It will be a long month, full of juicy stuff, so stay tuned to our Steam Community to not miss it all! (Or just subscribe to our blog.)