There are raiders, there are mutants, there are mole rats, and there are huge Deathclaws that just nick the skin off of your face. Oh, did I mention the existence of vicious ogres? If synths – read, robots; don’t kill you, something of the above will.
Can you survive the beautiful wasteland? Can you find your son? Check our Fallout 4 Tips and Tricks to see how you can make a new life after the 2077 nuclear apocalypse.
Fallout 4 Tips and Tricks
Even if you play it safe, radiation sickness might be your demise. Resources are hard to find, ammo is incredibly limited and chances of surviving are, well, dim, to say the least.
1. Loot, scavenge and scrap everything
The jest of it – don’t waste anything. It’s a huge wasteland where civilization is dead and gone. In order to survive, you need supplies and a ton of materials to build a settlement. Also, you’ll need gear – weapons, armour; and mods for it. Medical supplies are a must if you plan on leaving Sanctuary, and ammo, well, is expensive as hell.
You need to search every nook and cranny, every cabinet, every chest, every corpse that might come back to life and bite you in the neck.
You can recycle anything and turn it into something useful. Worrying about inventory weight? You can leave your junk and useless apparel in a workbench and access items from a completely different workbench somewhere else.
2. Don’t stick to just one type of weapon
Maintaining a balanced arsenal is really hard at first. In the early hours of the game, you’ll find yourself lacking ammo. Buying it from city stores or trading posts results in a big whole inside your pockets. Collect as many weapon types and ammo as you can, and save them in your workbench or inventory for later use.
However, this doesn’t mean to stick to just one type of weapon. When stronger ones become available, switch to them. You’ll see plus symbols in your inventory next to their stats – this tells you how better, or worse, a weapon is compared to your current one.
Remember, that different weapons work in different scenarios. Don’t waste shotgun shells in log-range battles, or sniper bullets in close-ranged ones.
3. Don’t over use VATS
VATS – Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System; is just great. It’s insanely useful and it can get you out of some tight situations. The game goes in slow-mo and it highlights different enemy body parts where you can shoot. On those specific body parts, you’ll notice how big, or tiny, of a chance you have to actually hit.
VATS is great when used for medium or long-range battles – it helps to accurately pin-point that perfect head-shot.
However, if you encounter enemies that want to fight in close-quarters, don’t stress yourself too much with VATS. Firing from the hip with a shotgun, minigun, handgun or SMG is actually better and you have bigger chances of killing enemies.
4. Use the Workbench
Your Workbench should be your home away from home. It’s the place where all of your resources are put to use. There are armour, weapons and power armour Workbenches – with a few base resource workbenches scattered across the wasteland.
In your playthrough, you’ll find food and chem-stations where you can make stimpaks and other medical supplies, as well as cook food and other rations.
All of them are super important, and you should use them when you can.
Crafting isn’t optional, crafting is a crucial element of Fallout 4. Without it, you’re stuck with a massive amount of junk that will help no one.
5. Violence isn’t the key
While you can’t play Fallout 4 without going into battle once in a while, there’s no need for violence 24/7. You can sneak past enemies, or if you are charismatic enough, you can sway them to drop their guns and run away.
Hack compute terminals in order to activate security robots that will either vanquish your foes or prove to be the best distraction. Always, if you have the means to preserve your ammo and health, do it. Don’t go looking for a fight. Choose the more peaceful path to reap more rewards.
That last thing goes for real-life as well.
6. Check the in-game help
Unfortunately, Fallout 4 doesn’t offer a comprehensive play-to-understand set of missions. Bethesda’s game is complex, and it has a ton of mechanics that aren’t easy to comprehend. However, the in-game help menu offers FAQs, walkthroughs and a ton of strategy guides to make your playthrough easier.
Pause the menu, and select the Help sub-menu when in trouble. It details crafting, how a base can be built and how to manage your companions – among other things.
7. The wasteland is dangerous
Fallout 4’s world is deadly. You probably won’t die as much if you stick to the main quests, but most likely, you’ll end up in a pickle more than once. Use the save and quick-save buttons all the time. Not sure if you can get out alive if you start a fight with those Super Mutants? Save. There’s something eerie in the air that yells danger? Save. You are scared for no apparent reason? Save, save, save.
There’s no shame in leaving a battle that you aren’t capable of winning. Fallout 4 is relentless in this case. It will shove tough enemies in your direction until you crack. Run, get better gear, find a more suitable strategy and deliver a whole can of whoop-ass on your enemies. Rinse and repeat.
Fallout 4 will have you meet legendary foes that are insanely hard to beat. If you persevere, you can get some rare loot that will help you in the long-run. To be frank, you need some luck in battling challenging foes – I know I couldn’t have done it without somebody up there loving me to pieces.
Remember – struggling with a battle? Run away and leave it for some other time.
8. Don’t be a Jack of all trades
While it’s really great to have a balanced skill set, early game you should focus your perks – read, SPECIAL stats; on enhancing your abilities to survive, endure damage, and fight better. There are a ton of perks to choose from and we’ll go through all of them in a different post, but until we get time to write and publish it, you need to organize yourself.
Build your Vault 111 resident as you please – fancy fighting up close? Why not go for melee weapons or shotgun proficiency? Like your fights to be fought at a safe distance? Sniper rifles and grenades should do the trick.
9. Don’t be a loner
Your first companion, the lovely and loyal Dogmeat, will scout for enemies using his brilliant sniffing nose. He can find items, and he’s super useful for holding attackers in place that just want to rush your position.
There are others too. Take Preston, he will jump in the middle of the fight with you and bring that much needed punch to the battle.
Every companion can carry items. Just talk with them and press the trade button. From here, you can give them items to alleviate the burden of your inventory.
Also, remember to heal your companions when they are in need. A dead companion is of no use at all.
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