15 essential Fallout 4 tips to know before you play

These Fallout 4 tips will help you survive the radioactive wasteland of the Commonwealth. A Pip-Boy combined trial and error can only get you so far, which is why we're here to ease that learning curve. From crafting to gear mods, companions, power armor, settlements and more - we can help you learn everything faster. It’s a huge sandbox to explore and the potential can be intimidating. So we've spent hundreds of hours combing the Commonwealth to come up with these Fallout 4 tips to help.

1. Collect everything for crafting and tag resources to find what you need

All the junk you pick up is made up of component parts that can be put to better use for upgrading armour, modifying weapons and so forth. Clipboards, tin cans, desk fans - everything has a value. Always check your workbenches to see what components you're missing for whatever it is you're looking to build, and then use the 'Tag for Search' function. From then on your PipBoy will conveniently highlight what you need when you're looting areas, so you can quickly and easily grab the bits  you need. Just remember to untag things once you've found enough, though. Otherwise you'll end up searching for everything. All the time. Forever.

2. Use Workbenches to scrap and build bigger things at settlements

Certain items, like tires or sinks, can only be harvested when in an area close to a workbench, like the Red Rocket gas station or the town of Sanctuary. At these locations you you can scrap just about anything - trees, cars, traffic pylons, street lamps, mailboxes, ruined houses, etc. It'll all be broken into components and stored in your workbenches, and each workbench in an area shares its stuff with every other workbench in the same area, so just dump the junk you've gathered from the wasteland into whatever bench is most convenient.

Just be aware that only the benches in a single settlement share resources, so if you want to use all the steel you gathered at the Starlight Drive-In to make houses in Sanctuary, you're going to have to physically pick it up and move it. Pretty much everything is good for something, but you may want to check your construction options to see what elements you need most. (Go for ceramic and copper. Trust me.)

3. Use Perks to make the most of weapon mods

Modding weapons and armour is just one part of crafting, and a good way to keep guns up to scratch as you find tougher foes. You can also tweak guns, adding scopes to pistols, or attaching scattered barrels to laser rifles, to turn them into laser shotguns. To get the best available from quite early on, you should invest in mod specific perks that open up later ranks for you to play with (there are separate ones for melee weapons and firearms). You'll still need to find the necessary components to build these mods but every little helps when you're surviving in a post nuclear wasteland. This Fallout 4 Legendary and Unique Weapons and Armor guide will also help you find the best gear there is.  

4. Choose the right companion for the job and remember where you sent them

There are many companions in Fallout 4, all with different skills, strengths and weaknesses. The most obvious are your faithful canine, Dogmeat, who's great for searching areas for resources; or Codsworth, your robo-bulter, who's pretty decent in battle and fairly durable. You can talk to them, find out about their history, and even unlock unique companion quests when you reach certain affinities with them. 

However, it can be difficult to keep a track of them so keep a note of where they are or go when you dismiss them. I make it easy by using Sanctuary Hills as my main hub of operations - in fact this is smart advice in general; it's much easier to keep track of all your gear, companions and components if you store it in one central location. If you can't find anyone on when you get there just wait or sleep for 24-hours and you should find your companions hanging. Remember: when you dismiss a companion to a settlement, they walk there - they don't fast travel!

5. Power armour needs to be used sparingly 

Our Fallout 4 Power Armor repair, modding, and location guide will give you more details on how to use this powerful armor. Just remember it's designed more like a usable power-up than something you equip at all times. You can customise depending on what you want to do, swapping out parts, adding paint, jetpack boosters and other capabilities, but it requires fusion cores to run. These are fairly common but finite so you can't just suit up all the time.

Any action you perform while suited up depletes the core. It's also the only piece of armour you can equip that takes damage and requires repairs, and maintenance uses valuable resources. Because of the power demands and maintenance you need to be careful when and how you use it. It's basically best used as extra firepower to pull out when needed, which can turn the tide in a tough battle.

6.  You can mod your power armor at racks

To keep your power armor running and upgraded or adapted, find a power armour rack. These are yellow racks usually near a workbench location. You can exit your power armour anywhere near by the rack by holding X and stepping backwards. Once it's in the right spot, highlight the rack and you'll have the option to tweak your armour. You won't have all the options immediately, though as you'll have to find magazines around the wasteland to learn new paint schemes. (Go for the flames. The flames are awesome.)

7. Build settlements, but don't forget to maintain them

Fallout 4 gives you settlements you can manage, expand and customize. Your character's pre-war hometown, Sanctuary Hills, is your first stop and forms a central hub to your operations. Settlement building is a great way to put you in control of rebuilding the once-great Commonwealth, from constructing your own personal house to creating shelters for your settlers, crops and water supplies, right down to crafting furniture, and setting supply routes so that traders can come and sell you wares.

However, these places will attract the unwanted attention of raiders, so you'll need defences too. Keep close eyes on your resources and junk materials, and don't forget that you can always go into craft mode and scrap most things in the world - crumbling houses, trees, cars and all furniture - to make better use of their individual components. Be vigilant, and be versatile and take a look at some of the best Fallout 4 settlements for inspiration. 

8. Avoid swimming - the rads aren't worth it

The water in Fallout 4 can kill you quickly because it's full of deadly radiation. Rads are inevitable in the wasteland, and difficult to get rid of in the first few hours, so stay out of the water which will literally soak you in the stuff. Physical damage (even crippled limbs) is easy to heal - just use a stimpack or take a nap and you're good to go - but radiation sticks with you unless you can find Radaway or certain foods that remove it, so be careful.

9. Your Pip-Boy does more than you think

Your Pip-Boy keeps you up to date on your character's physical well being, perks, status effects, inventory, outfit options, world and local maps, radio, and all the information you need to be a questing, settlement-managing hero. It also lets you listen to holotapes you can find as you explore, giving you incidental backstory to discover more about places and even open up questlines. To listen, just find them in the Misc part of your inventory and slot them into the holotape compartment on the top of your Pip-Boy to find more of the world's secrets. You can even find Fallout 4 Holotape games to play when you want some downtime!

10. Be smart about saving your ammo...

Ammunition can be sparse in Fallout 4 and you'll regularly have to switch between weapons as you manage supplies. So make sure you have a decent variety of guns with you at all times in order to hedge your bets. When the going does get tough, and you're down to your last couple of rounds, don't forget about pipe weapons - some of the most commonly used guns in the Commonwealth. Keeping a pipe weapon in your inventory is a sure fire way of making sure you've always got a backup to rely on should you ever need it.

11. ... and melee weaker enemies to save ammo

The first few enemies you'll encounter - mostly radroaches and bloatflies - are pretty weak, as things go, and won't really hurt you that much. They can make you jump and very much get up in your face, but a whack or two with any melee weapon will put them down quickly, so save your ammo. The police baton is a good starter option, but you'll find machetes, baseball bats, and combat knives soon enough. Always keep them at the ready in your weapon wheel to deal with lesser enemies, so you don't waste that precious ammo.

12. Get the best perks first

There are a lot of Fallout 4 perks that offer passive improvements, active effects and what you pick can completely change the game and your playstyle. Buff your Strength, Charisma and Intelligence skills to start with, as this will give you an introductory boost in the areas of physical capability, conversation skills, and levelling. Perception is also pretty useful to help you see things you'd otherwise miss, and Luck can give you some great unexpected bonuses, but it's not essential.

How you progress depends on how you want to play and what you want to do. Certain locks can't be picked if you're not skilled enough with the pickpocketing perk for example, while some computer terminals will be inaccessible unless you invest in multiple levels of the requisite perk. Certain conversation options will also be unavailable or instantly fail if you haven't got a high enough Charisma level, while building settlements is massively improved if you invest in the Local Leader perk to build certain buildings and set up supply lines between settlements. 

Perks even affect crafting and modding, so check out the Science perk, as well as a couple of others to unlock access to more powerful mods for guns, armour and melee weapons. And, as always, don't forget Bloody Mess which just makes enemies die in far more creative, explodey ways..

13. Keep your radio on for new signals as you explore

The radio on your PipBoy in Fallout 4 is a constant companion, playing out '50s jives about uranium fever and slow songs about heartbreak. But always keep a close eye on the radio stations you can pick up as you wander. You'll find many come and go as you trek from place to place, and tuning into them while they're available can give you clues to certain hideouts or people in need, and uncover entire quest lines.

14. Don't waste Stimpacks on Dogmeat

Look I know this sounds cruel and his whimpers are heart breaking, but don't waste a Stimpak on Dogmeat unless you really need him backing you up immediately. Stimpaks are valuable and rare in the first few hours of the game, and you'll need them way more than he does. He can't die, and will heal as soon as the fighting stops, so just leave him be and take revenge on whoever who hurt him.

15. Keep away from Feral Ghouls until you can handle a fight

Raiders might look tough, what with their Mad Max looks, but they go down fairly easily. The zombie-like Feral Ghouls, on the other hand, will straight up murder you before you even have a chance to react. They're not only ferocious but also typically appear in large numbers, which is way more than you can handle before you've equipped better gear. Just give them a wide berth and then come back to mop 'em up later. They'll wait.

Looking to modify your Fallout 4 experience? Then check out our selection of the best Fallout 4 mods for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.