Fallout 4: Tips & Tricks For Beginners

Updated on April 19, 2024 by Paul Woodward: Fallout 4 was first released on November 10, 2015. Taking place in Boston, Fallout 4 took the gameplay of Fallout 3 and enhanced it further with unique features like base building and a much deeper crafting system. If you are new games-ranked/”>to Fallout games, you may feel somewhat lost as you complete the prologue and venture out into the Commonwealth. There is a lot to keep in mind as you begin your journey to find your son, but if you take heed of the tips and tricks below, you will be off to a great start.

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Don’t Stress Too Much About Initial SPECIAL Stat Allocation

Shortly after the game begins, you will get 21 points that you can allocate to your SPECIAL stats. SPECIAL is an acronym for all the seven stats in the game, which are as follows.

• Strength: Determines how much you can carry and how much damage your melee weapons inflict.
• Perception: Improves V.A.T.S. accuracy.
• Endurance: Determines your max HP and how much AP is used when sprinting.
• Charisma: Improves the chances of succeeding on a speech check and reduces prices at shops.
• Intelligence: Determines how much XP you gain.
• Agility: Determines your max AP along with making it easier to sneak or pickpocket.
• Luck: Determines how long it takes for your critical hit to recharge.

With these in mind, allocate your points in a way that will suit your playstyle. Don’t worry if you feel like you picked the wrong stats, as they can be improved over the course of the game. Every time you level up, you can either improve one of your SPECIAL stats or you can purchase a perk (if you have met the prerequisites to unlock it). Though it will take some time, it is possible to level up every SPECIAL stat to the max of 10 and unlock every single perk.

If you are having a hard time deciding what perks to purchase, think about things that suit your playstyle or what will make your life easier depending on your experiences in the Commonwealth so far.

Keep A Close Eye On Your Radiation

Though radiation levels have gone down over the years after the bombs were dropped, the Commonwealth is still filled with radioactive hazards that you need to watch out for. As you try to wade through a shallow river, walk past some barrels, or drink a bottle of Nuka Cola that you just looted off a Raider, you will notice that you are gaining Rads (short for radiation).

As you gradually get exposed to more radiation, your maximum health decreases and is indicated by the red portion of your health bar. If that red portion reaches the other end of your health bar, you die. Fortunately, you can restore your maximum health. In order to do this, you must use RadAway, visit a doctor, or any other method that reduces your rads. Once the radiation has been removed, your maximum health will return to normal. For this reason, it is important to keep some RadAway in your inventory whenever possible.

Be Mindful of When You Use Stimpaks

In many games, you can obtain an item that will instantly heal you. While Stimpaks were instant heals in Fallout 3, this is not the case in Fallout 4. Once you use a Stimpak, it will gradually heal you over a short period of time. While this is fine when you are not in combat, this can be problematic if you are in the middle of a firefight and you are in the open while the Stimpak is trying to keep you alive.

For this reason, you should try to find some cover and then use a Stimpak. Alternatively, you can try to avoid taking any more damage until the fight is over but this isn’t always possible. So pay close attention to your surroundings and what your current health is when using a Stimpak.

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Don’t Underestimate Feral Ghouls

Feral Ghouls were commonly encountered in the tunnels below the Capital Wasteland in Fallout 3. These unsettling enemies can be found all over the place in the Commonwealth as well. While a Feral Ghoul doesn’t have much health and can easily be killed, the problem is that they are often encountered in large numbers. If caught unprepared, you can easily get swarmed and take a lot of damage (and radiation).

In these sorts of situations, quickly kill whatever gets in your way and then be careful not to get yourself caught in a corner. When you see one Feral Ghoul, the rest of the pack is not far behind.

Don’t Sleep on Cooking

Whether at a settlement you’ve established or out in the ruins scattered across the Commonwealth, you can find cooking stations. If you’ve been gathering meat from creatures you have killed, make sure to bring it here.

Take Mole Rat Meat for example. On its own, Mole Rat Meat restores 25 HP and increases your radiation by two. However, if you have two Mole Rat Meat in your inventory, you can cook them into Mole Rat Chunks. This variant restores 50 HP, increases your max AP by five, and doesn’t increase your radiation. For this reason alone, making your own food is a wise idea before you head back out and continue exploring the Commonwealth. You even get small amounts of XP for cooking as well.

Don’t Ignore Junk

As you explore the Commonwealth, you will inevitably come across a bunch of items that seem like useless junk. Why do you need that Toy Car? Is there really a need to pick up every Aluminum Can that you come across? The answer is, without a shadow of a doubt, yes.

These items can be used when upgrading weapons, armor, and building stuff for your settlements. For this reason alone, you should gather up as much junk as you can find, as it will all be useful. This weight will start to add up as you loot more items, but fortunately, you can store all of your junk at the nearest Workshop so that you can use it later without it taking up all your inventory space.

Be Careful With What You Sell

Speaking of items, there is no shortage of loot to be found across the Commonwealth. As you go, you’ll get a bunch of items that you may not need. Unlike Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas, weapons in Fallout 4 do not have durability, so they don’t need to be repaired. So when you’ve inevitably looted another 10mm pistol, you can just sell it.

That said, you should be very mindful of what you sell. There are some incredibly rare/unique items that you will not be able to replace if you sell them. This includes the Vault-Tec bobbleheads, magazines, and legendary weapons. So keep a close eye on what you are selling so that you don’t give up something that is actually valuable.

Fallout 4

Released

November 10, 2015