Greetings, Vault Dweller. We know you’re ready to venture out into the Commonwealth Wasteland. And with the worldwide release of Fallout 4 mere hours away, you’ve got just a bit longer until you can do so.
If you’ve read our Fallout 4 review, you have a good idea what kind of glorious adventures await you. Now, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty. We took laborious notes during our own expeditions outside Vault 111. Most of these Fallout 4 tips and facts should come as news. If you knew some already, we’re sorry! I blame the Deathclaws.
Regardless, this Fallout 4 guide will serve you well with a load of useful info for starting your adventure. Without further ado, here are 70 things you (probably) didn’t know about Fallout 4:
1. You can hold your breath while scoped with a sniper rifle. Doing so uses Action Points.
2. If any workshop settlement metric is lagging–Beds, Food, Water, Defense–your Settlement’s Happiness rating will decline.
3. The weapon mods you craft exist in your inventory with a small amount of Weight. You can free some carrying capacity by dumping ones you don’t need or use.
4. You can craft homemade chems at a Chemistry Station. These drugs are more powerful than your standard Jets, Psychos, and Buffouts, often combining effects.
5. Fallout 4’s most astonishing weather effect is the radiation storm. These roll in periodically and affect you with rads no matter where you stand.
6. You can modify your armor to have properties besides greater defense. For example, Shadowed and Muffled properties will make you harder to detect while sneaking. You can also increase your carrying capacity or reduce the item’s weight.
7. Weapon and armor skills have been completely removed in Fallout 4. You instead gain experience toward level-ups from many activities–kills, quest completion, crafting–and get to assign a single perk point upon leveling up.
8. "Ghoulish," an Endurance perk, flips the script and makes radiation heal you.
9. After being spotted and engaged by the enemy, you can become Hidden again by sneaking and removing line-of-sight for long enough.
10. There is a ton of vertical space in Fallout 4’s ruined Boston. Many buildings have rooftops with extra treasures to find. Both enemies and turrets make use of this elevation to gain an advantage over you.
11. You can become addicted to alcohol, as well as chems like Jet and Psycho. Addiction lowers primary stats and very, very slowly drains your HP.
12. You can scrap mailboxes, light posts, ruined houses, and a plethora of other objects in workshop settlements to provide materials for your renovation.
13. You can romance your Companions (but not Dogmeat!)
14. Many things in workshop settlements require power. Generators and other power accessories require Copper, Oil, and Ceramics, which are a bit harder to find than Wood and Steel.
15. A great use for animal parts and plants is for cooking, which can be done at cookpots around the world. You have access to all recipes from the get-go.
16. Companions have an astonishing amount of recorded dialogue. They will comment on everything from the items you pick up to the story characters you meet. Try asking for their thoughts frequently!
17. Power Armor pieces can be modified in the same manner as weapons and apparel.
18. Your Companions can’t die, but they can be incapacitated. Get them back on their feet with a Stimpak.
19. The sneaking interface has three levels: Hidden, Caution, and Danger. At Caution, the enemy suspects you’re near and will briefly look for you. At Danger, you’ve been spotted and are no longer hidden.
20. Your Companions have final quests that complete their storylines.
21. Some apparel and weapons are "Legendary" and marked with a star. These are random drops with special stats or effects you can’t reproduce through crafting.
22. While building a settlement, you can select groups of connected objects by holding X.
23. When inside Power Armor, you don’t take fall damage.
24. There is a Legendary Tommy Gun with bullets that explode on impact.
25. Your Companions have a fixed carrying capacity, like you.
26. If you ask Dogmeat to play fetch, you can command him to scout out enemies and items.
27. You can change your Companions’ equipped weapons and armor. Enter the Trade menu with your Companion, and press Triangle on an item in their inventory to have them equip it.
28. You can get a Fat Man, the series’ legendary nuke launcher, really early in the game. Go to the below location and sneak up to where a Super Mutant Brute with a missile launcher is perched. There’s a Fat Man and a suit of Power Armor in his nest waiting to be picked up.
29. As in previous Bethesda games, you can Wait to quickly pass time, but you need to be sitting or sleeping in order to do it.
30. Your chance of succeeding at persuasion is represented by the color of the dialogue prompt. Light yellow represents a decent chance, orange represents a low chance, and red represents a very poor chance.
31. If you move during a conversation, you can free the camera and move around while still talking to the NPC.
32. The "Touchdown!" Trophy requires you to "catch" (get directly hit by) a missile.
33. The brackets around [Hidden] and [Caution] in the sneaking interface are a gauge for how close you are to being caught. As the brackets move outward, you’re better hidden. As they come inward, you’re closer to the next alert level.
34. There is a point of no return for romancing Companions. If you fail the persuasion check involved, you lose the option. Hence, if the "Romance" prompt appears in conversation, it would behoove you to quit the conversation and raise your Charisma before returning.
35. When you leveling up, you can either raise a primary stat by one or activate a new perk.
36. The first two Luck perks–Fortune Finder and Scrounger–increase the caps and ammunition you find, respectively. They’re great to acquire early on for accruing wealth over the course of the game.
37. A new breed of creature, the Synth, acts as both friend and foe in the game. Play to find out more…
38. Weapon mod requirements vary by weapon. For example, the same scope that requires perk Gun Nut 3 may only require Gun Nut 2 for another weapon.
39. Addiction can be cured by NPC medics or with Addictol.
40. The first video game holotape you can find is on a terminal while exiting Vault 111.
41. Crouching to sneak also increases your accuracy.
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42. You can give your heaviest loot to your Companion to carry until you get back to a trader or workstation.
43. Every item you craft for a Settlement nets a small amount of experience. Spending enough time in your workshop settlements can net a few early level-ups!
44. V.A.T.S. is fun and useful, but you’ll often have better long-range accuracy lining up headshots yourself.
45. Lockpicking in Fallout 4 is identical to Skyrim’s lockpicking system, with one exception: You can’t attempt picking a lock with a higher level than your Lockpicking perk.
46. There are four damage types: Ballistic, Energy, Radiation, and Poison. Consequently, there are four damage resistance types.
47. The sound you make is even more important to sneaking than sight and shadow, so be sure to move slowly, even when already crouching.
48. Some terminals have holotapes you can load into your Pip-Boy. These holotapes can be audio logs or video games.
49. If the combined rating of your workshop settlement’s Food and Water is greater than its Defense, it’s more like to come under attack.
50. You can build your rapport with Companions by doing things they like. One Companion might like it when you act brashly in conversation with others or admire your lockpicking skills. Another expects heroism from you.
51. There are 80 different perks to choose from when leveling up, and almost every perk has multiple ranks with greater effect. All told, there are 229 perks and ranks to earn.
52. Many settlement structures, like walls and fences, will snap together intelligently to make building easier.
53. You can tag component materials for easy scavenging in the world. At your weapon or apparel workbench, or in the Workshop view, hit R1 to tag items you’re missing. In your Pip-Boy, you can do the same thing under Inventory -> Junk -> Component View (L1). This will add a magnifying glass icon to any item in the world that houses components you need.
54. Ammunition has no weight. Even Mini Nukes are weightless! Collect everything, and sell what you don’t need or want.
55. Suits of Power Armor can be formed by combining Power Armor pieces like arms and legs, much like regular armor.
56. As a general rule, enemies grow tougher the farther south you travel, but there are pockets of deadly foes everywhere, including some Deathclaws in the northern hills.
57. You can’t scrap Legendary items, but you can sell or store what you don’t need.
58. You can rename any weapon or apparel item, including Legendary items.
59. Meals prepared at cooking stations do not cause radiation damage.
60. You can upgrade your starting Vault 111 jumpsuit for greater energy and radiation resistance.
61. The items you store in workstations aren’t initially shared between workshop settlements, but the Local Leader perk will unlock supply lines between your settlements to share materials.
62. Power conduits will transmit power to any fixture within the building they’re attached to. For example, with a large enough generator, you can run a single wire to a power conduit on the side of a shack to power-up any lights, TVs, or turrets within.
63. Just about everything in the world is valuable for its component materials, used for building and modifications. There’s now good reason to pick up the tin cans, baby rattles, microscopes, and other refuse you find.
64. Enemies with a skull icon next to their name are significantly higher than your level and more difficult to defeat.
65. Your Companions might be better at certain tasks–picking locks, hacking terminals–than you are. You can command them to do all sorts of things.
66. There are more collectibles in Fallout 4 than in any prior Bethesda game. From Vault-Tec bobbleheads to a variety of stat-increasing magazines, the rare finds are plenty.
67. At higher difficulties, more Legendary enemies will appear. That means the frequency of Legendary loot is also higher.
68. You can store an unlimited amount of Junk, as well as weapon, apparel, and other items, in workstations at workshop settlements throughout the world.
69. Through a combination of rotating and changing elevation, you can often get a Settlement item that’s initially red to turn green and become placeable.
70. Reaching the highest affinity level with a Companion–whether that relationship be romantic or platonic–will unlock an exclusive Perk.