Beginner's Guide to Fallout 4: Tips and Tricks

This is a beginner's guide to Fallout 4 (FO4). Learn about trips and tricks and all the things you should know when playing Fallout 4 in this beginner's guide!

Beginner's Guide to Fallout 4

13 Tips and Tricks to Get You Started

① Difficulty Affects Damage Dealt and Received ② Best Starting Attributes ③ Use the Pip-Boy For Information ④ Don't Miss the Special Items at Your House ⑤ How to Level Up Fast ⑥ Take the Best Early Game Perks ⑦ Collect and Store Junk Items ⑧ Upgrade Weapons and Armor Often ⑨ Be Careful of Radiation ⑩ Learn How to Use V.A.T.S. in Combat ⑪ Bring Companions to Fight With You ⑫ Utilize Power Armor for Difficult Encounters ⑬ Build Water Purifiers and Sell Water for Caps

Difficulty Affects Damage Dealt and Received

Fallout 4 has a total of six difficulty modes that affects various aspects of gameplay but mainly the player's damage dealt and received to make your game easier or harder.

Difficulty	Damage Dealt	Damage Received
Very Easy	200%	50%
Easy	150%	75%
Normal	100%	100%
Hard	75%	150%
Very Hard	50%	200%
Survival	50%	200%

By default the game starts out in Normal mode with no modifiers to the damage you deal or receive. For new players, it's best to stick to Normal difficulty or lower so you'll be able to learn the game much easier. The difficulty can be changed anytime in the settings in-game.

Survival mode has the same base modifiers as Very Hard but includes many other changes to gameplay such as disabled fast travel, fatigue, hunger, and thirst. Avoid playing in Survival difficulty for your first time.

Best Starting Attributes

When you first start the game, you will have to allocate points into your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes. You have a total of 21 points to distribute at the start to any of the attributes. Each attribute affects different aspects of your gameplay in Fallout 4 so it's important to distribute these carefully especially at the start.

The attributes you should prioritize depend on the kind of build you want to make. For melee-focused builds you would prioritize Strength and Endurance, while ranged-focused builds would invest more on Perception and Agility.

Generalist Build

Starting Attributes
Strength	6
Perception	4
Endurance	3
Charisma	3
Intelligence	9
Agility	2
Luck	1

This build focuses on high Intelligence to increase XP gains significantly right from the get-go so you level up faster. Enough points are also distributed on other attributes to unlock useful perks that help you early on while exploring.

• 6 Strength unlocks Strong Back to increase your carry weight.
• 4 Perception unlocks Locksmith for lockpicking anything you come across.
• 3 Endurance unlocks Life Giver for increased maximum health.
• 3 Charisma unlocks Lone Wanderer for extra bonuses when you don't have companions but will still work with Dogmeat.
• 9 Intelligence mainly for increased XP but also unlocks Gun Nut for gun mods.

Use Pip-Boy to Access Map, Favorite Items, and Use Flashlight

The Pip-Boy you obtain from the initial starting zone records and contains almost everything from your adventures. Learn how to use the Pip-Boy menu to manage inventory, track quests, look up the map, and access the Perk Chart among other things.

Assign Items as Favorites to Easily Use Them On the Go

You can favorite items and assign them to a shortcut using the Pip-Boy Inventory menu. Use this for important items such as weapons, armor, and consumables so you can access them much quicker than opening the Pip-Boy everytime.

Flashlight in the Dark

The Pip-Boy has a nifty feature where if you hold the Pip-Boy menu button for a bit, it turns on its flashlight. You can use this to better see in the dark.

Don't Miss the Special Items at Your House

After leaving the vault for the first time, you should head to your ruined house to pick up the Grognak the Barbarian magazine and the You're SPECIAL! book. These items give you a free perk and an attribute point to help in the early levels.

Located on the bar counter in the living room.

Located in the baby room under the dresser.

All Magazine Locations Map

Look Out for Magazines and Bobbleheads

There are many other perk magazines and items called bobbleheads that increase an attribute by one point found throughout the game. Raising an attribute by one point this way will still give you access to the next perk in that SPECIAL attribute’s branch. Be on the lookout for these items to get stronger.

All Bobblehead Locations Map

How to Level Up Fast

Method	Rating
Sleeping for Well Rested Buff	★★★★★
Raising Intelligence	★★★★
Eating Squirrel Stew	★★

Earning experience points (XP) allows your character to level up and earn points to spend on attributes or perks. XP can be earned through most activities in the wasteland such as killing enemies and completing quests.

Any XP earned can be further increased by modifiers gained through various means helping you to level up faster. The easiest ways to get these modifiers are listed below.

Sleep in Bed for the Well Rested Buff

Sleeping in any bed owned/rented by the player for any amount of time gives you the Well Rested buff increasing XP gained by 10% for 8 in-game hours. This is the simplest way to increase XP earned so try to sleep for at least an hour to keep the buff up all the time.

Note: Playing in Survival Mode requires you to sleep for a minimum of 7 hours to get the Well Rested buff and it additionally grants +2 to both Endurance and Agility.

Level Up Intelligence

Each attribute point in Intelligence increases XP earned by 3% making it a valuable investment. Although it may come at the cost of other attributes and perks, Fallout 4 does not have a level cap so you'll eventually be able to earn enough levels to max out everything.

Best Intelligence Perks

Eat Squirrel Stew

Eating Squirrel Stew increases XP earned by 2% for 2 hours which might be small, but can be made in abundance early on in the game. It can be crafted at any cooking station with ingredients obtainable early.

Best Perks for Early Game

 

Perk	Effect
Strong Back (Strength 6)	Increased carry weight.
Locksmith (Perception 4)	Lockpick advanced locks.
Life Giver (Endurance 3)	Increased maximum health.
Lone Wanderer (Charisma 3)	Bonuses for not bringing a companion (except Dogmeat).
Gun Nut (Intelligence 3)	Unlocks access to gun mods at a workbench.
Sneak (Agility 3)	Become harder to detect when sneaking.
Idiot Savant (Luck 5)	Chance to multiply any XP earned.

Best Perks Tier List

Collect and Store Junk Items For Scrapping

You'll find a lot of junk items in your adventures across the wasteland. Junk items are not entirely useless since they can be scrapped to obtain materials used for crafting. Collect as much junk as you can without getting encumbered and store them at the workbench for scrapping later.

You won't need to scrap items manually by hand, the game will prompt you to scrap items as you need them when crafting/building. Duplicate or weaker weapons and armor can also be scrapped for materials.

Tag Materials for Easier Collection

Materials can be tagged for searching letting you track which junk items contain that specific material indicated by a magnifying glass symbol. Use this feature to make it easier for you to look for a certain material that you need for crafting. This can be done by going into component view under the Junk inventory tab in the Pip-Boy.

Store Items in Containers at a Settlement

Items can be stored in containers and workshops for storage so you won't have to always bring them along. Store your extra weapons, armor, materials and other junk items to avoid being encumbered and make space for loot that you'll come across.

Settlement Map and All Settlement List

Upgrade Weapons and Armor Often

Weapons and armor can be modified and upgraded to have better stats at a workbench. Always check to see if there's anything you can upgrade, you should have enough materials for them from collecting junk items.

Be Careful of Radiation

Radiation or rads is an environmental hazard caused by the nuclear fallout. Getting close to these hazards such as irradiated rivers or toxic gases causes your character to incur radiation poisoning measured by rads which decrease your maximum health by 1% for every 10 rads.

Radiation poisoning has to be cured to remove it and restore your maximum HP. This can be done through various ways but primarily through the Rad-Away consumable. Be careful of any radiation you'll come across.

Learn How to Use V.A.T.S. in Combat

Fallout 4 has a unique combat system called the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System that you can use instead of normal combat. In this system, whether you can hit an enemy or not is purely based on stats and removes human error from the action. The system is entirely optional and you can play through the game without it.

Bring Companions to Fight With You

Make sure to bring companions along with you when questing around the wastelands. Companions will make your life easier as they are able to help you in combat and may also tank some hits and bullets for you.

Best Companions and All Companions List

Utilize Power Armor for Difficult Encounters

Power Armor can be unlocked early on in the story and it greatly improves your survivability taking much less damage while wearing one. It also bumps up your strength significantly higher letting you carry more stuff.

Grab Fusion Cores for Power Armor

Using a Power Armor requires a Fusion Core as a power source to perform actions while wearing the armor. It's a consumable that cannot be recharged once it depletes so be sure to grab all the fusion cores you find.

Build Water Purifiers and Sell Purified Water to Farm Caps

Water Purifiers can be built at the settlement to passively generate Purified Water that can be sold at a merchant for caps. These purifiers require power to operate but the value they bring more than makes up for it. If you can, make a lot of water purifiers to increase production which means more caps to earn.

All Tips and Tricks

General Tips and Tricks
How to Wait	Hacking Explained: How to Hack Terminals
Can You Respec?	Suggs Location
Best Starting Stats	Caps Farming
Supply Lines Explained	How to Level Up Fast
Jacob's Password Location	How to Get More Settlers
How to Fix Mysterious Signal Bug	Are Scavenging Stations Worth It?
How to Save Kent Connolly	What to Do With Mysterious Serum
Best Ending and All Endings Guide	How to Assign Workers
What is the Max Level? Level Cap Explained	How to Holster Weapon
List of Missables and Points of No Return	How to Tag for Search
How to Scrap Junk	How to Get Rid of Molerat Disease
How to Get Ballistic Weave	How to Get Grape Mentats

Fallout 4 Related Guides

Fallout 4 Wiki

Fallout 4 Walkthrough Wiki

Game8 Fallout 4 Guides
Perk Chart	Map
Main Quests	Side Quests
IDs and Item Codes	Companions
Weapons	Armor and Clothing
Power Armor	Factions
Tips and Tricks	Materials
Achievements	-

Fallout 4 Recommended Guides

Collectibles and Locations
All Bobblehead Locations	All Magazine Locations
All Fusion Core Locations	All Chemistry Station Locations
Next-Gen Update Added Items
De-Capitalist Helmet	Halloween Decorations