Bethesda s open-world RPGs have been heavily invested in crafting systems for several years now, but Fallout 4 takes the idea to a new level. Every broom, bucket, and battery in the Commonwealth can be broken down into component parts. Scavenging this junk gives you the screws, metal, aluminum, acid, oil, and glue you need to make guns, strengthen armor, and rebuild the post-apocalyptic world.
The trouble is, Fallout 4 isn t terribly interested in showing you how all this works. Need a hand? We ve got you covered. This guide is spoiler free, so check it if you need help with any crafting job. In this guide we cover weapons, armor, looting, settlements, and power armor.
For more, check out the best Fallout 4 mods and our list of Fallout 4 console commands.
Weapons
Perks to invest in: Science level 1, Gun Nut level 2
Even if you avoid the settlement-building, just about every Wastelander is going to want to modify their weapons. And why not? With weapon mods, even the lowly 10mm pistol can explode a super mutant skull at 50 paces.
Storing junk in the workbench stocks your ingredients, but you don t need to break them down by hand. Just stick that old basketball into the workbench, and when a recipe calls for rubber, the bench will strip down the ball automatically. It works the same way for any ingredient: just press R on the workbench to Transfer, then press T to Store All Junk.
At the lowest levels, guns like the double-barrel shotgun, hunting rifle, and 10mm pistol can be modified by almost anyone. To reach the highest levels of these basic weapons, though, you ll need to invest a couple of points in Gun Nut. The most advanced weapons, like the Fat Man launcher, Minigun, and Flamer, will require three or four levels in Gun Nut. Tinkering around with energy weapons like the plasma rifle or laser pistol is a little more specialized, and you ll need both Gun Nut and Science to make it work.
Armor
Perks to invest in: Armorer level 3, Blacksmith level 2, Science level 1
Your power armor does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to keeping your hide water tight. That walking tank is good for almost any situation, but most people like to wear armor underneath. Not only does the protection stack up with more layers, but most armor looks cool. If you ever need to go without your power armor, it would be good to have some protection on hand.
Armor crafting options are much more limited than weaponsmithing or modifying power armor. Still, you can take any vanilla piece of armor in your kit and make it stronger, lighter, and better for your type of character. Each type or armor has a specific strengths:
- Raider armor: weak against everything. Feed to nearest molerat.
- Leather armor: strong against energy damage, weak against ballistic damage
- Metal armor: strong against ballistic damage, weak against energy damage
- Combat armor: stronger against both ballistic and energy damage
- Synth armor: superior protection against all types of damage
Armor sets are formed as pieces, so feel free to mix and match. Armor pieces also stack on top of most types of clothing. Military uniforms provide a good base for armor and some bonus damage resistance, including: the Brotherhood of Steel uniform, Road Leathers (for the Mad Max look), and the Drifter outfit.
Further, limb armor segments can be modified to provide better stability for long-range shooters or bonus damage for hand-to-hand combat. Depending on your character, you ll want different modifications for different bonuses. Keep in mind that most melee characters will need the Blacksmith perk to add melee bonuses to their armor. Modifying high-tech armors like advanced ballistic combat armor or nanofiber synth armor will require one or two levels in Science.
Looting
Perks to invest in: Scrounger, Strength (to increase carry weight)
Sorting through piles and piles of junk in Fallout 4 can be a bit exhausting, not least because Bethesda s in-game menus continue to be absolute bum. As you comb over ruins, should you pick up that toy rocketship? What about the desk fan? Do you need an empty bottle of antifreeze?
The only real solution to this problem is to tag ingredients for a search. There are two ways of doing this.
If you have an ingredient and want more of it:
- Go to Pip-Boy
- Go to Junk
- Press C for Component View
- Find the ingredient ( acid, rubber, lead, etc.) and tag is for search.
If you don t have an ingredient and want to find some:
- Go to a crafting station
- Go to the modification you want to build, but can t
- Press T, and all missing ingredients will be tagged.
After tagging an ingredient, a magnifying glass will show up next to the item s name in the wild. With the magnifying glass, you can see that you don t need that toy rocketship, but the toy car will get you something useful. With Scrounger level 2, objects and containers you ve tagged will actually glow in your HUD.
Finding rare ingredients
The two rarest substances in Fallout 4 are oil and adhesive. All the duct tape and wonderglue in the Commonwealth isn t enough for dedicated crafters, and making any machinery won t work without lubricating oil. Luckily, there s a way to make these two substances on your own.
Adhesive
Get a healthy farm going in your settlement, consisting of a water purifier, and a garden with Tato, Mutfruit, and corn. Use nearby settlements to plant more of these three cash crops, then head to the cooking station. Look for the Utility category, select Vegetable Starch, and combine 3 corn, 3 Mutfruit, 1 purified water, and 3 Tato. Each batch produces one unit of vegetable starch, which breaks down into 5 units of adhesive.
Oil
Finding the chemistry station in Sanctuary is a bit of a challenge; some people don t even know it exists. From the bridge into town, turn an immediate left toward the first house on the street. Hidden behind this house is a rusty chemistry station, the leftover from a pre-War meth operation in the Boston suburbia.
The oil recipe is more dependant on scrounging than farming. In particular look out for Abraxo cleaner, batteries, teeth, and skulls. Go to the chemistry station, look again for Utility, and select Cutting Fluid. Combine 2 acid, 8 bone, 2 water, and 3 steel to make a small can of cutting fluid, which breaks down into 3 units of oil.
On the next page: settlements...
Settlements
Perks to invest in: Scrounger, Local Leader level 2, Cap Collector
Settlements are easily skipped if they re not your gig, but I d encourage you to spend some time with them. For all its charm, the Commonwealth is a big and sterile place. Advancing the Minutemen plot and building my settlements made the world feel more real to me, and having a network of safe houses and towns to resupply in is convenient.
So how do you make it work?
Step 1: Scrap
Enter settlement mode by holding down the middle mouse button, V, or by activating the large red settlement workstation. You ll see lots of outlines over everything. Wander around point at almost any object, and hit R to scrap it. Bust up trees for wood, old cars for steel, and bathtubs for ceramic. No only is it nice to clean up the world a little bit, building houses takes a monstrous amount of materials.
Step 2: Buildings
Clear off foundations in Sanctuary by approaching a ruined building, a house that has completely collapsed. You can scrap the entire thing in one go for a nice, level surface to build on. In its place, you can plop down a pre-fabricated shack made out of metal or wood. You can also build structures one floor panel and wall at a time. When you ve got compatible pieces, they ll snap together like Lego. Press E to pick up a placed object; hold E to pick up the object and any objects near or around it. Be careful with this one—you can hold E and pick up and entire building to move it.
If you re having trouble with the placement of objects, try the welcome mat trick. Place a welcome mat, then place your building parts on top of it. Target the welcome mat and hold E. The entire section will move around, but only the small welcome mat will be a solid object. This is great for placing doorways or tricky wall sections that are colliding with objects around them. For more, see this excellent tutorial video describing the process.
Add beds, chairs and decorations to buildings when you re finished. Settlers need a place to sleep.
Step 3: Power
Electricity comes in two forms: direct lines and ambient. Ambient power is just how it sounds: if you have a wire going from a generator to a conduit, all small by electronics work. Rather than have a whole mess of wires running all over the inside of the house, a better bet is to place a generator and string wire along the outside of the building. Any lightbulbs, fans, and radios within ten feet of the wires will light up.
Direct lines are for heavier energy users. Radio beacons, shop lights, and computers have a number next to their electricity symbol, noting the number of power units they require. Really big equipment will need larger generators because they run on more power than the smallest generators produce. To power something that needs a direct line, place the object, place the generator, and press space on each object to connect them.
Step 4: Water
Adding a water pump to any patch of dirt is easy, but it s not the best solution. Pump water is dirty, and each pump only adds a little to the supply. If you have standing or flowing water nearby, build a water purifier. Purifiers need a dedicated power line from a nearby generator, but after all that work they ll deposit clean water into the workshop inventory regularly.
Step 5: Food
Crops can be placed on any dirt floor. For some settlements, this is basically anywhere. For others, like the Starlight Drive-in, pavement is almost everywhere. For crafting purposes, I prefer to plant corn, Mutfruit, and Tato plants. To plant and harvest food, enter settlement mode. Select the plant (under Resources>Food), find a suitable spot and press E. While still in settlement mode, press E to select a nearby settler, then E again on the plant. This assigns the settler to farm that plant.
Settlers can look after six units of food: that can mean six Mutfruit plants (one unit each) or 12 stalks of corn (half a unit each), or any combination in between. If you see a plant that never has crops when you try to pick it, it s because no one is tending it.
Step 6: Commerce and Security
Eventually, you ll need supply lines. After you ve unlocked Local Leader (which requires six points in Charisma, by the way), you ll be able to connect your settlements in a network. Settlements in the network share goods. At a settlement, enter settlement mode and select a settler. Tell them to connect a supply line, then choose which settlement you want them to trade with.
With Local Leader level 2, you can establish shops (which pay you a cut of their earnings) and make new workbenches. You ll also need to establish guard posts and turrets to provide security, or raiders will come and take everything you ve built. Walls are good, too, but walls themselves don t count toward your security score. Use walls to funnel attackers toward one avenue of approach, then line that road with rows of turrets and angry guards.
Don t forget that you can trade with any settler, which means you can force them to equip certain clothes and weapons. Give your gate guards a decent rifle and a suit of armor. Give your shopkeepers a sharp-looking suit. Do whatever you can to pull this craphole out of the radioactive stone age.
On the next page: power armor...
Power armor
Perks to invest in: Armorer, Science, Blacksmith
Power armor as a mobile, upgradeable vehicle is my favorite new thing about Fallout. It s such a natural fit; I never really felt like previous games took power armor seriously as a thing you climb into. It s not a high-tech shirt, it s a tank!
You start with a suit of T-45 armor from almost the beginning of the game, but power armor needs fuel to run. Nuclear batteries provide the juice, but they re somewhat rare. Especially in the early game, avoid running and using VATS if you want your power armor battery to last.
To modify your power armor, walk it face-first into the wall behind the power armor station and exit your armor. Look at the station frame and choose Craft. This will turn the armor around and put it a good distance away from the frame so you can move around it.
All power armors start with a frame, and all power armor frames are identical. Frames can be bought from most weapons merchants in the game, but they re pricey. Far better to find extras in high-level raider camps or pre-War military checkpoints.
Any armor piece can be put on any frame, and it s OK to mix and match. The armor types are:
- Raider: Cobbled together with rebar and iron by industrious raiders
- T-45: Vintage, original power armor. For power armor hipsters.
- T-51: More advanced early power armor
- T-60: The best power armor available when the bombs fell
- X-01: Advanced power armor developed after the Great War
Each piece of each armor set can be modified and improved. Raider armor has two levels of strength, but the other sets can be upgraded in multiple layers of strength and durability. Extra mods to power armor legs can increase carry weight and sprint speed, while power armor arms can be modified to do extra melee damage. The torso and helmet sections require a lot of science to upgrade, but they can do things like increase VATS damage, scrub food and water for radiation, and electrify nearby enemies.
To design a set of armor, go up to the frame and press R to Transfer. Transfer all of the armor pieces you want that frame to wear, then select the power armor station to improve and repair those armor pieces. To enter the armor, approach it from behind and press E. Your character will jam in a battery, open it up, and climb in.
Now you re ready to blow up the whole world. Again.
