This guide will go over a plethora of different topics, such as the perils of survival mode, early game grinding, early perks, weapon type playstyles, DLC advantages (ignore if you don't have the same DLCs), and settlement management.

Most of my info is derived from multiple playthroughs and XBOX and some breakthroughs in my current PC FO4 playthrough.

[]Legend[]
XP: Experience
HP: Health
AP: Action Points
STR: Strength
PER: Perception
END: Endurance
CHR: Charisma
INT: Intelligence
AGI: Agility
LCK: Luck
RAD: Radiation

Survival mode is the hardest diffictulty in-game. The added perils to make your experience much hard is that all of your enemies deal 4x DMG, which is double that of Very Hard's '2x'. You now have to manually save by sleeping in beds, hunger and thirst is now a need you have to keep track of and manage so you don't lose SPECIAL points, fast travel is disabled, ammunition now has weight, your inventory size is reduced, and your Stimpaks and Radaway do not work as fast. That is just the tip of the iceberg with how many obstacles are added to your playthroughs.

The saving grace in this is the 1.5x increase to your base DMG with all weapons, 2x more XP from enemies, and the adrenaline perk. The adrenaline perk works as a risk/reward type system; the more enemies you kill, the more DMG you deal! Risk comes to your progress since not saving could lead to losing 15 minutes of progress or either walking to a place for 10 minutes, to then get killed by a Raider wielding a Fat Man at Libertalia. Not all of the info for the additions survival mode adds is here because I want to focus on playstyles rather than an extensive dive into survival.

If you decide to go straight to Concord to help Garvey, you will die.

To curb this, taking advantage of Sanctuary will be critical to getting some early levels.
I recommend using a macro to do this because it takes a lot of button mashing to do everything hundreds of times.

It is best to use shelves since they can stack within each other, thus allowing for many to be built in a very short amount of time. This will net you a good amount of level up in Sanctuary before heading out. You can use the points to get stronger and maybe upgrade your 10mm pistol or pipe gun, the extent in which you can depending on whether or not you put a point to gun nut.

I'd recommend grinding to level 10 before heading out but you can go higher or lower if you want to make sure you can take them on (and survive a molotov) or you have the macho to get them early. From then on, it is your choice on whether or not you have the damage output or resistance to take on the many menaces that glitchily roam the world.

A bit after Concord, you'll be about level 15 after a few quests and raider clearings. You will have to make base somewhere to call home with all of the scrap you collect. I'd say Hangman's Alley is the best out of all settlements. Yes, there are some raiders that need to be wiped before claiming the territory but it is worth it. The settlement is practically a neighbour to Diamond City, allowing quick access to the shops. It is also in the lower half of the map, where most of the story content takes place. Since it is near the middle, trips will be nearly equal length.

There are a few perks you can get early on that can help you out a lot in the long run. These will have various buff that will make your character do much better at certain tasks that are generally recurring in-game.

Idiot Savant: This perk gives you a chance of tripling XP from any source. That means kills from enemies that give XP (there are a few who don't), lock-picking, hacking, quest rewards, charisma checks, and crafting will have a chance of receive a large boost.
The chance increases depending on how low your intelligence is. I often keep a maximum of 6 INT for my characters but 10 or higher could acts as a risk/reward scenario since you have a low chance for it to trigger but high rewards with the boosts to XP from INT. Upgrading this to its next 2 tiers will increase the multiplier to 5x and have and chance within to trigger a buff where all XP is boosted by 3x.

Bloody Mess: It's just a straight boost to DMG... Simple and good for any build.

Life Giver: More HP is really good for early game. Getting 20 or 40 more HP is useful since endurance in early game doesn't give that much, late game it does but this perk is worth it in the early parts. It's third tier grants 20 HP more and grants HP regen, exactly 0.5% every second.
This regen only works outside of combat but it really saves you on using a stimpak as you travel the Commonwealth without fast travel.

Aquaboy/Aquagirl: This is an incredible perk. Not only does it negate radiation from water, it also allows for water breathing. Back during my time on Xbox, I used this to avoid the city areas to avoid intense lag spikes, crashes, and soft locks. It can also be used as a straight shortcut to locations, such as going from The Castle to The Prydwen in a straight line rather than taking two to three times the time by walking on land. All of this is within the first perk tier and it only needs 5 END. The second rank can even get you back into being hidden when submerged in water.

In Fallout 4, there are 7 weapon types to choose from: pistol, rifle, automatic, heavy, unarmed, melee, and explosive. All of these can be used in their own way to turn a build into a death dealing machine.


Pistol: These are weapons for lightweight users. The 10mm is a mainstay for this. These weapons at endgame are rather lightweight compared to rifles, great VATS consumption and use ammo types that are light. It can also disarm enemies of their weapons and break bones.


Rifle: This heads into a more META direction. All DMG dealt with single-shot rifles are increased with the Rifleman perk and this focuses on getting the most amount of DMG per shot. The weight starts to pick up here and ammo types like 308. and 45. rounds are more heavy than 10mm. VATS use is decreased but you can ignore 30% of enemies' armour. A combat shotgun can be used for close quarters combat, recommended for smaller or cramped areas. This weapon can be turned into a funnel of death if you are lucky enough to obtain one with a legendary explosive prefix, meaning each pellet will deal 15 explosive damage.

The Overseer's Guardian (Combat Rifle) is one of the best rifles you can get, it uses 45. rounds, deals over 200 DMG when maxed out, and can work well at most ranges. A Gauss Rifle is best used for long range attacks and can deal over 400 DMG when fully upgraded, but the ammo is more rare and expensive.


Automatic: A lot of weapons can be switched into automatic weapons. These often have high DPS but ammo consumption is rather high. The recoil of weapons is decreased and it can stagger enemies at higher ranks. Most notable weapon for this is the Spray N' Pray, a unique sub machine gun that has the explosive prefix and can be bought from Cricket.


Heavy: There are only a few heavy weapons and can be useful. I personally don't use these weapons due to how much damage they deal compared to the weight. A single vanilla missile is 7 units of weight. Sure, the missile launcher can be improved to deal a whopping 651 DMG per projectile using Heavy Gunner, Demolition Expert, and the Explosives Bobblehead, but 10 missiles will still take 70 units within your inventory.

My most preferred Heavy weapon would be the Gatling Laser with an unlimited magazine legendary prefix on it. The most guaranteed way to get one is to do the arena fights in the Nuka World dlc, and fight a Brotherhood of Steel outcast who wields the Aeternum.


Unarmed: This damage dealt through weapons that make your character punch enemies. Most notable unarmed weapons is from Swan, The Furious Power Fist, a weapon that increases its damage with every hit.


Melee: Most melee becomes useless when not in stealth in Survival. The Ninja perk can increase stealth attacks bonus for melee to deal 10x base damage. This can be upgraded to deal more damage, hit all enemies in front of you, disarm, and cripple enemies. A mix of Blitz and Gun-Fu can be used the compound the damage even further, letting you be able to clear out entire rooms. The best melee weapon for this would be the disciples blade.


Explosive: There are not many weapons that deal explosive damage. The main ones that do this type are grenades, mines, the fat man, the missile launcher, and any weapon with an legendary explosive prefix on it. You can get a grenade arc when investing into explosives expert.

This part is useless if you plan to not play the game with DLC.

The dlcs add more content for you to play with and can come with some unseen advantages. Most notable being additions to perks.


Given by Nuka World

V.A.N.S.: Rank 2 that gives more 2 more PER.

Steady Aim: Rank 3 that boosts DMG when shot from the hip.

Attack Dog: Rank 4 gives 10% DMG reduction when with Dogmeat

Quick Hands: Rank 3 gives 10 AP.

Mysterious Stranger: Rank 4 has higher chance of occurring and refilling critical meter.

Ghoulish: Rank 4 heals RAD DMG.

Awareness: Rank 2 with 5% more ACC and DMG.


Given by Far Harbor

Scrapper: Rank 3 that increases scrap collected from weapons and armor

Lone Wanderer: Rank 4 giving 25 AP when not travelling with a companion (also works with Attack Dog since Dogmeat is not considered a companion).

Action Boy / Action Girl: Rank 3 has 75% faster AP regeneration.

Critical Banker: Rank 4 with the ability to save 4 critical hits.

Rad Resistant: Rank 4 40 RAD resistance.

Night Person: Rank 3, +30 HP between 6 PM and 6 AM.

Strong Back: Running costs 50% less AP while over-encumbered.

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