Best Fallout Mods Guide

Latest posts by Adam Braunstein (see all)

Fallout 4 is one of those games that, in my opinion, does not get enough credit. It had the arduous task of following up Fallout 3, which was a masterpiece in so many ways and being Bethesda’s next big release after the immortal Skyrim. Even with that enormous pressure, everything worked out quite well as Fallout 4 was a significant hit and continues to be heavily played to this day.

Now, purists of the Fallout series will surely cry that “this wasn’t even an RPG” and all manors of critiques, but when it comes down to it, Bethesda are geniuses at creating worlds that are just absurdly addictive to explore. That being said, we know where the real fruits of all their games genuinely come to ripen, which is within the mod community.

Although it’s a little less populated than the insane Skyrim mod catalog, Fallout 4 mods are still a wonderous and lengthy list of some incredible additions to the base game that add everything from weapons and armor to entirely new quests well as different ways to experience the main quest. Let’s dig in and find the gems.

Armorsmith Extended

Armorsmith Extended

One of the coolest parts of Fallout games is how it reimagines what armor would look like in a post-apocalyptic world. While movies have certainly explored this, such as Mad Max, there is something unique about how Fallout 4 armor feels compared to any other armor in the medium. However, a big issue is how the game lets you wear the armor.

See, you can’t combine armor and clothes for the most part, which leaves you generally left with one or the other despite how logical it would be to have both on at the same time, considering, you know, deadly radiation everywhere you look. Armorsmith extended fixes that problem and adds a significant number of tweaks to how the armor system works in general.

There are now ways to customize armor to make it bigger, smaller, or invisible; multiple new weaves have been created that can be added on to any kind of armor you please, and a host of other additions.

Not only is the armor system completely overhauled, but you also will get changes to the H.U.D., specifically in the targeting department, which gives you an excellent recognition component that highlights friends, foes, or corpses in the area. There are so many tweaks that this mod offers that it can’t possibly all fit here.

Still, the mod author does a great job of breaking everything down, so if you’re tired of getting lit up by Super Mutants or wish you could wear that excellent overcoat under your barbed wire armor, then Armorsmith Extended is the way to go.

Full Dialogue Interface

Full Dialogue Interface

In Fallout 4, there is a dialogue tree as there have been in many games before, but the big difference is now those lines are all completely voiced by your main character. While this seems like an obvious statement to make these days, that’s pretty much the norm in most games; the Fallout series had always gone with a voiceless protagonist in the past because that allowed more roleplaying to be done by the player.

The addition of the voiced protagonist was great in some ways but ultimately a disaster in others, and the biggest issue is that they NEVER say what choice you pick. For example, let’s say you wanted to approve of a situation and the option you choose is “I think it’s a good idea.”

Instead of saying that, your character will say something like, “Overall, it might work, though I’m not sure you should go around telling people that.” Just like that, the game decides what will be said for you without your input. The illusion of choice is a big no-no in gaming, and luckily, Full Dialogue Interface comes to the rescue by solving this issue.

This mod completely remedies the problem of misleading dialogue choices by giving you the full sentence your character is going to say instead of just a paraphrase. You can now see exactly what you want to say, and that change makes so many conversations play out differently because you’re no longer going to be surprised by what your character is saying.

The interface gets overhauled as well, and you’ll be able to see your choices in a list a la older Fallout games instead of the diamond-shaped interface Fallout 4 has typically. If roleplaying means a lot to you during your playthrough, this mod is crucial to get that experience, and you’ll no longer steer conversations down the wrong path and have the game play out as you truly choose it to.

Traits and More Perks

Traits and More Perks

The roleplaying aspect of Fallout has always been heavily emphasized as games like Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas had so many branching paths you could travel down depending on not only what you said but what your character traits were. Fallout 4 does not have traits and instead has perks, which are helpful in many ways. Traits, however, offer a different flavor as they can help you but only at a cost.

The risk-reward system introduced by Traits and More Perks is impressive and completely changes how you create a character. The phrase character build is now happily reintroduced into the Fallout lexicon.

The traits are wildly varied, too, and Four Eyes is a personal favorite. This trait gives you +1 perception when wearing any kind of eyewear in the game but gives you -1 perception when you’re not wearing them. There are also new perks with some excellent options like Confirmed Bachelor, which makes men suffer 5% more damage in combat and makes them much easier to persuade in conversations.

This type of immersion has always been sorely missed in Fallout 4, and this mod is a great way to introduce it back into the game.

True Storms- Wasteland Edition

true storms

A carryover mod from Skyrim, which was already one of the highest-ranked mods of all time in that game, True Storms- Wasteland Edition makes a flawless transition into the post-apocalyptic Commonwealth by adding a ton to the weather system of Fallout 4. This isn’t just a direct port it and call it a day job by the mod creator either, as this fully embraces the Fallout 4 atmosphere to create specific weather for this world.

That means dust storms, radiation rains, heavy rain, crazy new particle effects, sound effects, new-looking normal weathers, and so much more.

These weathers don’t just happen randomly, so to see everything, you’ve got some exploring to do. Not only does it change what you’re seeing on the outside, but indoor locations will also be affected by the weather too, and it’s a terrific way to make the game feel all the more immersive. Lightning now streaks across the sky during thunderstorms, and you also get a buff to your sneak ability during these situations as well, impacting gameplay even more.

If you’re feeling courageous, you can customize the chance of Feral Ghoul attacks happening during a radiation storm, which adds more fear to an already terrifying event. You can configure everything in this mod from a Holotape in your inventory, too, so feel free to make your world as clear or as chaotic as you want it to be.

Sim Settlements

sim settlement

Building your own settlement is an awesome if oft-forgotten part of what makes the gameplay in Fallout 4 so much fun to do. You can build defenses, set up apartments to live in, and pretty much create your settlement from scratch. It’s not too realistic as it’s just you, a non-architect making all these unique structures from raw materials, but it’s good fun for gameplay purposes.

The problem is that the game world is constantly begging you to explore it, and creating these settlements takes up a lot of your time. What if you could have these settlements built while you were out there in the Commonwealth exploring and taking down raider camps. Does that sound like having your cake and eating it too? Well, that’s because, with Sim Settlements, you get to do just that.

Since you’re such an influential figure in the Commonwealth throughout the story, it only makes sense that you can command settlers in your settlements to do your building for you. This means that you will be able to create massive, functioning cities depending on what you direct your settlers to do.

The buildings get chosen at random, but you get to create an outline for the settlers to follow, and then their A.I. takes that and runs with it. This isn’t just pretty to look at either, as there are some fantastic benefits to this system as well. Every building you create will be upgradeable that can be unlocked throughout your playthrough, and each time, you will benefit from each one.

The settlers themselves also are entirely reworked too, and some have unique stories to explore and will create homes unique to them. They will usually be fully interacting with the society you’ve directed them to complete as well, and watching full, functioning cities forming before your eyes is an incredible thing to witness, let alone comprehend how a modder figured out how to do this while Bethesda could not.

No longer will the settlements of Fallout 4 feel so disconnected from the larger game world, and instead, your brilliant new cities will help you along the way and grow alongside you as well.

Commonwealth Cuts

Commonwealth Cuts

Seeing as you’re going to be around people a lot of your time in Fallout 4, it makes sense that they would at least have a bit of visual appeal at times, no? While the ghouls will never be too attractive, the citizens who still have their wits about them have no excuse to at least have some cool looks going on. I mean, Diamond City has a barber, so why the hell is everyone’s haircut in Fallout 4 looks like someone took a woodchipper to their hair?

Commonwealth Cuts introduces a slew of brand new hairstyles and colors to add a little personality to the tons of N.P.C.s you’re going to encounter throughout your time in the Commonwealth.

The range of hairstyles added here is pretty incredible. Not only do they look way better than the vanilla cuts, but you’re also going to have complete physics to go along with the hair, which was completely absent in the base version of the game.

This applies to both your main character and the N.P.C.s of the world, so you can expect to see the effect of this mod every time you encounter someone, and that constant impact makes this mod a must-have.

Improved Map With Visible Roads

Improved Map With Visible Roads

Seeing as Skyrim has to this day one of the most impressive maps in video game history from a visual standpoint, it was a huge shock and disappointment to fans everywhere that Fallout 4’s map was just so….boring.

It’s a plain green screen on your Pipboy. While I suppose it’s technically immersive, it really is just dull to look at. Even worse, it has no detail whatsoever, so it’s impossible to know what road leads where and if the path you’re traveling will even get to your destination.

Improved Map With Visibible Roads gives the map a total makeover and adds detailed roads to your Pip-Boy map. This makes it so much easier to navigate where you’re going and clearly shows you not only the streets you’re looking for but also the entire topography of the map and where water is.

This is crucial for those playing on Survival mode as you’ll need to know where water is to survive a lot of the time. With the topography detailed, you’ll understand where to approach your objectives better and not get lost trying to find hidden entrances that were previously not that obvious to see.

Vivid Fallout

vivid fallout

While 5 years ago is not that long ago in the real world, it’s a whole other story in the gaming industry. With the increases in graphics and performance over the past couple of years, games from years past can look positively ancient by comparison. This happens to show its face most noticeably is always within the environments. Muddy textures and random blurs often show their face in older games, and Fallout 4 is no exception, as things can look positively ghastly up close in some regions of the game.

Vivid Fallout fixes all of these rough textures and more by adding several different versions to upgrade your game with depending on what system you’re running. You’ll have options for 1K, 2K, and 4K resolutions to boost your textures by, and you’ll have to try each one to see which your P.C. will support better.

Fixed textures are part of this mod, but the real greatness here comes from brand new textures. Where rocks and bridges were utterly undetailed in the past, they’ll now be fully detailed and fit the theme of the world even more, with bridges looking old and rotted and textures of objects like cars and metal structures looking far more rusted and worn than previously.

No matter what your system is, you can handle some version of this mod, so if you’re looking for a way to make Fallout 4 look like a genuinely post-apocalyptic landscape, Vivid Fallout is an excellent way to start.

Better Settlers

better settlers

To piggyback the Sim Settlements mod, Better Settlers is an excellent way to introduce some personality into the bustling society you’ve created. It adds more than 230 new settlers with their own equipment and stats.

If you aren’t thrilled by the initial offering here, you can then customize all of their stats, equipment, and whether or not they can live or die. To make things more interesting, all of this is entirely randomly generated when you spawn them, so you should never get the same settler twice.

These settlers aren’t just blank slates either as they will defend themselves during raids, use Stimpacks if they have them available, and gain better and better weapons as you get to higher levels. There are many different options to choose from here, and each one is an exciting way to tweak your settlements the way you’d like.

Start Me Up- Alternate Start and Dialogue Overhaul

Start Me Up- Alternate Start and Dialogue Overhaul

Tutorial levels suck. This is a fact that is globally accepted, and there are very few games that give you a tutorial that is not only informative but also fun to play. Fallout 4’s tutorial is neither, and to make things worse, it goes on for far too long.

Look, I know Bethesda was trying to create a vibe of normalcy before the whole world gets blown to hell, but this is neither fun nor exciting. If you were the type of gamer to get bored quickly, you might’ve turned the game off here before you even got to see how incredible the experience gets from this point on.

Instead of the same old dull start for Fallout 4, Start Me Up-Alternate Start and Dialogue Overhaul gives you two different ways to start the game. The Alternate Start option allows you not only to skip the opening sequence but frames the standard start as a dream, and you instead wake up as a completely different person with no relation to Shaun at all! The story here is that you are released from the vault by mistake.

Instead of having a mission to find your son and being given the same basic stats to start, you can choose from 38 different occupations, which affect a ton instead of your starting gear and 38 other start locations, all sorted by difficulty.

You can also pre-level your character so you don’t start as the typical weakling you are when you usually start the game. If you don’t like controlling your fate to this degree, you can choose an option that randomizes all of the above. This will give you a different starting experience every time.

If you don’t like toying with the developer’s intended vision for the game, you can choose the Quick Start option which starts you off in your pod in Vault 111 and follows the normal plotline. This skips all the pre bombing nonsense and lets you get into the meat of the game right off the bat, which everyone will appreciate.

See Through Scopes

see through scope

Fallout 4 has tons of weapons for you to find, and aside from the occasional spiked bat or knife, the majority of those weapons are going to be guns. While the base game does have scopes to some of the guns, most of them are either useless or just look terrible. See Through Scopes is an absolute necessity when it comes to combat in Fallout 4, and the amount of precision it adds to the gunplay is astounding.

You will have brand new scopes for any gun that can be equipped with one, and they all come with different levels of zoom, so depending on your preference, you can create an absurd number of gun combinations. You also now have a hold-breath feature, which is crucial when it comes to sniping in-game. You can customize the reticles and the sway of your aim as well.

The scopes added with this mod are not only beautifully made, but they perfectly fit into Fallout 4. These types of mods typically have some kind of jank to them, but here, the scopes are smooth as can be and it makes any kind of shooting so much more accurate and truly brings Fallout 4’s gunplay into the present which is a huge accomplishment. This is a must-have mod for me and should be a permanent fixture on your mod lists from this point forward.

Lowered Weapons

lowered weapons

This is definitely a smaller mod, but it serves a great purpose nonetheless. With a game that is as dedicated to immersion that Fallout 4 is, it’s an issue when in the first person, your gun is constantly facing forward when you’re running, ready to fire. This is just plain unrealistic, and with Lowered Weapons, you can now see your character run as they really would when carrying a weapon.

This works for every gun in the game, and you’ll no longer be at risk of accidentally killing an N.P.C. It’s an easy mod to add to your list and usually doesn’t conflict with everything, so if you’re a player who plays in first person in Fallout 4, definitely consider adding it to your playthrough.

Eli’s Armour Compendium

Eli's Armour Compendium

More is always better right? When it comes to Fallout 4’s armor, there is a ton to find, but some of it can look rather boring at times, and even though people are just making armor out of junk they can see in the Wasteland, there’s no shame in wanting some armor that’s more aesthetically pleasing. Even if you don’t want it for yourself, the armor on display in Eli’s Armour Compendium gets distributed throughout the game to create some excellent visuals.

The pieces generally fit into the lore perfectly. Fallout 4 decided that color basically no longer existed with its armor selection, and here, a lot of color gets injected back into the game to create a better visual experience.

The various armors all have different stats, so mixing and matching is highly encouraged, as is playing in the third person so you can see just how good all this new equipment looks on you.

Behemoth Weapon Variety

Behemoth Weapon Variety

When searching for mods for Fallout 4, you may just scan the first few pages and call it a day and think you’ve seen all it has to offer. While that’s the easy way to do things, it’s not always the best, and just because a mod is new doesn’t mean it’s unsafe to use or not as good as the popular ones.

In fact, many mods coming out daily are often far more technically advanced than the ones 5 years ago, so checking out the new mod pages always has some merit to it. One of those new mods is Behemoth Weapon Variety.

This simple mod is purely aesthetic in its changes, but what a change it is. When you encounter Behemoths in the game, it’s always a terrifying experience, and now, it gets even crazier as they’ll be wielding things like parking meters, gigantic clocks, telephone poles ripped out of the earth, and even entire trees.

This fits in perfectly with the feel of the game as it wouldn’t be a stretch for these monstrosities to just rip whatever they could find out of the earth to try and bludgeon you with, and this mod just gives them a bunch of options on how to turn you into their next meal.

Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul

reverb and ambiance overhaul

Fallout 4 is a game that is just dripping with atmosphere the whole way through. From the first moment you open the door of vault 111 and set out into this strange and terrifying world, you can just feel the experience in a way that few other games have managed to do.

Part of the reason for that is the game design, but the other huge reason is the game’s ambiance. To amplify that even more, Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul comes in to give a significant boost to that ambiance while tweaking other sounds as well.

The goal of this mod is to make things sound as realistic as possible, and that starts with the guns. Gun sounds in Fallout 4 have a distinct pop to them, and while it may sound fantastic, it rarely echoes the way an actual gunshot would and instead sounds more like an over-the-top action movie at times.

To fix this, the mod uses location to determine what sound bullets will make. So if you’re in a long tunnel and shooting a pistol, it will sound way different than shooting at a Bloatfly in the middle of the forest. In addition to this, ambient sounds have been placed all over. There are two sliders in your audio menu now that you can play with to tweak things, so if a gun seems too loud for your liking, just turn the slider down, and you’ll have your fix.

Among the brand new sounds introduced to the game are birds chirping, cicadas, howling dogs, and wolves, which give off the feeling that this game world is still very much alive despite all the hell it has gone through. This mod will also make encounters with enemies like Deathclaws far more intimidating now as their stomps will be louder and their growls more impressive.

Atomic Radio and Tales From the Commonwealth

Atomic Radio and Tales From the Commonwealth

Certain mods bring small pieces of a game to life and others, completely change the overall vibe, and become integral to every playthrough once you experience them. Atomic Radio and Tales From the Commonwealth is one of those critical mods that once you try, you’ll find yourself needing every time you start up a new game. There are multiple parts to this mod, and each one brings something different to the table.

To start off, we’ve got Atomic Radio. This is a Pre-War radio channel that you can listen to while playing Fallout 4. It contains 5 hours of commercials for products in the Fallout universe, P.S.A.s, various T.V. shows, and movie trailers. It adds a ton of personality that you can flip on any time you’d like during your playthrough and feels like something that should’ve existed in the game world from the get-go.

The main course of this mod is, without a doubt, Tales From the Commonwealth. This is a gigantic mod that adds hundreds of new N.P.C.s to the game and brand new quests, 3 new companions, and tons of new dialogue.

The options here are vast, and depending on who you run into, you could end up joining a gang of raiders and becoming the scourge of the Commonwealth. The mod really tries to bring a whole new layer of adventure to Fallout 4 and succeeds with flying colors.

It has hours upon hours of brand new dialogue, and the followers you find will all have exciting things to say during the quests you decide to take them on. There is so much content here that is top-notch, and all of it is optional, so whenever you feel like taking a break from the beaten path, just check out some of those mysterious radio signals, and you’ll find your way to one of these great quests sooner or later.

Fusion City Rising– Quest Mod Plus

Now we’re getting into the thick of things. Fusion City Rising is not only on the same level size-wise as the Fallout 4 DLCs, but it’s also far superior to them in almost every way. Fusion City doesn’t just introduce a new questline, it gives you an entirely new location to explore, and Fusion City is such an incredible technical accomplishment and an absolute wonder to explore.

What’s on tap here is hours upon hours of new content, including quests, locations, new enemy factions, and a bunch of new companions as well. In terms of how long you’ll end up playing this content, 10-20 hours is what the mod author describes.

As far as Fusion City is all about, you get a massive underground city to explore with its own arena, college, the subway system, player home, shooting ranges, and more. The biggest attraction possibly is Club Fusion, an enormous 15-story nightclub for you to explore that makes most real-life clubs look positively amateur by comparison. You’ve got pools, V.I.P. rooms, tons of N.P.C.s, and a simply bustling atmosphere that fits right in with the end of the world vibe.

To start the main questline of Fusion City Rising, you have to complete one of the following quests. Tradecraft, Tactical Thinking, End of the Line, Inside Job, or Hunter/Hunted need to be finished before the questline becomes available. Once you’ve done that, the quest Remnants of Vault 59 becomes available. From there, visit the Railroad H.Q. and talk to Peter. Once you do that, you’ll be off and running.

For those looking for a new vibe to the Fallout 4 experience, Fusion City Rising will not only be a breath of fresh air, but it’s also an incredibly challenging experience that will give you brand new enemies and bosses to deal with. A must-have for those seeking new content.

Cross Crit Gore- Overhaul

No matter how you decide to play Fallout 4, combat is going to be a massive part of the experience and in this world, combat is brutal and, for the most part, just fine as is. There can always be improvements,  and that’s where Cross Grit Gore- Overhaul comes in.

Throughout your playthrough, you’re going to be using some truly devastating guns from guns that shoot nukes and plasma guns that liquify you, the damage you’ll be doing to your enemies will be insane.

The result of using these guns is usually pretty boring as they’ll either be turned to ash or goo depending on your guns. With this mod, each gun type you use will produce a different kind of gory death.

If you’re using a plasma weapon, you’ll get a wild blue flame engulfing your foe; if it’s an energy weapon, you’ll see a green liquefication take place and any fire-based weapon will leave your enemies charred.

It’s not an essential mod, but for those wanting a bit more flair to their victories, it’s a great way to add more spectacle to the combat.

Bullet Time- Slow Time

bullet time slow time

Fallout 4 has always been a game that dabbled into going full Bullet Time with its gameplay. After all, V.A.T.S., while being an innovative system of their own, is very close to bullet-time as is. The problem with it though is that you cannot move normally during it, making the game almost feel like it shifts to a turn-based RPG in the process. The targeting that happens at this point is also pretty automatic and leaves your skill completely thrown out the window and at the mercy of random numbers behind the scenes.

With Bullet Time- Slow Time, V.A.T.S. is completely gone, and in place is a system that will feel very familiar for fans of games like Max Payne or Superhot. With this mod working, you no longer will have time completely freeze for you, and instead, your activation of V.A.T.S. will active Bullet Time, and you will be going full Matrix on your enemies as bullets slow down, letting you dodge them and fire your own.

This still uses A.P., so it’s not a cheat code, and you can still be damaged in this state as well. If you think it’s too overpowered or not lasting nearly long enough, you can configure it to your liking in the menu. This is an essential mod in my opinion and an awesome upgrade to the V.A.T.S. system for those who thought that made the game too easy or didn’t feel like it fit in with the rest of the gameplay.

Take Cover

take cover

There was a time where I was plain unaware of what mods were and how they worked and why they mattered. I used to wonder why P.C. players fancied themselves so highly above the console players, claiming that certain games are only worth playing with mods. I used to laugh and think it was just self-righteous garble just for the sake of it. Turns out the P.C. players were right, and certain games just aren’t nearly as good without mods.

Fallout 4 is under that category, and when you see a mod like Take Cover, you understand why mods are valued so highly in the gaming community. Fallout 4 made its gunplay an emphasis, and despite the greatly improved gunplay from Fallout 3, it still felt miles behind current standards, and the third person mode felt woefully inadequate at best. With Take Cover, you get a full 3rd person cover system put into the game.

This is an incredible accomplishment as it completely changes how you approach combat in this game. Without the mod, shooting was an awkward dance of moving side to side and occasionally ducking behind cover.

Enemies seemed to have a cover system that they were utilizing, so why couldn’t you? With Take Cover, now you can run into any wall or object and automatically start an animation that locks you into that position, with the ability to peak around or over the obstacle near you.

Not only this, but you can now vault over objects as well, giving you yet another option for tactical combat. While it won’t let you enter cover with heavy weapons or sniper rifles, having this option with every other gun in the game is an awesome accomplishment and finally makes a third-person playthrough in Fallout 4 feel viable.

Outcasts and Remnants

outcast and remnants

Another truly epic quest mod, Outcasts and Remants isn’t just a large mod, but it can completely change how your main quest plays out. It works right into the storyline from Fusion City Rising too, so if you liked that mod, this one is definitely next in line. Outcasts and Remnants adds 20 voiced companions, 20 hours of quest content, and a brand new way to experience the main quest as well.

Enormous doesn’t even begin to describe how huge this mod is, and it’s pretty much an entire game placed inside your game. There are brand new locations to explore, and the map will feel much more populated than before because of it.

The new factions are an excellent addition here as you’ve got ones like Natick Banks Raiders, a friendly group of raiders that will dole out quests, Back Bay Players, a group of pimps from New Vegas, and more unique groups that you can align with if you so choose.

Just like Fusion City Rising, you’re going to be challenged heavily here, and that means you’ll likely want to wait until you’re a bit higher level-wise before taking on some of the content here.

Depravity

Despite the amount of choices that you have in Fallout 4, whether you’re good or bad, none of them really make you feel all that evil. Sure, the actions might be a little messed up, but you never feel irredeemable after most of them and a lot of it can be just left up to ” I did this to save Shaun.”

With Depravity, you can become the evil S.O.B. you’ve always wanted to be. Another massive mod from the author of Outcasts and Remnants and Fusion City Rising, expect another 20 hours of content here as well as 6 new companions and 7 companions from the main story who are actually recruitable now.

There are new quests, 3 new player bases, and settlements, as well as brand new RPG elements placed into the game. Some incredible additions to the gameplay here include changing up massive story beats, such as giving you the ability to work with Kellogg instead of killing him. In addition to this, you can become the Commonwealth’s version of Walter White and manufacture your own drugs while distributing and taking out your competition.

Diamond City will face invasion, you can become mayor, consequences you choose will reverberate through the entire game world, and the game as a whole becomes a much more interesting and varied experience.

Perhaps the mod’s best feature is to be able to eliminate The Minutemen if you so choose, never having to deal with Preston again. It doesn’t change the main game all that much if you don’t want it to, but the sheer amount of options it gives you for making decisions within the main story is pretty vast and welcome addition to Fallout 4.

Combat Zone Restored

combat zone restored

Early on in Fallout 4, you will get a mission to explore the Combat Zone. This mission implies that you’re going on a possibly lengthy questline that will last at least longer than 5 minutes right? That’s just not the case. Oddly enough, when you enter the Combat Zone, which is a very cool-looking arena, everyone turns hostile and starts shooting at you. After clearing the area of enemies, that’s it; that was your exploration of the Combat Zone.

Sure, you can enter the cage and recruit a cool Irish girl named Cait, but that’s it. From there, you just leave, and it’s never thought of again. It’s almost as if the content that was supposed to be there was cut. Turns out, that’s exactly what happened, and you were initially supposed to be able to fight for caps with all kinds of interesting rewards involved, and luckily, Combat Zone Restored puts that content right back into the game.

This mod allows you to see the original introduction to Cait, gives you the ability to bet on N.P.C. fights, and also fight yourself for caps. It’s not a massive mod, but for those who were looking to get a bit more out of the Combat Zone than the initial game provided, this is a nice little restoration project that feels like it was there all along.

Maxwell’s World

Maxwell's World

Fallout 4 has always had a weird quirkiness about it that isn’t always fully embraced throughout the game. This title takes itself more seriously than the previous games did for sure, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have a bit of fun right? Maxwell’s world is a wild ride through an insane haunted amusement park that introduces all-new enemies, several awesome new weapons, and has multiple endings, new companions and a ton to discover.

Few things are creepier than an abandoned amusement park, and this mod just drips with dread every step you take. There are cursed items you will find that cause different things to happen, bosses created from theme park rides, and the best part, The Presence, which oversees your time in Maxwell’s World and causes all kinds of chaotic events to happen.

Some of the enemies are completely ridiculous, but others are downright terrifying, and the mix is an exciting discovery in itself as you never know what you’ll be fighting next. You’ll also have 3 new companions, all fully voiced that have mini-quests to complete with them as well, and if you’re particularly troubled, a clown paint job for your Power Armor if you so choose.

For those seeking something that is lore-friendly, this probably isn’t the mod for you as it involves ghosts and the supernatural, but if you’re willing to bend a bit from the norm, Maxwell’s World is a thrilling and often pretty freaky ride that will make you never look at an amusement park the same way again.

Vault 1080

vault 1080

At its heart and far more than Skyrim ever was, Fallout 4 has always had the blood of a horror game pumping through its veins. I mean, look at the world we’re traveling in here. We’ve got the aftermath of a nuclear war, half-mutated zombies roaming around, raiders trying to murder you around the corner, Super Mutants roaming the land looking to add you to their meat bags; let’s be real here, this world is a horror come to life.

Vault 1080 capitalizes on your thirst for fear and gives you a brand new location to explore that has three huge levels filled with secrets and terrifying discoveries to make. The vault in quest is located amongst the ruins of an old church, so you know right away that things are about to get very creepy and while the resulting quest is not the longest in the mod world; coming in at about an hour total, you will not regret taking a quick detour to experience one of the more atmospheric and scary mods out there.

The Machine and Her

the machine and her

Let’s start off this mod description by letting you know that it won the September 2019 Mod of the Month Award, and the mod author is now a quest designer at Bethesda. In terms of what modders hope to accomplish when they create their work, that has to be among the dream scenarios, so right away, we know we’re getting something great. The Machine and Her is a unique quest mod that introduces a new companion Kit, and as far as companions go, she may be the most fully developed one Fallout 4 has ever seen.

Kit is a fully voiced companion that has her own affinity system built in that can cause her to change her feelings about everything throughout the course of her story. She also has some amazing A.I. in combat and will switch out melee for long-range weaponry depending on the enemy she’s fighting. Kit also has over 6,000 lines of dialogue to experience, and she fits right into the game world. Along with Kit, you also get a new radio station with 50 songs to listen to as you explore the Commonwealth.

One of the coolest features of this mod is called the bark system and what this does is when an enemy yells something at you, Kit has an appropriate yell right back at them. It makes for a fun back and forth that feels right out of a movie, and it’s impressive to see the number of lines she has ready to respond with here.

There are also new enemies to fight and a new faction as well, so if you’re getting tired of your normal companion, bring Kit along for your next playthrough and see why this one of the best Fallout mods.

Fourville

fourville

Embracing the weirdness of Fallout 4, Fourville gives us a new city to explore along with 10 main quests, 41 side quests, 7 randomly generated quests, 8-10 hours of gameplay, a new companion, 5,000 lines of new dialogue, and tons of new characters and locations to explore.

The backstory here is that on the day of the Great War, residents of Salem, Massachusets retreated to Vault 4, but some were refused entry and instead took shelter in a cave and from there, created an entire town of their own.

Fourville is an impressively designed place to explore and seems like something that would make sense given the dire circumstances we’ve seen in the Commonwealth. When you arrive, the town is in the midst of an election, with the prime point of contention being about whether or not the vault will open for them one day.

It’s an intriguing setup, and to say any more would spoil the fun, so let’s just say it’s got some great writing and voice acting and a quirky cast of characters that you won’t soon forget. Mods like these brighten every playthrough, and it’s always cool to see another civilized area pop up in the rough and lonely world of Fallout 4.

50 Ways to Die at Dr. Nick’s

50 Ways to Die at Dr. Nick's

The creator of the Fusion City Rising and Outcast and Remnants mods comes to completely insane 50 Ways to Die at Dr. Nicks. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I want my mods to throw subtlety to the wind and just bash me over the head with good ole fashion chaos.

If you didn’t already get that vibe from the title, this mod has some crazy as hell scenarios drawn up for so, and with them come 10 main quests, multiple new bosses, unique equipment, new things to craft, a new home, and all in all 5 hours of new gameplay for you to sink your teeth into.

The story here is very interesting and feels totally unique compared to anything else in Fallout 4. The enemies on tap here are all great as well, and some favorites include skull-faced women wielding miniguns, and if that’s not enough to get you excited to play this mod, I don’t know what is.

The music here is all custom, too, so make sure you’ve got your volume enabled for this one as it adds a ton to the atmosphere the mod is trying to create. The Puzzle/Mystery quest on its own is so good it could have its own mod, and that’s just a slice of the delicious cake being served with 50 Ways to Die at Dr. Nick’s.

Operation Manhattan

Operation Manhattan

I’ll admit that I feel a little bit scorned that the Fallout series hasn’t decided to make a wasteland of my home city of New York to let me explore and instead made me call Fenway Park a place of safety in Fallout 4. I suppose I can forgive that though, since Fallout 4 is such a joy to explore, and thankfully for me, we’ve been given Operation Manhattan as a way to explore New York in the post-apocalypse.

For those who joined the Brotherhood of Steel, you’ll be right at home here as this is a quest that brings you on a journey to New York City to rescue a captured comrade. You’ll be having showdowns in Central Park and throughout the streets of New York, and it’s an incredible recreation of the city and whether it’s the subways or the underground tunnels, it’s an exciting and frantic mod that will have you begging for more.

It’s definitely not the longest mod out there, lasting a couple of hours at most, but it fits into the lore perfectly and feels like something the Brotherhood of Steel would definitely be sent to do. Add to this the ability to fight the enemies version of Liberty Prime amongst broken-down buildings, and you have one of the cooler, combat-focused mods out there.

The Code

the code

Not the most popular mod out there, but in my opinion, it’s one of the better mods you’ll find. The Code tasks you with finding the locations of three strangers via a strange broadcast. From here, you go on a lengthy quest that’s filled with multiple, branching paths for each storyline and a bunch of awesome rewards to unlock as well. You’ll also find three new companions who are fully romanceable with quests of their own to play through as well.

There are almost 50 new N.P.C.s added to this mod that feature over 3,000 lines of dialogue between them all. The one drawback is that your main character will have their dialogue muted throughout any mod-related dialogue, but this does allow for more roleplaying, so you won’t notice it all that much.

Chaotic Sun

The beauty behind modding Fallout 4 is that the creativity of what can be assembled is literally without bounds. It’s a challenge for modders to use that creativity to stay within the realm of possibility in the Fallout universe, though, and that’s what makes the balancing act so tricky and what makes the special mods stand out that much more. Chaotic Sun starts you off by tasking you to visit the Nameless Island and from there begins a wild adventure filled with ultra-challenging combat and some truly incredible exploration.

You’ll find a dungeon that accumulates people’s memories, a whole new Synth army, and the intimidating Temple Knights. On your side will be a 3D printed spirit named Wraith and an Android. Weirded out yet? Good! Honestly, some of the assets created in this mod have to be seen to be believed as it’s got incredibly unique architecture as well as custom effects all over the place that you’ll see throughout your adventure and the vibe is consistently weird and creepy in ways I won’t spoil. Just know that you’re in for a strange and wonderful trip with Chaotic Sun.

F.A.Q.

Question: How do I install mods for Fallout 4?

Answer: Depending on the type of mod, there are a few methods. Most mods let you install through any mod manager that you have downloaded, but others might require specific instructions, so be sure to read the mod page for the correct way to install the mod.

Question: Will installing mods break the main quest for me?

Answer: I have yet to encounter any mods that break the main quest in any way, and there are mods that improve upon the main quest in a number of ways too. If you’re afraid of mods ruining the quests somehow, stick to the mods that don’t introduce new dialogue or quests and instead just affect gameplay and you’ll have nothing to worry about.

Question: Will these mods work with Fallout 4 VR

Answer: Most of these mods work just fine with Fallout 4 V.R., however, anything dealing with animations such as the Take Cover mod will likely cause massive issues and not work at all in V.R. In terms of quest mods, graphics mods, and companion mods, these have all worked well in V.R. for me, so I don’t anticipate any issue there

Conclusion

Fallout 4 is one of the more amazing game worlds out there to explore and with mods, you only add on to the number of hours you can find yourself lost in the terrifying vision of our future.

Be sure to always use the correct installation techniques as well as check for mod compatibility on each page to make sure you don’t break your game and get to exploring the Wasteland in a whole new way.

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