Hey Duders - After reading the reviews, I just bought the PC version, then pre-loaded and updated my drivers. Now I'm sitting around like everyone else, waiting for Fallout 4 to unlock. In the meantime, I figured I'd create a central repository for tips, tricks, etc. that people discover in game. I know we've had one of these for some of the other marquee releases (Bloodborne, Witcher 3, MGSV) this year, and I've found them pretty helpful, so feel free to post anything you think might be helpful below. I'll be sure to drop in any tips that I discover tonight when I get a chance.

Also, it should be obvious, but let's keep this SPOILER FREE.

Definitely saving this page. Stores about to open here in Australia, only fifteen minutes left!

Salvage everything in settlements that you don't need to survive (or that doesn't affect happiness).

YOU CAN REMAP ALL BUTTONS ON THE CONTROLLER. GAME OF THE YEAR.

@mike: the most satisfying moments i've had in the game so far has been just walking around sanctuary cleaning it up

Make food from kills. It can have unique benefits and will give you health back (gradually) without the rads. I've only found one radaway so far...

is there a way to get around the atrocious hacking minigame?

I don't remember a lot about playing New Vegas, but I thought I remembered the hacking game being merely bad, not god-awful.

Anyone found a way to rename Dog?

You can press the touchpad on the PS4 controller to snap back into first- or third-person mode during conversations, which allows you to move around, even save. I've only tried this once, but it seems like you can actually save mid-conversation. So, if you come across a speech check you can save-scum your way through it, especially since it seems like speech checks are dependent on a hidden percentage this time around.

I haven't been to Diamond City, but anyone find a doctor yet?

Has anyone found a reliable way to find screws? They're the only things stopping me from being able to upgrade my weapons

@tajasaurus: salvage weapons.

Anyone know of a way to boost carry capacity via an ini file or something? Just something I'd rather not worry about, but not sure if it's possible yet.

@jjweatherman: A lot of the console commands are the same as in Skyrim: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_4_console_commands you can change carry weight via those very easily.

@tennmuerti: Nice, thanks!

Took me a bit of time/effort to get this working. Not sure why but the latest Nvidia drivers were causing the game to crash on launch. Had to go back an iteration and it's worked like a charm with everything maxed out since.

22 hours in, here are my tips so far:

• Junk is everything in this game. Literally EVERYTHING (weapon/armour mod crafting, settlement crafting, there's even a weapon that fires junk), so pick up everything.
• The most important junk items are: Screws, Gears (!!!), Fiber Optics, Nuclear Material, Aluminium, Oil(!!!) (most of which you get by scrapping weapons)
• On this note you might want to have a companion along or invest in a perk so you can carry more stuff.
• Dogmeat can search for items, by giving him a command, talking to him, asking him to fetch something and then pick item. It's ridiculously long-winded because of unskippable dialogue/animation, but it's often still worth your time.
• You can outfit you companions in the trade menu. (Hover over the item you want to equip on them in their inventory. Triangle button on PS4).
• Have your companion carry around non-essential items, that give you boosts to your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats. It's really useful to always have access to a hat or trousers that give +1 charisma.
• Since there are bobbleheads giving permanent stat boosts again, as well as magazines that do the same (I only found one of those so far, so not sure if there's one for every stat), it's safe to assume you shouldn't put more than an 8 in any stat.

• If you want to dabble in settlement crafting at all, you want to have 6 charisma and pick the Local Leader perk immediately, so that settlement's can have supply lines. Those make it so that everything stored in the workbenches is shared, which is essential. ( You have to assign one of your settlers to actually run the supply line. In workshop mode while looking at a settler you'll get a prompt for establishing a supply line (R1 on PS4).
• Scrap everything in a settlement, that you don't need.
• The most important thing in a settlement is to keep security up a good way above the total of food/water production, else they are going to get raided a lot.
• Beds don't need to be inside a building. (It does affect happiness once you reach 70+.)
• Make sure to assign settlers to whatever you want them to do, sometimes they do it on their own, but most of the time they just stand around uselessly otherwise.
• Periodically check in on your settlements' status in the workshop menu of your Pip-Boy.
• It's possible to repair the items in your settlement.
• Don't see building stores as an investment you get money out of, because you won't. They just help to make settlements happy and open up shops for you.
• If you make it in time to a settlement that is currently getting raided, don't bother trying to protect your settlers, they can't die when you are actually there helping out. (If you don't go, they are fucked.)

• Crafting gives a ton of XP and is really useful (even cooking), so craft a lot.
• To be able to work on your power armour you have to walk into a power armour station and exit the power armour there.
• Keep different weapons around, since ammo again is rare and you have a lot of quick-slots at your disposal.
• Assigning rad-away and stim-packs to a quickslot is useless, since going into the pip-boy and using them actually stops time and you can use them right from the status page.
• V.A.N.S. perk is completely useless. (It shows a line to the next quest objectives, while you are in V.A.T.S.)
• Hacking/Lockpicking again are vital.
• You can just get out of the hacking mini-game before the last try (which could lock you out) and start it over.
• Also really useful: Scrapper (you get more crafting components from scrapping weapons).
• You can still safe scum pickpocketing.
• Holding in the Pip-Boy button activates your flashlight.
• You can disarm mines if you find them before the set off and push activate. (It's useful to use V.A.T.S. for spotting them.)
• Don't waste healing items on your companions (even though seeing Dogmeat in pain, might break your heart), as soon as combat stops they get up again.
• 90% of the legendary enemies drop legendary equipment, so if you can take them, take them.

@militantfreudian There's a doctor in Bunker Hill. (Left part of Cambridge, north of Diamond City.)

Great game so far, but I dont understand how the inventory of the crafting stations work. Is everything shared in one settlement without the perk mentioned above?

What about the books and bubble-heads, Ive found a few, but not been able to "consume" them. I press read, but that only shows me how the book looks, not the content of the book.

Also, the leveling system is a little different from FO3, you now chose either skills or abilites. I was level 6 until I realized I could choose the abilities below on the "perk screen". Enjoy the commonwealth folks!

@paulkemp: Yes, everything is shared in one settlement, even without the perk. The perk is for sharing with other settlements.

Once you have acquired them, the boni are active (you need to keep the books in your inventory, not the bobbleheads). The only way to check the boni you have active is to look at the perks tab under the stat menu. Checking the items out will only show you what they look like.

Can 'temporary' skill points, from hats etc, count towards unlocking perks does anyone know?

Also for ages I didn't realise you could scroll down on the perks page. lol.

@alexw00d: They don't count.

Darn. I guess I'll have to find me some Charisma points before I can get that perk.

@sessh: Magazines have their own special, independent perks and perk ranks. They do not correlate to the perk chart in anyway, so don't worry about upgrading/ranking perks up. Same goes for the Skill Bobbleheads. Eg. The bonus you would get from the Small Weapons Bobblehead in no way affects the main perk chart, it's its own thing.

@adequatelyprepared: I knew about the magazines, but hadn't found Skill Bobbleheads yet. Good to know, thanks.

Dumb question... But how do you scrap items? I was hording all these pipe guns but couldnt figure out how to scrap them.

If you store them in your settlement inventory I think it does it automatically?

@alexw00d: You can only scrap stuff in a settlement. Junk items get scrapped automatically, weapons/armour you have to do manually (by dropping them on the ground and select scrap in the settlement building menu).

Ahh ok. It's weird that some stuff is automatic some isn't.

Oh I have another question. I found dog armour, can dogmeat equip it? I put it in his inventory and nothing.

Settlers in your base can get inside your power armor, and they may just run off with it, stealing it while you aren't there. To prevent this you have to remember to take out the fusion core. Think of it like leaving the keys inside the ignition of your car; you're just asking for someone to take it.

@alexw00d: I guess they wanted to make sure you don't accidentally scrap something like a Fat Man while building nothing but a stupid bed. I agree that it's weird, though.

And yes he can equip it, but I have no idea if he gets improved stats from it. While in the trade menu with him, there is an equip option when you are on the armour (or collar, which he can also wear) in his inventory. It's the triangle button on Playstation.

@doctordonkey That's honestly pretty funny.

@doctordonkey: wow thanks for the heads up there. I would be so pissed.

@doctordonkey: haha wow. Can you chase after them and get it back?

@sessh: Oh yeah, thanks dude. It's T on pc.

Is there a way to remove weapon mods and reinstall them on another weapon of the same type? Also, thanks @sessh.

Thanks for the write up. I really want to dabble in the settlement stuff, but cant seem to get my junk to transfer betwixt settlements, even with the Local Leader perk, and people assigned to the junk-stations (name escapes me atm) at both settlements. What am I missing? Do I need to wait some time for the junk to be transferred? Thanks!

@nevergameover: Do you have a tip for what to do if Steam crashes when you click play and then starts redownloading the entire game again when you reopen Steam? I'm seriously considering buying the Xbox One version and trying my luck with a GMG refund. Even my laptop with an nvidia card has it crash when you pick your Special points in the beginning.

Here are some changes you can make to the PC version (FOV modificaiton, intro skip, disable mouse acceleration)

@paulkemp: You have to assign one of your settlers to actually run the supply line. In workshop mode while looking at a settler you'll get a prompt for establishing a supply line (R1 on PS4).

@militantfreudian It's not possible to just remove mods, but if you mod something on a weapon/armour the previous mod gets stored in your inventory. Also you are welcome. :)

@substance_d Sorry can't help you, but just wanted to say that I love the Philip K. Dick avatar. Dude was a genius and is my favourite writer.

This might be too late for most of you, but make a hard save before you go up the elevator in the vault. That way you don't have to go through all the story set-up stuff when you make a new character. You can just start from there and change anything you want before you go out into the wasteland.

I am absolutely sure they tell you this in the tutorials, but I missed it as it came up during some distraction for me so.

Waiting requires you to sit down. Sleeping works as normal, but to pass time, find a seat, sit in it, then the prompt for waiting appears.

Oh..and like someone told me earlier. Those Fusion Cores run out of power. Which again, gets covered when it happens but hey! If your not expecting it.

Also. For those who liked to max out speech. That's just straight up charisma now, I think.

I have a question about the name thing. I normally play as a lady in games that let me choose, however my name is on the list of ones that the game knows. It'd be super cool if people were saying my name the whole time. Is that what happens? Or is it just some conversations at the beginning with the robot?

@e30bmw: Some companions too mate, one considerably.. I love him to death though. I feel it adds to immersion.

Is there any way to change hair/beard mid-game?

It's great to go into a workshop and toggle the search for button, or whatever its called, for hard to find items. It can stay on forever and you can select multiple resources. Than you can tell easily if the desk fan is something you actually want to pick up. copper is great to always search for.

So I'm trying to build a settlement and I'm having a ton of difficulty with the builder. Specifically, I want to build a fence around my settlement. Do I seriously need to manually line up fence fragments next to each other or am I missing something? It would make much more sense to have a "click and drag to create a single linear fence" function (like you would when building a wall in The Sims or in SimCity). Or at the very least, when you try to put one piece of a fence/wall next to another piece, the new piece should automatically "stick" into place next to the existing piece. I keep feeling like I can't be doing this right.

Anyone having more luck with this?

Nah. Sorry, dude. Mine never tried to redownload. Just gave me the old "Fallout 4 has stopped working" error prompt, and it has worked fine ever since I downloaded an older version of my Nvidia driver.

If I join one faction, do I lose the other faction? I joined the first faction and my companion sounded pretty unhappy when I tried to join a second one. Is that just him or will I be locked out of missions?

@redroach: There are barbers in the game, don't ask me where though.

@nevergameover: Building stuff that isn't pre-made is incredibly finicky. Things only stick together right sometimes and when lined up with the correct item. Fences don't seem to actually add any value and are just cosmatical in nature instead. (Also they tend do be really glitchy. I built a fence around a Brahmin and his feeding spot and it and settlers continue to get stuck in it/glitch into/through it.)

There's one in Diamond City market, right next to the Publick Occurrence. It's called Super Salon. Talk to the barber's mother; she's a delight. You can also visit the "plastic surgeon" in the market and change you appearance. There are more hairstyles and customization options than what you get when you first create your character.

Quick hacking tip that carried over from Fallout 3: if you go through each non-letter character you will sometimes come across highlighted segments with brackets. Select these highlighted segments to remove incorrect passwords or reset your attempts counter. Using these bracket segments can make the hacking stuff way less stressful.

If you are playing on PC with mouse and keyboard, apparently. You can use E in place of Enter when it prompts you for that. Should make scrapping stuff in your areas way, way easier.

Note: I haven't actually tested that yet, just read it last night after I finished.