You don't need to engage in it at all. However, if you don't plan on engaging with it, I would not expect the game to be significantly different from Fallout 3. The crafting system is one of the primary differences from Fallout 3 (along with the improved shooting, the removal of skill points, the obvious graphical updates and the setting change to Boston), and I think that many of the people who are displeased with the game are people who are not interested in the crafting and who don't necessarily want to just play more Fallout 3 with better graphics.

This one took me a bit to figure out: companions can wear power armor. Go into their use menu (hold E on PC) and just activate the frame and they'll strap it on. Nick actually did this without me prompting him, which I how I knew about it at all. Getting them back *out* requires you to go into the talk menu, where there will be a dialogue option to ask them to get out.

I've noticed after my game reloads from me dying due to a mine in this particular instance that the mines are not there when the game reloads. Dont know if thats useful at all, BUT, might be indicative of other potentially game/quest breaking bugs that maybe involve items in the world.

Something I've noticed is that unique, one-off quests seem to have their own custom cartoon next to them, but the radiant, repeatable ones have a more generic cartoon (like a vault boy giving a thumbs up, or marching if you're doing minutemen radiant quests, etc). I could be wrong, but that's definitely what it seems like. Useful for people who just wanna see the hand-crafted, story content.

By the way, radiant quests, in case you don't know, are Bethesda's " never-ending " quests. They had them in Skyrim too. They basically just constantly send you to places you haven't seen before with a very basic objective like " kill all the raiders! "

@chaser324: okay so I tried this at Sanctuary and kept getting told "you cannot move this settler to another location" or "you cannot assign this settler to a supply line"

WTF.

@masterverhoffin: awesome this sound useful.

Do they use up the fusion core?

Ok, i scanned but this doesn't seem to be here, and it was a complete eye-opener as far as the gunplay in this game went.

There is a cover system..and it works.

No, seriously. In first person stand beside a doorway, not so you can see past it, you should be close to the exit but facing a wall. Now enter aim/focus etc mode (look down the sights) and..suddenly your leaning past the door looking at enemies!

I noticed enemies being able to do this, peak out of cover and shoot me and had though "ok thats BS"...but as it turns out, you can do this too. (Credit to..maybe quill18's video or somewhere that I got this from).

Don't know about the rest of you, but that more or less changes the game completely game-play wise for me.

Oh for what its worth, though its got some spoiler stuff in it in the from of companions who show up, As mentioned This Video by Quill18 has a lot of useful stuff.

In no particular order. You can remove mods from armor and guns, (you do have to replace it with something, so if there isn't a "nothing here" option you'll maybe have to craft the simplest form of whatever mod you want.) So if you get a gun with a mod you can't make, you can 'remake' the whole thing to is base level, and get the mod into your inventory (There is a tab, like aid or weapons, for mods) Then, when moding another weapon the option to use the mod will pop up (Different from crafting it). In this way, even without the gunnut or etc perk, you can use stuff.

There is a recipe you can craft to make adhesive. Its in cooking, under misc or something. Its complicated (3/3/31 item wise) but its all stuff you can grow and it spits out 5 adhesive.

Fusion cores get sold by merchants, in the ammo tab I think? So there is, effectively, an unlimited supply, all be it an expensive one.

Those seem to be thing's not mentioned in this thread so far. If you don't have 20 mins to watch and wanna avoid any possible spoilers.

@bladededge: Cool, I had noticed that but never really paid attention to it as a feature. I'm gonna try out that adhesive recipe too.

Has anyone figured out how to salvage stuff you've store din your workshop? I put all my junk in there but there's no option to salvage all. I've read that sometimes there's a prompt to do it while you're in Workshop Transer > My Junk, but apparently that prompt isn't there for everyone. Someone else said that is just salvages the stuff in your workshop as you need it. Has there been any consensus to this?

@lukeweizer: Junk definitely auto-salvages if you have things with the parts you need. I haven't tried manually salvaging stuff, aside from weapons and armor where you have to.

@bladededge: Huh, I noticed enemies taking cover, but never tried it myself...

@fitzgerald: I don't think the 5 people who found Sanctuary with you can be moved, though I could be wrong. I accidentally hit the supply line key while looking at the mechanic dude and it told me that he couldn't be used, so it might affect moving them as well. It worked fine with the generic "Settler" named NPCs.

@lukeweizer: You can just dump anything in to the workbench. You can auto move junk there, and that will automatically be broken down and the spare parts stored so there is no need at all to break it down yourself.

The help section of the main menu of the game has a big warning that stuff kept in containers that you do not OWN has a chance of being taken away and disappearing !

That would be similar to previous FO and Skyrim ...

The safest way to store stuff is in the workbenches of your settlements. You can store everything there.

Are you sure about this ? This would be terribly bad and take away the advantage that storing junk directly in the workstation without scrapping it first offers. Did anyone test this ?

@zemadhatter: Damn. Had hoped the ones you made yourself would be flagged in such a way that they would be safe. Besides being stolen from at least.
Oh well, will just have to keep all the important stuff in the workshop then. Or whatever house you can buy later on.

Another useful tip:

• If you build the relationship with one of your companions to it's max level you'll get a perk out of it. You get to keep the perk even if said companion isn't with you, so it pays to change them around and try to max them all out.

@alistercat: @capum15:

But what about my Weapon and Armor workbenches? If I dump all my junk into my regular workbench, do those scrap items only go towards building towns? Do I need to take out my junk from a regular Workbench and put it into whatever Weapon or Armor workbench I'm using to have that junk scrap contribute to those weapon or armor items I'm crafting?

EDIT: Did some testing and at some random weapon station, I had enough oil to upgrade 1 of my weapons, which left me with 0 oil. I traveled to Sanctuary (where I already had all my junk stored in the workbench) and I had 8 Oil to use towards a weapon upgrade. So I guess if a workbench is close enough to a Weapon or Arnor bench, it uses that junk? I even took all the junk out of the workbench and put into the weapon workbench and it was the same amount of oil.

@lukeweizer: different types of workbenches share everything within a settlement, but inventory is not shared between settlements unless you set up supply lines. It will not scrap anything other than junk that you store in there so don't worry about your weapons or mods being stored in there.

Yep, and supply lines are great. Then you can have everything everywhere, essentially. When I got the Perk, I stocked up on stuff to make generators and radio beacons to get people moving into all the settlements, then sending out the arrivals as supply line people. It allowed me to start putting up turrets in each settlement so I wouldn't have to worry about defense, until I get the materials to make a proper walled in area.

@alistercat: only Junk is shared between settlements with supply lines, not weapons or armor.

Does anyone know if XP rewarded from killing enemies, changes with the difficulty setting, like in Fallout 3? That was not the case in New Vegas, wich made it feel pointless playing on higher difficulty settings to me.

Do you guys mod every weapon you use? I only mod those that come with special stats from legendary enemies. Somehow I thought it is more effective than just upgrade every new weapon I find.

There's not a great deal of different base weapons anyway, so I have 3 I switch between depending on the enemy and where the combat is happening. One of those 3 is a legendary weapon, the other two aren't, because I haven't found any with perks I actually would use, so I just store them in my house in Sanctuary. When I find ones with good perks I will move over my mods to that weapon.

@defaultprophet:good to know, thanks

It does not. Just legendary enemy chances.

Okay so, when you set up a supply line between settlements does it go into effect immediately or or do you have to wait for the npc to actually like, walk all the way across the map? I've got several supply lines set up, but as far as I can tell there's nothing actually being shared yet. I'm wondering if it's because the two settlements I chose are on opposite ends of the world?

@lachrymost: Once I was able to get the perk, I was able to chain setting supply lines up (e.g. From Sanctuary to Abernathy, Abernathy to that Something Co-op, Co-op to another, etc), and it seemed like it shared the inventories immediately once I fast traveled to the place I had chosen. Playing on PC if that makes a difference.

There's a weapon in the Vault 111 Overseer's office that's locked behind a glass case. You're meant to come back and get it later. You can get it far earlier and all you need is the dog.

All look and enemy spawns are tied to your level, to an extent. The farther south you go the harder the enemy of course. But the random enemies that get triggered, are tied to your level. And most all loot is tied to your level. So its best not to wander too far too early. As all the good loot places will end up being low level garbage early on. There is of course static loot. But most of it seems to be random and based on the player level. Same with power suits. If you find one below level 15 it will be the T-45. Then if you find that same one say at level 17, it would then be a T-51. And so on up the chain.

You can cancel out of those long ass VATS kill animations by pressing the aim down sights button (right mouse on PC). It immediately exits VATS. Saves a bunch of time.

Well one thing i just found out recently, lay the floor down and you get a better grid when building a house. Probably common sense to most, but i overlooked it.

@sterling: do you know if the the spawn level of the cell is set to your level upon first entering it? I seem to remember that being how it worked in Fallout 3 but I cant remember.

@lachrymost said:

The supply lines don't put the physical contents of the work bench from each settlement in to other settlements. They still have their own inventory when you 'transfer' on them. It does mean that while building it will use junk and materials from where the supply line is from as well.

@alistercat: It seems to be the case. There is however some static loot and enemies. But 90% of it is random, and based on when you enter that section.

Has anyone gotten their happiness level over 80? I can't seem to do it. They have everything, fully furnished homes, excess food and water. Power to the homes. I even just spent the perk to be able to build stores. Which I did. I built everyone but the medical one, as I don't have the medic perk. Still sitting on 80 with an up arrow. But not moving for a couple days in game. I have 22 people there currently, and 15 empty beds still. And defense is 92 I think. We even seem to have a permanent traveling sales person, Trashcan Carla. She is always there with her Brahma.

I have a really weird tip. Follower approval seems to be based on proximity? I put a bell in sanctuary and called everyone over. I had Piper with me, but because they live there Codsworth and the leader of the minute men came to the bell. Then I told mama to get off chems and I got approval from all of them. Without ringing the bell codsworth and the minute men leader were far away, and I did not get approval. So it seems like they don't even have to be your active follower. Though this has limited applications since you don't get many conversations like that in settlements.

Ya, I've noticed that while I am moding things, if codsworth is near by he will say "brilliant sir". And then a message that he likes that. I have raised him up without ever using him as a follower.

@oursin_360: Floors and roofs definitely make the building a lot better.

@tennmuerti: So that's how. I think it was E or R in New Vegas and have been wondering what it was for this, if it even was in the game. Thanks!

@tajasaurus: next time you're modding, tag screws for search. Now every item with screws in it (e.g. Desk Fan) will have a little magnifying glass by its name.

To repair your power armor, you don't go to the armor workbench, you need to "use" the power armor stand. Don't know if that qualifies as a tip but as I discovered this 20+ hours in by accident... maybe someone's been scratching their head about the same thing. I thought I needed a perk to repair it for the longest time.

I had huge problems with this. The only way I found was to get the perk that gives you more materials when scrapping things (think it's under Intelligence). After that, if I remember correctly, I think desk fans and guns give you screws.

Do you know if the enemies themselves level with you? I got absolutely destroyed by a couple of bloat flies and they're usually super easy...

@xymox: As far as I know each area has a range, and they don't go above that level no matter what yours is. So like the starting area wouldn't have anything above say level 6. And the farther you go the higher up the scale to the max of 50 they can be. So depending on what level you are when you enter that cell, depends on what level on that scale is triggered for the spawns.

That would make sense. This was also pretty far south and the same spot had a pair of deathclaws spawn the next time I visited, which was only a level or so later.

Supply line question: do settlements have to be directly connected to share resources, or is being part of a chain enough? Example: I have a supply line from Sanctuary to Red Rocket. If I add another supply line from Red Rocket to Abernathy Farms will Sanctuary and Abernathy Farms share resources because they're connected via Red Rocket, or will I need a separate supply line from Sanctuary to Abernathy Farms?

Settlement question: is there a nice, centrally located place to build a base of operations? If there is, some general, not-spoilery info about it like its name and what the terrain is like would be great.

Not that much of a tip, just want to share it because it is awesome: You can walk on the bottom of lakes/ocean/water in Power Armor. Having a follower walking out of the water in Power Armor looks awesome.

@bane: Not sure about the supply line thing. I took it for granted that you could chain it, so I have been linking what I could to Sanctuary myself. It seems to me that it works fine that way.
And haven't really found a good settlement in the center yet, but I haven't explored or gotten that far in the... uh... 31 hours I have played. Damn.
I did notice Abernathy Farms had a big open space on the south side you can build some cool shit on though.

Just cleared a settlement of enemies and tried to use the workbench. However, all my scrap/junk/whatever is gone and I have nothing to build with :(

Is this a glitch? Junk transfers from one bench to the next, so i don't know what the problem is. Can't find anyone having similar issues, so any advice you lovelies could provide would be appreciated!

@stryker1121: Just cleared a new settlement for the first time, or helped defend during a raid?
If the first: You have to manually set up trade routes for the junk to be there. It transfers between all workbenches within the same settlement, not outside unless the trade route is set up.
If it was the latter: No idea :(

Found a "hidden cellar" in Sanctuary.. http://imgur.com/33xplQf

@jaqen_hghar: That's a load off, then! Cleared a new settlement, have to yet to establish a trade route. I thought you could share scrap between settlements before setting up the trade route. Thanks for the input!

I have a couple of questions about companions.

1. Can you romance more than 1 companion? If so, I'm gonna do it for everyone haha.

2. Does it make it super obvious when you reach the top level with a person (so you get their perk). The only one I have so far is Nick and his was obvious because I did his quest to get it. But I gather that most companions you just have to reach top rank. I've had it pop up that a companion "admires" you and we had a little chat. Is there a next level I have to reach?

Here's a tip/warning about weird jank. If you're reading a terminal and the text appears to cut off suddenly, you have to press 'Return' to go to the next page. And I mean you HAVE to. 'E' does not work, nor does the UI tell you to press 'Return' at any point.

And just to make it even more ridiculous, if there is a full page of text, you can roll the scroll wheel on the mouse and it scrolls up and down like half a line for NO REASON.