Starting the game for the first time.

Last time I played a Fallout game (Fallout 3), I defaulted to my Bethesda rogue character. Be it in Skyrim or the Wasteland, I tend to play the same sneaky/stabby/shooty type character. Should I go back to the well in Fallout 4 or try something new? I was thinking of maybe trying a strength/heavy weapons build instead. Or maybe a Ghost Recon wildlands inspired build since I just found out that there are suppressors in the game.

No matter what build I chose, I'm definitely being a chem addict.

Thoughts?

If you're going to be a chem addict, make sure you also get the perk that makes chems last longer! Using Psycho in Fallout 4 is a great thing.

You're not really locked into any character choice in Fallout 4 as you can always put your level up point into a SPECIAL stat, so you can always get the perks you want eventually.

There are perks that increase the damage of suppressed weapons and I think daggers too, if you want to go that route. I never played a stealth character in 4 because I did that a lot in their previous games. I actually had a good time as a melee character running around with a sledge hammer.

Are heavy weapons fun enough to build around using them? They always seemed kinda niche, like the mini-nuke. It's not something I'll be shooting off indoors right? Whereas a commando/ghost recon build will focus on assault rifles and be useful indoors and out.

I like the sound of the sledge hammers tho.

I honestly think it will depend on what difficulty you play. For harder difficulties and Survival, I find stealth to be the best way to play, but you can do anything on the lower difficulties. If you're going down the Chem road anyway, I could see a melee power armor build being a fun thing to try out.

Either route is totally viable. I think the big guns route is the sillier of the two and therefore more fun. I also had a blast my first playthrough playing a luck-based character who dealt minimal damage but poured on critical shots. And yeah, ass suggested, if you go the chem route, grab the perks in... I want to say either endurance or personality that give you the boosts and make you immune to addiction. Party Boy's also a pretty fun perk, and booze and chems are everywhere in that game.

Sneek and long rage is fun in Fallout 4, but i almost had a bigger blast going full on melee weapons. Going ham and just swinging for the fences decimates enemies and watching the killcam never gets old.

Luck is a major perk advantage in fo4 with a lot of fun stuff in the tree list. I def reccomond investing points into that.

• Get the Aqua boy/Aqua girl perk that gets of rid of Rads while swimming in water.
• Use VATS or shoot at the bomb holding arm of suicide super mutant running towards you.
• High charisma can get you out of some combat situations including some boss fights.
• Get perk that allows you to fast travel if you are over encumbered.
• Remove fusion core from parked Power Armor if you don't want NPC using it if your settlement is being raided. There was a bug that NPC would jump into the power armor and not give it back.
• Some optional side missions are bugged and will not finish.
• If you plan on building settlements. For a better chance of your settlers surviving attacks. Give the people armor and weapons you looted from your travels. For some reason the levels of the settlers are lower than the enemy attackers and never go up. The enemy AI levels will adjust to your level.
• Use a hard save once in a while to go back if you encounter game breaking bugs.

Have fun with the game.

I'm almost 2 years and 1000 hours into this game. I think the heavy weapons in this game are kinda bad. The flamer and minigun barely do anything(I have two upgrades into heavy weapons). In my experience automatic rifles and melee weapons are where its at. Maybe explosives too. (Stand back!)

Sneaking could be fun, though I found it pretty difficult to sneak up on ghouls and bugs/creatures. Raiders and other human NPCs seem to be the most susceptible.

Try to see how many power armor suits you can find, they hide them in some cool places.

Pick up and scrap everything you find out in the world if plan on using settlements so you don't have to buy the material outright. It might be a good idea to invest in perks that make this easier.

Don't forget to get the fast-traveling over encumbrance perk ASAP.

I think going stealthy sniper makes this game a lot more enjoyable, especially on mouse & keyboard. The gunplay was fun enough that I essentially never used VATS. You run pretty fast which makes zipping around the outskirts of a camp getting headshots with a suppressed rifle a really fun time which is not something I would have ever expected from a Fallout.

You mentioned chems. If you want to go this route, remember that they, along with buff food & drink, make the game very easy even on very hard difficulty. I'm kind of a min-maxer by nature so this is what my status effect screen regularly looked like:

@superslidetail: Some of the legendary miniguns, particularly with poison effects, are incredibly OP and will bring down just about anything, but they are pretty hard to find since it's all random.

@sparky_buzzsaw: Yea I have a maxed out minigun right now that adds fire damage to all rounds and it doesn't do much. Though I should mention I am playing on hard/very hard and enemy levels are matching my high level so they are shaking that off rather easily so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt lol.

I just highly recommend getting the scrounger perks so you'll never have to worry about ammo when you play.

If you're going to be a chem addict, you should go full melee weapons and unarmed (fists). It's really fun to be to be hopped-up psycho, ripping apart your enemies with your bare hands. Plus chems help that play style quite a bit.

My number one Fallout 4 tip:

DON’T ENGAGE IN COLONY BUILDING!

It’s pretty cool, but there’s a good chance you’ll just babysit these colonies until you get sick of it and never play Fallout 4 again.

If someone asks for help with their colony, kill them, take their shit, and move on.

@kaos_cracker: Unless you're just mainlining the main story or something I don't you will find ammo to ever be an issue. You get a ton of ammo just exploring and nevertheless make more money than you can spend not far into the game which means you can stock up at vendors whenever.

Don't do the main story or at least stop after you get your "revenge" and don't build bases everywhere. Otherwise I'm sure you'll have plenty of fun. Ignorance is bliss.