Hey Guys

So, as someone who absolutely loved their first Elder Scrolls experience in the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, I've decided to jump on the Fallout 4 bandwagon and purchase this game on the weekend. I've read all the positive reviews and watched countless livestreams and I'm itching to play it, but I do have a few questions..

1. How big is the map exactly? On par with Skyrim or even bigger?

2. As someone who suffers from constant restartitis (especially in Skyrim!), are there any skills/perks you recommend I invest in straight off the bat?

3. Main Quest first then side quests/other questlines? Or does it not really matter?

4. Are there leveled items like in Skyrim?

5. What is the best difficulty to play on? As someone who personally prefers a challenge rather than tanking their way through games, what difficulty would you suggest?

That's all I can think of for now. I'd be extremely grateful if you guys could share your views and experiences with the game thusfar!

Cheers in advance

Bump.

1. A better question is how big does the map feel. Feels fine. If I told you it was 20% smaller or larger, would that influence your purchase anyway?

2. No. You need to level a bit to make significant perk progress anyway. There's so many options an (at least for me) feels a lot less like you can be everything at once. Just go with it!

3. Doesn't matter. I like to mix it up.

4. Some items are better than others, but with weapon and armor modding lets just call the system "different" (but awesome)

5. I'm just your random average guy, and experiences may vary, but this is the toughest DEFAULT difficulty I've experienced in a very, very long time. Not overly punishing, but I've died numerous times.

So, I am playing through on normal as is my custom. I like to get a feel for the game then return for a greater challenge, if I am compelled to play it again for positive reasons. Having played "Bethesda" games before you may go more robust than that. That said, I am hearing a lot about technical glitches but (knocks on wood) I have only seen one and it was not game killing by any means. IMO, the game is really good. My only advice and I know you probably already know this is...save, save, save! Good luck and have fun!

Really? Well that's encouraging. Feeling indestructible in video games is fun for a short while but ultimately becomes very boring. Nothing wrong with a challenging game!

Medicine for making stimpacks (healing) and radaways more useful. Lockpicking, you will come across many locks early game which require one point in that perk to open. Those are two essential perks at the beginning. Otherwise you can dump few points in to primary skills. Consider 5 points in skill as "average".

Best if you do both. Different parts of map have higher difficulty. Main quest guides you approximately from easiest to toughest. You want to raise your level as you go and doing side quests in the area where your main quest is right now is the best way.

No, but there are few "legendary" items. Those are ordinary ones with added bonus. They are marked with star in Pip Boy.

Normal. Game is quit difficult, especially for someone who is not familiar with series. You can change difficulty any time mid game if you feel like needing more challenge.

Ok so after purchasing the game and completing the first couple of quests.. I'm pretty lost.

I have no idea what to do next. Is it too early to go to Diamond City or should I go back to Sanctuary Hills with Preston?

I'm literally picking up every item I see as well, as I have no idea which items are valuable and which ones aren't.

Oh yeah, and I REALLY don't understand the perk tree either, I feel like such a noob xD

I am playing on normal and have been focusing on guns, riflles and crafting. Lockpick + science and hacking is good to have also. The game is now way too easy. With crated guns the you are owerpowered. Almost every enemies is 1 shot kill.

Starting a new game soon i think on survival. Not really that fun and the story is pretty weak compared to new vegas

Good junk for crafting: typewriters, desk fans, duct tape

Most useless SPECIAL: Charisma. Always have this on 1

Thanks for the tips.

As for what I do next though, what do you suggest? Search around Concord for quests or continue the main story for now?

Returning to Sanctuary with Preston and doing some of the quests you'll get there is a pretty good start and will help introduce you to certain game mechanics. I don't think there's a level you have to be to go to diamond city but I ended up there around level 10.

Combat perks are great if you know what kind of weapon you're going to use, lockpicking and hacking are good utility skills, as are the crafting skills. Scrounger is a favorite of mine (helps you find more ammo, which with the exception of .38 has been something I've had trouble with).

I wouldn't worry too much about picking bad perks. I'm not sure if the game levels with you but if so it's much less harsh than skyrim. I haven't noticed any "reach x level and meet sabrecats instead of wolves" moments. On the other end some places and enemies will be too tough off the bat and you may need to leave an area for later.

What junk is useful depends on what you're going to use it for but duct tape and glue is always good (breaks down to adhesives which are fairly rare).

Haha, sadly I'm going to be that guy that suggests you just go with the flow.

Honestly, make some weird choices on purpose. Ignore quest wiki's for the most part. You won't miss out on rewards and you won't get a weapon at the wrong time where it's useless. Everything is pretty much useable all the time. It's the wasteland, it's your playground, go nuts. It's the best way to experience it. When a place seems too tough, just go around and come back later when you've got a bigger gun!

Min/maxing quests and areas is, arguably useless, as mentioned, no 'levelled items'. You'll probably be using your 10mm pistol for the majority (if not entirety) of your game.

Also... honestly, some of the 'wrong' choices, when presented are probably the more enjoyable ones.

Good luck and have fun. Be free! Pick a direction and go!

1. Not sure, haven't played for long

2. I'd say Fortune Finder and Scrounger, if you have a low Int character take Idiot Savant.

3. Doesn't matter

4. Don't think so.

5. If you want to get more Legendary items you should bump up the difficulty, more Legendary enemies will be spawned.

Well the main history is quite fun, also thats the point of this game, explore if you like, make better settlements or better gear for you, try to revisit areas were you have been before just to check if you get anything new, or go to diamond city and talk to a bunch of peopple surelly someone will give you a quest.

Where to go next? This is one of the best things about Fallout. You don't have to go anywhere specific. If you want to get used to the mechanics a bit more, just go where the wig takes you. You won't get punished too badly by pursuing the main quest either.

What loot is valuable? Depends what the intent is. If you want to craft, throw all you junk (a specific class of loot) in the settlement's workbench. From there it will be auto-broken-down into crafting materials as you need. If the intent is simply to accumulate money just loot stuff with a high value to weight ratio (all items show you both)

Perk tree:
X-axis is your "special" stats, which I'm assuming you know. Y-axis has a row for every point in a special state. Where they intersect is a perk you can select. Some perks can be selected more than once for even better effects. Some perks in deeper rows will be greyest out because you might not have high enough Value in whatever special column you're in. If there's a perk you want deeper in a special column, you can opt not to pick a perk, and spend the point on increasing the special stat instead. You do this by clicking the appropriate special stat at the very top row.

I'd suggest at least completing the Concord quests so you can get the settlement up and running. Tht way you'll have a nice safe spot to dump your loot (and a useful place to store junk)