Yeah I think I am my own downfall with this style of open-game sometimes, I tend to explore probably a little more than the Developers are anticipating! If I run into a distress signal like the one the BOS gave out I tend to go looking for them!! I think I might do some low level quests first!

Thats really cool I tend to waste my grenades on the really hard mobs first, but maybe I shouldn't be attacking them in the first place? lol

if it's har to continue with new questslines, just go back and do some simple side quests until you level up, and just keep trying, you gain experience for almost everything, so if something is way too hard, just try something else, you'll find the way eventually

Because Survival is hard lol

/s

I don't know if anyone else mentioned it, but the endurance perk of damage resistance is a life saver. As you level that perk, it makes a huge difference.

On my first play-through I went with a more "in your face" attitude than I've done in previous game. I'm coming to kill ya, and I've got combat rifle, shotgun and grenades. Somewhat decent endurance (I think 3 or 4). Low perception and agility, so almost no VATS. It was no trouble, and very fun

I've just started a 2nd play-through going the perception, agility, luck, sneak & VATS route. I'm having a much harder time. I've only got 1 endurance, so that's some of it, but I just can't dish out the damage, get pinned down by enemies, flushed out with molotov's, etc.

In my experience playing style, approach and build has a lot to say. Seems to me as if whenever you put the enemy on the defensive with a brute force approach they don't manage so well, and if you say "I'm hiding in this corner, please don't kill me" they know exactly what to do. Which, honestly, is perfectly reasonable. Just my experience though.

Yup. Fallout 3 and NV also had this fluent border between difficulties. So while the game really tucks that explorer in you, you got to be careful.

They have upped the difficulty, I think. Playing on survival difficulty is rather like the way I play Fallout 3 - basically anything can kill you in a couple of hits. One thing I've discovered, on that difficulty at least, is that power armour is basically worthless. Back when I was at about level 10 or thereabouts, I stumbled upon a suit of T45 out in the wastes somewhere and decided to take it back to the Red Rocket. Along the way, I bumped into a couple of dogs, one an 'alpha', and thought 'time to give these things a beating!'. Well, I barely survived - against two dogs. In power armour. Later, I got a suit of T60 with a damage rating of over 1000!, whatever that might mean, and decided, foolishly again, to kick some supermutant rear. Four regular supermutants plus, I think, a legendary skirmisher, soon had me running for my life with a fast heartbeat. Using stealth I cleaned the entire place out without taking a single hit.

So now I am the Silver Shadow, with the emphasis on Shadow, and treat fusion cores as a sort of collectible, like bobbleheads.

*cutscene voice* Pissing contests. Pissing contests never change.

Jokes aside, a list of tips for the OP: Besides the crafting perks being incredibly important - mods are THE biggest way to keep gear relevant throughout the game, as far as I can gather, and the best ones basically never spawn on random enemies - life in the wasteland is painful without taking any combat perks. Endurance perks are, as far as I've heard, great; from what I can tell just from the tooltips, it's not inconceivable that you can (very nearly) become a living suit of regenerating power armor in all but name, especially with the later game's armor choices. Medic also looks incredible for survival - the buff to stimpaks, which gradually become extremely plentiful as you grow stronger, is massive. As for weapons, I prefer Gunslinger, followed by Rifleman. Utility-wise, Aquagirl/boy is incredible for finding secrets underwater (including at least one set of power armor).

Oh, and when you reach maybe the 18-early 20s level range... a hint that's just barely scraping the edge of spoilery (no details, but I'm leaving it here because of an as yet unpatched bug):

Hey OP. Sorry you're having a bad time (like, seriously, not being a booger here). This game takes a slightly different approach to thing than previous iterations, so some adjustment is needed.

I've been playing on Very Hard, so any tips should translate to normal. And these are for a 3 endurance character, so I'm not just tanking all the things.

First, be prepared to run away. Leaving is TOTALLY an option. Especially at low levels, getting jumped by a powerful mob or teamed up on by raiders is deadly.

Second, if you aren't sure you are safe, sneak everywhere. This not only keeps you from being immediately target, but gives you an "Early Warning" of sorts with the stealth monitor. Once it goes to "Caution" you can see enemies on your compass.

The above, mind you, is a HUGE deviation from FO3 and New Vegas. In those, enemies and NPCs would automatically appear on your compass at a range determined by your Perception score. No more.

Third, don't engage Super Mutants, Yao Guai, or Deathclaws until you are level 12-15 at least. They hurt a lot now. Sneak away.

Fourth, pick a weapon "type", and keep up on damage perks for it. The new "types" appear to be one-handed non-automatic, two-handed non-automatic, automatic, and melee. Focusing on one lets you get more capable quicker. You can always go back and level up alternate combat styles later on when you have spare perks.

FInally, keep up on appropriate crafting perks for both your chosen weapons AND your armor. For ranged weapons, this is Gun Nut and Science. For melee weapons, it is Blacksmith. Armor is Armorer. These let you make your weapons WORLDS more viable.

It's a great game, and you'll get there. Just take your time, enjoy the setting, and try not to get shot too much.

Interesting counterpoint to the "Power armor is OP!/they put it in so the CoD kiddies can wade through the game without having to think!" thread.....

Don't know if anyone has said this already, but if you mod your guns and armor things become pretty easy on normal.

OP, unfortunately I did the same thing and decided to start the game over. I wandered off the beaten path just to explore and ended up running out of ammo for everything. Now that I have started over I am up to Level 11 in half the time I was at Level 7 before. Ammo is plentiful and everything just seems easier now. I would recommend if you do start over just to follow the main missions at first. When you do get a mission that requires you to travel some distance make a straight line for it. Try not to wander too far even if you hear or see something new of interest.

Sounds like you need to use the sprint mechanic in the game.

As one would farm materials or mob drops in any other game, but in this case one would be farming water by building either the second or third water producing item in large amounts to use the water as cheap healing, and for trade.

Also heavy weapons, but do not spec into heavy weapons early on, anyway - it's a terrible investment for newer players due to the obscene ammo consumption, and it's probably only worthwhile when you get fancier stuff like a Gatling Laser or the Broadsider (the latter mostly for lulz, and because cannonball supply might be a bit easier to maintain than, say, mini-nukes).

My Sanctuary has at least a dozen industrial water purifiers, and at least that many again "medium" water purifiers. Water in excess of what your settlement uses is placed into your workshop inventory every day or so, and can be sold for a tidy profit. This combined with building in-settlement stores makes for easy money making. I produce a bit over 500 water a day. With a 6 Charisma and level 2 Cap Collecter, this nets me about 5000 caps per day, though a decent bit of it rolls into ammunition reserves and clearing out my junk vender.

Yeah, I didn't bother because, especially for initial playthroughs, heavy weapons makes for a much better "supplemental" weapon type. I mean, you can honestly play through the game completely ignoring heavy weapons, and be just fine.

Areas are leveled .. so the further east and south you go the higher the enemy. The guide has a nice heat map so you can see those leveled areas clearly. If all you do is follow quests the game will send you into some pretty high level areas fairly early. It's best to do some exploration and level up a bit in the lower level areas before you head into the great unknown. Basically the whole north western territory is a nice safe area to explore and do some early leveling. You don't have to worry about messing up quests or whatever by discovering something before the game tells you to go there. If it's really important to the story they simply block your access. However, there's plenty to find that has absolutely no quest that will lead you there.. and some places you discover might have mini-quests of their own.

Basic Fallout tips do apply in this game such as collect anything which does not weigh anything, use VATS to spot enemies, focus on one weapon type especially early on, sleep to heal whenever you have a chance and always try to get your first shot off as a sneak attack but with Fallout 4 I have found some new things helpful. Also Mines are often overlooked but can be devastating, collect every one you see, if I come across an enemy early on that I will struggle with, like when I happened upon Swan too early in this game, I will lay out an assload of mines and lure them into it - boom, dead. (2 bottlecaps and 8 frags did for Swan for me but that may have been overkill ) Not something that I do personally but something I recommend to friends is to have your companion constantly carrying a fatman or missile launcher so if you are really struggling you have some heavy weaponry ready to go.

Firstly upgrade your guns as soon as possible, get gun nut perks and additional damage for your weapon type perks when they are first available to you and upgrade the weapon type you have picked periodically as and when new upgrades are available. In previous games you would wait to find a better weapon but in Fallout 4 you have to make that better weapon yourself and also don't forget that you can upgrade legendary weapons and armour) so if you have upgraded your 10mm Pistol and then find a Legendary 10mm Pistol with an add-on that you like simply strip your mods off and apply them to the new gun.

Don't worry about money, honestly it is easy enough to earn thousands of caps even without the purified water but there is not a lot to spend your money on, ammo is the best investment but I have found with rank 2 of the relevant perk I am finding more than enough to keep me going. If you follow the rule of collecting everything that doesn't weigh anything you should have an inventory full of stuff you probably won't use so if you are really stuck for money have a look through your ammo and drugs in particular and get rid of whatever you don't use.

Use your criticals wisely, remember that legendary enemies will mutate and regain their health so don't waste a critical on them unless you are sure it will one shot them, better to wait until after they have mutated and then blast them with a critical. I rarely use criticals anymore but earlier on when I was seeing a lot of skulls they were a massive part of my tactics, use a legendary weapon where the critical meter fills faster and you can get off a critical within 2 ap bars usually. The luck tree has some amazing perks regarding criticals and I think this small new feature is being overlooked by a lot of people struggling.

The game isn't really that much harder than previous even on survival, the enemies are a little smarter and a little stronger but using these tips I think you should find it a little easier to get by. The only fight I have backed away from so far was against a legendary sentry bot when I was around level 18 and that was because I had no tactical advantage over him, had it been out in the wasteland rather than in a small room I'd have found a way to murder him, probably using every plasma mine I had

Oh and always use VATS to scan for enemy mines! Biggest killer in the wasteland right there

Power armor is really good but is not a GOD mode, but still the guy you quoted probably dosent even know how to play with it if a couple of dogs kicked his ass.