Hi all,

Let me just start by saying I've never played any of the previous Fallouts - I've played most elder scrolls but never Fallout. I have some questions and need advice, I'm scared to Google for fear of spoilers and ive tried some youtube videos but even they're spoiling the main quest.

And I guess as far as spoilers go, I'm going to be talking about the first 4 hours i've played, I've reached Diamond City and done no side missions. If you haven't done this, please dont read on!

So, I left the vault, scavenged Sanctuary and rocket, went to Concord, helped out the minutemen. They moved to Sanctuary and I got told to go to Diamond City. I'm now at Diamond City and have been told to go off and rescue a detective.

I'm Lv6, my weapons (i think) aren't great. I've learnt some crafting. My shotgun is up to 58 damage. I don't have gunnut perk and this is preventing me from making them great, I understand I have to get all the stars on Intellegence to get Gunnut? So working on that right now....

My problem is I can't walk in any direction for more than 3 minutes without something instantly killing me! I tried to do the first side quest, the one the black guy gives you (minute man) at sanctuary, saying go help these people - then these people tell you about some raiders and to go kill them. So I find them and they're on bridges with greandes and there's a guy running around with a massive suit of amour on - I get killed right away! So, i thought i'd come back to that - so I snuck, staying hidden the whole time to get to diamond city, took ages to walk there undetected! and now im there and have to go look for this detective being held somewhere. I leave diamond city and seriously, I can't walk around three corners without something 1 hit killing me!

Bare in mind I've never played Fallout before, my questions are these:

• Gunnut - do i just need to keep filling out the starts on INT (Intellegence?) to get it?
• Should I do side missions or try to rescue this detective? How can I level up if everything kills me instantly on site?
• The big suit of armour you get in concord, I've stored that at Rocket - I only knew you could do that because of the intro to the game... Should i be wearing that 24/7? Im currently just creeping around in a drifter outfit.
• I have a .44 revolver I found on a dead guy, I love it! upgraded it as much as i could and named it "Taylor Swifty" but no one drops ammo for it! I have two bullets left, where's the ammo? My go to weapon right now is an upgraded shotgun at something like 58 damage. I've heard of something called Kellogs Revolver which is a more common caliber?
• What can I do right now, in diamond city to stop getting killed everytime i take 5 steps forward?

I understand the above are probably considered ultra new player questions but as I said, I don't want to read articles and get spoilt for anything! Loving this game so far. But due to work I only get couple hours in the evening to play, its gonna take a good long while!

Many thanks!

1. You only need three Intelligence to take Gun Nut. Once you do, you can just pick it on the perk chart, you don't need to pick any of the perks before or after it. (same goes for any perk)

2. You can do either/or - if the game is giving you trouble, feel free to lower the difficulty level. It's your game.

3. You shouldn't be wearing it 24/7, since it consumes Fusion Cores as you wear it, but it might be helpful to bring with you on a quest you're having trouble with. You might want to find some regular armor that's better than the Drifter Outfit, though, like Leather/Raider/Metal pieces you can wear over Road Leathers or the Vault Suit.

4. The .44 Revolver is a great weapon with rare ammo - you can buy some off merchants, but I can't think of any reliable place to find any. At this point just collect as much ammo as you can, and use whatever weapons you have ammo for.

5. Maybe head back north and stick to a few locations there to level up some? Take a few defensive perks? The further away from Sanctuary you get, the harder the encounters tend to be.

And remember, you can always change the difficulty level with no penalty.

In general, the game acts like TES in that it levels with you. No matter where you roam, the enemies will be leveled to the player's level. That said, you might want to try to finish a few quest around sanctuary before coninuing to find that detective. On my play through, I did all the side quest I found first on the way to Diamond City. So I was something like level 14 by the time I got there.

1) Yes. Each perk in a column (may) require an ever increasing governing stat. Though, each perk does indicate its prerequisites.

2) Yes. At low levels, just like TES, you can get insta-killed. Learn to run and hide and even use sneak.

3) I've never used the PA after the initial Concord quest. You need fusion cores to power it, and I don't have enough yet.

4) If you did some side quests, you'd find some vendors where you could buy more ammo. I found I had to switch weapons based on what ammo I had.

5) Develop sneak or go back to Sanctuary and do some easier side quests first.

No you dont need to increase your intelligence to get gun nut, just like any other perk you just need the minimum amount of intelligence, in this case 3, then you spend perk points on the actual perk.

Yeah I strongly suggest you go back to the area around concord and explore from there rather then roaming around diamond city if ya a level 6 with only a drifters outfit, ya should try and get proper armour pieces and for now focus more on having a well improved 10mm pistol or pipe rifle (depending on what weapon perk you like to put points in)

@AgentMulder69: Don't worry I am a Fallout veteran since the first one and am getting my ass kicked bad. Bethesda ramped up the difficulty this time around.

Excellent! thank you all

Yup. That is maybe the one aspect of FO4 that has returned to the original game(s) style. My next play, I'm going to try out the difficulty level where you can't insta-heal - another original Fallout feature.

The areas are also leveled so they get harder as you travel south or east. Your best bet is to stay around sanctuary, (zone 1) and do a lot of exploring and leveling. If all you do is run through the main story you'll probably find yourself under leveled. The map is huge and there are plenty of things to discover and xp to be earned not related to any quest.

Me too.

Admittedly I gimped myself with my perk selections which doesn't help. I've even considered restarting, but, nah! I'm now going for those perks I should have grabbed early on. They really would have made the fight thus for not so bad. Live and learn as they say.

The big thing in this game is modding weapons. To do that you really need gun nut, and local leader to link your settlements. I haven't gone near Diamond city before about lvl 12.

Its also a matter of just picking one style to go with. I have gone gunslinger and convert everything into pistols. I have a 10 mm pistol that does 49 damage and has a fire rate of 68 or so. I have gotten laser pistols to 60 damage.

Enter every building possible ( view your navigation bar for lightly highlighted building nodes, and go to it. LOOT EVERYTHING! ( 80% of my time in the game, my head is down to cabinet level, spamming the 'take' button, and when I have as much as I can carry, I will fast travel back and forth as needed to unload, and get more. ( Not to mention it will raise the chances of you finding a side quest). Sleep in a bed and get that rested experience, it helps. Take at least 2 perks in lock picking and terminal hacking- locked chests seem to contain the better half of acquiring ammo, and some of those locked chests are behind terminal locked doors.. Take at least 2 perks in gun nut and armor crafting, and work on those upgrades STAT! The 10mm is a great gun though the ammo is a bit rare and expensive in the beginning, so gun nut a pipe pistol, because .38 ammo is very frequently obtained, until you muster enough caps to do some productive bartering for more powerful ammo. I say again; You MUST LOOT EVERYTHING- especially adhesives, screws, aluminum and oil. Circuitry as well , for future reasons, but EVERYTHING means everything, not just the mentioned. Expect to spend a lot of your game time fast traveling back and forth. Do not be too hasty to follow the main storyline, or you will just have skull enemies to deal with more often then you may prefer.

Side quests build your strengths.
Exploration in a tight, step by step perimeter around Sanctuary is the safest, and smartest way to build a reliable Wastelander.
Fast travel is your friend. The more places you visit, the easier it is to take advantage of this, and get what you need to survive.
The main story, as intriguing as it becomes, should be the least of your worries in the beginning. Unless you plan to make an OPEN world, plentiful opportunities, massive exploration of very intimately detailed surroundings and possibilities, into a linear 20 hour play through. <-- Ill advised.

Spend some time building in your settlement, even though it's buggy as hell, it is still fun- and every new piece of settlement you put together gives you experience points. Every drug you craft at the chem station ( loot everything! ). Every food you cook at the cooking station ( KILL everything! ) . It all gives you experience points!

Above all else, Enjoy yourself in this massive wasteland. There are well over 150 visitable places to uncover and explore. Get to it!

P.S. You can put several armor types on your vault suit in the beginning. Your first few raider encounters should give you a full set of mixed armor. This includes a Chest, Right leg, Left leg, Right arm and Left arm. You can even wear a pair of glasses and a hat for added protection or stat boost. Looting everything and crafting is semi-vital to an easier experience.

Aside from the other advice you need some armor, any armor would be better than the wastelander suit. Though that may have some defence not it. it may have absolutely none as to why you die right away. I didn't go to Diamond city for a while but it does have early quests..

My first Fallout game was FO3 so I know how you feel. I didn't know where to go without getting killed instantly by raiders or mutants.

Some non-spoiler advise.

Stay around sanctuary. explore and do quests in that area for a bit. Stay away from Boston and the Diamond City area. you can often find yourself in a Mexican stand off between feral ghouls, gunners, super mutants and raiders. Not to mention the Children of Atom.

Collect EVERY thing you find and use it to craft stuff. you can gain experience just from building up Sanctuary or Red Rocket. Anything made from a work bench gains XP.

Sleep at night. I know this sounds silly but by getting "Well Rested" from sleeping in a bed, you gain more XP from kills for a short amount of time.

Good weapons early on in the game are hard to come by unless you go with some large risks to get them. I got my first hunting rifle from a super mutant when I was lv 4. I still carry that rifle to this day but have modified it into a .50cal. Good weapons early on are salvaged, made or modified.

And lastly... just have fun. There is no wrong way to play Fallout.

It's similar to Skyrim in the sense that there's level scaling and encounter zones that vary in difficulty. It's different in the sense that you have to focus more on protecting your character with sneaking, armor/weapon choice and upgrades, and smarter perk selection. In Skyrim you could get away with a lot. In FO4, you can once you understand how it works, but not until then.

Prioritize perks like gun nut, armorer, and increased weapon damage (which includes armor piercing at higher ranks). You'll still have points left over for other perks, but you should get those types of perks first.

Sniping makes the game a lot easier. It allows you to weaken or kill enemies before they engage. Early in the game use a hunting rifle, later there will be better choices. Early in the game I go with one melee weapon (or knuckles), one short range gun like a pistol, revolver, or shotgun, and one rifle. Later you might only need one weapon. Certain types of ammo like .38, 10mm, and .45 are plentiful. Others aren't, so you have to conserve your ammo, use different weapons, and optionally buy it in stores.

VATS makes combat easier. But for VATS to be effective, you need to put points into Perception (for accuracy) and Agility (number of attacks). It's useless unless you have a high Perception. Once you've played the game for a while you won't have to use it, even for new characters, but right now it might make your life a lot easier. Use up your VATS attacks, then continue fighting in real time, occasionally switching back to VATS for a couple shots.

Scouting ahead with a scoped rifle is often a good idea. Once in a while I stop and do a sweep of buildings and the nearby area. When you see enemies, you can choose to engage or change your route. Getting to the second story or higher in buildings makes you a lot safer, too.

Now to wring the last couple of drops out of the game.

1. When you go home, take a nap before you craft anything. You will get a small percentage bonus due to being "well rested".
2. Carry an outfit that shows a CHR bonus, like a Three Piece Suit or a Red Dress. Charisma affects merchant prices, and dialog opportunities. Change clothes before talking/buying. Don't forget to change back.

Thanks for the help everyone, I returned to Sanctuary and did the crafting bits power/water/crops, made some leather armour and went hunting near by, killing small groups of raiders and got a few level ups out of it! Enjoying the game a lot more now!

My final question is this - that big suit or armour (power armour?), someone said I can't wear it all the time because it requires power - so is that to say I could be out in the wasteland and it could run our of juice and shut down, become stuck out there?

What I plan to do is wear it to go take out those raiders (first minute men side mission) is that a good use of it? I've seen one of the raiders there wearing a similar suit!

Thanks

You need Fusion Cores. They can be found throughout the wasteland, though I seem to have only found 2 so far myself.

The suits will work without a FC but you can't move as fast.

There is plenty of suits to be found out there too. My friend has 20+ of them all lined up at Sanctuary. I only have 2 myself. Frankly, I rarely use it. Maybe if I start finding more FC's but right now I'm just using regular armour.

I built a stealthy character, so Power Armor isn't really an option. Shadow metal armor and damage resistance perks for me.

Around lvl 12, I started seeing "Psycho Raider" mini-bosses who were wearing Raider PA. They seemed like they had about 100 HP, considering what it took to bring them down.

The point is that each Raider PA suit you loot has one of these Fusion Cores, as well as some power armor pieces to take. You won't be able to take the suit frame itself, just the armor add-ons. Keep the fusion core with you, and use it to power your own power armor.

Another tip I have heard is to always remove the fusion core from your PA when the armor is not in use. This keeps the armor from being STOLEN, such as during a raid.