Unless you built your char for melee, and know what you are doing. In which case their guns will end up lying amidst their guts in the dust, equally harmless.

Use Preston as your very first companion until you get his perk, because you may not be able to get him to join you later due to his bug.

Delay finishing the main quest so that you can experience all the factions.

I went full Brotherhood way too early.

Tap your VATS button periodically when exploring to find hidden mines.

Sleep for an hour before crafting or settlement building.

Put on clothing that boosts your intelligence before: (1) crafting, (2) finishing a quest, so you can maximize your experience points.

Not sure if someone has mentioned this yet in this specific topic, but...you can customize the color of your Pip-Boy and HUD, which also affects the color of the Pip-Boy flashlight. However, it doesn't seem like the Power Armor HUD can be changed...

1. Hold down "E" to enter/exit armor. (Lot of questions on that, and I couldn't find it initially.)

2. Hold TAB to turn on off PipBoy light. (Ditto.)

3. Dogmeat does not count as a companion if you choose the Lone Wanderer Perk.

4. Don't waste time fencing in your settlements as attacks may appear within them anyway.

5. Idiot Savant may help you level up the most quickly of any perk.

6. Crafting (cooking) food can offer a surprising amount of XP.

7. Mutant hound chops (cooked) can reduce Rads in addition to typical HP boost.

8. Power Armor is not a requirement. Don't kill yourself scrounging for fusion cores.

9. Ensuring 1 bed per settler is a quick way to avoid losing settlement happiness.

10. Don't sweat the answers you give to the vault salesman at the beginning of the game.

Once you have Dogmeat as a companion, and if you have a low lockpicking skill:

1. go to Vault 111


2. go to the Overseer's office


3. clear out all the junk


4. ask Dogmeat to find items

Enjoy the Cryolator

If there's a red skull next to your enemy's title and you're playing on anything above normal difficulty. Believe it. That enemy should not be faced head on unless you're interested in dying.

11. Prewar Money is decently valuable, and weighs nothing, so collect it.

12. Be sure to jump up and hit "E" to collect things from suspended meatbags (Mutants) as there are often good things hidden in there.

If you have a companion/follower that you're going to dismiss and you want them to return to their default location, just hit Tab. If you select one of your settlements you will NOT be able to send them to their default location later on.

Ah, I did not know that. I had figured out that, they CAN go back to their default location IF you have no settlements, but didn't know it was even possible with settlements, cool.

This is one of those classic cases of WTH were they thinking? 'Return to default location' should have been the first choice in the list, not a sneaky hidden option that people only find out about in a forum two months after they start playing.

I know, that annoys the hell outta me. I just want them to go about their lives until their hero comes calling for them to serve me again.