Fallout 4: Survival Mode Tips and Tricks

Fallout 4 Survival Mode

Fallout 4 thrusts players into a Boston Wasteland full of radioactive storms, Super Mutants, and insects that may be a little too big to just be stepped on. The world presents plenty of challenges for the average gamer, especially when you throw in homicidal robots. But sometimes that isn’t enough. Some need to feel the true weight of the nuclear Wasteland.

That’s where Survival Mode comes in. Now, instead of just killing things and not dying yourself, you’ll have to take very good care of your in-game character. Players will get to see what it means to truly live out in Fallout 4’s Wasteland, and it is no piece of cake.

Due to the new level of difficulty on offer, you’ll need to get used to playing in an entirely different way. To that end, we’ve put together some tips and tricks to help you hack it out in the real Wasteland.

Better Get Your Strength Up

There are two new threats introduced in Survival Mode that will make you want to invest in your Strength stat. The first is the fact that you can’t fast travel, so you’ll want to be able to lug all of your cool findings back to a safe place. The second is that being over-encumbered will now cause you harm. To make matters just a bit more challenging, all items have weight now too, and yes, that includes ammunition.

Investing in your Strength stat will allow you to carry more as you move through the world. When combined with your companion, you should now be able to carry everything you need back home without worrying about breaking your back. 

Lead Belly Is Your Friend

If you look at all of the Perks under the Endurance tree, you’ll find an interesting one called Lead Belly. When playing Fallout 4 normally, you may skip right over this one, as healing really isn’t all that difficult. But during Survival Mode, you’ll need to eat in order to stay alive, as well as heal since medical supplies aren’t as common anymore.

Lead Belly at its lowest levels mitigates some of the radiation damage you would normally take from food and water in the game. When maxed out, though, you can eat and drink as you please without ever having to worry about sickness and death. You can finally eat all of that irradiated mole-rat meat you’ve had your eyes on. 

Cook Everything

Now that you’re focused on actually surviving, it’s time to get some culinary prowess under your belt. Raw meat may help to satiate your hunger, but it can give you diseases that lead to death. Even if you have Lead Belly and are safe from irradiation, you need to cook your meats.

You can build cooking stations at all of your settlements, and you can find them in nearly every town you come across. Try to keep a healthy supply of cooked vittles in your pack for those long expeditions. And, if need arises, be greedy with your companions. They don’t need to eat the same way you need to. If they fall, they’ll get back up… eventually. 

Sneaking Is a Good Idea

If you haven’t realized it by now, everything is more dangerous in Fallout 4’s Survival Mode. That includes the enemies you’ll come across in your many travels. Humans, normally the easiest of prey, are now a lot tougher, insects can give you diseases with ease, and Super Mutants are, well, more super.

When combined with the fact that you’re going to be carrying less ammo this time around (you can thank the new weight for that), you may want to give some fights a wide berth, or sneak through missions whenever possible. There’s no need to fight absolutely everyone. The bulk of experience is granted by completing tasks, not killing things. So move slowly, choose your battles wisely, and, above all, survive. 

Sleep Is Your Only Savior

Sleep is mandatory in Survival Mode if you want to protect your progress. There is no more auto-saving after missions or when you enter new areas. You have to actually find a bed/mattress/mat/sleeping bag to save your game. If you die, you will be returned back to the last time you slept. That’s not a big deal if you just did so 10 minutes ago, but try and imagine if you didn’t sleep for three whole hours. Yeah, it sucks.

There is a perk for not sleeping called Adrenaline: your damage is increased with each kill you get without going to sleep. But, it in no way balances out the risk of losing all of your hard work after a silly mistake. We’ve all had those random accidental deaths before, but don’t let yours ruin the game for you.

Travel Back to Camp Often

There is no fast travel in Survival Mode, and carrying too much has adverse effects on your character. Of course, this new mode in Fallout 4 won’t change the fact that you need a lot of things such as supplies, food, weapons, armor, and other baubles.

To get it all and not die, you should travel back to your settlements regularly. Drop off everything that you don’t need, get some cooking done, improve your gear, sleep, then head back out. It will allow you to avoid having to drop useful items for health reasons, and to build up the camp empire you’ve been dreaming of. 

Cannibalism Should Be a Last Resort

There is perk under Endurance that allows you to heal by eating the flesh of humans. This can prove to be handy in a pinch but does come at a cost. New to Survival Mode is the Dark Craving perk (or perhaps it’s more of a curse). This perk can only be obtained by consistently eating a lot of human flesh.

Once you get the perk, you can’t eat anything but human meat. You will then only be able to survive on the flesh of others, which turns the once handy Cannibal perk into the biggest burden in the game. No more Queen Mirelurk Steaks after a long day’s work, no more Mutt Chops (my personal fave), just the hands and feet of that bandit you just murdered.

Make sure not to eat another person unless you really have no other choice. It’s not worth losing all of your other means of staying alive just for the disgustingly cool knowledge that you just ate a Raider.

For more guides, tips, tricks, and information on Fallout 4, be sure to check out our wiki.