Use These Mods to Enhance Your Wasteland Adventures
Main image courtesy of Epic Games.
With the recent success of the TV show, the Fallout franchise has had a massive resurgence in popularity. Long time fans are jumping back into the games they love and newcomers are taking their first steps into the Wasteland. Regardless of your experience with the series, if Fallout 4 is your game of choice and you’re into modding, then you're in for a treat. It has the most modding potential out of any Fallout game. Out of over 3,000 games on Nexus Mods, Fallout 4 is the third most popular, with over 60,000 files and almost 2 billion downloads.
That’s quite the daunting amount. If you’re looking to get into Fallout 4 modding, this guide will give you a great starting point for a mod list that will transform your Fallout 4 experience.
You might have noticed that Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch - UFO4P is the third most popular Fallout 4 mod with over 8 million downloads. And that’s for good reason. UFO4P is a huge project that aims to fix, well, every bug that hasn’t been resolved by Bethesda, amounting to hundreds of fixes across every aspect of the game. You’ll definitely want this for a smooth experience.
Armor and Weapon Keywords Community Resource (AWKCR) doesn’t do much on its own but is invaluable when used in conjunction with armor and weapon mods. It is a framework that allows modders to create and modify armor and standardize the crafting menu. If you’re planning to use equipment mods, AWKCR is highly recommended (if not required).
If you’re familiar with modding at all, you might have encountered script extenders before. They are a modder’s resource that vastly expands the modding capability of any game they are available for. Fallout 4 is no exception. Fallout 4 Script Extender (F4SE) is a required element for some of the most popular mods on the Nexus.
Just because you want to have fun with mods during your playthrough, doesn’t mean you should be locked out of acquiring achievements. Luckily, Achievements re-enables achievements regardless of whatever mods you have installed.
With all the mods one can potentially install, going in and out of game to configure them can be a huge hassle. That’s why the Mod Configuration Menu is an essential part of many a mod list. It adds a menu to the pause menu that allows you to change the settings of certain mods without even quitting the game.
Extended Dialogue Interface remedies one of the most common criticisms levied at Fallout 4: the lack of transparency in dialogue options. With this mod, you’ll now be able to see exactly what your character will say when you choose a dialogue option. It also has some additional features that are useful for mod authors adding dialogue.
While the vanilla Fallout 4 UI is serviceable, it could do with a level of customization. DEF_UI solves this problem by allowing you to move, rotate, or resize almost every element of your HUD (Head’s Up Display) from your health to your compass. It also enhances the inventory, container, and barter screens.
Have you ever had trouble rifling through your inventory, looking for certain items that just don’t seem to be sorted correctly? Valdacil's Item Sorting may be for you. It assigns tags to a ton of items in the game to ensure that like items are grouped together when you use the "sort" button in your inventory. It also makes it so commonly used items are easily accessible at the top of your inventory.
If you’re one to agonize over your character's appearance in games, you’ll definitely want LooksMenu. It provides a framework for a ton more customization options, altering your characters skin, body, face, and more in new ways. Though you'll need other mods to make use of this framework…
Looks Menu Customization Compendium takes the framework that LooksMenu provides and gives you access to hundreds of customization options for your character’s facial features, tattoos, scars, makeup, hair color, and more.
The eyes are the window into the soul, so make sure your character’s eyes stand out. The Eyes of Beauty Fallout Edition - Remastered adds new eye options that can be the perfect addition to your character’s look.
The vanilla haircuts available in Fallout 4 can feel a bit uninspired after a while. If having a majestic head of hair is your goal, then Commonwealth Cuts - KS Hairdos - ApachiiSkyHair might just scratch that itch. It’s a compilation of almost 200 new hairdos, so you’re sure to find something you like.
ENBs are the real game changer when it comes to enhancing Fallout 4’s graphics. There are a ton of different ENB presets on the Nexus, all with their own approach to color, bloom, depth of field, lighting, and a host of other ENB effects. I’d recommend REACTOR - A FALLOUT4 ENB for a more modern and realistic look. Note that ENBs are particularly resource intensive, Luckily, there is another option for lower-end machines…
If your PC isn’t up to handle an ENB, using a ReShade preset is another option. ReShade’s effects aren’t as pronounced as most ENBs, but it still attempts to enhance the atmosphere and graphics of Fallout 4. We’d recommend Decay - Reshade Preset as it brings a unique dark aesthetic to the game that harkens back to the earlier Fallout games.
Enhanced textures make the world of Fallout 4 really pop, creating a more immersive experience. There are a few different retexture projects available on the Nexus, but FlaconOil's Complete Retexture Project stands out as the best option. Not only does it aim to cover every texture in the game it also has options ranging from 4k to 1k textures, making it accessible to those with both high-end and low-end PCs.
Weather has a huge effect on the presentation and atmosphere of the Wasteland. A graphical overhaul of the game isn’t complete without a weather overhaul. That in mind, we’d recommend True Storms - Wasteland Edition (Thunder-Rain-Weather Redone). You’ll find that it is well regarded as a weather mod not only for Fallout 4, but for Skyrim as well. It adds new weather patterns, effects, textures, and even a few gameplay changes based on the weather.
We have to venture off the Nexus for this one, a mod that was simply too huge and ambitious to be hosted on the Nexus. Fallout London is easily the biggest Fallout mod ever, essentially the size of a DLC like Far Harbor or Nuka-World, if not bigger. It adds a whole new map to explore, complete with new quests, enemies, equipment, and much more. Ambitious modding projects like this don’t often make it to release, so show the Fallout London team some love and try out their mod.
You may be wondering why this mod isn’t listed under the settlements section. Well, that’s because Sim Settlements 2 adds a lot more than just settlement improvements. As a massive expansion of the original Sim Settlements mod, Sim Settlements 2 adds a whole quest line with episodic releases and new characters alongside a huge amount of settlement changes. You’ll love this if settlements and new quests are your thing.
Project Valkyrie adds 20 quests and a number of new companions (4 of which are fully voiced), to Fallout 4. Become the Director of the Institute, reforming the faction in your own image. Project Valkyrie stands out as a quest mod that expands on the vanilla game endings, giving you new options as to how to deal with the various factions.
The modern Fallout games have been known to have overly long introductions that can be tedious for those who’ve played the game before. But beyond that, those heavily invested in the role-playing aspect of games take issue with Fallout 4’s lack of choice when it comes to your character's background. Start Me Up Redux fixes this issue by allowing players the option to forgo the standard Fallout 4 introduction and start from an alternate location with a new background. What’s more, the entire Fallout 4 questline is overhauled to account for this change.
Now that you have our picks, what mods will you be installing? Are there any we missed out on in our list? Let us know down in the comments. If you liked this list and want some more Fallout modding recommendations, check out our list of Fallout New Vegas mods.
