My Kind of Wasteland
Ever since Bethesda released Fallout 3 eight years ago, Fallout has been one of the most-modded franchises in modern gaming. The mods were made possible by a program called G.E.C.K., or the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, as well as the ingenuity of modders. G.E.C.K. allows anyone to modify Fallout 3 (and later Fallout New Vegas) extensively, and the modding community created everything from quest mods to total conversion in an impressive show of creativity.
Unfortunately, Bethesda has yet to release a G.E.C.K. for Fallout 4, but that hasn’t stopped modders from using the tools at their disposal to modify the game in inventive ways. While things like quest mods and significant changes to the gameplay are impossible without a G.E.C.K., modders have created several genius mods that improve the Fallout 4 experience in big ways.
If you’ve ever modded a video game before, chances are you’re familiar with NexusMods, the most popular mod database and manager on the internet. Every mod on this list can be found on the Fallout 4 Nexus, as well as plenty more game-changing mods for your browsing pleasure.
10) Craftable Ammo by kr1ck
never run out of ammo (all mod images taken from http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4)
In the Commonwealth, ammunition is a scarce commodity. Sure, you might find loads of it off the corpse of the super mutant you just killed, but how much ammo did you spend killing that thing? With Fallout 4’s revamped crafting system, craftable ammo seems like an obvious feature for the game, but its inexplicably missing from the game (even Fallout New Vegas had ammo crafting). Modders need not worry, because kr1ck has a solution!
Craftable Ammo does exactly what you’d think: add crafting recipes for every type of ammo available in the game. With this mod, you can turn the mostly useless junk in your inventory into ammo that can be used to rain destruction on your enemies in the wasteland.
By default, some ammo requires perks in order to craft, but there’s an optional add-on that allows you to craft all ammo types without spending any perks. Also, if you feel like you’re not getting enough bang from your crafting supplies, there are other optional add-ons that multiply the amount of ammo you receive from the recipe by 10, 25, 50, or even 100!
Craftable Ammo can be found here.
9) Homemaker – Expanded Settlements by NovaCoru
retro-futurism at its finest
Fallout 4 introduced settlements to the franchise, something radically different from any of the features in previous Fallout games. However, with just the default game features, settlements can feel a little bland, especially with the limited color palette and restricted functionality of the craftable objects. NovaCoru’s impressive solution to these problems is Homemaker – Expanded Settlements, a massive mod that adds over 1000 new craftable items for your settlement, vastly improving the visual blandness of the vanilla objects by including shiny new objects, including an Institute construction palette, so your settlement can look like a science fiction movie from the 50s.
In addition to the visual stimulation the mod provides, it also overhauls the vanilla crafting categories to make everything easier to find, as well as adds new farmable crops, including silt beans and tarberries, so your settlement won’t starve.
Homemaker – Expanded Settlements can be found here.
Youtuber Zimta takes a look at an early build of the mod in this video.
8) Vivid Fallout – Landscapes by Hein84
now with 100% more sharp edges
Fallout 4 is a massive visual improvement over past entries in the franchise, but even so some of the textures look… blah. Hein84 fixes that with Vivid Fallout – Landscapes, a mod that replaces a large amount of landscape textures with new, high resolution images that make the world feel real. In addition to replacing old textures, it also adds new textures to increase the visual variety of the in-game terrain.
Even if your computer can’t handle the high-res textures, this mod can still improve your game, with optional low-res textures that improve upon the appearance of the original textures without needing a stronger computer.
Vivid Fallout – Landscapes can be found here.
Youtuber CHABAL compares the vanilla textures with the modded ones in this video.
7) Improved Map with Visible Roads by mm137
now you won’t need to ask for directions
Fans that played Fallout New Vegas were likely shocked by the visual downgrade Fallout 4’s map was compared to the previous entry in the series. Topographical changes were easy to distinguish and roads were clearly marked in New Vegas, but that’s not the case in Fallout 4. Instead, Fallout 4 merely provides the locations of each major area, but little else besides a blurry waterline.
Modder mm137 brings the visual style of Fallout New Vegas’ map back to Fallout 4 with Improved Map with Visible Roads. Not only does the mod add roads to the map, but it also clearly displays the waterlines and provides elevation details for the map, providing knowledge to players that they otherwise would never get. It even divides the world map into numbered sections for easier tracking. With this mod, getting lost is a thing of the past.
Improved Map with Visible Roads can be found here.
6) Enhanced Blood Textures by dDefinder
take the Bloody Mess perk for maximum effect
For some, one of the draws of Fallout is the macabre beauty of the dismembered enemies left in your wake. dDefinder shares that passion and improves it with Enhanced Blood Textures. Now, enemies leave realistic, bloody remains behind that look much more real and satisfying. If you want to take your sadism further, the mod has an optional add-on that leaves realistic wounds on enemy bodies in addition to the blood splatter.
However, if you’re squeamish and don’t like blood, dDefinder included an optional add-on to make the blood more subtle, though it doesn’t remove it completely. Whichever way you like it, Enhanced Blood Textures improves the carnage that makes the wasteland so fun!
Enhanced Blood Textures can be found here.
5) Settlement Supplies Expanded 2.5 by Troy Irving
a shiny new future
If making your settlement look better isn’t your only concern, perhaps you can make it more useful. Troy Irving created Settlement Supplies Expanded to do just that. While Homemaker provides mostly aesthetic improvements to settlements, Settlement Supplies Expanded adds new objects to interact with, in addition to the aesthetic options.
While it doesn’t have as many craftable objects as Homemaker, a large number of SSE’s objects serve a greater purpose than merely visual. For example, you can create a barber’s chair and a plastic surgeon’s chair so you don’t have to go all the way to Diamond City in order to get your hair done or your face changed.
Settlement Supplies Expanded can be found here.
4) True Storms – Wasteland Edition by fadingsignal
lightning struck twice with this hit mod
The popular Skyrim mod gets the Fallout treatment with fadingsignal’s True Storms – Wasteland Edition. With over 300,000 downloads and 13,000 endorsements, the original True Storms mod was a massive success, so it was only a matter of time before it came to Fallout 4.
True Storms – Wasteland Edition brings truly dangerous and diverse storms to the Commonwealth, with intense thunderstorms and heavy dust storms turning a hostile environment into a downright unlivable one. If you’re a fan of realism or want an added challenge, this mod has everything you could want. With frequent updates, it’s also guaranteed to keep getting better and better as time goes on.
True Storms – Wasteland Edition can be found here.
Youtuber FadingSignalsMods demonstrates the weather effects in this video.
3) Lowered Weapons by lesma666
no need to point your gun at everything and everyone
I get that the wasteland is a dangerous place, but pointing your gun at everything that moves is a surefire way to get yourself shot. lesma666 brings a bit of added realism to the wasteland with Lowered Weapons, which does exactly what you’d expect. When out of combat, you hold your weapons to the side, so it doesn’t look like you’re threatening everyone you walk up to, and with a recent update this even includes when you’re wearing power armor. These animations work in both first and third person, and is the most popular immersion mod on the FalloutNexus to date.
Lowered Weapons can be found here.
Youtuber UNOG demonstrates the animations in this video.
2) NewDialog by shadwar
no more guessing what “sarcastic” means
Perhaps the most controversial change made to the Fallout franchise in Fallout 4, the speech system in Fallout 4 provides limited knowledge about what your character will say in a given dialogue. shadwar brings a much-needed fix to the game with NewDialog, which spells out very clearly what each dialogue option says.
With this mod, you will no longer choose “sarcastic” hoping to tell a joke and instead insult a character and start a gunfight. Everything is spelled out explicitly, so the results of your dialogue choices are entirely on you. If you are not a native English speaker, there is even a Russian version of the mod.
NewDialog can be found here.
1) Armorsmith Extended by Gambit77
go psycho!
Fallout 4 boasts an extensive crafting system that allows you to customize every weapon and armor in the game. However, for Gambit77, that wasn’t enough. Armorsmith Extended adds an insane number of crafting options for armor and clothing, including crafting recipes to make many of the outfits yourself. The mod completely reworks the outfit layer system, removing some of the silly situations where clothing prevents you from wearing armor and vice versa. In addition, clothing can now be modded, significantly increasing the number of options you have in the things you wear.
Perhaps the most impressive feature of this mod is its compatibility with other mods. Armorsmith Extended is compatible with practically every other major armor and clothing-based mod, providing expanded crafting options for the modded equipment.
Armorsmith Extended is the top mod on the FalloutNexus that isn’t sexually explicit (check those out on your own time if you want, I won’t judge), and is very impressive in practically every aspect. If you check out a single Fallout 4 mod, this is probably the one you want.
Armorsmith Extended can be found here.
So there you have it, 10 totally awesome Fallout 4 mods for any kind of player. Do you think we left out an amazing mod? Do you have a cool experience with one of these mods or Fallout 4 itself? Let us know in the comments below.
