Boston Bewilderings, The Fallout 4 "Where are you now?" thread Options

[mirocu]

Not sure how it works in Fallout 4 but in 3 the workbenches are indeed quite useful

[SubRosa]

Doesn't she have the minigun from the vertibird on the roof? You can take it, and it will work wonders on the deathclaw.

Workbenches in FO4 are quite useful. The weapon benches allow you to customize pretty much every weapon in the game. You can add parts to do more damage, make them more accurate, shoot faster, convert pistols to rifles, etc... It all depends on the weapons. How much you can do depends on your level in the skill appropriate to working on the weapon in particular. Science is for working on energy weapons, Gun Nut is for working on gunpowder firearms.

The same is the case for the armor bench, except it allows you to modify your pieces of armor.

The chem bench can be used to create all the chems in the game: Rad-X, Stimpacks, etc... The same with grenades and mines, and some other items too. Many item mods also use it as a way to make their items. You literally create them at the Chem Bench.

The cooking "workbenches" can be used to take raw ingredients like mirelurk meat and create meals, which of course do more healing and sometimes give other bonuses above what eating the stuff raw would.

Also all the workbenches in a settlement are linked. You can store all of your junk (and all items really) in any one of the workbenches. When you later use any bench in the settlement, all that stuff will be available for you to use. It is all safe storage, so you won't lose it. That way you don't have to carry it all around with you all the time, or store it in a container, bring it out to craft, and then put it back in the container once more.

[Renee]

Doesn't she have the minigun from the vertibird on the roof? You can take it, and it will work wonders on the deathclaw.

Jenn isn't strong enough, she needs ST of 8 to dislodge it from the 'bird, so unless she finds whatever chem or magazine to temporarily boost Strength, her current rifle + Preston's energy gun will have to do

[SubRosa]

Doesn't she have the minigun from the vertibird on the roof? You can take it, and it will work wonders on the deathclaw.

Jenn isn't strong enough, she needs ST of 8 to dislodge it from the 'bird, so unless she finds whatever chem or magazine to temporarily boost Strength, her current rifle + Preston's energy gun will have to do

Wearing the suit of powered armor on the roof will set your Strength to 11. I have never had a character unable to pull off the minigun while wearing the armor.

[Renee]

okay, guess I missed that. Jenn stepped out of her armor (its animation is rather clunky and hard for me to navigate indoors)( so she's now in ordinary clothes. We can try again with PA later.

[Renee]

Jenn levels up to 6. I put a point into Charisma, maybe this opens new dialog options. Perks in this game are weird. Tried to pick Sneak, which requires Agility of 3 and the game won't let me, even though her AG is 7+

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Jenn levels up to 6. I put a point into Charisma, maybe this opens new dialog options. Perks in this game are weird. Tried to pick Sneak, which requires Agility of 3 and the game won't let me, even though her AG is 7+

I haven’t played F4 in a while, but is it because you have to get the perk that is in the tree before it?

Edit: no that’s not right. That wouldn’t make much sense.

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Dec 23 2025, 03:51 AM

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

Jenn levels up to 6. I put a point into Charisma, maybe this opens new dialog options. Perks in this game are weird. Tried to pick Sneak, which requires Agility of 3 and the game won't let me, even though her AG is 7+

Charisma doesn't open up new dialogue options, unfortunately. It just makes Charisma checks in dialogue easier to succeed with. (You've probably already seen it at least once, but those options will be in yellow, orange, and red colors to indicate progressively difficult checks.)

The dialogue wheel always makes it so that there are 4 choices in dialogue. Which, sure, is good in the sense that the other Bethesda games didn't always allow 4 options of dialogue (when they actually allowed options in dialogue). But the 4 choices aren't always worthwhile or essentially that different. Also, the most annoying part is the 1 or 2 word description, instead of showing the full dialogue. Which is kind of like older Elder Scrolls games. Let me see the whole thing I'm about to say, damn it.

Anyway, as for Sneak, have you picked it already and you are trying to pick it a 2nd time? Or is your character level not high enough? Your attribute (Agility) may be high enough, but you still have to be a high enough character level to pick it again.

Jenn levels up to 6. I put a point into Charisma, maybe this opens new dialog options. Perks in this game are weird. Tried to pick Sneak, which requires Agility of 3 and the game won't let me, even though her AG is 7+

I haven’t played F4 in a while, but is it because you have to get the perk that is in the tree before it?

Edit: no that’s not right. That wouldn’t make much sense.

Been a while for me too, but I remember being able to pick perks regardless of order, as long as you had the level requirements. The game is not great at signaling which perks you can take again after doing so previously.

[Kane]

The ranks of a perk have level requirements. I think Sneak 1 requires level 5.

[Renee]

My character is in Corvega Factory right now and I just figured out how to throw grenades and molotov cocktails, by HOLDING the button for melee. Had to google that for Xbox.

But the unexpected thing is Jenn throws left handed! -- Which means she still holds a gun in her right, but doesn't need to disarm to use a thrown weapon, that is HUGE. I believe this will appear in ESIV too!

....allright, calm down Renee! Easy.....

This post has been edited by Renee: Dec 29 2025, 09:55 PM

[mirocu]

Dual wielding, huh? That's cool


Edit for spelling badly

This post has been edited by mirocu: Dec 31 2025, 03:37 PM

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

Technically dual wielding, but not really. Thrown projectiles like grenades are just programmed to be left-handed in Fallout 4/76, but there isn't true dual-wielding like Skyrim. And they only appear once you are ready to throw them, unlike Fallout 3 where you have to equip them as if they are a normal weapon.

[SubRosa]

It has been a common convention for some time in action rpgs like the Mass Effect games. You select a particular type of grenade to be available for throwing. Then at any time you press a specific key and will automatically throw that grenade. This way you do not have to unequip your current weapon and equip a grenade in your hand, as you would in older games like Fallout 3. It just makes things more streamlined.

[Renee]

A good example of streamlining for sure.

November 30, 2287

Jenn X is headed to Oberland Station to take down some raiders. On the way there she spied a man in the distance, standing by a campfire. Codsworth made one of his "duh" comments ... like "no [censored] Sherlock" while Jenn equipped her rifle. Would've been probably an instakill, but she decided to hold her fire and approach first instead. She found a nuclear core and so her power armor's back in order. Why not approach first/shoot only if it's a confirmed raider camp?

Welll.... good thing she held back. The man is a father with his daughter. Jenn spoke to the daughter, who apparently lost her mom recently. 😢 Man what a cluster [censored] that would've been.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 2 2026, 01:34 AM

[Kane]

You're giving Codsworth way more time than I ever did. I usually opt to take Dogmeat until I hit Diamond City.

[Renee]

The Dog is Jenn's first choice, problem is he's not immune to bloodbug and bloatfly attacks. In FO3 bloatflies are a joke; but they're a major danger in Boston area.

Jenn just watched Codsworth get bombarded by countless bloatfly goo-packs (whatever their thrown ammo is called) The bot just took them all while Jenn sniped with her rifle from a safe distance.

I hate watching my characters get killed over and over, so until I get good at this game, Codswork it is.

Edit: Found Super Duper Mart. Gosh, ghouls are like the zombies in The Last of Us! Fast, lurking everywhere; including above us. They crawl, sort of "play dead" sometimes, urgh. *shivers* If we see a ghoul lying down we shoot it. Never assume it's totally dead.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 2 2026, 04:09 AM

[mirocu]

Ghouls in Fallout 4 can play dead??

[Kane]

Oh yes. Some of them shamble around, others lie inert on the ground until they hear you. And they are FAST in Fallout 4.

I love the Super Duper Mart on Survival Mode. Guaranteed at least 2-3 legendary ghouls. It's so harrowing.

Most of the bugs outside of Radroaches can be a headache, especially Stingwings. And Radscorpions burrow like Molerats and will burst out of the ground at your feet!

[Renee]

Ghouls in Fallout 4 can play dead??

There's a trend in zombie movies and shows nowadays for FAST-moving zombies. The slow monsters of Night of the Living Dead have been replaced by Pelé and David Beckham and other footballers. Not only are they fast, they are very adept at hiding. Had one crawl thru a slotted opening less than half a meter tall above Jenn X yesterday. Dang thing FELL next to her and immediately starts pummeling her! 🧟🏽‍♀️ oh gosh I shrieked so loud. Took me 3 reloads to figure where it kept coming from and how to kill it, even though ghouls are already supposed to be undead?

And like I said, just because a feral lies on the ground doesn't mean you should assume it's (un)dead.

It's very possible to shoot a ghoul, witness it fall, but then it comes 'back to life', crawling with its arms just like in Walking Dead or Last of Us or 28 Days.

[mirocu]

Goodness me! Fallout 4 ghouls sound like a whole nother level!


I also saw a clip where a Deathclaw reached down on a player from above - nightmare fuel!