In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last decade, or so, the Fallout franchise is one of the biggest and most popular in the industry. It’s one of the best (and probably only) AAA RPG that tells the tale of a variety of different strangers living in a post-apocalyptic world where the world has had a nuclear war. There’s combat, there’s political intrigue, but most importantly, there’s a large and healthy dose of conspiracy.
Fallout 4 is the latest non-MMO entry into the franchise, and it’s similarly pretty popular. In fact, our own Courtenay put it in her top ten list of the best open-world games. If we say it, you know it’s true (also, everybody else says it too, so there’s that).
Now, Fallout 4 has been out for a while and, just like Bethesda’s other game, Skyrim, it has a very strong modding community around it that has massively increased their longevity. As you can probably tell with a quick scroll, there’s a massive amount of really good mods that alter or add a huge variety of things, from weapons, armor, clothes, settlements, companions and even deeper gaming mechanics. That’s probably why you’re here.
So, without spending too much time on the intro, let me just warn you that some of these mods can be a bit hefty on the specs, especially graphical mods. Don’t worry though, if you don’t have a good computer, check out our list of the top 5 cheap gaming desktops; the higher-end options can probably take anything you can throw at them.
Related: Best Civ 6 Mods
Fallout 4 General Mods
#1 DEF_UI
If you’ve checked out my article about the best Skyrim mods, then you might be familiar with SkyUI mod which basically makes the UI waaay better. Well, Def_UI does something similar but even better than SkyUI. This mod is actually two different mods in one; Def_INV and Def_HUD.
The former expands the inventory management system from the default, which is actually one of the worst in the industry. It allows you to search for things, tag things for later and tabs, which is pretty cool. It also adds item groups to your pip-boy, so you could search through all your one-handed weapons, for example, without having to do a hundred clicks.
Tip: To immerse yourself fully, go with a one-handed build and get a high-quality gaming keypad. That’s as close as it gets to virtual reality without an actual VR system.
Def_HUD, on the other hand, does what it says on the tin: allows you to customize pretty much all the UI elements. You can move things around, hide UI elements or even sub-elements, and just generally make your UI look the way you want it to.
#3 Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch
Ok, let’s be honest, Bethesda always seems to make a pig’s dinner of keeping their games regularly patches past the first few months or so. This is compounded by the fact that their engine is kind of a sewn together mess where engine speed is tied to FPS (yes, really). Thankfully, Bethesda can lean on the loyal community to fix at least some of the issues in their games.
This mod actually fixes a massive amount of stuff such as quests, NPCs, gameplay, text and everything in between. Unfortunately, you will need all six DLCs for this to work, which is a bit of a pain, but hey, it’s better than nothing.
#4 Full Dialogue Interface
One thing that I really dislike is when dialogue options aren’t clear; when it’s paraphrasing or just giving you a ‘good, neutral, bad’ option without anything else to go on. While quite a few games tend to do this, one of the worst offenders is probably Fallout 4. Sometimes you really just have no clue what any specific dialogue option is going to end up saying.
Thankfully, this mod brings the options back to the way they were in previous Fallout games where you know exactly what you are saying. That’s quite important since you want to be pretty clear when you aggressive tell an NPC to go away in unkind terms. You also get the option to change the layout of the dialogue interface, which is also pretty useful.
#5 Faster Terminal Displays
Don’t. You. Hate. When. Terminals. Take. Literally. For. Ever. Just. To. Dis. Play. A. Few. Lines. Of. Text. ? Seriously, you’d think people wanted things to move at a reasonably fast pace before the Big One dropped. Sure, you can click to make all the text appear at once, but should you even have to bother?
Well, with this mod, you don’t. In fact, you can set the speed at 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x, 20x and 100x. No more waiting for frustratingly slow display speeds, you’re now free to make the text as fast as you want!
#6 Commonwealth Cleanup
Isn’t it annoying when a nuclear bomb drops and just really makes a mess of everything? Garbage laying about, destroyed building materials everywhere, rusting cars, it’s annoying. Oh, and the whole death of millions of people thing, that’s also pretty bad.
Thankfully, this mod allows you to show your eco roots and try to bring back some semblance of civilization by picking trash up. Over 200,000 items have been replaced with scrapable version, and yes, you can actually scrap the items after you pick them up to get materials from.
Honestly, I don’t know why this isn’t a bigger part of post-apocalyptic RPG games. Cleaning up the environment can absolutely be part of what makes you a hero and what you love to do.
Fallout 4 Graphical Mods
#1 Diamond City Enhanced
Diamond City, a supposedly bustling Boston town that is the center of trade and life for the region . . . Oh how far away from the truth it could be. Instead, you get a dilapidated, rundown city with very little life and just generally monotone. It’s atmosphere breaking and a letdown, to say the least, even for a post-apocalyptic world.
Fortunately, we do have a really awesome modding community and one modder in particular who went the extra mile to make Diamond City and actual diamond. It clears up brush and other debris to make the place look nice, adds new paths and trees as if somebody is actually managing the place, and new barrels and lanterns to light up the place at night.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t really add a bunch of random NPCs, although now that I think about it, the lack of congestion might be a good thing.
#2 Seasons Project
The map of Fallout 4 is both massive and detailed, with lots of cool things to see and nooks and crannies to explore. The only thing which is kind of annoying is that it’s always the same weather, and always the same season. A change would be nice.
Well, the Seasons Project gives you that change with four different seasons for you to pick from. In the winter, snow covers everything and the plant life withers away, and in summer all those plants come back to full life of greenery and awesomeness.
Unfortunately there is one big downside, which is that they don’t cycle automatically; instead, you have to set them up yourself and enable them one at a time. Yes, it’s a bit tedious, but it’s absolutely worth it (plus you can set your own time-scale for when things should change, like once every in-game week or two, or maybe every month).
#3 Vivid Fallout – All in One
While the overall world of Fallout can certainly look pretty, if you look closely, things aren’t that detailed and look sort of samey. That’s where the Vivid series of mods come in, and more specifically this mod. What it does is take all the Vivid mods, from vivid landscapes to vivid weather, and puts them all into one mod, so you don’t have to go in and add each one individually.
As a collection, they replace the textures of rocks, trees, bridges, roads, and everything in between with something better. The kicker? It actually takes less VRAM than installing all of them individually.
#4 Improved Map with Visible Roads
Something that has always irked me about Fallout games is that the map is kinda not that great. Sure, it gives you the big points here and there, but the actual details are lost in a somewhat poorly lit CRT display.
Well, with this mod you actually get a ton of that visibility and not just on the roads like the mod’s name would suggest. You get train tracks, waterlines, better map marker placement, and even topography. It’s actually really neat and makes the world so much easier to navigate around.
#5 True Storms
I don’t know about you, but I think when a bunch of nuclear bombs drop and destroy everything, it probably has a long-lasting effect on the weather. At the very least, things shouldn’t just go in as if nothing happened.
True Storms makes the weather a little bit more . . . Cataclysmic. Severe rainstorms, heavy fogs, massive amounts of lightning, even radstorms. It doesn’t end there though; it also adds a bunch of new sounds for outdoors and indoors. It even has an effect on the gameplay, with heavy rains giving a noise reduction, and ghouls attacking during radstorms. Oh, and you can control it from in-game, which is probably the best part.
#6 Enhanced Lights and FX
Much like Skyrim V, the interior lighting of Fallout 4 is a little bit weird. Lighting from where there shouldn’t be any, no real lighting coming in from the outside, and overall it just feels a little lackluster.
This mod helps bring some more light, so to speak, to interiors by actually giving lighting to light sources, adding god rays, more and better shadows, even makes the interiors darker at night, the way it should be. Overall, it makes the light more ambient and atmospheric and thankfully doesn’t hit the FPS too much.
#7 Enhanced Wasteland Preset
One thing that a lot of games do is somewhat alter how colors appear on the screen. This can be as drastic as just putting a filter over everything, like in Deus Ex Human Revolution, and as simple as just making the colors a little bit more muted and washed. While Fallout 4 colors aren’t as washed out as Fallout 3, they can still be a bit washed out for some.
This mod helps fix that issue by essentially reshading the world to make the colors more vibrant. Even though it really boils down to preference, I personally enjoy the more colorful world of Fallout 4, plus it has the added benefit of making things look more realistic.
#8 Darker Nights
It’s surprising how bright the night is in Fallout 4, although it probably makes sense under the context of gameplay mechanics. That being said, if you’ve played through the game and want a more realistic or survival experience, making the nights more realistic can certainly help.
Darker Night does that and even gives you seven different levels of darkness to choose from depending on how you want to play. It even makes the interiors darker at night, so it actually pairs up quite well with Enhanced Lights and FX in terms of systemic-realistic darkness.
The enemies can also be altered to change their detection range to be about the same for vanilla, with each darkness level being calibrated individually (although you can pick your own calibration if you want). The best part of this mod though is being able to set perpetual 24/7 darkness, which is really cool if you want to RP certain things or want a hardcore survival experience.
#9 Stalker Light
Speaking of lighting and playing some insane RP, Stalker light basically does the opposite of Enhanced Wasteland Preset by completely washing out the colors.
The world becomes bleak, dark, and generally very depressing. If you want a realistic post-apocalyptic work, such as the one in Stalker games, this is a great option.
#10 Cel-Shaded SweetFX/Reshade EMB
Ok, so the final mod in this category is actually really, really awesome, although it may not be for everybody. As you can probably tell from the name, it makes the whole game cel-shaded, similar in style to Borderlands, which is pretty cool. It’s actually surprisingly well done for what it is, and it gives Fallout 4 a pretty unique and new vibe.
The only downside here is that getting the mod isn’t as easy as clicking a button or two since it’s not on Nexus. Instead, you’ll have to download a .ini file and put it into the folders of the game, as well as do some custom settings. It’s not incredibly difficult though, and I’ve linked the post with all the info below.
Fallout 4 Companion Mods
#1 Everyone’s Best Friend
Ok seriously, who doesn’t love Dogmeat? Even more seriously, why can’t I bring him along everywhere I go? What’s the deal Bethesda, do you just not like dogs? Kidding aside, this mod allows you to bring Dogmeat wherever you go without taking up a companion slot, so you don’t have to make that choice.
Interestingly enough, it seems that Dogmeat was originally not going to occupy a slot like in Fallout: New Vegas, but for some reason, Bethesda changed their minds at the last minute and took that option out. There’s actually a bit of evidence to support this, from the way the scripting works to the way certain perks and abilities work, plus comments from the devs themselves.
I’m not really sure why they couldn’t find a workaround since Dogmeat’s DPS and hauling capacity isn’t great, so he doesn’t unbalance the game. Either way, you can have Dogmeat along with this absolutely must have mod.
#2 Valentine Reborn
Next to Dogmeat, my second favorite companion is easily Valentine, who I use almost exclusively. His snarky and witty comments are just ridiculously funny and entertaining, and his general grizzly demeanor definitely fits in well with a post-apocalyptic world. He’s also not too bad in a fight, which basically makes him perfect.
Well, this mod gives Valentine an HD makeover, with his clothes looking way better and his crackled and battered skin being much more detailed and alive. Not only that, but you can even choose to cover up his exposed synth hand to give him back some semblance of normalcy. You also can choose between three different eye colors if you like and as a bonus, the mod also includes a higher quality head for other synthetics in the game.
#3 Better Companions
Of course, a better-looking companion doesn’t mean an overall better companion. The truth is, the companions in this game can be kinda dumb, running into walls, having issues with weapons, and just sometimes being a tad bit too aggressive. Better Companions fixes a lot of those issues while allowing you to give them a bit more direction.
For example, you can change how close they follow or how aggressive they are, and they now actually switch weapons correctly (including the correct weapons), teleport your companions, view their stats, and gives them fall damage immunity. It also adds a bunch of things that overall make companions better, such as infinite ammo, better accuracy, and better stealth.
#4 Visible Companion Affinity
Don’t you just hate it when you don’t know exactly how somebody feels about you? Wouldn’t it be so easy to just have a nice handy interface to let you know?
Well, you’re in luck! This mod allows you to check your companions’ affinity through a menu, or when you ask them about their feelings. The mod even keeps you abreast of any changes in affinity with notifications, so you don’t have to be constantly checking. It’s a pretty simple mod honestly, but it does actually help a lot to gauge how your companions feel about you.
#5 Beast Master
You know, when I go out to conquer a post-apocalyptic world, I really want to be the master of everything, not just my own settlement or stats or whatever. No, I want to be able to control the actual beasts themselves and bend them to my will. Am I an egomaniac? Maybe, and you can be one too!
Beast Master does just that; it allows you to capture and tame any creature or animal (each one is different) in the game that can be captured by Wasteland Workshop cages.
Once you capture them, you can tame them either with a chip, or your voice if you have the perks, and then they join you as a companion that doesn’t take up a slot. The best news is, you can actually take two if you like, so you can have two Deathclaws following you wherever you go (and yes, you can capture and tame Deathclaws).
But the mod goes way deeper than that. Your tamed beasts have a happiness that affects their behaviors and stats, and that can be raised by interacting with them, including cooking them special treats. You can also equip them with a variety of armor and gear, such as saddlebags and bandanas, and you can even trick them out with different types of paint, which is cool.
Heck, you can even teach them how to do tricks and make them perform for your pleasure (although that’s a bit evil/mean for my tastes). Either way, it’s a pretty awesome mod that manages to do a lot.
Fallout 4 Combat Mods
#1 Lowered Weapons
You know what must be tiring? Constantly pointing your weapon forward as you walk around and do your thing. It can also get a bit annoying since it covers a bit of your field of view.
This mod just lowers your weapon a bit, so it’s not always front and center when it’s drawn. It’s a simple mod but well worth it for just making the game more immersive and easier to actually see.
#2 Take Cover
One thing that I feel is a must for almost any game that has a shooting element, is some kind of cover mechanic. Unfortunately, Bethesda decided Fallout 4 didn’t really need one, which is why I’m so glad this mod exists.
Given my understanding of game dev, it’s actually really impressive that somebody managed to get this in, even if it isn’t exactly perfect (sometimes you might lean out a bit too much). It’s even fully-fledged too, with an ability to lean over automatically when aiming downsides, and even vaulting over low barriers, which is very cinematic. You can also choose whether the cover system works automatically (so you just run into a cover) or by pressing a key.
#3 Craftable Ammunition
For a game where gunplay is an important part, it doesn’t make sense that you can’t craft ammo. This is especially the case if you don’t have infinite ammo for your companion, or you just really like to shoot at stuff without aiming.
With this mod, you can make almost all the ammo in-game from the reloading workbench, which you also have to craft. The best part, though? You can recycle or reclaim your ammunition to turn it into some other ammo, a huge boon to the actual weapon combat in the game. Personally, I think this mod is a must-have for the convenience.
#4 Crafting Workbenches
Speaking of gunplay and crafting ammo, why not also make your own armor and weapons rather than having to loot them? Like the previous mod, this adds a crafting workbench where you can create a variety of whole armor sets and guns.
As a bonus, it also lets you craft grenades and drugs at the chemistry workstation, so you get that as well. Finally, it also has some ammo crafting, although it’s not as extensive as Craftable Ammunition.
#5 Armorsmith Extended
Just because you’re living in a post-apocalyptic hell-hole, doesn’t mean you can’t be swanky. You shouldn’t always have to be wearing leather-clad armor or things that look like they’ve been sitting in the wasteland for a century. Well, with this mod, you can live the fashion fantasy of your dreams. You can now wear any outfit under any armor, and you can even wear hats and helmets that don’t cover your face with bandanas and gasmasks.
It even manages to add new items and reworks the clothing mechanics, as well as making outfits moddable as well (which is pretty cool). Oh, and all apparel can be worn by Valentine, and as you know, I love that synth dude, so this mod is perfect if you love taking him with you.
#6 Weaponsmith Extended
Since we’re going on a journey of extending everything, why not add some snazziness to weapons? This mod actually takes a bunch of different weapons on Nexus and puts them all together under one roof. Seriously, you get everything here, from your Desert Eagle .50 AE to your Katanas and even some holy grenades while you’re at it.
Just be aware that this mod actually takes a bit of effort to get working, since you’ll need to download other mods and plugins, as well as have some of the DLC for the game. Even so, it’s totally worth it in my opinion if you want to expand your gun game.
#7 Any Mod Any Weapon
Luckily, what the mod does is in the name; it allows you to attach any mod to any weapon, and I really do mean anything. Want a machine gun that fires nukes? Got it. Want a shotgun with a suppressor? Sure, no problems. Do you want a triple-barreled rifle? Heh, what else is new.
Really, the limit is your imagination. Just be aware that this mod is obviously not balanced and some of the concoctions you can make might look stupid. But hey, it’s fun and isn’t that what games are all about?
#8 Better Mod Descriptions
So this mod is actually pretty simple even though it serves a very important function. The thing is, the mod descriptions for weapons are sort of terrible since they only give you a general overview of what it does, such as ‘better range’ or ‘suppresses sound.’ That’s really no way to go about modding weapons.
What this mod does is to tell you exactly what each mod does to your weapon. Even better, it’s been combined with Better Armor Mod Descriptions, so you can also see what armor mods do. Honestly, I don’t know why this isn’t in the base game.
#9 Remote Explosives
Given how much fighting you need to do in this game, there never seems to be enough explosives to do some really large damage. Thankfully this mod fixes that problem by giving you remotely triggered C-4, IEDs and Plasma Charges.
Place them down and lead people to them, throw them off a building and trigger them, or heck even put it in an NPCs inventory and trigger it when you’re far away. The options are truly limitless when you add distance to the mix. Oh, and there’s even a remote nuke, which is beyond awesome.
#10 Cross Pre-War Cybernetics
While this won’t turn you into a Cyborg (what a shame), it will give you some sweet mechanized armor. With the new Cybernetics Lab Workbench, you can craft some really sweet stuff for yourself, and since it’s considered armor, it’s completely modular.
You can put cybernetic armor on either hand (or both), on your torso, or even your whole body. Not only that, but each piece is super-customizable both in terms of looks and in terms of stats (which helps if you want to balance it for your gameplay style).
Just be aware that because of the vanilla meshes in the game, under-clothing acts a bit weird when you use a mod with this kind of scaling, so you’ll have to stick to thinner under-clothing (or heck, go naked). It also doesn’t hide the pip-boy, so it might clip through and look weird on some stuff, although you can find mods that remove the pip-boy in 3D view.
Fallout 4 Settlement Mods
#1 Place Everywhere
Settlement building is awesome, but if you’ve done it for longer than five minutes, you know the frustration of the red collision warning. Similarly, the placement of some static items sometimes just completely gets in the way of what you want to do, really spoiling the aesthetics.
Thankfully, this mod allows you to not only move static items like benches and put them wherever you want, but you can now also building things wherever without worrying about collisions. Do you wanna build something inside something else? Sure, you can absolutely do it here.
It also has the added benefit of extending functionality for things that need water to work like water purifies. Since you can place them anywhere, you aren’t restricted to wherever there is water (as for how you explain it in-lore, just imagine that you set-up pipes and pumps for everything).
#2 Wall Pass-Through Power Conduits
In vanilla Fallout 4, you can kill deathclaws, destroy factions and build sprawling settlements with dozens of people. Do you know what you can’t do? Pass a darn power line through a wall.
Well, that issue is now a thing of the past with this mod. It’s simple and yet super effective, and it’s even lore-friendly as it literally just makes a pass-through from one node to the next. Now you can finally charge that vape you found that you haven’t been able to use.
#3 Higher Settlement Budget
Something that’s always annoyed me about building settlements in Fallout 4 is the limit on structures. You might be building with a really awesome design in mind, and when you’re 90% of the way, and you hit a brick wall . . . of the limit.
Well, this mod removes the limit, and it’s actually a pretty simple thing to install and use. Just keep in mind that there’s actually a good reason for that limit (for once). Too many items can really lag your game or crash it, so unless you have a beefy PC, you might not want to push this mod too much.
#4 Sim Settlements
Did you really love Cities: Skylines, one of the best city-building games out there? Do you wish you had more of it in pretty much every single game that you’ve ever played? Well too bad, because this mod only really exists for this game, so ha!
Kidding aside though, Sim Settlements actually brings the zoning mechanic from Cities: Skylines to Fallout 4. All you need to do is set different zones for commercial, residential, industrial or farmlands and your sims settlers will build it up for you. It won’t happen immediately mind you, but it will grow over time as you go about your business.
The best part is that this mod actually makes everything a bit more lore-friendly and interesting. For example, settlers will know to have their own stories, needs, and likes. Similarly, homes will now have personal belongings and furniture strewn about the place as if somebody actually lives there. You even get a nice little HUD UI element that shows you needs and goals of your settlement.
#5 Homemaker – Expanded Settlements
Sometimes vanilla settlements can feel a little . . . Empty, which can break the atmosphere if you don’t have something like Sim Settlements going.
Well, if you don’t want to use Sim Settlements you can still get all those extra added items through this mod, which adds a whopping 1,000 of them. There’s also some intense variety from prefab buildings like radio towers and lighthouses to decorations such as cars, fridges, trees, chairs, beds and even toilets if you’re inclined to go into that much detail. The mod even adds new farmable crops of Silt Beans and Tarberries, which is pretty interesting.
#6 Conquest
Ok, so this mod is actually a pretty cool one that sees your expand your settlements beyond what the game gives you. For starters, you can lay down a campsite pretty much anywhere in the world where you can build a campfire, scrap weapons and armor, and even place a portable generator and lights for a mini settlement.
Once you lay down your campsite, if you really like the location, you can build a workbench which then turns it into a settlement. That’s it, pretty simple, right?
Of course, it does have some limitations because of how the game works, and you can only do 10 of these, and it also adds a bit of load time to the game. There are also some quirks where merchants won’t buy or sell (but the clinic will still work, so there’s that). If I were you, I’d read through the mod’s page for all the relevant info before installing it, although I certainly think the extra bit of effort is well worth it.
#7 Salvage Beacons
If you don’t want to bother with constantly putting down a campsite, or just don’t want to use the previous mod, then this is a nice little solution that should help with all that junk.
It works pretty simple; build a Communications Station at a settlement, assign a settler then craft a salvage beacon at a chemistry station. Once you’re out and you fill up on junk, drop all of it in a container, add a salvage beacon and a settler will come and pick it up for you and place it in the workbench. See, pretty simple! (sort of).
#8 Better Settlers
With all this settlement expansion, you might want to consider getting some non-samey settlers from the 50 or so that come from vanilla. Better Settlers adds a whopping 230 extra settlers, with up to 230 different face/gender/hair/race options, as well as 30 different civilian outfits and 25 different hats.
As you can see, there’s an incredible ton of variety to the possible settlers you can get, so they don’t all look the same. The settlers even have some added perks which should help with radiation and healing, which is nice if you manage to survive a scrap. Honestly, there’s a ton of options and stuff you can configure to your liking, so definitely check it out.
#9 OCDecorator
If you like to micromanage your decor, this is an excellent mod. After all, the OC stands for ‘Obsessive Compulsive’ that’s a little play on OCD. While it does quite a few things, such as allowing you to place looted and static items wherever you want them directly, the best is probably that it allows you to anchor items so that they can’t be knocked over.
This is especially useful for workshops and things like that where you tend to move around, or if you’re just more clumsy in general. Before you install, though, make sure to read the known issues because there are one or two big ones. They aren’t game or deal-breaking mind you, just stuff to be careful of.
#10 VTO (Vertical Takeoff Outpost)
While you won’t be able to actually use a Vertical Takeoff Vehicle like the title might suggest, you do get a sort of mobile home base that’s pretty nifty.
Essentially how it works is that you can build landing pads across the map and then fast travel between them whenever you wish. Of course, it does take some time, and the vehicle like glugging down coolant, so you will have to keep it fed and well maintained. You will also have to actually read a book that unlocks it and construct the vehicle in the first.
Once you do that, though, you get a nice little fast-travel mobile home. There is a small internal compartment, a crafting bench and 100W of power, so you can actually load it up inside with quite a few things. It’s actually a great way to deal with junk and moving around the map.
Oh, and you can even call the VTO and control it remotely to come to you (within reason), which I find pretty cool. It also has a couple of turrets on-top to kill bad guys, so it also acts as a nice back-up.
Conclusion
Holy smokes Pip-Boy, that’s a lot of mods! Just kidding, I’ve seen people load almost twice that amount, which is actually a great thing, it shows how moddable and awesome Fallout 4 can be if you put a little bit of effort into it. That being said, you likely won’t take a fancy to all the mods here, so you should definitely check out the whopping 30k Fallout 4 mods on Nexus.
Whatever you choose, though, I wish all the best, and happy computer crashing from trying to load all the mods! And when you’re done with Fallout 4, you might want to know more about some of the most useful Fallout: New Vegas console commands.