4 –Â VATS Is Your Friend
When I’m in a new area, I’m tapping the VATS button frequently. This will target enemies as well as mines, along with any ghouls just waiting to get up and charge you. Aside from keeping you well aware of your surroundings, using VATS allows you to charge your crit meter which can turn the tide of any fight. Charge it quickly by using an unscoped weapon like a pistol or semi-auto rifle, then swap to your heavy hitter and nail that 20% chance to hit headshot with a critical hit. This is a great way to eliminate any pesky snipers that are giving you trouble from afar. Sharpshooters sitting way in the back of an enemy horde will be the bane of your existence on Survival if you don’t have high defenses, so you’ll want a way to eliminate them quickly.
5 –Â Use Your Power Armour
Fusion cores aren’t as rare as they seem, so don’t treat them like x-potions or elixers. Feel free to explore the Commonwealth unarmoured, but when you come across a tough dungeon that you don’t want to run away from, head home and pick up that sweet T-45 suit the Minutemen hooked you up with in Concord. Fast Travelling doesn’t use up any energy from fusion cores, so as long as you keep VATS and sprinting to a minimum you shouldn’t have any trouble using less than half a core for a single dungeon. This is essential early-game when you’re trying to track down magazines or bobbleheads that are in dangerous locations. If you’re really hurting for something stronger, join the Brotherhood of Steel. Ad Victorium, brother.
6 –Â Use Stealth Whenever Possible
The meta never changes, and sneaking is still the easiest way to break the game and turn even Survival into easy mode when necessary. If you craft some muffled gear or put points into Agility and Sneak, you can land some devastating blows on otherwise tough enemies. If you find a silencer early on or just pick your targets carefully, you can still go through an entire dungeon without being detected. Remember: the further the brackets move out from the words Hidden or Caution, the less likely you are to be detected. Even if you enter the Danger zone, just hide and wait for the AI to think it must have been the wind that blew a bullet through their accomplice’s brain.
7 –Â Pick Up EVERYTHING
The new crafting system in Fallout 4 should have everyone picking up whatever they can carry, but it’s even more important on Survival. With due diligence, you should be able to find enough adhesive to do some early-game crafting before you have time to set up an adhesive farm. This means tougher armour, stronger weapons, and some easy XP to level up quickly. While scrounging for materials you’ll also come across a lot of ammo and other aid items that are incredibly useful for obvious reasons. Some suggest getting the Scrounger perk, but personally I’ve found that as long as your Luck isn’t set to 1 and you don’t spray and pray during firefights, you’ll find plenty of ammunition by searching everywhere you go.
Click on thru to page three for the last tips you’ll need…