I’ll be honest, for a while there, I was totally ignorant to the modding community involved in Fallout 4. As someone who played The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Fallout 3 on PC, I understood exactly what dedicated modders could create. Unfortunately, I wanted the latest and greatest on the PlayStation 4. I thought playing with a controller on a shiny console would somehow make the game more enjoyable to me. Boy, was I wrong. I spent 60+ hours on the PS4 version of Fallout 4, then quickly switched to PC, where I modded my game into oblivion and beyond. I’m talking brand-new weapons, enhanced graphics, customized building models, and immersion mods galore. There was nothing I wouldn’t download at least once. I broke my game, I reinstalled everything, and I visited Nexus Mods again.

If you’re new to the modding scene in Bethesda games or perhaps just want to enhance Fallout 4 a tad, these 15 mods are so insane that you cannot miss out on them. Honestly, these mods are so great, we didn't even include the Star Wars mod we used in the header image, though you can find that here. Some of the mods mentioned below simply add a unique firearm or tweak the AI a tad. While others completely reimagine significant aspects of the game – making for a more thrilling experience overall. You would do well to spend an afternoon downloading these mods and enhancing the open-world, post-apocalyptic RPG. Of course, we recommend that you download one mod at a time, then test your game experience before continuing. A single mod could break something in-game and, if you just installed twenty, you’d be hard-pressed to find the culprit.

15 Armorsmith Extended

Via: Nexus Mods

If you’re anything like me, you completely ignore the statistics of each piece of armor in the game and instead opt for style over functionality. That’s completely fine! This is an open-world RPG, after all, which means playing how you want. Unfortunately, Bethesda’s selection of armor, clothing, and armor mods is a bit lacking at the moment. The modding community changed all of that, though.

In Armorsmith Extended, a mod by Gambit77, the whole armor and clothing system was revamped completely. You can now wear any piece of regular clothing underneath individual armor pieces, hats and helmets no longer cover the face, allowing for gas masks and bandanas. And finally, there are new craftable items to wear on the regular. Overall, this is a mod your character needs in their virtual life.

14 Homemaker – Expanded Settlements

Via: Nexus Mods

The settlements and building aspect of Fallout 4 needed some work, sorry to say. While Bethesda certainly nailed the core aspect, they left a lot for the community to desire. In Homemaker – Expanded Settlements, by NovaCoru, your settlement is no longer a static, boring endeavor that most would consider an afterthought to the main portion of the game. Instead, the mod adds in over 1,000 new, balanced objects, including cars, working street lamps, and entire build sets based on the infamous Institute.

If you enjoy expanding settlements, then more power to you. Why not do so with more items and better placement, though? Instead of patchwork homes made of tin metal and termite-riddled boards, you can build a bustling community with walkways, barriers, and brick-style homes. The options are endless!

13 True Storms – Wasteland Edition

Via: Nexus Mods

For the most part, it’s easy to completely ignore the weather in a video game – especially one as immersive and impressive as Fallout 4. Once someone points out the lack of intense rain, thunder, and gloomy fog, you’ll never look at the game the same way twice. Sure, Bethesda’s RPG has a weather system, but it’s lackluster.

In True Storms – Wasteland Edition, by modder fadingsignal, a slew of new textures and immersive visuals are added into the game, including rain storms, dust storms, sheet lightning, and fork lightning. There are even 20 new thunder sounds. Fadingsignal went into detail with the sounds. Furthermore, you can even tweak the chance of a Feral Ghoul attack during radiation storms, making them even deadlier overall.

12 Better Settlers

Via: Nexus Mods

Let’s face it, the NPCs in Fallout 4 are dumb. There’s no skirting around the issue. These characters have no qualms about walking up to a Deathclaw and fist-fighting. Furthermore, they tend to stand around or work wherever you assign them. Life in post-apocalyptic Boston is pretty tiresome and downright annoying.

In Better Settlers, by Thom293, over 230 new settlers are added to the settlement pool, for a total of 270+. You can opt for their vanilla equipment and statistics, or utilize completely lore-friendly equipment, mortality rates, and stats. The choice is yours. In any case, your bustling settlement built with Sim Settlements will look infinitely more impressive with unique NPCs wandering the city streets instead of NPC #221 version 2. Oh, and you can even build a raider settlement!

11 Improved Map w/Visible Roads

Via: Nexus Mods

The Improved Map w/Visible Roads mod, by mm137, is purely aesthetic, albeit necessary for those tired of the wonky in-game map the game launched with. Consider this a quality of life update for the Sole Survivor. While the improved map does feature an initial weird purple-pink hue, which can be off-putting (albeit changed to your liking), its functionality is what’s important here.

Considered one of the best Fallout 4 mods by PC Gamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, and VG247, Improved Map features distinct waterlines, enhanced roads and train tracks, corrected map marker placement, numbered grid lines, and even regions. Each feature can be tweaked, including brightness and entirely optional features. While you may not see an issue with the current map, switch over to this one, and you’ll immediately notice the difference. Going back is hard!

10 Lowered Weapons

Via: Nexus Mods

Okay, you don’t need this mod to improve the gameplay whatsoever, but it’s still interesting to have. Consider this one of those “quality of life” immersion-type mods that simply add on to the game in a small way.

Lowered Weapons, by lesma666, simply helps the player put their gun down occasionally. After all, it must be tiring holding an assault rifle at full attention for extended periods. Personally, I hate how the player character points their gun forward at all times. It breaks the immersion of the game, which is astounding to begin with. With Lowered Weapons, you’ll notice a new animation while in the first-person perspective. Now, with the mod installed, your character will rest their weapon, pointing the barrel towards the ground, when not in use. It’s more immersive and enjoyable this way.

9 More Where That Came From

Via: Nexus Mods

If you’re a veteran of the Fallout franchise, then you already know the in-game music is simply fantastic. Because of this post-apocalyptic video game series, there are more classic music fans in the world than ever before. Like anything good, we always want more, though!

More Where That Came From, by OldManMose76, features 111 lore-friendly, thematically correct songs to Diamond City Radio. DCR is the only worthwhile radio station to listen to in the Commonwealth, so it’s nice to have some more variety available. Of course, the mod also removes DJ Travis’ introductions and segues. Otherwise, Travis would say one song is coming on, then play something entirely different. It would be immersion-breaking. You’ll have to play for quite a long time before listening to all 111 new songs, though, so prepare yourself for a long weekend!

8 Everyone’s Best Friend

Via: Nexus Mods

Do you remember Dogmeat? He was everyone’s favorite canine companion – albeit for a short while. Upon acquiring your unique pal in the early game, it’s common to ditch him and opt for someone stronger and more efficient. Leaving Dogmeat behind always tugs at the heart-strings, though, doesn’t it?

In Everyone’s Best Friend, from Valdacil, you can now bring Dogmeat on your adventures in addition to a human (or otherwise) companion. Initially, you could only have one or the other, despite Dogmeat not being treated as a full companion. There is evidence of this within the game files. For example, Dogmeat doesn’t disable the Lone Wanderer perk. That’s not an issue any longer, though. So, go ahead and bring Hancock and Dogmeat to clean out the Parkview Apartments. Having an actual RPG party for once is nice!

7 Seasons Project

Via: Nexus Mods

Yeah, this is the apocalypse, we know! What ever happened to the seasons, though? Humanity has survived 200 years since the bombs first dropped. You would think a bit of snow, spring showers, or falling leaves would be a possibility. In Bethesda’s world, however, that’s unlikely. They prefer dark and drab.

The players, however, don’t. In Seasons Project, by GameDuchess, adds in Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer to the game. Each particular season has its own unique textures and vibe. During winter, you’ll obviously notice a bit of snow covering the ground. During summer, however, the world is less green and includes fewer flowers. It’s the perfect crop harvesting season. If you’re anything like me, the colorful aesthetic of spring pairs nicely with raider blood splashed across the ground.

6 Conquest

Via: Nexus Mods

If you haven’t noticed, improving the settlement-building features of Fallout 4 is something of a theme with the modding community. Bethesda did well, but there is always room for improvement. In this case, it’s the ability to build a new settlement anywhere in the game world.

In Conquest, by Chesko, you may now create a small campsite to cook, sleep, and refresh yourself while on an adventure. Furthermore, by constructing a new workbench, you can turn your small campsite into a bustling settlement, complete with the benefits and work included. As of right now, the mod allows for ten additional settlements to be built within the game world. Still, that’s ten more settlements to expand, trade with, and gather resources at. The mod doesn’t break immersion either, as it uses in-game assets and you may only build in areas with enough room.

5 Any Mod Any Weapon

Via: Nexus Mods

Do you want to turn your pipe pistol into a blunderbuss? How about a railway rifle with a triple barrel and a scope attachment? Fallout 4 already has an extensive weapon modding system – far better than what we witnessed in Fallout: New Vegas. However, it has limitations. Limitations we simply cannot work with under these conditions.

Any Mod Any Weapon, by LucasGod, effectively opens the weapon modding system completely. You can now equip any weapon modification to any weapon in the game. Go wild! Some of the creations people have made are downright wacky, but still pretty dang cool to witness in action. It’s nothing to suppress a .44 revolver, equip an extended barrel, and turn said revolver into a rifle. While it may not be fully immersive to the game world, it’s still fun and that’s the point of the game!

4 Fusion City Rising – Quest Mod

Via: Nexus Mods

There are a few standout quests in Fallout 4 that every player remembers. Then there are those we would rather forget. Everyone can agree, however, that we need more quests to fill out the game world. That is the precise goal of Fusion City Rising, by Recluse and Thuggysmurf.

Fusion City Rising is a unique quest mod that features 10 to 20 hours of additional content. There are new quests, new locations, new factions, and even new companions to recruit. Fusion City, itself, is a massive underground complex that is bigger than Diamond City, complete with a mall, subway system, hotel, player home, bank, shooting range, and every type of vendor imaginable. It’s massive, pure and simple. When you’re not fighting the new enemy factors or completing side-quests, you’ll want to simply explore the huge game world added to the wasteland.

3 We Are The Minutemen

Via: Nexus Mods

Players understood the narrative of the Minutemen, sure, but they didn’t quite grasp the concept in-game. It’s clear that Bethesda wanted this unique, player-run faction to be the most efficient alternative to rebuilding the Commonwealth. By acquiring more settlements, you thus gain new sources of revenue and resources. Unfortunately, the faction suffered from lackluster implementation.

We Are The Minutemen, by TheFirstEnd, is designed to expand upon the faction, making them more attractive, immersive, and useful to the game world. You’ll notice Minutemen reinforcements, Veteran Minutemen equipped with Gauss weaponry, new armors, and an overall stronger faction worthy of defending the common settler. In the vanilla game, the Brotherhood of Steel and Institute were more attractive choices to side with. With We Are the Minutemen, the militia is worthy of your time and attention.

2 RU556 – Assault Rifle

Via: Nexus Mods

The community, for the most part, absolutely adored the pipe weapons that took center-stage in Fallout 4. They were immersive, somewhat realistic, and exciting to mod in the late-game. Unfortunately, they kind of dominated the wasteland. Almost every raider in the game armed themselves with some type of pipe weapon. It grew tiresome. We want some variety, Bethesda!

Thus, the RU556, by modders FX0x01, Ha_ru, Navaro, Lee Swagger, and others, was introduced. The assault rifle features new, high-quality textures, custom animations and sounds, extensive customization options, and is in leveled lists. Leveled lists? What does that mean? You may ask. Basically, until you hit level 25, the RU556 won’t spawn in the game. It’s a high-powered assault rifle, after all.

1 Sim Settlements

Via: Nexus Mods

While I personally enjoy building a post-apocalyptic settlement, the feature introduced in Fallout 4 was a bit tedious, to say the least. You're tasked with rescuing settlements, seeing to their every need, and then growing from one shack to two. If there were no existing structures in the immediate area, you oversaw the construction from scratch. Snooze!

In Sim Settlements, from modder kinggath, you simply set down designated plots of land, including residential, agricultural, and retail. Your residents could then be assigned their very own plot, where they would construct their very own domiciles. There is enough variety in the buildings to offer a real sense of a settlement. Of course, you’re still in charge of basic needs, including water, food, and defense. In any case, instead of the NPC being lazy, you get to be lazy!