There isn't much to do in Fallout 4's wasteland apart from popping bottlecaps, engaging in ghoul depopulation, and retaking some settlements. Still, you find some semblances of past civilizations every once in a while — among these vestiges, you'll find magazines. Surprisingly, some of them remained intact and also give out substantial bonuses and perks for your character.As with all relics of the past in Fallout 4, collecting them like a miserly antique enthusiast is quite the endeavor. You can easily spend dozens of hours locating these magazine issues, and some of them might not even be worth your time depending on your playstyle. So allow us to guide you in cherry-picking the magazines you'll want to prioritize at your leisure. Shaun can wait.
10 Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor
- Number of issues: 8
- Ideal for: Bartering
There are some in Fallout who prefer to be civilized by exhibiting financial capability instead of robbing merchants blind. Good for you! However, you'll never know if that very same merchant is swindling you because you look like a rich and pampered Vault Dweller.
Luckily, magazines like the Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor can help you lower the prices of their items. Each magazine issue will reduce the price of items being sold to you by 3 percent. It's all additive and can help if you're pinching bottle caps.
9 Tumblers Today
- Number of issues: 5
- Ideal for: Lockpicking
Who needs keys when you have all five issues of Tumblers Today magazine? These colorful pamphlets are made by the wretches, for the wretches. Tumblers Today makes lockpicking easier by increasing the "sweet spots" for locks, therefore making them more vulnerable.
How and why a magazine can somehow affect the physical makeup of metal objects beats us. However, that's probably something you won't question if the locked items are bottlecaps or weapon upgrades. Each issue adds a small decimal point to that "sweet spot" increase.
8 Guns and Bullets
- Number of issues: 10
- Ideal for: Ballistic weapons with solid ammunition
For something a little more straightforward than utility, then Guns and Bullets ought to sate your lust for lead. It's a retro gun magazine, plain and simple. Guns and Bullets makes it so that your guns' critical damage becomes higher with every issue found.
Each copy of the magazine adds 5 percent to the total critical damage. It bloats up to a maximum multiplier of 1.50 if all 10 issues are found. The implications of such a perk are significant enough, especially when you use VATS often.
7 Tesla Science Magazine
- Number of issues: 9
- Ideal for: Ballistic weapons that use energy ammunition
The Tesla Science Magazine is pretty much the energy variant of Guns and Bullets. Likewise, it also adds up to the critical damage bonus of guns — except it's for the "smart" guns in the game, namely energy weapons. It just so happens that energy weapons can be more accurate or even deadlier than traditional guns.
As usual, it adds a 5 percent critical damage bonus for every issue, up to a multiplier total of 1.45 with nine issues. In any case, that ought to be enough of a damage increase for energy weapons since their upgrades are more than lethal.
6 Grognak the Barbarian
- Number of issues: 10
- Ideal for: Melee weapons or unarmed combatants
True enough to its name, Grognak the Barbarian is literature for meatheads. It appeals to the caveman instincts of post-apocalypse players who prefer the more intimate allure of taking a life while seeing the faces of their enemies up close.
That means melee weapons or if you're brawny enough, fists. Grognak the Barbarian issues will increase the critical damage bonus of those aforementioned weapons by 5 percent each copy. It adds up to a multiplier of 1.50.
5 Massachusetts Surgical Journal
- Number of issues: 9
- Ideal for: Dismemberments with or without VATS
Relying on critical damage for guns or melee weapons can be a little narrow-minded. After all, most wasteland denizens have limbs — too many limbs. They don't deserve those. It's not like they worked hard for those limbs, so you can help them unload all that baggage by reading the Massachusetts Surgical Journal.
It's a simple piece of literature that lets you deal more damage to those pesky limbs. That's regardless of the weapon, so it's a non-discriminatory perk that won't shove you down a singular playstyle. Limb damage is increased by 2 percent for each issue, up to a total multiplier of 1.18.
4 U.S. Covert Operations Manual
- Number of issues: 10
- Ideal for: Stealthy gameplay
Then again, seeking trouble unnecessarily makes the world an even darker place. Most people are already dying of radiation in Fallout 4's Boston anyway, so avoiding confrontations and letting them die on their own might be more cost-efficient.
At least, that's what the U.S. Covert Operations Manual seems to imply. It's a series of instruction booklets geared toward letting you sneak your way into victory. Each issue decreases the chance of enemies detecting you while you're sneaking by 4 percent. The total multiplier adds up to 0.40.
3 SCAV!
- Number of issues: 5
- Ideal for: All-around survival and combat
Being the Sole Survivor in Fallout 4 is a disheartening task. You wake up to a cruel and bleak world with no clean toilets or streaming services and filling yourself in the latest happenings or adapting is a Herculean chore. Thankfully, comic books like SCAV! sum it all up for you.
This crude post-war art depicts and explains what and how life should be in the Boston wasteland. Too bad they only have five chapters, but each of them has its own unique perk:
- Increases speech challenge success chance.
- +25% combat knife and switchblade damage.
- +10% hand-to-hand weapon damage.
- +5% explosives damage.
- +1 Strength & +1 Endurance if you have <= 10,000 caps +2 Strength & +2 Endurance if you have <= 1,000 caps. +3 Strength & +3 Endurance if you have <= 100 caps.
2 Live & Love
- Number of issues: 9
- Ideal for: Social or pacifistic gameplay
Who would have thought that you can make Boston a better place with magazines? The Live & Love series lets you spread peace and coexistence while also ensuring that your companions act more like your capable bodyguards.
Live & Love give out perks that let you play into your Charisma stat. It lets you persuade more effectively on top of making sure that your companions are no pushovers. Each issue has a different benefit:
- Companions permanently gain +10 health.
- Companions permanently inflict +5% damage.
- Companions permanently gain +10 carry weight.
- Permanently gain +25% XP from persuading women.
- Permanently gain +1 Luck from alcohol when traveling with a companion.
- Companions permanently gain +5 Damage Resistance and Energy Resistance.
- Permanently gain +25% XP from persuading men.
- Permanently gain +5% XP while adventuring with a companion.
- Robot companions permanently inflict +5% damage.
1 Astoundingly Awesome Tales
- Number of issues: 14
- Ideal for: All-around survival and combat
Of course, being a smooth-talking noir detective in Fallout 4 might not be for everyone, especially if you're not as handsome as the Silver Shroud. Sometimes, you'll just have to be your own person and be independent as much as possible.
Astoundingly Awesome Tales let you do just that. Each issue of this comic book gives out some substantial, varying perks that ensure you remain the top irradiated apex predator in Boston.
- Do +5% damage against Mirelurks.
- Do +5% damage against Super Mutants.
- Do +5% damage at night.
- Do +5% damage with the Alien Blaster.
- Do +5% damage with the Cryolator.
- Regenerate 1 point of health per minute.
- Gain +5 Action Points.
- Take 5% less damage from robots.
- Your canine companion permanently takes 10% less damage.
- Gain +5 Poison Resistance.
- Do +5% damage with scoped weapons.
- Do +5% damage against Ghouls.
- Gain +5 Radiation Resistance.
- RadAway heals +5% radiation damage.