For gamers wanting a challenge, Fallout 4's Survival Mode is a big deal. Selecting it at the beginning of your game means you can only save when at a mattress or sleeping bag your character can sleep in. Also, you can kiss the fast travel mechanic goodbye. Your Sole Survivor will also take 200 percent more damage. If you get crippled, you cannot sleep if off. In Survival Mode, you will need either a stimpak or a doctor. Also, ammo has weight!

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So it's no wonder you'd come here, because you need all the help you can get for this mode of gameplay. Here are some Fallout 4 survival mode tips.

Updated July 10, 2022 by Ritwik Mitra: There are many Fallout fans who find the fourth mainline title lacking in some ways. However, while there are certain aspects of the game that aren't all that great, Fallout 4 itself is a masterful open-world title with great level design that will let players journey around these beautiful landscapes with ease. With the addition of Survival Mode, players can make their journey through the game even more realistic and immersive. Here are some tips to keep in mind if you wish to try out this challenging mode in Fallout 4.

20 Only Carry What You Need

Fallout 4 Railway Rifle Inside Inventory

The weight limit of Fallout 4 is no joke. Even going slightly over it will lead to the player becoming a slow and weighed-down mess who will take ages to move a few steps without reducing their carry load.

Survival Mode makes this weight limit even tougher to deal with by adding weight to ammunition as well. Players now need to be really smart about what weapons they'll choose for this run, since it's impossible to hoard ammunition now.

19 Approach Combat With Tact And Wariness

Fallout 4 Screenshot Of VATS Softshell Mirelurk

Death in Fallout 4 is annoying enough as is, but becomes absolutely nightmarish in Survival Mode. Given the limited opportunities for saving as is, a single death can prove to have catastrophic consequences for your playthrough.

So, players should pick and choose the encounters they actually want to deal with instead of fighting everything that tries to attack them. Without a proper strategy, the game over screen will arrive sooner rather than later.

18 Map Out Where The Doctors Are In The Game

Fallout 4 Screenshot Of Doctor Sun

In Fallout 4's Survival Mode, it's not easy to heal crippled limbs and recover health. Only doctors can really help out in this regard, especially if players want to preserve their valuable Stimpaks.

So, it's important to keep a note of all the doctors in the game and how they can help the player out in their journey. This is critical to ensure that the Sole Survivor remains relatively healthy throughout this grueling adventure.

17 Maintain A Healthy Stock Of Stimpaks

a POV shot of someone injecting themselves with a Stimpak in an abandoned building

Stimpaks are the bread and butter of any Fallout game. This healing item has saved the hide of many players in the game time and time again, after all.

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So, it's important to heal without wasting too many Stimpaks. The fact that this healing item helps you recover over time as opposed to the instant health recovery from the normal game is also something that players need to keep in mind.

16 Use Your Companions To Target Tricky Enemies In Battle

Fallout 4 multiple NPCs standing around in Nuka World

In Survival Mode, your companions are the best way to tackle bigger threats in the game. They help you remain outside the line of fire and are fairly durable enough that you should have no issues picking off enemies from a distance while they're focused on damaging someone else.

It's also recommended to use companions to take out certain enemies in combat who can prove to be a major annoyance. This ensures that your survival rates in most combat encounters are enhanced significantly.

15 Settlements Are Your Friend

Settlement over the water in Fallout 4

You want as many settlements built as possible in your Survival Mode game. Why? It's how you will restock, store, and save your game. At every settlement, you will want a bed for yourself so you can save the game. It also gives you the Well-Rested bonus, which will give you a 10 percent increase in experience gain. You're going to need that.

You will want a chem and cooking station as well. Survival Mode adds a thirst and fatigue mechanic that is affected by different items. You will also want to create supply lines between these settlements for the easiest item management. Lastly, you will want a source of purified water.

14 Collect Pre-War Money

Cash on a table in Fallout 4

Pre-War money is a valuable resource, especially in survival mode. The best thing about it? It weighs nothing! So you can collect as much of it as you want without reaching your weight limit.

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What makes the money a good resource is that each one sells for about eight caps. If you add charisma stats to that, it will sell for even more. Secondly, they count as a cloth resource, so you can use them to make the beds you will desperately need in your settlements. So they are quite useful for both crafting and selling.

13 Save Often

Fallout 4 pause menu.

Pro-tip: save often, and have multiple saves. It is a given that you will die a lot in Fallout 4 Survival Mode, so saving is important to avoid losing progress.

However, sometimes saving the game can be risky. It is best to not save in combat, or in a place the player can get stuck. With only one save, that could be a bad experience. This is why it's recommended either to only save in safe settlements or to have multiple saves just in case you get stuck.

12 Don't Drink Dirty Water

Hands hovering over creek.

It is best to drink only Purified Water in Survival Mode. However, this does not mean you should not collect Dirty Water. It is great for cooking food like Noodle Soup, Radstag Stew, and Vegetable Soup.

Drinking Dirty Water is will make the player sick with radiation, which is incredibly dangerous in Survival Mode. Luckily, Purified Water is easy to get through collecting bottles and filling them all up at settlements. Also, Codsworth gives out Purified Water!

11 Collect Bottles And Keep Then Filled At Water Pumps

Water pump placement in Fallout 4

Purified water is so important since there are many negative health effects in Survival Mode. An easy way to keep stocked on purified water is to collect and keep all bottles you find. That includes beer bottles, milk bottles, and Nuka Cola bottles.

This tip is connected to the settlement one because that is going to be your main source for Purified Water. With a total of about 29 settlements in the game, you will be thankful later when you have 29 different places to go to get purified water.

10 Specialize In A Single Weapon Type

Furious Power Fist in Fallout 4

Specializing in a weapon type will help you limit yourself to how many weapons you carry. You do not want to spread yourself thin for Fallout 4's survival mode, and you should instead try to be an expert in particular things.

You can probably specialize in one long-range and one short-range weapon to adapt to different situations if you want.

9 Always Engage Enemies In Stealth Mode

Pixelated Fallout 4 characters

You're going to need all the tactical advantages you can get in combat, and a big one is the element of stealth. Since you get 200 percent more damage in survival mode, you will not survive a typical firefight. If you are seen, you best run away because you do not want it to be you versus five raiders or mutants.

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Your best bet of survival is to pick off enemies one by one without the others noticing. If you do not think that is honorable then survival mode is probably not for you.

8 Use Med X And Jet

Med X.

Do not worry about the sole survivor having an addiction, as that is much easier to fix than immediate death.

Players of Survival Mode have been fans of Med X for extra damage and Jet to slow time for the more difficult fights like Kellogg and the Mechanist. So, hoard those drugs and save them for when the going gets rough.

7 Always Aim At Enemy's Heads First

Looking through a scope in Fallout 4

You will want to do the most damage possible in a single shot to get your enemy down quicker, save ammo, and not get attacked while reloading.

The best way to deal the most damage is aiming for the heads of whatever you are fighting. However, heads are not very big so you might miss. This is why it's not a plan to stick to, it's only for the initial encounter. After shooting the head, you will probably want to aim for the torso since that is the largest target.

6 Make Pocketed And Deep-Pocketed Upgrades For All Armor

Camp in Fallout 4

Survival Mode severely limits your carrying capacity, so you need to find alternatives for boosting your ability to carry more items. One such way is to upgrade your armor with pocketed and deep-pocketed upgrades. Each pocketed upgrade increases your capacity by five and the deep pockets increase them by 10, so deep pockets would be preferable.

Besides installing pockets into your armor, you can also take the Strong Back perk to increase how much you can carry.

5 Do Not Go Rescue Settlements

Dilapidated Red Rocket building in Fallout 4

In Survival Mode, you cannot always be the hero. If it makes you feel bad to not rescue a settlement, just never tune into the Minutemen Radio channel and be cautious around Preston.

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Here is the good news: settlers cannot be killed by monsters. The worst-case scenario is that some damage is caused in a settlement. However, you can be killed by monsters and they come into settlements in hoards. It is very likely they will kill you. It is a fight that is not worth the trouble.

4 Don't Be Too Dedicated To Quests

Ada the robot in the wateland.

Similarly to ignoring settlement rescue, the player should just be careful about what quests to do and in which order. Doing certain quests immediately is a death wish. The beginning of your game in Survival Mode will be the most difficult, so it is a good idea to save a lot of quests for later or just skip them altogether.

That being stated, it can be worth saving the game, trying a quest to see if it's doable, and then reload the save from before if it turns out to be too difficult.

3 In The Beginning, Avoid Combat And Gain Exp In Other Ways

Diamond City's entrance in Fallout 4

Luckily for Survival Mode players, experience can be gained in non-lethal ways. A lot of experience can be gained through cooking, crafting, exploring, and settlement building,

This actually works out well, as settlement building will both gain experience as well as create a safety network for the Survival Mode player to access beds, water, and crafting stations.

2 Collect And Buy Adhesive

Crafting spiked aluminum bat in Fallout 4

Adhesive is your friend when it comes to upgrading and crafting all things. You are going to want to upgrade everything as much as possible too, especially weapons and armor.

Things that contain adhesive are vegetable starch (which you can cook), duct tape, and wonderglue. You can buy shipments of adhesive from most vendors as well.

1 No Companions And Lone Wanderer Perk

Dogmeat and Fallout 4 protagonist walking

Companions are fun, but they will hinder your abilities in combat. They will attack enemies unprovoked, give away your locations to enemies, and be defeated.

You also get a really good perk if you have no companions. The Lone Wanderer Perk at maximum rank gets you 25 more action points, 30 percent less damage taken, 25 percent more damage dealt, and 100 more carrying capacity. Those are all very useful.

If you really want, Dogmeat does not count as a companion for this perk. So you can still have him, but don't be too surprised he provokes a Deathclaw.

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