Best Fallout 4 Mods For Beginners

When it comes to modding for beginners, there are worse places to start than the modern Bethesda games. For players on Steam, adding mods to Fallout 4 or Skyrim is as easy as clicking a couple of buttons in the workshop. Even for players who aren’t on Steam, Nexus is full of popular mods with full installation guides.

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Modding can still be a daunting task for newcomers though. There are thousands of mods available, and sorting the best from the worst usually comes down to following user ratings. For players who are new to modding in general, or new to modding Fallout 4, this topic will cover the best mods for beginners to start with before diving into the wider world of Fallout modding.

The Basics Of Any Mod Pack

• Mod Creator: F4SE Team / reg2k, Neanka, shadowslasher410
• Nexus Mods Link: F4SE, MCM

Before any player starts the journey of modding Fallout 4 extensively, two mods are essential downloads. Fallout 4 Script Extender (F4SE) enables all sorts of functions that more advanced mods rely on, so it’s a core dependency mod.

Mod Configuration Menu (MCM) provides an additional options menu for tweaking mod options, and a lot of Fallout 4 mods are integrated with it, so players can adjust their options in-game. These mods don’t really do anything by themselves, but players will need them for other mods to work correctly.

2

Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch

Bug fixing & Optimization

• Mod Creator: The Unofficial Patch Project Team
• Nexus Mods Link: UFO4P

There’s no better place to start with modding than optimizing the game to get rid of any performance and graphical issues. That’s especially true with Fallout 4, which has a lot of lingering optimization issues and bugs that have remained in the game through multiple patches, updates, and re-releases.

The Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch smooths out all of these issues, making the game much more stable and eliminating some performance-hitting physics glitches. The mod is still in active development, so it’s been updated to work with 2024’s next-gen update to Fallout 4.

3

Fallout 4 HD Overhaul 2K

Even More Updated Textures

The Fallout 4 HD overhaul project started development many years ago, and Fallout 4 HD Overhaul 2K is the latest iteration of the project, including all the work from the original mod, with a host of new updates. Beginner modders should be aware that this graphical update mod will affect the game’s performance requirements, but most modern PCs should still handle it comfortably.

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The update to the graphical fidelity and texture detail is absolutely worth the additional VRAM needed. Nasty piles of radioactive trash, post-apocalyptic rubble, and assorted bags of gore never looked so good as with this graphical overhaul.

4

Homemaker – Expanded Settlements

Better Building And More Options

• Mod Creator: bombasticmori
• Nexus Mods Link: Homemaker

Base building is one of the more limited systems in Fallout 4, and expanding its variety and improving its function is a good place to start with modding. The Homemaker mod is a more lightweight mod that expands the original games’ base-building variety. There are new build sets, new prefab buildings, and a ton of decorative items and lighting options.

It doesn’t overhaul anything, so it’s easy to install either via the Workshop or a mod manager like Vortex. As a bonus, it adds more logical snap points for a lot of building items, making it easier to work with the Fallout 4 building system overall.

5

Better Settlers

NPC Variety

While players are expanding their settlement building, they can optionally use this mod to get a much greater variety among settlers that will move in. The Better Settlers mod adds 230 new settler variations to the base game’s roster of just over 40.

Interested modders can also add compatible community cosmetic mods, optionally included in the mod download, to give even more variety to the looks of their new settlers. The mod is lore-friendly and a good way to increase settlement variety when paired with the Homemaker mod.

6

Sim Settlements 2

Full Settlement Overhaul

As an alternative to the two settlement mods above, Sim Settlements 2 is a full settlement overhaul mod for players who want to get a bit further from the base game’s intentions. It’s less of a beginner’s mod in the sense that it drastically alters the base game system, but it’s an easy self-contained install via a mod manager or the Workshop.

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It’s well worth playing with, as Sim Settlements 2 is a much better realization of the settlement system. Not only does it add a lot more function to both settlements and their settlers, but it also adds an entire new questline to give more purpose to expanding and linking new bases.

7

Atomic Radio & Tales From The Commonwealth

Lore Friendly Expansion

• Mod Creator: Kris Takahashi
• Nexus Mods Link: AR & TftC

Players who’ve finished Fallout 4 and want to look into modding are often just interested in expanding on what’s already in the game. Tales From The Commonwealth is a lore-friendly expansion mod that adds new NPCs and questlines to the game, and it comes with the associated Atomic Radio, a new fully voiced radio station in keeping with the Fallout aesthetic.

This is an expansion mod with a lot of care and effort behind it. NPCs and quests are mostly fully voiced, and the level of quality means this additional content feels like it fits right into the base game.

8

Armorsmith Extended

Enhanced Armor Crafting

For players who want to expand on Fallout 4‘s itemization and crafting, Armorsmith Extended is a good place to start. Rather than adding an entire new system or overwhelming amounts of content, this mod focuses on armor crafting, to make it feel more varied and worthwhile. It’s a good addition to the game that makes armor crafting feel worth investing in.

As a bonus, it also streamlines some of the issues the base game has with combining armored and non-armored clothing, meaning players get more variety and visual coherence in their appearance customization with armor and clothes.

9

Scrap Everything

Get Rid Of Clutter

Another category of mod that new modders should look into is simple quality-of-life mods. These are some of the easiest and most lightweight mods to install, and they can make a player’s journey ten times more convenient and enjoyable.

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Scrap Everything is a useful mod for anyone who hates clutter, or just wants more control over the look and space of their settlements. It lets players scrap everything within a settlement boundary, removing the restrictions from the base game that forced players to leave certain permanent objects in place.

10

Cheat Terminal

Take It Easy

Cheat Terminal is a simple addition for any player who just wants to get into Fallout 4‘s sandbox and mess around. There’s a laundry list of cheats that can be enabled and disabled via a simple holotape in the player’s inventory.

This includes options like infinite ammo, god mode, spawning weapons, adjusting stats on the go, and much more. It’s a highly compatible mod, so it can also be useful for players who are testing the stability of other mods in their pack and don’t want to be interrupted by simple gameplay needs.

11

Start Me Up

Alternate Start Options

• Mod Creator: TinyManticore
• Nexus Mods Link: Start Me Up

One of the most popular mod options for first-time modders is alternate start mods. These allow players to remove the lengthy story-driven introduction and start their game as a different character, from a random point in the wasteland. Start Me Up is an uncommonly well-developed choice for an alternate start mod.

This mod gives players the option to start as a random vault dweller, or a random wastelander, and not as the father of Shaun. Even better, the mod adjusts over 800 lines of dialogue to make them consistent with the alternate start options. It’s perfect for players who want to replay Fallout 4 but live their own story as a role-playing character rather than the pre-determined protagonist.

Systems

Released

November 10, 2015