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⠀⠀⚙️ Do you like Fallout 4?

⠀⠀⚙️ Do you want:

⠀⠀⠀• New guns 🔫
⠀⠀⠀• New armors 👕
⠀⠀⠀• New quests 🌄
⠀⠀⠀• New locations 🗽
⠀⠀⠀• New things to build 🛖

⠀⠀⚙️ While staying true to Vanilla?

⠀⠀⚙️ If your answer is Yes to both questions, you're in the right place!⠀
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• All of these amazing mods are created by people who put in a lot of their time and passion into bringing you a better experience. This would be impossible without them. It would mean a lot to them, and to me, if you would at least Endorse whichever mods you choose from this guide.

• Alternatively, you can reward their commitment with a coffee by clicking Donate or Gift Premium on their profiles (click their usernames on the mod pages to get there).

• It's important to mention that this is *my* vision of a game that remains close to vanilla. I'm sure that we all have our nitpicks about different things and "close to vanilla" or "lore friendly" might mean different things to different people.

• Overall, I'm going to recommend mods based on:

• If they are lore friendly/Immersive/How well they fit with Vanilla
  
• Aesthetics (no blocky, low quality textures/meshes)
  
• Implementation (if it makes sense in the world, if it's too overpowered and messes with the vanilla progression, spawns, leveled lists)
  
• Bonus points for mods that show an effort on little details, spelling consistency for items, dialogue etc. similar to Bethesda's naming convention
  
• Bugs. If it has a small chance of crippling the game or if it's not a viable option for longterm play, it won't be included here.

• Last thing, English isn't my native language so if it sometimes sounds weird , I apologize.

• This guide assumes you have all the DLCs (except HD Texture pack - that is not required). Some mods have a version that doesn't require DLCs but if they don't, you're out of luck until you buy them. Fortunately Fallout 4 GOTY gets discounted every major sale.

• You also know your way around modding and are able to read mod descriptions and install most mods by yourself.

If you don't fit in this category but you still want to install the mods below but don't know how, there are thousands of YouTube videos, Reddit posts and even other Steam guides that teach you the basics of modding. You will always rely on mod description pages to figure out how to properly install them. Reading and paying attention is a crucial skill in this endeavor.

Tip: If you use a mod manager, the best options right now are Mod Organizer 2 or Vortex Mod Manager. Vortex is more user/beginner friendly than MO2 but in my experience, it just takes longer for everything to get done since it does some things automatically in the background. But if you're a complete beginner, go with Vortex.

• Before we get started, it is needless to say that you need a stable game and if you already have mods installed, it is your responsibility to check if they're compatible with the ones from this list (check out the mods' description pages to find out, post a comment on the modpage or message the author). It's not my fault if you mess up your game.

This guide's sole purpose is to offer suggestions on which mods are very lore friendly, fitting with the overall style of the game, or small details that feel like they were missing from this game.

• Since you came this far, I assume you really like Fallout 4. I don't blame you if you haven't had the 300+ hours to complete all the quests, but here I am to add onto the pile with:




With a lot of new fully voice acted quests, NPCs, companions, weapons and very interesting stories, this feels like an actual DLC, sprinkling new experiences, vanilla style, in every corner of the Commonwealth.

Tip: You should probably grab Optimization Patches Collection[www.nexusmods.com], it fixes some bugs in Tales from the Commonwealth and many other mods, including some down below. I'll mention this again when it comes to it.

If you still haven't had enough exploring and you feel like the world lacks in content, check out:

Fallout 4: Point Lookout is a fan recreation of Fallout 3's Point Lookout DLC, fully realized in Fallout 4, including all quests and NPCs. Nuff said. Go get it!
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(Thanks to Diacute for sharing the next two suggestions in the comments!)
which adds a lot of new interesting locations across the Commonwealth. From plane crash sites to parks to whole new towns, this is exactly what the world needed to feel lived in.


adds small little details to forgotten places of the map so now instead of a barren wasteland, you might find a junkyard, some skeletons or some barrels with radioactive waste. Small little details sprinkled here and there and it's lore friendly.

Quoting the mod description, "a small mod that adds doors to previously boarded up houses, which lead to new interior cells.". You'll now be able to go inside new restaurants, abandoned houses, a new vault and so on. Check the mod description.

Note: These mods add a lot of stuff throughout the whole Commonwealth. Some of them may overlap. Make sure you read the comments and bug sections of whichever mods you choose to make sure they're compatible with each other and Tales from the Commonwealth.

• Have you ever felt that the settlement building system is just a poor excuse for "repopulating the Commonwealth"? Have you ever felt that your "settlements" are just 2 shacks in the middle of nowhere, the opposite of a point of interest, lacking actual progress in rebuilding humanity? Did you imagine a bustling growing community?

Well, fear no longer, because with Your settlers will come to life, take care of their home after they build it themselves (I know, right, crazy) and actually behave like people instead of oblivion NPCs. Things can even get more complex with taxes, resource gathering, new things to build. Overall, this completes the settlement system idea, in my opinion.




• However, that's just the cherry on top because this mod starts off an absolutely amazing questline that introduces you gradually to all its features while keeping you hooked on a great plot. Another DLC sized expansion to the game that will lead you through many memorable adventures.

Take a look at the announcement trailer for this mod and you'll be blown away:

After you're done with this mod, make sure to grab:

which, to my knowledge (I haven't got the chance to play it yet but expect the same quality), extends the story from the first chapter and adds a lot of new quests, new factions and a strong backbone to the Gunners' lore. If someone installed this mod on my first playthrough of Fallout 4, I probably wouldn't be able to tell that it's not made by Bethesda. Quality is through the roof.

Here's a trailer for Chapter 2.

• Now we have strong base for what we could call the settlement system. However, when you're as creative and inclined to build things for hours on end like I am, the more things and diversity you can build, the merrier.

So here are some of the workshop mods that I consider really lore friendly, adding new buildings, structures, decorations that fit with the vanilla style, have reasonable requirements to build and would make your towns much more diversified. I will provide a few pictures but feel free to check out the mod pages for the mods' full capabilities.


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You might want to consider this fixes pack[www.nexusmods.com] because it addresses spelling errors and tweaks it to be more balanced.

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A lot of structures that should have already been in vanilla. A lot of diversity and new options to build.

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It's like G2M. Adds a lot of new things that fit in the world.

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are all you'll ever need to decorate your settlements and homes in the most beautiful ways. The linked site contains a lot of awesome mods that are not available on the Nexus. For more info about this, check the "Mod Packs" tab on the site, at the top of the page.

You can find the download links at the top of the page after you click on the creator's names: Damading_Crayonkit - frogprincessQ4 - MsRae - vronykah. There are many other mods besides the ones I mentioned, check them all out, they offer a beautiful new variety of things to build.

Make sure you read the install guides.


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A bunch of unique stuff you don't see with other mods.

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A bunch of new and pretty generators and switches.


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"Separate bed frames and mattresses that can be snapped together, including bunk beds and double beds that can be used by two settlers"


"Enables you to create solar sensor switches for both day or night use. A typical use, if you want to have your lights turn off automatically during the day."

I use this to power the street lights off during the day in my settlements.
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Adds 92 furniture items and 85 building Items to the workshop menu. A combination of mashups, prefabs, and brand new models and textures, with a theme of feeling well used and lived in.

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This should be enough to keep you busy for a while but feel free to suggest new ones. Maybe I'll put them here. I'm always on the lookout for new workshop mods.

• Is it just me or the Minutemen don't live up to their supposed story of Commonwealth protectors? Even when you take over all the settlements, it feels like you've got a bunch of farmers ready to pipe pistol justice. And they stay like that. Here is where: comes into play. Starting off with a bunch of essential fixes to the Minutemen quests (no Castle until level 20) and Preston (bigger cooldown on his radiant quests), this mod gives them the much needed progression during the game. As you finish major story quests, you will start to see Minutemen patrol the Commonwealth with gear depending on how the faction does.


•It adds new clothes with the Minutemen logo and occasionally you'll see power armored ones.

•The mod goes deeper with "crafting" Minutemen followers and Minutemen tanks, APC but I'm personally not a fan of that, it doesn't feel immersive to me. Luckily you can completely ignore this part of the mod.

Overall this is a much needed improvement to the vanilla Minutemen that makes them credible as a power in the lore.

There are a number of Gunner overhauls on the Nexus, some retexturing the clothes, some modifying the spawn lists but I think:

takes the cake. This great mod adds a lot of new gear that fits the Gunner aesthetic perfectly, making them seem a lot more like an organized small militia/mercenary organization.





However, this mod wouldn't be complete without its partner:

that actually distributes those clothes to the Gunners. You can come across Gunners with power armor. They're no longer just thugs with Combat Armor or Raiders v2, they're ✨the Gunners✨ now.

Note: For anyone curious, I tried Gunner Outfit Pack - Leveled List integration (a different overhaul mod)[www.nexusmods.com] but it was bugged for me (or my load order at the time) and overall I didn't like that some new classes were too OP.

Last but not least:
Created by yours truly, this mod changes all the names of the armors in Gunner Outfit Pack (STANDALONE) to be more in line with Bethesda's naming convention. Now when you loot Gunners bodies, you'll find something like Gunner Technical Cap instead of Gunner Baseball Cap Backwards (Headset). That's just an example, but all of the armor names are lore friendly now.

On the other side of the spectrum, we've got the supposedly evil doers. The Institute and its synths are interesting enough but we can never have enough of a good thing so I present to you:

This mod manages to diversify the synths in a way that doesn't stand out from the vanilla experience. It gives synths a bunch of different colors and degradation levels to their armors, they look really pretty and they feel natural. Quoting the mod author "This mods overhauls all the Synths by giving them 70 new armor sets, 77 helmets, 42 uniforms and 2 Synth weapons. From damaged armor to undamaged looking armor sets. This is done by editing the vanilla armor pieces, uniforms and weapons with new textures in 2K and 4K."


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Note: when looting synths, you might come across items named in this manner: "Worn Orange Synth Chest Piece (Black/White - Shiny). If you want a cleaner naming convention that fits with the vanilla game, you can download

Synth Overhaul - C.A.S.T - Immersive Naming[www.nexusmods.com]

then you'll come across simpler names like this:

We've talked about synths but what about the rest of the Institute? Easy. This mod brings two of Niero's best armors to the most lore friendly context. Dressing up the scientists with nicer and more diverse clothing, giving the synths inside the Institute more detailed uniforms and rebranding the Coursers into the emotionless killing machines that everyone is talking about in the story.

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Let's move onto the Brotherhood. We know them, we love them, the power armored justice bringers of the Commonwealth have plenty when it comes to their lore and the way they are implemented into the game. They don't need a mod to make up for something. However, if you just want to spice up your BoS or bring a fresh lore friendly style to a new playthrough, this is the way to go. This change brings a lot of additions to overall armor count in Fallout 4 while refreshing the BoS. For a better look, just click the link and check it out.

Here's a video about this mod. (I discovered a lot of mods because of this guy, he has many videos on Fallout 4 modding, check him out):
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Here we go with another Look At Me mod; if you're bored of the Railroad's style or you want something new that still fits in the lore, you can equip your friendly Commonwealth fugitives and synth helpers with sneaky mafia type 50s clothes. I personally like it better, makes them seem a bit more organised (closer to an equivalent of Thieves Guild from Skyrim) rather than a bunch of random people in the sewers.



You can couple it with Railroad Redone[www.nexusmods.com]. A great mod that redesigns the Railroad HQ and adds much needed detail and depth to their base. It's not just a refuge in the sewers now, it's a base of operations. Everything lore friendly.

I like this mod because it adds to the count of outfits and suits in the game and it makes sense in the game world. The triggermen retain the same vibe, however now it's predominantly black suits while the bosses have unique outfits as well as Trish. Nothing is lost, the vanilla outfits can probably still spawn in the world in all the other places.

Here's a quick video that showcases the changes:


• A good one to mention is Look At Me - Gunner Edition[www.nexusmods.com] and I only say mention because it's personal preference. I feel like the line is thin between people who would still consider it immersive, or people who think it's a bit too CoD-ish, like me. Install it or not, up to you.

• Look At Me - Children of Atom Edition[www.nexusmods.com] is good if you don't mind giving them a cannibal samurai cult vibe. They don't look like crazy hobos anymore. Sometimes I use it, sometimes I don't. The armor is really cool.

S4iS4i[www.nexusmods.com] made a few more Look At Me mods but in my opinion they don't fit as seamlessly as I want in the lore. However feel free to look at his profile in the USER FILES tab.

Note: Some of these CROSS mods might have spelling inconsistencies or not similar to vanilla. Also you might want to consider some paint jobs have no crafting cost, whereas in the original game, you'd need 2 Oil to paint stuff. Might make a patch to address these inconsistencies someday.

Now that we got armors covered in these last few faction overhauls, let's turn our gaze to the general NPCs that need some attention too. While the vanilla clothes (or under armors) aren't that bad, they aren't that many. You're probably bored of wearing the same Road Leathers or Long Johns under armor all the time. Or maybe you want to give your settlers a bit more variety in their clothing.

The perfect cure for all of these issues is which "adds several textures and meshes as "non replacer" but without editing the leveled lists of the game either. Everything combined results in more than 7000 new clothing variations. The new textures and models may appear randomly together with the vanilla clothes and can be modified on the workbench too. It basically takes vanila clothes and gives them many many rextextures, in some cases even adding small details (Like the belts on the military outfits).


You can supplement this with Vanilla Clothes - More Textures Expansion[www.nexusmods.com] which builds upon the system created by More Clothes and Textures with 400 more outfit variations.
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is a classier addition to clothes (it's also the source for some outfits in Look At Me - Triggermen Edition). I like to keep the variety of More Clothes and Textures but still have the option to encounter these in containers.


Note: The World Distribution addon will add these clothes to NPCs. If you just want them in containers, only download the mod and its improved meshed. Don't download world distribution.
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These are all mods made by TheFriedturkey and HcGxGrill that bring back a lot of beautifully crafted weapons, clothes, creatures from older Fallout games. I could've suggested them separately but there are so many great ones and it's better if you go there right away. They are also working on Project Mojave[www.nexusmods.com] which has the goal of faithfully recreating Mojave Wasteland in Fallout 4 Engine.

For the downloads, check out the USER FILES tab on their profile called GrilledTurkey.[www.nexusmods.com]

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Adds a lot of gorgeous lore friendly pieces of equipment to Raiders and Settlers (optional). This makes up for the gap of variety in Raider gear.

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More diversity to the Raiders. Beautiful, creative additions that fit their barbaric aesthetic.

I love this mod because it also makes the raiders spawn with a new variant of the combat armor that looks grey, worn out and scratched.

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Inspired by the stalker series, it adds a bunch of camo heavy armors and underarmors for raiders. Can't ever have enough diversity.

Note: This mod also does some edits to Goodneighbour guards and gives a dead NPC a new outfit. It also edits vanilla leveled lists. All of these things can be adjusted easily in FO4Edit. If you're absolutely clueless about this, you can visit a Fallout 4 modding discord server in the "Other Places to Find Great Mods" category and ask for help. People usually reply and offer advice but you generally have to do the work yourself.

adds more lore friendly ghouls that keep the same vanilla vibe.
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might be the choice to go if you want even more ghoul variation. Includes zombies from RE 2 Remake, Umbrella Chronicles, Racoon City, and the original RE 1 Remake and most of them wear vanilla outfits and they posses a more stereotypical zombie look compared to the Bethesda ghouls. It's a huge pack with a lot of variety.

Note: It renames Ghouls to zombies but it can easily be fixed through FO4Edit. Some zombies might have very minor clipping with their outfits.
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takes inspiration from Left 4 Dead and Back 4 Blood to bring you more creatures into the ghoul ranks. You'll start to see things like Spitters, Exploders, Tanks, Brutes. Very interesting additions. Might not be strictly lore friendly for some people's tastes but I like to think the FEV virus got pretty creative, just like it did to Harold.[fallout.fandom.com]

Vanilla textures aren't exactly the best but they do the job. I could recommend different texture packs but considering this guide is about lore-friendly things, I don't know more fitting texture packs than the ones by SavrenX[www.nexusmods.com], which literally take the vanilla texture and enhance them. They look much better than the HD DLC, much sharper, retain the vanilla style and they're LIGHTER (less of a drain of computer resources = the game runs better)! It's a no brainer!
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Check the USER FILES tab for the Downloads.





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Manages to accomplish the same goals. Some of his textures might overlap with SavrenX's (depending on which mods you chose from him) but since this doesn't retexture as many things, I prefer to load it after anything from SavrenX.



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Lore friendly alternatives to Chems, First Aid Kits and a few other misc. things.

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A lot of UHD texture remasters for guns, weapons, armors, objects, buildings worth checking out.




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The same creator of The Zap Gun and Makeshift Shotgun (featured in the upcoming Weapons category) also makes amazing retextures that somehow rebrand the weapons into better alternatives. Check it out in the USER FILES tab.

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I always wondered why all vertibirds look the same. It's a small immersive detail that compliments vanilla well.

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Tip: You should probably also grab Optimization Patches Collection[www.nexusmods.com], it fixes issues or possible conflicts with many mods, including Vertibird Faction Paint Schemes and Tales from the Commonwealth.
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Vanilla flyers and posters look like crap. I think this mod is a gorgeous addition. It has an installer with a lot of options including, of course, lore friendly.



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Vanilla flags look like crap. Take a look at this vanilla example:


Now take a look at what this mod does:


There are many variations, you can remove the holes, the dirt and best part of all these retextures are available for all factions!
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Beautiful radio retexture with glowing animated tubes in the back. It's a nice little immersive detail that makes vanilla better.
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Ups the quality on various signs in Diamond City.
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Beautifies various wooden stuff from fences and shacks while staying true to vanilla.
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They can spin and they can bobble. Or they can just bobble. I prefer the one that just bobbles.
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Oh hey, they're not all brown anymore.
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I feel like whoever made these textures really couldn't wait for the workshift to finish that day. And I really don't blame them, I've been there. But here's some retextures from someone who took their time.
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Left is vanilla, right is retexture.
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Goes hand in hand with Better Leaf piles. The author made a brown version just to match Better Leaf Piles. Plus this is the only Ivy recolour that doesn't look horrible in my opinion.
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The vanilla ones look like plain papers. Here's something that might catch your eye when exploring the wasteland once in a while.

A big collection of gorgeous retextures for the First aid/chem kits. It has a FOMOD installer with pictures

Apparently the texture category reached its limit and I can't type there anymore so this is just an extension to category number 7. Textures of All Kinds

Also it's a great idea to check the profiles of the authors of these retexture mods, some of them have other great retextures that may come to your liking.
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I personally really don't like the trash textures in the game so I choose Just Gravel option from the FOMOD installer of this mod. It makes everything fit much more nicely aesthetic wise.
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Replaces some hideous branches with awesome bushes.
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Super cozy candles.
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Despite the sweet retextures, there's just something about this mod (probably the attention to such small details) that makes me happy. It's like a small easter egg or something nice to collect while exploring.
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I don't know much about Blade Runner but this mod has an optional download that retextures Nick Valentine's trench coat. It's nicer than the vanilla coat.
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I'm pretty picky about weapon mods. Since I want to preserve the feeling of vanilla, you won't see guns that are too crazy for this game's universe[www.nexusmods.com]. We're also taking into account aesthetics, something beautifully modeled with a moderate amount of polygons. On the other hand, there are gun mods that are inspired by previous Fallout games so that means they must fit, right?

Well, in my opinion, that's not the case. For example, Service Rifle by DeadPool2099[www.nexusmods.com] is a very beautiful weapon with much attention to detail, great animations BUT it has so many options for customization and it splits the receiver into two categories, upper and lower and much more.
It almost hurts me to not officially recommend it for this type of playthrough but if you tinker enough with it, even at early levels, it can get too overpowered too quickly and I don't like altering the natural progression of the game. On top of that you can chamber it 5mm, which is the Minigun ammo so that can turn into unlimited ammo really fast. There's a reason why you find so much 5mm ammo in one place, because the minigun spits it all out in 5 seconds with mediocre damage without perks. Maybe Bethesda isn't praised for gameplay progression but I feel like it's the closest thing we got to a robust balance. So you won't end up two-shotting every enemy (that would get boring rather quick). It also keeps the unique weapons' potential by not giving you OP stuff all the time and you actually feel rewarded when you find them.

Anyway, let's start with some mods that fit these criteria to the best of my judgement:
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Feels and looks like it was always in the game. Added to raiders, gunners and vendors. To keep the balance, I like to download the 4est Gimp's LL and damage patch [www.nexusmods.com] which makes the spawns have much more lore sense".

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Made by the same person, this is exactly the makeshift energy weapon that was missing in the game. I always felt that the Laser Pistol was a bit too high tech for low levels so now the gap is bridged with this beautiful, lore friendly (check the mod page for extra lore) and balanced weapon mod. I personally like to download the same 4est Gimp Zap Gun LL patch[www.nexusmods.com] because it spreads out the spawns more realistically.

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brings it back from Fallout: New Vegas with sweet animation and textures. The mod page says its stats almost the same as Double Barrel Shotgun, but damage is higher by 30%. When it comes to balance, it's a safe option for an upgrade over the Double Barrel.

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A fantastic mod made by the Fallout Miami Team[www.falloutmiami.com]. It's beautiful, fits the universe but it's overpowered as heck so you might wanna consider downloading this rebalance patch[www.nexusmods.com], which makes it slightly better than the double barrel, on par with the Caravan Shotgun. Overall a good alternative if you get bored of the Caravan Shotgun.

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from Fallout: New Vegas makes a well thought out come back. With a lot of modifications at the weapon workbench. It's unique and it's very balanced to vanilla. The much rarer twin of the vanilla Laser Rifle.


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is a sweet piece that does a bit more damage than 10mm Pistol. I've seen it spawn in the common pool of raiders and shops. It's a nice alternative. To remove some bugs and make it more balanced, install this update pack[www.nexusmods.com] and this other update pack[www.nexusmods.com] on top of the original mod. Load order is specified in mod descriptions.

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is a powerful energy weapon that's viable in all stages of the game. You should also install Wattz Laser Gun - Unofficial Update[www.nexusmods.com] for some quality of life and balance improvements upon the original mod. I also noticed that at some point during gameplay, you can have too many spawns on enemies. People noticed this too and now we have Wattz Laser Gun Replacer[www.nexusmods.com] which removes it from all stores and the leveled lists and makes it a BoS exclusive. I found a BoS Knight spawning with one. It makes sense to me. However that is up to your personal preference.

Why did I split the Weapon category into 2? Because the first one was getting too long and it gave me error 8 when I tried to type more. So here we go with the continuation:

I really like everything about this gun. The animations and textures are beautiful. For a while there weren't any proper leveled list patches to bring it in the Commonwealth as it should be. But I decided to learn FO4Edit and Creation Kit so now we have PJAR Pistol Immersive Tweaks[www.nexusmods.com]. I made this, it rebalances every aspect of this gun. damage, dps, value, AP cost and distributed it in 90% of the leveled lists of the 10mm. A great gun to add more diversity to your early game.


Beautiful handmade looking heavy weapon that shoots harpoons. It's very balanced, it's high damage but slow fire rate, an alternative to the vanilla missile launcher. A lore friendly mod that adds a bit more variety to the wasteland.

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A nice throwback to Fallout: New Vegas comes wrapped in sweet textures and neat animations. This is a lore friendly must, considering I made a match for it that will integrate it in the game in the most immersive manner. Grab Hunting Revolver and Ranger Sequoia Immersive Tweaks patch here[www.nexusmods.com].



adds more variety to the early game weapons. For better sounds, I recommend Handmade Revolver Sound Overhaul[www.nexusmods.com]. I also recommend installing 4estGimp's Patch[www.nexusmods.com], making the Handmade Revolver take half the spawns of the normal Pipe Revolver and then install Handmade Revolver - Immersive Tweaks[www.nexusmods.com] to rebalance damage, DPS, AP cost and many other things.


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Balanced, pretty and lore-friendly. There's no reason not to get this one.


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Gorgeous animations and spawned pretty rarely in my game, just like it should. But when it did, oh boy did I make use of it.

Skip to 2:15 to see what this is about.
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More variety to raiders' melee if you're tired of machetes and knuckles.

A very Fallout style weapon, with a quirky weapon design, custom animations, becomes the Hunting Rifle's big brother. You should also probably download Weapon Leveled List Patches[www.nexusmods.com] if you want it to appear on vendors, minutemen, railroad, gunners (no raiders) and legendary spawns. Otherwise, the Select Marksman Rifle mod alone only puts it in legendary spawns.

First of all I'd like to mention this, a big list from Reddit with a lot of lore friendly weapon mods from other Fallout games but I haven't tried a lot of these. Try them at your own risk. It's a useful list to see sometimes.

These following mods could work correctly/I haven't tested enough/ or there are small things I'm not quite pleased with. Sometimes I use them, sometimes I don't but let's say they are silver or bronze standard in my book. I might do some immersive tweaks for these someday.


• Air Pistol[www.nexusmods.com]
I tested it for a couple hours and I didn't find any spawns in enemies, only shops. But maybe I needed to play more. It also adds a new type of ammo called Ball Bearing that I found in containers.


• Plasma Cycler[www.nexusmods.com]
has a broken level distribution (it misses the pex file) but you can fix it extracting the pex file from the patch destined for this weapon on this mod page.[www.nexusmods.com] To make it more balanced also install Plasma Cycler Replacer[www.nexusmods.com].
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• Dynamite[www.nexusmods.com] Simple. Efficient. Balanced. Self Explanatory. I haven't found any spawns on raiders or gunners while I tested it but it sure does appear in shops.

Now you can get to be Commonwealth's Grim F****** Reaper.
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• Defense Gun[www.nexusmods.com]
Looks okay, works great and it's added to a bunch of leveled list other than raiders like minutemen and DC security. It has a bug that doesn't give raiders ammo but you can fix it with 4estGimp patch once again.[www.nexusmods.com] The only reason this gun is mentioned here it's because it still has a tiny bug for me, spawns ammo of a different type just like the Handmade Revolver from above.



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• Handmade Shotgun[www.nexusmods.com]
Beautiful, lore friendly with gorgeous animations. Would be perfect if it wasn't so overpowered. It has a lot of damage that belongs in the shotgun range but it also has full auto mode with 90 fire rate as a workbench modification so that's obviously too much. But you should definitely check out the mod author, they have a bunch of other lore friendly weapon mods I didn't get the chance to test yet.

"In the vanilla game there are only 6 footstep sounds for each movement type and terrain, with Project Reality Footsteps FO4 there are now up to 16 sounds for each type and terrain. The sounds are way more realistic, including subtle gear and backpack rattle and such."
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is a no-brainer. Adds reverb to the gun sounds and various immersive ambient sounds. You can also install Radio Reverb Fix[www.nexusmods.com] to get that sweet 50s music echo from a nearby radio when you're exploring an abandoned cave.


From the creator that also made Tales from the Commonwealth, this is a lore friendly distraction out there in the dangerous wastes. Very nice voice acting and includes lore friendly advertisements to products from the story. Extra immersion. Plus who can say no to more 50s music?
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Is for people who can't have enough music so here's about 6GB comprising "30 and counting brand new voice-acted radio stations to Fallout 4 made with top-notch production value. Mixed with over 1500 sound effects. Over 300 hours of new radio content. Features celebrities, stand up comedians as well as some familiar youtubers voices you've may have heard before!"



Note 1: A couple radio stations might not be that immersive, for example 8bit Radio or Synthwave Radio. You can remove whatever stations you want if you tinker around with the files enough. Or you could download the radio stations separately (they have their own Nexus pages) but some of them haven't been updated in a long time. Downloading the whole Old World Radio package is a good trade off in my opinion because it's updated and you can have everything packed in BA2 files.
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Note 2: So apparently there's a bug with most radio station mods because they're not implemented in the same way as vanilla. Find more info on this bug in mod description of this mod.[www.nexusmods.com]The bug is the infamous Radio Silence bug but there's a simple "fix" for it; you have all the information you need in the description.

Adds pick up sounds to more misc. items. Check the mod page for a video showcasing it.

Upgrade your waiting and sleep menus from this:




Also check out the whole FallUI Series at the bottom of this mod page, maybe you will like some of the other options like Inventory, Map, Workbench etc. I like the vanilla hud and I feel like Sleep and Wait makes a fitting addition to it.
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I don't know why Bethesda decided to have an alert at the top of the screen that dissapears in 2 seconds for settlements when they get attacked (you can miss it very easily) but here's the fix for it.
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Might be the mod for you if you hate the non-specific dialogue options. This mod rearranges the dialogue to look like Fallout: New Vegas or Fallout 3. There are also a couple of mods that make the protagonist silent so you don't have to read/listen the dialogue line twice: once in the box and then once again when protagonist says it. I would offer recommendations but I don't know much about this, I've never used these types of mods.

This is a category for a bunch of smaller, immersive mods that fit perfectly don't fit anywhere else.

They establish a whole new community right next to it but can't bother to fix it? Even better, it doesn't just restore the mesh, it actually adds a bunch of wooden planks and makes it look like it was repaired with whatever they scrounged from the area.

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Any normal human being wouldn't just leave their partner to marinate in a cryo pod so this mod makes complete sense. Also I'm pretty sure it adds the grave as soon as you install it so consider that if you're roleplaying.

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You know, there is something about seeing a nice warm bowl of spaghetti emanating steam inside a game. Maybe it makes you hungry, maybe it makes you feel warmer. But it definitely makes you feel something.


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Excuse me Bethesda, I thought we're trying to have fun here. Allows you to pet any friendly or neutral dog.



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This places a beautiful collectible magazine (the Red Rocket Road Map) somewhere in the Glowing Sea. When you find it, it'll allow you to see the locations of all the Red Rockets across the Commonwealth. I guess if you really stretch it, it can be like a cheat but there's nothing really that impressive about these Red Rocket places. Plus it's in the Glowing Sea so by the time you get there, half of them should probably be discovered lol. I see it as a little immersive detail.

Creation Club sometimes offers great mods for free. They are considered to be curated by Bethesda. They're a bit higher quality than the average nexus mod but they're not that wow when it comes to quantity (I haven't seen much voice acting in CC or complex quests - most are just good old "go there and retrieve item"). Other than that, the weapons, effects, animations are gorgeous.

If you dont' want to be overwhelmed by Creation Club quests as soon as you get out of the vault, you should download Creation Club Delayed[www.nexusmods.com] which only starts the quests once you reach a certain proximity to the related item/character/whatever that CC content is about. (Read the mod page carefully, it has some gimmicks)

Anyway CC Content becomes free occasionally so be on the look out for these mods:



Rarely spawns on Gunners.
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Might be a bit too OP if you get to it quickly enough.
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I love it because it spawns on raiders.

There are probably more that would fit in this guide but I haven't gotten around to playing them yet. There aren't that many to check out though, since half of them are paint job bundles. Here is the full list of CC Addons so far.[fallout.fandom.com]

Trailers that express more than I ever could with words. Seeing so many people contribute to bring new experiences to this game really brings a tear to my eye. They all seem like Bethesda quality to me. It's safe to say this game won't die anytime soon thanks to modders. I'm super excited for all of these!

Most of these websites also link to Discord servers, where they release smaller and periodic mods that are going to be included in the final projects. Some of them stay faithful to vanilla so definitely check them out.


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early build available for download right now! Look in the description.
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Some modders slowly started branching out from the Nexus, creating personal sites, Discord servers and things like that. In places like that you can find mods that are not hosted on the Nexus, more guides and even the possibility to directly interact with mod authors.

Please keep in mind that they are people, just like you, so be nice and patient and remember that it's not their responsibility to fix your game, you have to show the most interest and initiative when asking for help.

Here are some of the biggest Fallout Modding Discord servers created by the community:

This awesome modding server hosts personal channels for a lot of the more popular Fallout mods where you can ask for help, interact with other players or the mod authors, find new mods. Here is also where you can find one of the best up to date guides on Fallout 4 modding that addresses all areas of the game, not just immersion. The guide is called BRB and you can download it in the #brb-guide-docs channel.
Note: You can find a lot of modding resources, modding software, discord servers, tutorials, mod lists in #fo4-resources-and-servers channel. I linked the ones that helped me the most below but there's a lot more in this channel.

Probably the second biggest server after Collective Modding, a place to get freshly baked mods. If you scroll around and explore through the channels in those servers, you'll discover links to other smaller servers, created by mod authors to host only their own mods.

The Fallout Network is a Vault-Tec initiative with the goal of linking together some of the major Fallout Subreddits that share similar traits. More info about this server at this Reddit link.

Other resources:
MOFAM - Advanced Guide and Modlist[www.nexusmods.com]

Optimization Guides Collection 2[www.nexusmods.com]

List of Deleted Mods from the Nexus[docs.google.com]
Includes Discord servers and websites where some mods are rehosted.

Nexus Mod Collections[next.nexusmods.com]
Big lists of mods suggested by other people.

A big list from Reddit with a lot of lore friendly weapon mods from other Fallout games but I haven't tried a lot of these. Try them at your own risk. It's a useful list to see sometimes.

FALLOUT 4 ULTIMATE SPREADSHEET[docs.google.com] - Gigantic, organized list full of popular mods as well as hidden gems. Concentrated on asset replacing, texture replacing.

Your game has new content that ✨just works✨ and fits with vanilla!

This guide was last updated around July 2022 and these mods were the best you could get at that time. Inevitably the modding community kept working hard to bring upgrades, better mods, better alternatives with better implementations. So take a peek in the descriptions/comments of those mods, maybe you'll find mentions of better ones.

I will update these suggestions someday soon. I'm looking forward to getting back into heavy fallout 4 modding, I just have to concentrate on other things in life at the moment. Thank you for reading and happy gaming! :)

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