I created this guide because I had some build and gameplay advice rattling around in my head that I didn’t really see elsewhere, or at least not in one easy-to-find guide. Have played the heck out of the game, but still haven't done everything (update 2024 - may have done everything at this point). I have played all the factions and quite a few different builds. This guide will touch on the builds and their requirements, crafting quite a bit, settlements, perks and some equipment notes. And anything else that occurs to me. I’m going to assume you have some level of gameplay knowledge, so I won’t be explaining the pipboy, VATS, etc. – the Wiki[fallout.wikia.com] is good for that. Very minor spoilers. (Note: I play this on a PC, so if I give a command reference it'll be for PC - my apologies to console gamers. I can't imagine trying to play a Bethesda game on an XBox or Playstation. I need access to the console commands to get around bugs, and I love modding the game, although I understand consoles can get mods now.)

Recommended YouTube resources:
Fudgemuppet
Oxhorn

(April 2024 Update: Hello to everyone playing or replaying Fallout 4 due to the new Fallout series, which is awesome. Hopefully this guide helps.)

Just some general notes and opinions on the SPECIAL attributes. I've updated with ratings on how easy it is to get the bobbleheads for each, so you can decide whether you need to put the extra point in right from the start or be able to wait (for example, you can normally start with Perception and Intelligence down by one because their bobbleheads are easily obtained early on). Spoilers are blacked out, just general notes but not a guide to getting them.

Strength: Pretty great attribute. Increases both carrying capacity and melee/unarmed damage, so it's already up on most attributes. The carrying capacity helps with settlement building too since you need to get lots of supplies. Plus the Strength skills are fairly good. Good pick for melee, unarmed, heavy weapons, or settlement-building builds. Bobblehead: Average. Located in the Mass Fusion building in the middle of enemy-rich Boston, and you have to fight a bunch of Gunners to get to it.

Perception: Probably the worst attribute. It's bonuses aren't great and has the weakest skills (IMHO) of all of the attributes. Perception boosts VATS accuracy, lockpicking, and pickpocketing. The accuracy boost is okay, but a lot of weapons are already fairly accurate, especially sniper rifles, and Gun Nut or Science! under Intelligence enable you to boost weapon accuracy. Lockpicking is not that hard in this game, and pickpocketing is not at all necessary. Best builds for this are demolitions and/or snipers. Bobblehead: Easy. One of the first quests in the main storyline, this will likely be the first bobblehead you ever get. Have to fight some relatively easy raiders to get to it.

Endurance: More hit points - is good! Plus, adding Endurance later in your build adds hit points retroactively. In other words, if you add a point of Endurance at level 10, it adds all the hits points you would have gotten if you started with that Endurance at level 1. It also allows you to sprint longer. Good for almost any build, but especially melee or unarmed. Bobblehead: Hard. Probably the hardest one to get. Have to fight a bunch of hard raiders in a factory on the southeast portion of the map, which will be hard going to get to anyway.

Charisma: Lots of great perks available for Charisma, making it a strong choice. It affects your speech checks, gets you better prices at vendors, and determines the maximum number of settlers per settlement (10 + your Charisma). Good for settlement-building, melee/unarmed (via Party Boy), "pacify", and Lone Wanderer builds. Bobblehead: Average. More tedious than hard really as the questline to get to it is long. Have to fight a bunch of raiders and go to locations in north Boston and the northeast portion of the map. Almost makes the Hard level.

Intelligence: Increases experience gained, and makes hacking easier by reducing the number of words to pick from. But Intelligence's strength is really from the available skills. Good for Power Armor (via Nuclear Physicist) builds especially, but great for any number of builds due to Medic, Chemist, and the gun-modifying skills (Gun Nut and Science!). Bobblehead: Easy. Arguably the easiest to get, as you could probably get it without fighting anything. Located in the Boston Library, which is a short walk from Diamond City, and you can get to it without fighting the Super Mutants in the library (robots fight them for you).

Agility: Agility is only okay because it is really only good for VATS and Stealth builds pretty much. Increases Action Points and pickpocketing chance, and has all the Stealth skills. Bobblehead: Hard. Located not far from the Endurance bobblehead, on a boat with a bunch of hard raiders and mirelurks.

Luck: It's mostly just for VATS - it affects how quickly your critical hit meter fills up and the main VATS skills are under Luck. It makes it important for VATS builds that want to unleash frequent crits. Two non-VATS exceptions that might make you take more than one point - Idiot Savant is also extremely good for low Intelligence builds, and Scrounger is extremely useful for builds that use guns regularly. Bobblehead: Average. Just sitting on a boat waiting to take, no fighting, but that boat is way offshore on the east side of the map. So not only do you have to fight your way to the ocean/east map, but you need either Aqua Boy or a Hazmat suit to get there.

Below I outline a few build types and what you need for them SPECIAL and Perk-wise. Note, the SPECIAL points include the “You’re SPECIAL” book (look it up – or don’t!). Obviously there are a million builds you could do – these are just some notable ones with good perk synergy. Also, google the Fallout 4 Build reddit and Fudgemuppet's YouTube channel for a lot of great builds.

This build is about bashing people with weapons or fists without using VATS. I have played this build extensively.
S: 10
P: 1
E: 10
C: 1
I: 1
A: 1
L: 5
Perks:

Melee Notes: Melee is fairly powerful with this build, one or two-shotting most enemies. Stimpak availability is an issue at least at first due to taking more damage, so I highly recommend cooking at early levels as a supplement to Stimpaks. Notable weapons: Grognak’s Axe at Hubris comics, General Chao’s Revenge on sale by Trudy at Drumlin’s diner, Pickman’s Blade at Pickman’s Gallery (probably the best melee weapon in the game, but didn’t fit my character). Anyone interested in this should also look at FudgeMuppet's Grognak build (Google it). He went for a high Strength and Charisma build, and then added Endurance during leveling. I did something similar, except I added Charisma during leveling. Lone Wanderer really really helps this build due to the damage reduction.
Unarmed Notes: Switch out Big Leagues for Iron Fist, but otherwise the same. You can’t use unarmed weapons with Power Armor, so keep that in mind (although you can mod Unarmed bonuses into Power Armor with high-level Armorer and Blacksmith perks). The Furious Power Fist you get off the Swan in Boston Common is, IMO, the best unarmed weapon with a good combination of speed and damage. Also, I feel unarmed works better with the Blitz build below because it benefits from VATS more (by that I mean your unarmed attacks will get blocked a lot unless you use VATS).

This build is about using Blitz to pummel people in VATS. Blitz basically teleports you to the enemy, so you won’t get hit as much as the Tank build above. Which is good because your Endurance won’t be as high (unless you add to it as you level). I have played this build extensively.
S: 10
P: 1
E: 2
C: 1
I: 1
A: 9
L: 5
Perks:

Notes: Replace Iron Fist with Big Leagues for Melee. Blitz to target and one or two-shot them(melee) or rapidly pummel them (unarmed). Rinse/repeat.

This isn’t so much a build as a perk tactic, since it can be fit into any build with a decent Agility. It’s all about taking Sneak and combining it with Ninja and Mister Sandman for massive damage. This version is a Sniper/Melee type.
S: 4
P: 3
E: 2
C: 5
I: 7
A: 7
L: 1

Perks:

Notes: Sneak makes for a certain gameplay (i.e. you will be moving very slowly through quests) and it takes a while to get up to a decent level, but I like sneaking in these kinds of games so I enjoyed it. It’s a beast once you get going. The Deliverer pistol you get from joining the Railroad is a great silenced pistol that can be fired forever in VATS if you want to go Gunslinger. You can also buy a silenced rifle from Tinker Tom of the Railroad. So I guess join the Railroad. :) Also, although you can do massive damage while sneaking (best in the game really), there are certain times where you just can't sneak and lose most of your bonuses. That's where you notice a big difference between this build and, say, a Heavy Weapons, Power Armor, or VATS build.

This build uses VATS all the time, killing enemies before they can even fire with lots of crits. This build is for a pistol-wielding character, but can easily be switched out for Rifleman.
S: 1
P: 3
E: 2
C: 3
I: 2
A: 9
L: 9

Perks:
Notes:
VATS builds are all about crits, so Critical Banker is by far the most important perk above. Then, in order of importance, Four Leaf Clover, Better Criticals, and Grim Reaper's Sprint.

This is a heavy weapons/demolitions build I thoroughly enjoyed.
S: 7
P: 4
E: 5
C: 4
I: 2
A: 2
L: 5

Perks:

Notes: Takes a little bit to get going as you slowly accumulate Heavy Weapons and their ammo. I used Heavy Weapons and grenades as much as I could and it’s lots of fun. It uses the legendary weapon “Spray ‘N Pray” submachine gun because both Commando and Demolition Expert boost it – it’s a killer weapon you can switch to when facing a hard enemy. Hint: Do the USS Constitution quest for the robots fairly early.
Notes, Part Deux: Looking back on this build, I probably would take some Toughness, Lifegiver, and Strong Back levels out and max out Adamantium Skeleton. When you use explosives a lot, you have a tendency to get caught up in your own blast, so it's nice not to have to spam stimpaks.

This build is all about living in Power Armor all the time (or as much as you can).
S: 5
P: 4
E: 1
C: 7
I: 9
A: 1
L: 2

Perks:

Notes:
Perk Explanations:
Nuclear Physicist, Armorer, and Science are the three required perks for this build. Nuclear Physicist makes your Fusion Cores last longer so you can stay in your Power Armor most or all of the time, and Armorer and Science allow you to upgrade the armor(s). Scrapper is there to help get the special crafting materials that Power Armor requires. I went with Heavy Gunner and Demolition Expert for my offensive perks for this build, but that was purely a personal choice, and any offensive type will work with Power Armor (although if you want to use Unarmed, get the Blacksmith perk to build unarmed weapons into your armor because you won't be able to use other unarmed weapons in armor). Cap Collector, Scrounger, and Fortune Finder are there because I was using the Cryolator a lot, and you have to buy the very expensive ammo for that gun (can't find it randomly), and I needed caps. Locksmith and Hacker were there for my own convenience. Chemist would be a good alternative perk to the caps-related perks. If you want to use Pain Train, which is indeed very fun and effective, you can swap out Charisma points to get your Strength up to 10. However, a 10 Strength is somewhat wasted on a Power Armor user because the Power Armor already ups your Strength to 11.

Power Armor Gameplay:

• Fusion Cores - Early game, you will need to focus on collecting Fusion Cores in order to be able to stay in your armor a lot. I must say I never really had a problem with this even in my early play, and of course by now I know where a lot of cores are. Hint:Go to the Robotics Disposal Ground northeast of Sanctuary right away for an easy three Fusion Cores (set the robot to auto-destruct at the terminal to get its cores). Also, things like VATS and sprinting use up Fusion Cores faster, which is why it's not optimal to combine a VATS build with Power Armor. This is only really noticeable, however, if you use VATS almost all the time, so don't worry too much about using VATS occasionally. Finally, the Repair Bobblehead increases the duration of your cores (hint: do the first Minutemen settlement quest).
  
• Materials - The T-45 armor you get initially is easy to maintain, only needing Steel to repair. But more advanced armors need rarer materials to upgrade and maintain, like Aluminum, Ceramic, Nuclear Material,and Circuitry. Be careful how often you repair higher-level armors because it will use up those materials quickly, so let your armor take a lot of damage before you fix it.
  
• Different Armors - The five main armor types are Raider, T-45, T-51, T-60, and X-01. You will find partial or full (rarely) armor sets in the Wasteland in various military caravans and other places, with your level determining which armor type spawns (e.g. X-01 doesn't spawn until level 28). If you join the Brotherhood of Steel, even if only initially, they will give you a suit of T-60, so they are a good faction for a Power Armor user.

This build is a long-distance sniper/sneak build.
S: 1
P: 8
E: 5
C: 1
I: 3
A: 9
L: 2

Perks:


Notes:
Build Explanation
My motivations for creating this build were:

• Test out the top three Perception perks (Sniper, Penetrator, and Concentrated Fire), which I had never played before despite hundreds of hours in the game.
  
• Be able to hack any computer/pick any lock.
  
• Have Aqua Boy to be able to explore anywhere.
  
• Not be encumbered (pun intended) by having to collect junk for crafting and settlement building.

The core of this build, testing the Perception perks, requires high Perception and Agility. They pretty much have to go together for two reasons. First, Sniper, Penetrator, and Concentrated Fire are mostly VATS perks and thus you need the Action Points from the high Agility. Second, rifles cost a lot of Action Points so you need that large pool in order to get 3-4 VATS hits in. For the rest, I needed a 5 End to get Aqua Boy and a 4 Int (with Bobblehead) for Hacker. If those are not priorities for you, you could steer SPECIAL points towards Strength/Int for all the crafting perks (Armorer, Gun Nut, Science) or to Luck for more VATS perks.

Notes
This build plays pretty well, rarely feeling underpowered. The lack of crafting perks is sometimes noticed in underpowered weapons, but you do have some ability to boost them with base crafting and can find/buy good weapons and mods. Note that I end the build by building Gun Nut up for end-game - it's just that good. But it makes for an interesting gameplay where you don't have to worry as much about junk, but do have to try and find decent gear. Armor is not as big a worry because you can get Ballistic Weave for your clothing and even one level of that (max you can do without Armorer) is more than enough to make your armor rating decent for this Sneak build.

The Sniper perk is better than I thought it would be. The first level noticeably reduces the "shake" when you're aiming from far away, and the knock-down helps against charging enemies (although it does occasionally knock the enemy behind cover so you can't hit them again). Penetrator is pretty much as good as I thought it would be, although at the first level you don't do much damage through obstructions. Concentrated Fire is better than I thought as well, provided you have a huge amount of Action Points to take advantage of it.

Weapons
Here a some useful weapons to get:

• Overseer's Guardian - a Two Shot combat rifle you can buy in Vault 81 from Alexis Combes and convert from an automatic. It's so good that you really don't have to use anything else except for fun. It will run in the range of 3-4K caps depending on your Charisma.
  
• Justice - a Staggering combat shotgun you can buy in Covenant from Penny. It will run in the range of 3-4K caps depending on your Charisma.
  
• Laser Musket - you get one in Concord saving the Minutemen and can boost to a 3-crank, and 4-5 crank after taking the Castle (find the mods in the armory). With Quick Hands it loads very fast and I love using the thing.
  
• Righteous Authority - whether you join the Brotherhood of Steel or not, do their first quest in order to get this great Lucky laser rifle.
  
• Pipe Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle - for early game consideration, there's one of these in a building north of the Concord museum.

Immersive Minutemen General Build taking full advantage of the settlement system.

S: 6
P: 3
E: 5
C: 8
I: 5
A: 1
L: 1




Gameplay:
The purpose of this build was to go all-in with the Minutemen and settlement-building. I came up with a build on my own, then discovered Fudgemuppet had one too (Fudgemuppet General Build). Mine was remarkedly similar, but I had some convenience perks like Locksmith/Hacker. During my playthrough, well before finishing the main quest, I acquired all of the settlements, provided all the basics for settlement happiness (beds, food, water, defense), and added artillery to really get the most out of being a Minuteman general. I used some mods to make this enjoyable rather than painful, which I've listed/explained below (some are already in my mods section).

Equipment:
Below is the equipment my general is outfitted with. I mostly try to go with the sword and laser musket for role-playing, but occasionally dip into the other weapons for survivability.

• Minutemen General's outfit - I have a mod that allowed me to add Ballistic Weave to this, but you could get away without it. Until you get it you can use the Minutemen outfit you get off the body in front of the Museum in Concord.
  
• CROSS Jet Pack (Robco) and Freefall legs - adds to the fun, and with the mods listed below the legs can be recolored for the Minutemen to blend well with the General's outfit.
  
• Shem Drowne's Sword - Good "revolutionary American" looking sword. Maxed out with Blacksmith and Science.
  
• Laser Musket - Maxed out with Science. It's not overly difficult to get a Legendary version during your gameplay.
  
• Flare Gun - Use often to really have the feel of playing the Minutemen General. Naturally you have to build out your settlements to be able to use this most places. You'll know it's working when, a few seconds after your fire it, you get another flare going off in the sky in response.
  
• Artillary Grenades - Very fun to use but with some quirks. You have to be within 5 "squares" of a settlement with artillary on the map, and it takes quite a bit of time (~30 seconds) before anything happens. This is anecdotal, but you seem to get more bombs fired if there are more artillary settlements in range. And there appears to be a cooldown on it, so you'll just waste grenades if you throw more right after a bombardment. Finally, be careful using both the flares and the artillary at the same time - one time my artillary burst landed on my incoming Minutemen.
  
• Overseer's Guardian - Great combat rifle for this rifleman build. Backup weapon especially for energy-resistant enemies.
  
• The Last Minute (Gauss Rifle) - Maxed out. Backup. Get from Ronnie Shaw.

Settlement building:
Below are some of my tips for "on-boarding" settlements quickly and getting them stable (i.e. making sure the settlers are happy - if they get too unhappy you lose the settlement). The list below is designed for speed - Once you have the basics done below for all or most of your settlements, you can go back to them to really trick them out. For really in-depth settlement rules, see the wiki[fallout.fandom.com]. Also, Oxhorn has many good videos on settlement-building.

• Once you obtain a new settlement, go to a previous settlement and set up a supply line to it (requires Local Leader level 1). This will allow you to use resources from other settlements to build the items below. Obviously, if this is your first settlement (Sanctuary), skip this step.
  
• Scrap everything in the new settlement (see mods below to make this much easier). This will give you more resources to build (and craft) with.
  
• Build a recruitment beacon to get settlers to come to your settlement. This requires a small generator as well to power it.
  
• Build CHA+10 (20 for this build) beds. Beds have to be covered (in a building). I like the large, wood prefab building for this because it is easy and can hold 9 beds in the covered areas. If your ground isn't level, the concrete block floors are a good way to build a level surface.
  
• Build CHA+10 (20 for this build) water supplies. The small pumps can work fine for your first few settlements, but you'll eventually find that they use up gears like crazy (1 per) and you need gears for other things too (like turrets). If you have a creek or other water source in your settlement, build one of the powered water pumps in it with a generator for better water-to-gear ratio. If there's no water, build powered water purifiers with a generator to power them.
  
• Build CHA+10 (20 for this build) food supplies. Many plants (corn, tatos) only provide half a food so you need to plant twice as many. Food will not produce until a settler is assigned to it. A settler can work 6 units worth of food (for example, 12 corn). When you assign a settler to food, you should see the food count go up - once the count stops the game will tell you the settler is assigned. If it doesn't go up, that means that all the existing food is covered by other settlers.
  
• Build at least CHA+10 (20 for this build) defense. I recommend more to reduce the chance of a raider attack. There's a lot of advice on the interwebs to build defenses up to the sum of your food and water (40 in this case), but I haven't seen anything to really substantiate this. More defense is good though so try and get into the 30's at least initially.
  
• Once you've retaken the Castle for the Minutemen, build an artillary and assign a settler to man it. Artillary adds 6 to your settlement's defense as well.

Continued in next section...

Continued from Minutemen General Build...

Once settlers start coming in, make sure to come back to the settlement to assign them jobs (food initially), because if you have more than 4 unassigned settlers no new ones will come in. This counts for supply line settlers (provisioners) too, so be careful how many provisioners you have in any one settlement (spread this out - don't have them all coming from one). Once you've taken care of food, trading stations (bars and general stores especially) are good but drain your caps to build. If you lack caps and supplies, scrapping stations are cheap to build and keep settlers busy.

Settlements require periodic maintenance even once all of the above is done as you need to repair items damaged by enemy attacks, make sure happiness is not trending down for whatever reason, etc. So you'll need to do occasional "tours" of your settlements to assess the conditions. This is part of the reason that settlements are not for everyone.

Mods (some dupes from my mods section):

• We Are The Minutemen[www.nexusmods.com] - Improves the Minutemen faction a lot. First, the Minutemen patrols you get from the flare gun are leveled to just below your level instead of being level 1 all the time. Also, it reduces the rate that Preston gives you quests which makes him easier to deal with (note it also prevents him from giving you the Castle quest until level 20). There's a bunch of other great stuff too - read the mod.
  
• Scrap Everything[www.nexusmods.com] and Scrap Zapper[www.nexusmods.com] - A massive time-saver. It would be beyond tedious to scrap everything in all the settlements without the Scrap Zapper.
  
• Minutemen Paint for All Power Armors[www.nexusmods.com] - I didn't use Power Armor very much, but when I did I could show the colors.
  
• Useful Crank - Laser Musket doesn't require ammo[www.nexusmods.com] - An immersive mod that's not OP (fusion cells were pretty common anyway so not OP to not have to use them).
  
• Expanded Ballistic Weave[www.nexusmods.com] - Add Ballistic Weave to the General's uniform.
  
• CROSS Jetpack[www.nexusmods.com] - very fun.

I’ve done a lot of crafting with my characters using Gun Nut, Armorer, Blacksmith, Demolition Expert, and Science, and learned a lot of lessons that are far from obvious from the perk descriptions or any in-game tutorial. So below are random thoughts/tips.

When you’re crafting, you need a lot of different materials, especially Adhesive, Screws, Aluminum, and Oil. This is why I wouldn’t recommend taking any of the crafting skills until level 5 or so – you won’t have enough stuff to make many mods. Settlement building synergizes extremely well with crafting because settlements provide a lot of material simply from scrapping junk, and the farms can produce Corn, Tato, and Mutfruit, used to make Vegetable Starch, which is used to make a lot of Adhesive, which you’ll need for Every. Single. Mod. Finally, having a Charisma of 6 and taking the first level of Local Leader early on lets you assign settlers as supply line runners between your settlements, which means that all the materials you scrapped at all settlements are available at any workbench. This really helps with all your crafting needs - not just convenience factor but in volume of materials. Once you get a bunch of farms going you never have to worry about Adhesive again (although it takes some discipline to replant some of your early produce instead of immediately making Vegetable Starch with it). If you want to try and avoid settlement building, or your Charisma is not up to snuff, then I recommend just building up Sanctuary and making it your base – the Adhesive help from farming is hard to live without (also fast-traveling to Sanctuary puts you right in front of the workbench, which is convenient). The Scrapper perk is decent for getting rarer materials. The only issue is that it requires you to load up on your opponents’ weapons and armor to scrap later, and those weigh a lot, so you’ll definitely want to bring a companion along. Finally, use the workbench feature that allows you to mark components that you need (like screws!). This helps immensely - you'll never pass by an alarm clock again!

Literally – you don’t need a crafting skill to craft. Anyone can do the base mods and do one level of armor and weapons improvement (one level ain't bad). So if you don’t have any crafting skills, you can still transfer cool mods from found weapons and armor to (almost, kinda) any weapons and armor you want of the same type. The way to remove a good mod from a weapon is to replace it with the “Standard” mod. This will add the good mod to your inventory, which you can then put on the weapon you want.

You need Gun Nut for non-Energy Weapon mods and for better machine guns in your settlement.

You need Science for all Energy Weapon mods, for many Power Armor mods, and for "energy-related" mods on guns, armor, and melee weapons (like adding electrical damage to a sword, or a tracking scope on a gun). It's also needed to build advanced settlement items.

You need Armorer to mod Armor (duh) and to increase the armor rating of Power Armor beyond the second level. It will let you boost the Power Armor "armor class", but to really max out the Power Armor armor rating you need a couple points of Science! to get better shielding. Also, Armorer allows you to mod a piece of armor but won't let you change between regular, Sturdy, and Heavy versions (so if you want Heavy armor, you have to find the pieces - can't make them).

You need Blacksmith to mod melee and hand-to-hand weapons and to add hand-to-hand weapons to Power Armor. However, you also need Science! to get some of the better mods (like electrical damage adds), so this is probably the weakest of the crafting skills.

If you want your character to wear clothing because it looks cool, but don’t want to die every time someone sneezes on you, you have to mod those clothes with ballistic weave. Note that in the unmodded game, there are a limited set of clothing that the weave can be added to, but see my Mods section for how to get around that. Spoiler: you get ballistic weave by joining the Railroad and doing P.A.M.’s quests.

Due to having a couple of characters that were badly in need of healing in earlier levels (low-level Sneak and low-level Melee/Unarmed), I delved into Cooking to try and preserve my Stimpak supply, and was pleasantly surprised. In addition to healing, cooked meats provide various bonuses depending on the animal (e.g. Mutant Hound meat heals radiation, and Yao Gai ribs are better than a Stimpak). On the drink side, Dirty Wastelanders are pretty easy to make and give a great Strength bonus for a Melee/Unarmed character. Refreshing Beverages are a bit harder but work like Addictol. And I mentioned Vegetable Starch above.

However, around level 20-25 on most decent builds, healing stops being as big a factor (mostly due to having a lot of Stimpaks), and Cooking's utility is much less (outside of Survival mode).

Note that unless you take Science!, you can only make Molotov Cocktails or Fragmentation Grenades/Mines - you won't be able to make Pulse or Plasma. Oil is needed a lot for this crafting.

The Settlement functionality in Fallout 4 should win the award for worst user interface of the year. First, you don't have to be at the workbench to bring up the settlement menu - just hold down V (or whatever for XBox/Playstation) anywhere in your settlement to bring it up (Note: so if a quest puts the marker on the workbench, but you've already established the place as one of your settlements, then you don't have to go to the workbench. They just want you to create something - check your quest log). Then you have to use the arrow keys to navigate the menu and Enter to select - it took me forever to figure that out as I kept trying to click on things with my mouse. And even if you know what you want to create, it can take you a while to figure out which submenu it's under. Once you select what you want to create (e.g. a bed), an image of it will appear ahead of you that you can create and place anywhere by clicking E, and rotate with the mouse buttons.

If you want to load up your workbench with supplies like corn, mutfruit, etc., you need to assign a settler to work that plant, scrapping workbench, whatever. Note on food: the settlers will put "surplus" food in your workbench once a day. That is, they will eat one food a day and put the rest in the workbench. So if you have 12 settlers you will need to plant 13 units of food to get any excess (and some plants are only 0.5 units) and assign enough settlers to harvest it (1 settler per 6 units of food I've read). If you don't do this, you'll have to harvest your food manually to get it, which is a pain. When you have a number of settlements, linked by supply lines, producing food and water, you will see these accumulating in the workbenches.

You need a bed for every settler (simple enough). Also, build a bell to be able to call all your settlers to you in order to assign them to tasks easily.

Gun Nut and Science, while not an absolute necessity, are nice to have for better turrets, generators, etc.

Local Leader is also practically a necessity if you want to really get into settlements.

I have tons of mods installed for my game, but here are the ones I feel are the most important, IMHO:

• Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch[www.nexusmods.com] - It's a Bethesda game. 'Nuff said.
  
• Scrap Everything[www.nexusmods.com] and Scrap Zapper[www.nexusmods.com] - Around the tenth time/character you've gone through Sanctuary scrapping everything, you'll really appreciate this.
  
• Full Dialogue Interface[www.nexusmods.com] - I like seeing what my character will actually say.
  
• Expanded Ballistic Weave[www.nexusmods.com] - I want to be able to add weave to any clothing or outfit.
  
• Longer Power Lines[www.nexusmods.com] - Seems stupid but man.
  
• We Are The Minutemen[www.nexusmods.com] - Makes the Minutemen stronger and more interesting.
  
• CROSS Jetpack[www.nexusmods.com] - Super fun.

Go to Nexus Mods to get these and a horde of others. Check out Oxhorn's videos for his recommendations as well.

Below are my ratings for all the perks in the game. I’ve marked the ones I’ve actually used with an asterisk – the rest is speculation based on my game experience.

Iron Fist* – Essential if you are going for an unarmed build, otherwise ignore.

Big Leagues* - Essential if you are going for a melee build, otherwise ignore.

Armorer* - Great skill for any build, almost essential if you are going for an all-Power-Armor-all-the-time build. See notes for Gun Nut below.

Blacksmith* – Only useful for unarmed or melee builds, and even then the number of available mods seem to be limited. The better mods, like electrifying a melee weapon, require Science, which requires a 6 Intelligence, which is usually not a priority stat for a melee/unarmed build.

Heavy Gunner* – All “more damage” perks are great. Heavy weapon ammo is fairly limited in game, so you won’t get as much mileage from this perk early-to-mid game as, say, Rifleman. It is possible by level 25-30 or so to be able to use Heavy Weapons most or all of the time, but you will probably need a backup like Rifleman or Commando. Also, some ammo won't spawn with Scrounger, like Cannonballs and Cryo Cells, so you end up having to buy it (see my notes for Cap Collector and Fortune Finder below). Finally, carrying around a variety of heavy weapons, is, well, heavy, so you need to worry about your carrying capacity. This works well with Power Armor since that gives you an 11 Strength when worn.

Strong Back* – If you hate companions, and you are doing a lot of crafting and settlement building, then this could be good. For the average character, however, you can dump stuff on your companion to carry. Four perks for this is a lot that could be going elsewhere. The one scenario where I took this perk was when I was going with a Heavy Weapons build so I could carry a lot of them at once, but that's only the first two perk levels.

Steady Aim – Could be good for a non-VATS build, especially if you use automatic weapons a lot. Could synergize with a Power Armor build, since VATS uses up Fusion Cores faster. However, you can get a lot of accuracy mods using Gun Nut as well, so that might be a better investment.

Basher – Man, this is niche. I think I’ve bashed once in the game. If you love bashing, then go for it I guess, but at four perk points this seems really bad. Update: see this video from VinylicPumaGaming for another take on bashing - not my speed but apparently it can be quite OP.

Rooted* - Very very good for melee/unarmed builds, especially if you are using Blitz, since Blitz treats you like you are standing still. Otherwise ignore.

Pain Train* – Fun and effective perk if you are going for a Power Armor build, especially if it is a combined Power Armor and melee/unarmed build (since you will be able to use more perks from Strength). However, it's a bit of a waste of attribute points since if you are in Power Armor your strength is boosted to 11 anyway.

Pickpocket – I would only get this if you are roleplaying a thief. Otherwise it’s not all that useful. You get more swag doing quests.

Rifleman* - Unless you are going for an unarmed/melee build, I highly recommend getting one of Rifleman/Gunslinger/Commando. You need the damage boost. I wouldn't try and go for more than two of the Heavy Gunner/Rifleman/Gunslinger/Commando perks due to the fact that each one uses 5 perks points.

Awareness – It’s not bad for a first play-through at only one perk point, but even without it you’ll eventually figure out the weaknesses of the enemies.

Locksmith* - It’s a very good perk to have, but not absolutely essential. You’ll still be able to open Novice locks, and you can get Cait to do it for you (do the Combat Zone quest early on). Generally recommend if you can put Perception up to 3 (you’ll get a bobblehead very early in to boost it to 4). Do not get the fourth rank though – you’ll have more bobby pins than you know what to do with.

Demolition Expert* – Great perk. Explosives do great damage already so this is extremely helpful. And the visible arc you get at rank two makes grenade placement massively accurate.

Night Person* – Meh. Perception and Intelligence do not provide the strongest bonuses. I guess if you only turned in quests at night it could be a helpful XP bonus. And night vision is really not required in this game (in fact, from videos I’ve seen, it looks like it could detract from the game by washing out the otherwise great graphics). I took it once because it was required to use the Black Widow Armor Mod[www.nexusmods.com].

Refractor* – Toughness’ inferior twin. Energy damage is not quite as frequent as ballistic damage, and this requires an investment of 7 in Perception, whereas Toughness only needs 1 Endurance. If you’re going for a Sniper build, maybe throw a couple of points here, but otherwise it’s not going to be on many people’s radar.

Sniper* – See the Sniper build above. Generally pretty great for a rifle build, although you do occasionally knock a target behind cover.

Penetrator* – See the Sniper build above. A pretty great perk, although it really doesn't get going until the second rank. At rank 1 you don't do very much damage through obstructions.

Concentrated Fire* – See the Sniper build above. Here’s the thing with this one: you need to be able to do many hits in VATS for this to help, but rifles, which is what you are likely using if you have a 10 Perception, require a very high Agility to get 3-4 VATS hits in. So you're kind of pigeon-holing yourself into a certain kind of build because with 10 Perception and 8-10 Agility you don't have much leeway for anything else. Also, accuracy is usually not a big worry if your Perception is already 10, which you need to get this perk. Works well if using VATS from a great distance without crits.

Toughness* – A decent perk and only requires a 1 Endurance. Worth getting on any character, but not all that necessary with decent armor.

Lead Belly* – You don’t have to eat anything in this game. There are plenty of Stimpaks, Blood Packs, and Purified Water for healing. And even if you do want to eat radioactive meat, you just need to cook it at a cooking station to get rid of the radiation. Only get for roleplaying purposes, or for fun if you are high level with no other obvious perks to pick, otherwise skip.

Lifegiver* - Decent perk, like Toughness but a little bit better, mostly because at the third level you are healed slowly over time, which is a great Stimpak saver (although it doesn't work in combat). Normally, I'd only get this to get the healing, otherwise adding Endurance will net you more hit points over time.

Chem Resistant* – Great if you use chems a lot. Yes, you can find/buy Addictol, and you can make Refreshing Beverages to get rid of addictions, but if you are planning on making chem use a large part of your play, then for 2 perk points this is worth it. Note: this is only for chems - for alcohol you need Party Boy/Girl.

Aquaboy/Aquagirl* - Not at all necessary, but very fun. For only 1 or 2 perk points, I recommend it if your Endurance is already this high.

Rad Resistant* - Bad perk. If your rad resistance is equal to the rads coming in, then the rads are halved. So if you have 10 rad resistance, and you swim in water (10/sec), you only take 5/sec. Like Lead Belly above, only take for roleplaying purposes. Radiation is not a big factor in this game, with many available mitigators and cures.

Adamantium Skeleton* – Since one Stimpak can heal all your limbs, it’s not a great perk. More of a convenience/roleplaying thing. It's most convenient if you have a build that uses explosives a lot, because you will quite often get caught in your own blasts.

Cannibal – Not bad, but Stimpaks again. Roleplaying thing mostly.

Ghoulish* – Not great, because while you may be healing in Radiation, you are still taking on rads which lower your maximum hit points. So it becomes a choice whether you want to use a Stimpak or a Radaway, and Stimpaks are more plentiful. The third level could be helpful as there are a lot of feral ghouls out there. This would actually be more neat if it turned you into a Ghoul.

Solar Powered* – Great for an unarmed/melee build due to the Strength boost, and a decent way to heal rads. Recommended.

Cap Collector* – For most character builds, money is not really an issue. I've encountered three situations where it is (in order of importance): if you need to purchase expensive and rare ammo types often (cryo cells, 2MM EC, plasma), if you do a LOT of crafting/settlement-building and need to buy crafting components, or if you want to buy some of the special weapons and armor from vendors (for example, Big Boy from Arturo). Otherwise no. Cap Collector is the best money-making perk in my opinion, followed by Scrounger and then Fortune Finder.

Lady Killer/Black Widow* – Slightly better for a female character due to there being more male enemies/characters out there. It’s okay – definitely a second tier perk.

Lone Wanderer* – Definitely worth it if you disdain using companions. At the moment, Dogmeat still works with it though. The extra carrying capacity and bonuses are great.

Attack Dog* – Okay for a Lone Wanderer build using Dogmeat all the time, but otherwise no.

Animal Friend* – Only works for "animals", like molerats, dogs, and bears. If you are going for a pacify build, get a 10 Charisma and get Wasteland Whisperer and Intimidation first to handle the bulk of enemies.

Local Leader* – A must if you want to play with settlement building, and the first level at least is extremely helpful if you plan on doing a lot of crafting as it allows you to pool all of the crafting components you are able to scrap from all of your settlements. If you don’t plan on doing either, skip it. Also, if you want to have multiple Power Armor workbenches at your settlement(s) then you need level 2 of this perk to create them.

Party Boy/Girl* – A great perk for melee/unarmed builds due to the Strength increase of alcohol. Otherwise it's just okay or use for roleplay reasons.

Inspirational – This seems somewhat meh to me. I’m rarely hit by my companions, their carrying capacity is not an issue if you empty them between quests, and they are unkillable so who cares if you accidentally hit them? Not useless but there are better perks.

Wasteland Whisperer* – Awesome Decent perk but somewhat forces you into a “pacify” build. Problem with this perk (and Intimidation and Animal Friend) is that it doesn't work often at levels below 20 because it compares your level to the enemy's level for success, and can be tough to trigger on the fly due to NPC movement. So don't depend on this to replace shooting things - if you fail this check you'll have every enemy in the area targeting you. Quick note: in order to activate this, you have to sight down your gun (right mouse button on PC). Works on "exotic" non-human enemies like feral ghouls, super mutants, etc.

Intimidation* – Same as Wasteland Whisperer, but works exclusively on human enemies.

V.A.N.S – Pretty much like Awareness above, but even less useful. There are a couple times where this would be more helpful than the standard marker you get, so I won’t completely trash it. The second level gives +2 Per, so if you were planning on upping Per by 2, you could take this and get the first level "for free".

Medic* – A fantastic defensive perk. Two levels is plenty for most builds, and 3 or 4 basically make you unkillable outside of a nuke hit.

Gun Nut* – Great for any build that uses non-energy guns of any kind. My only note is that it (and Science and Armorer) does force a packrat playstyle on you as you do have to collect materials to make your mods. So be aware.

Hacker* - See Locksmith, except you can use Nick Valentine to hack consoles. I would also venture the opinion that Hacker is less useful than Locksmith in general.

Scrapper* - This is an okay perk if you are doing a lot of crafting. It’s only okay in my opinion because: it doesn’t really get that useful until level two, you can get most/all of the same materials during quests if you mark what you’re looking for, and weapons and armor are heavier than junk so you’ll weigh down yourself and your companion quickly by loading up on junk weapons to scrap. It does give you some great components once you have maxed it, but not awesome until then.

Science!* - Great for any crafting build, and needed for energy weapons mods. See my notes about Science in the Crafting section above.

Chemist* - Great perk if your character uses chems a lot, otherwise skippable.

Robotics Expert* – The problem with this perk is that you can’t use it at a distance like Wasteland Whisperer. So you need to sneak up on hostile robots or get into melee range to activate. Not terrible because Assaultrons and Sentry robots are extremely dangerous.

Nuclear Physicist* – A necessity for a Power Armor build, but otherwise ignorable. Radiation weapons are rare, plus a lot of enemies like Super Mutants, Radscorpions, Feral Ghouls, etc. are immune to radiation.

Nerd Rage! – If you are below 20% health, then you’re one hit away from being killed. Use a Stimpak! Okay I guess, but I really I can’t see the value in this over just managing your health or using Jet.

Gunslinger* – See Rifleman, but for pistols. Great skill.

Commando* – See Rifleman, but for automatic weapons. Great skill but I recommend getting Scrounger with it because it chews up ammo like nobody's business.

Sneak* - A very good skill, especially when combined with Ninja and Mister Sandman. Note: you can sneak without it, but if you plan on sneaking a lot take all levels of this.

Mister Sandman* – Good if you plan to use a suppressed weapon a lot (see Sneak “build” in the Build section).

Action Boy/Girl* – Practically a requirement for a VATS build, and decent if you just like using VATS a lot on any build.

Moving Target* – Good for an unarmed/melee build if you’re sprinting at opponents a lot. Potentially good if you’re a low-Endurance, no sneak build and are sprinting away from opponents a lot. A second tier perk.

Ninja* – Essential for a Sneak build, and decent for the occasional sneaker. Great damage bonus.

Quick Hands* – The first level is okay for role-playing purposes. Noticeable improvement but not essential. Is very helpful if you use the Laser Musket a lot because it speeds up the charging animation significantly.

Blitz* – Great unarmed/melee skill (see VATS Unarmed build in Build section). Otherwise ignorable.

Gun Fu* – A fun but very situational skill. Pistols are more likely give you 3 or 4 (or more) VATS shots, almost forcing you to use Gunslinger with this (rather than rifles/Rifleman for example). Plus, the number of times when you have 3 or more opponents visible is rare.

Fortune Finder* – An inferior Scrounger because Scrounger gets you ammo, and ammo can also be sold one-for-one for caps. You would be better off getting Cap Collector if you want lots of caps. I used it on one build and it averaged around 5-15 caps per container (depending on perk level), so figure exploring a typical building would net you around 200-300 caps or so. Meh.

Scrounger* – I used to think this was an absolute necessity for any build using guns, but I have played some builds without it and I'll just say it's more useful than necessary. I recommend it highly but you can do without it except maybe if you use automatic weapons a lot and chew through ammo. It does help with caps as you can sell ammo you don't need.

Bloody Mess* – A decent damage bonus, but less important than the weapon-specific perks (Iron Fist, Big Leagues, Heavy Gunner, Rifleman, Gunslinger, Commando) early on.

Mysterious Stranger – A fun perk but definitely second or third tier. There are better perks if you’re a min-maxer.

Idiot Savant* - Great perk. Definitely take it first if you can and keep it maxed. Obviously better with a low-to-mid Intelligence. More levels faster mean more perks faster.

Better Criticals* – Good for a VATS-oriented build as long as you are taking other perks like Critical Banker, Four Leaf Clover, and Grim Reaper’s Sprint to keep the crits coming fast and furious (and which form the main skills for a VATS build). By itself this perk isn’t great because crits won’t come often, and when they do this bonus will really only help with Legendary or Deathclaw-level opponents (or Legendary Deathclaws) since “regular” crits will take care of almost anyone else.

Critical Banker* – Great skill, especially versus higher-level opponents as you will be able to unload several crits on them. See the Better Criticals notes above, but also good by itself if you use VATS at all (but if your Luck is already this high, why wouldn’t you be using VATS?). Best VATS skill - crits are the basis of VATS builds and this allows you more than one.

Grim Reapers Sprint* – Great skill for anyone using VATS. See the Better Criticals notes above.

Four Leaf Clover* - Great skill for anyone using VATS. See the Better Criticals notes above.

(VATS Note: I rank the VATS skills in this order: Critical Banker, Four Leaf Clover, Better Criticals, GRS. YMMV.)

Ricochet* – Fun but doesn't trigger very often.

Below are my opinions about the various weapons available in the game. I'll only cover weapons I've used.

In my opinion, there is really only one decent pipe weapon - a fully-upgraded (requires Gun Nut 2) automatic pipe rifle. This will continue to be useful into your low-30's, doing decent damage with cheap ammo. If you can get one with a decent legendary effect like Explosive or Wounding, that's just gravy. Naturally this works best with the Commando perk.

The pipe bolt-action is okay the first few levels, but you'll get something better very quickly. The pipe revolver is not great, with only 6 shots and slow reload.


10mm Pistol - Great early-to-mid weapon with either Gunslinger or Commando, and I'd argue a fully upgraded automatic one (Gun Nut 3) continues to be a viable late-game weapon. If you're going Gunslinger, the Deliverer will outshine it as soon as you get that (assuming you go with the Railroad).

.44 Pistol - Great weapon with Gunslinger, but you'll never find enough ammo in the wild and will have to buy (costly) ammo if you want to use the pistol regularly. There are a few named legendary versions available in the game, one of which you get on the main storyline. Eventually you can do Nuka World and get the Western Revolver version for better damage.

Deliverer - One of the few truly unique guns in the game, the Deliverer is an awesome pistol for Gunslingers. It comes with a suppressor for the sneaky builds, fires extremely quickly with decent damage per shot, has low action point costs for VATS, and uses cheap and abundant 10mm ammo.


I'd have to say my favorite rifle is the Assault Rifle, due to its great damage, fast fire rate, and massively large ammo magazine. I prefer it in semi-auto (Rifleman) rather than auto (Commando) because it uses rare 5.56mm ammo and the auto just chews that up.

For Snipers, the typical progression is bolt-action pipe rifle -> Hunting Rifle -> Combat Rifle -> Gauss Rifle. The only reason to break this progression is for roleplaying/aesthetic reasons (e.g. using a fully upgraded Hunting Rifle into late game because you're playing an Old West type character). You could use an Assault Rifle for sniping as well late game, but I like it better for closer combat due to its great fire rate and accuracy.

For automatic weapons, it's pipe rifle -> Combat Rifle->Radium Rifle (Far Harbor). I don't like the Submachine Gun because, although it fires faster, I think an auto Combat Rifle provides better DPS and doesn't waste as much .45 ammo.

Notable Named Rifles
Spray 'N Pray - A Submachine Gun with the Explosive legendary effect, it can be purchased from Cricket fairly early on if you save up. Even unboosted, Explosive is a fantastic effect, but if you have Demolition Expert to boost it, it does silly damage. However, I'd ditch it if I found a Combat Rifle with the Explosive effect.
Overseer's Guardian - A Combat Rifle with the Two Shot effect, it can be purchased at Vault 81 pretty early and does very good damage (not double, but good). Fully upgraded it can be easily be used late game for either a Sniper or Auto character.
Tinker Tom Special - A Hunting Rifle really only notable for coming with a suppressor and you can buy it fairly early in the game from the Railroad, which is important for the Mister Sandman types.
Railway Rifle - A fun rifle that looks like a heavy gun but is boosted by Rifleman. Does decent damage and the spikes are fairly inexpensive.


A fully upgraded Combat Shotgun is a great weapon, although it is eclipsed by a fully upgraded Assault Rifle. A Double-barrel Shotgun is not great due to its two-shot clip and slow reload - only use at low levels or for roleplaying. Note on shotguns: you need to be really close to the enemy to get the full benefit/damage. At close range the shotguns will outperform similarly outfitted Combat Rifles, but outside of melee range they peter out, so in most situations you're better off with a rifle (IMHO).


I'm lumping these together because most of the energy weapons, like pipe weapons, can be converted from pistols to rifles and vise versa, so you can cater to your particular perk (Gunslinger, Rifleman). However, unlike Ballistic weapons you can't convert between semi-auto and auto, so if you use Commando then you need to find an automatic version of the energy weapon you want (Edit: Not universally true - Plasma Guns can be converted to auto or semi-auto).

Institute Laser - The Institute needs to pour more research into weapons, because this is noticeably worse than a regular Laser Pistol/Rifle. Don't bother wasting your Fusion Cells on this.

Laser Pistol/Rifle - A very good weapon even into end-game fully upgraded, with good damage and a fast fire rate. Good in any variant. You can get a great one, Righteous Authority, very early in the game from the Brotherhood of Steel mission. Not the best sniper weapon though due to the lower per shot damage.

Laser Musket - A good sniper weapon since you can charge it up, but not great otherwise. The "Automatic" version, which is not really auto (still Rifleman), is interesting in its gatling gun type animation, but it's not that great.

Plasma Gun - Great with its mix of ballistic and energy damage, but ammo is very rare and expensive. Good late game weapon.

Alien Blaster Pistol - Damage a little better than a fully-upgraded Laser Pistol, plus very good in VATS. Downside is that, unlike the Laser Pistol, the projectiles are somewhat slow so it is easy to miss.

Gamma Gun - A real odd duck. Does great damage against non-radiation resistant enemies (mostly humans), and has an associated explosive radiation effect. See here[www.google.com] for the full explanation. I wouldn't bother using it unless you had Nuclear Physicist maxed to double the damage. Ammo is also very rare and expensive.


I'll go from bad to good:

Junk Jet - Fun but it just doesn't do enough damage.

Minigun - Likely the first heavy gun you'll ever get, a normal one, even upgraded, is not very good considering the weight and ammo usage. The only good one I've used had an Explosive legendary effect which is killer with the numerous, rapid hits.

Flamer - It's not bad, but it's very short range and uses ammo extremely quickly.

Harpoon Gun - Fun and good damage but doesn't fire quickly enough.

Broadsider - Better than the Harpoon after being upgraded because it holds three ammo and they have an explosive effect, but very similar.

Fat Man - Amazing damage but ammo is so rare that you end up afraid to "waste" it and end up not using it much. But good to have on hand when you run into a Deathclaw.

Cryolator - Fully upgraded this is a beast of a weapon that wrecks most enemies. The only reason it's not number one on my list is that the ammo is extremely expensive and can't be found in the wild.

Missile Launcher - Fully upgraded, this weapon does great damage with an explosive effect, has great range, available auto-homing, and ammo is relatively cheap.

Gatling Laser - Great end-game weapon fully upgraded, especially if you have Nuclear Physicist to extend the fusion core usage. By mid-game or so it's not hard to have two dozen or more fusion cores to power this, and each core nets you 500 ammo (999 with Nuclear Physicist).

I finally did a Survival[fallout.wikia.com] playthrough, so below are my tips for Survival mode. Some minor spoilers.

The toughest part about Survival is how hard the enemies hit. So, in my opinion, the two most viable build strategies are either Stealth (to avoid damage) or Power Armor (to be able to somewhat handle damage). You can spin off a bit from there, like going with a Stealth/VATS build (like I did in my build below) or a Power Armor/Heavy Weapons/Demolition Expert build. I've heard of Sneak/Melee as an option, but I think it would be pretty difficult.

Some of my Perk advice changes for Survival:

• Iron Fist - Unarmed in Survival. Just don't.
  
• Armorer/Blacksmith/Gun Nut/Science! - All of the crafting perks get more important due to your squishyness. For most builds Gun Nut is probably the best bang for your buck, unless you're doing a Power Armor build and/or using energy weapons a lot. Blacksmith only for melee.
  
• Strong Back - With reduced inventory and health effects for being overencumbered, this is more useful. Still not essential.
  
• Demolition Expert - Explosives are very deadly in Survival, so on one hand this is quite powerful, on the other hand be careful you don't blow yourself up because it's instadeath.
  
• Lead Belly - A little more useful since you have to eat now, but still not essential. And three perk points on this is hard to swallow (pun intended).
  
• Chem Resistant - Chems help even up the game for you, so this is even more useful.
  
• Aquaboy/girl - Since RadAway has side effects now, not taking rads from water is helpful.
  
• Cannibal - in Survival this can give you a condition where other foods won't satisfy you, so beware.
  
• Solar Powered - the rad-healing from this is even more helpful.
  
• Lone Wanderer - the bonuses help mitigate the Survival penalities. Plus with all the cons to using Companions in Survival, this is almost a must-have.
  
• Local Leader - Massively helpful. Without fast-travel, the ability to set up supply lines is enormously helpful. Plus the second level lets you add doctors to your settlements which allows you to mitigate all of the diseases and other conditions.
  
• Inspirational - If you intend to use Companions (I wouldn't), you probably need this.
  
• Medic - Since Stimpaks and RadAways have side effects, the less of them you need to take the better.
  
• Chemist - Allows you to craft Antibiotics to cure sickness, which is almost essential. If you don't have this or Local Leader to add doctors, you will struggle with diseases. Also, the bonus to chem duration is very helpful.
  
• Nerd Rage! - Since you can often find yourself under 20% health very quickly, this is now more of a lifesaver.
  
• Sneak - Massively helpful. Plus level three will prevent you getting instadeathed by mines.
  
• Mister Sandman/Ninja - these sneak attack bonuses are more helpful in Survival.

• Go sloooowwww. Slowly explore the world around you and "claim" territory around your settlements. Don't rush off to Concord.
  
• Note that the wiki says that Survival makes your hits do 150% damage and that enemies do 200% damage. However that is based on Very Hard, so it actually works out to you doing 75% of your normal damage, and enemies doing 400% damage (ouch).
  
• Pick up the power armor near the Robotics Disposal Ground early on.
  
• Collect empty bottles because in Survival you can fill them with water to turn them into either Purified Water or Dirty Water.
  
• Take over as many settlements as you can (note: you don't necessarily have to do this with a Minuteman quest). Having many places around the map where you can build a good bed and a water pump is essential.
  
• Beds - You can only get a full 8 hours of rest in a decent bed. A simple mattress or sleeping bag allow you to save but only allow up to 5 hours of sleep.
  
• Sleep at least 1 (I recommend 2) hours in any bed you come across to save your progress.
  
• Collect glowing fungus to craft antibiotics. They can easily be spotted at night. There's a lot at the Red Rocket near Sanctuary.
  
• Explosives/mines can be your friend in taking out tough or numerous enemies if you are careful. If you are not careful, you'll be caught in your own blast.
  
• I recommend joining the Brotherhood because their Vertibirds can replace fast-travel for you. Plus you get a free set of T-60 Power Armor.
  
• Companions - Overall I say don't use them. Pros: they're NPCs so they hit just as hard as the enemies, plus with reduced inventory it's nice to be able to offload onto them. Cons: with their bad AI, they'll often times hit you (and kill you), break your stealth, and start fights you can't win. Plus they need to be stimpacked if hurt otherwise they go home. More pain than they're worth.

I went with a combination Sneak/VATS build.I figured VATS would help me a lot with combat and long-distance takedowns with crits. My only regret is that it did cause me to have to give up the ability to get Local Leader.
S: 3 (for Armorer)
P: 1
E: 1
C: 3 (for Lone Wanderer)
I: 7 (for Chemist)
A: 7 (for Ninja)
L: 7 (for Critical Banker)

Perks:

Below I discuss the pros and cons of each faction in the game from a purely gameplay point of view. I won't get into whether or not a faction is "evil" or "good" as that's a role-playing decision - Oxhorn has great videos if you want to delve into that. Major spoilers so it's marked as such.

Minutemen

The Minutemen are the grass-roots milita/police of the Commonwealth. Likely the first faction you'll encounter, saving them in Concord. Weak gameplay effects.
Perks:

• Flares that will call Minutemen units to help you fight if there is a Minutemen settlement close by. Unmodded, this is a fairly lame ability because you have to wait for them to show up and they're pretty weak when they do. There are mods to fix this but there's mods to help all the other factions too so...
  
• Artillary to blow the hell out of whatever you mark, assuming there's a Minutemen settlement close by with artillary. Very powerful, but you have to be close enough to throw the flare and enemies are generally smart enough to run away from it.
  
• Automatic mod for the Laser Musket from Sturges after defeating the Institute for the Minutemen. Cool but not particulary powerful.
  
• Ronnie Shaw as a shopkeeper who, among other things, sells The Last Minute, a great Crippling Gauss rifle.
  
• A headquarters and settlement (The Castle) with an armory filled with good mods, ammo, and explosives.
  
• Constant quests to add settlements if you want a lot of settlements quickly (note you don't need these quests to get settlements).

Railroad

Defenders of synths from the Institute. Join them by walking the Freedom Trail to the Old North Church and doing a quest for them. Pretty great gameplay effects.
Perks:

• The Deliverer unique pistol after the very first quest, which is silenced and pretty great.
  
• Tinker Tom as a shopkeeper with some good items, including Tinker Tom's Special sniper rifle.
  
• Ballistic Weave for clothing after doing P.A.M.'s quests - an amazingly good armor mod.
  
• Railway Rifle if you choose to stop the Institute with the Railroad.
  
• Covert Sweater Vest after doing one of their quests.
  
• A headquarters filled with ammo, stimpaks, and useful crafting junk. Plus you can fast-travel in and out of it.

Brotherhood of Steel

Hoarders/protectors of technology, enemy of synths, ghouls, super-mutants, etc. Join them by helping the BOS team at the Cambridge Police Station and doing a quest for them. Pretty great gameplay effects.
Perks:

• Righteous Authority after the very first quest - a pretty great Lucky laser pistol.
  
• A free suit of T-60 power armor (after you've completed about half of the main story).
  
• Flares that will call Vertibird units to help you fight or simply offer a ride anywhere in the Commonwealth. The Vertibird teams are fairly weak fighters and die quickly. However, the fun of flying over the Commonwealth, blowing up cars with the minigun, cannot be overstated.
  
• Proctor Teagan as a shopkeeper with some good items, including lots of power armor stuff.
  
• Three headquarters (Cambridge Police Station, Boston Airport, and the Prydwen) filled with ammo, stimpaks, fusion cores, and useful crafting junk. However, you can't fast-travel to the inside of the Prydwen and it actually requires 2 additional load screens which sucks.

The Institute

Underground scientists and creators/masters of synths. Join them by doing the main quest until you get to the Institute. Pretty lame gameplay effects considering this is supposed to be the most advanced faction.
Perks:

• Grenades that will call synth units to help you fight, but like the other flare perks these units are fairly weak fighters and die quickly.
  
• A shopkeeper with the great Experiment 18-A Rapid plasma rifle.
  
• A headquarters filled with fusion cells, stimpaks, addictol, and useful crafting junk.

Nuka World Raiders

Play a raider! Join them by going to Nuka World and surviving the initial gauntlet. The only perk you really get by joining the raiders is the ability to create raider settlements. Every other Nuka World "perk" can be had whether you help the raiders or not.

That's it, thanks for reading! I may update it more in the future as I play more and think of other things to put in.