The best Fallout 4 mods
If you're looking for the best Fallout 4 mods, you've got plenty to choose from: modders have made thousands of excellent fixes, tweaks, and enhancements to Bethesda's 2015 post-apocalyptic RPG over the years. And on the following pages, we've collected the best Fallout 4 mods on a great big list so you can find what the perfect mod to suit your needs.
On the next several pages we've listed the best Fallout 4 mods for settlement-building and crafting, visual improvements, gameplay enhancements, weapons and gear, new adventures and locations, and finally, the tools and utilities you need to get these mods working. For more, check out our list of Fallout 4 console commands. Mods added in the most recent update of this list have been marked with a ⭐.
Best Fallout 4 mods: Table of contents
- Settlement and crafting mods (below)
- Visual improvements and weather
- Gameplay enhancements
- New locations and adventures
- Weapons and gear
- Tools and utilities
Sim Settlements
This mod by kinggath gives you a completely new way to create settlements by introducing a SimCity like system: zone your settlements for residential, commercial, industrial, and farmland, and your settlers will build their own homes and stores and farm their own crops. Your settlement will grow on its own as NPCs make changes and improvements to their buildings without you having to micromanage them or place every last stick of furniture yourself. Here's a write-up on this imaginative and wonderful mod.
Transfer Settlements ⭐
If you build a cool settlement, why not share it? This mod allows you to package up any settlement as a blueprint and transfer it to a different save game or even upload it and share it with other players. You can even choose to pack up livestock, tamed creatures, power connections, and even Sim Settlements plots.
VTO (Vertical Takeoff Outpost) Mod ⭐
It's a Vertibird you can live in. It's doesn't technically fly—its movement is more akin to fast-travel—but you can plant craftable landing zones around the world and move your Vertibird to them. The living quarters are small, and the 'bird needs to be fed a supply of coolant, but it's a sweet-looking home with a customized crafting bench and mounted turrets to keep the neighbors away.
Place Everywhere
Adding much more flexibility and freedom to your settlements, Place Everywhere lets you move previously static objects like workshop benches and put them wherever you like. You can also build anywhere on your settlement—in trees, in the water, and even inside other objects. Red collision warnings are a thing of the past. Requires the Fallout Script Extender, which you'll find on the final page of this list.
Salvage Beacons
Tired of carrying all the junk you find in the world all the way back to your settlements? This mod gets your settlers to lend a hand. Craft salvage beacons at your chemistry station, and when you're out exploring and your pockets get full, just fill a container with your junk, drop a beacon on it, and your settlers will come and collect everything for you. They'll then place it in your workbench, saving you the trip.
Workshop Synth Production
With so much focus on building things in Fallout 4, it's surprising Bethesda didn't think of this themselves. This mod will let you craft your own settlers in your workshop. Synthetic settlers. Switch off your radio beacon, because now you can populate your various outposts with (hopefully) friendly Synths. DIY just jumped to the next level.
Wall Pass-Through Power Conduits
Running power lines around your Fallout 4 settlements just got a lot easier with this useful mod created by Daedragon. Since you're building with crummy, rusty metal walls full of holes, or wooden ones that would be a snap to make holes in, why can't you run power lines right through them? This mod adds conduits you can snap into place on the back of standard ones to allow power lines to pass through your walls. Works with your roof, too.
Basement Living
Need to get away from your crowds of dead-eyed settlers for a little quiet time? Basement Living adds 10 standalone basements and bunkers to give you your very own cozy retreat. You can attach a basement to any settlement you wish, and each comes with a fusebox that provides 100 power, and a workbench so you can decorate it however you like.
Conquest
You don't have to stick to the settlements Fallout 4 gives you. Now you can make your own pretty much wherever you like. This mod adds campsites which can be placed in the area of your choosing, and if you're happy with the location you can turn it into a fully-functioning settlement. You can build as many as 10 new settlements, and dismantle them as well.
Faction Housing Overhaul
It's nice that factions give you living quarters when you join them, but their offerings are typically not somewhere you'd really want to spend much time. These mods turn those faction dumps into more beautiful and spacious living quarters with workbenches, a gym, lovely decorations and plenty of extra storage space. It's available for Vault 81, Prydwen, the Railroad, the Castle, and The Institute.
Manufacturing Extended
If you've got the Contraptions Workshop DLC for Fallout 4, you'll definitely want this mod which vastly improves your settlements' factories. It adds a number of commonsense features, like conveyor belts that will take junk directly from your workshop's inventory and deposit completed items back into it. It also gives you new machines like looms for creating Vault outfits and faction gear, a power armor forge, a distillery for manufacturing cola and booze, and forges for melee and fist weapons. There's even an auto-butcher, for breaking down creatures (and people) into meat, bone, and leather.
Better Settlers
The settlers who answer to your radio beacon are typically a bit... well, dull. Most of them are dressed roughly alike, and they can be hard to tell apart without personally dressing them up differently. This mod adds over 150 new settlers so the vacant-eyed corn-growers who arrive on your turf will have a bit more personality. Another mod, Don't Call Me Settler, will give them unique names as well.
Looks Mirror
In case you want to tweak or change your character's looks after you leave your home at the beginning of Fallout 4, you can do so at a plastic surgeon. This mod gives you the option of doing it from any of your settlements as well, by adding a mirror to your workshop. Simply place the mirror on any wall you want, and using it will bring up the menu that allows you to change your appearance.
OCDecorator
Decorating your settlement can be irksome, and even after carefully placing loot items on shelves or tables they can and probably will be knocked over later by some clumsy settler or companion (or you). This mod not only makes placement of items easier (loot items are now movable just like static objects when using the workshop menu), but lets you lock them in place so they can't be toppled. Perfect.
Higher Settlement Budget
The size of your Fallout 4 settlements is pretty severely restricted: they can only get so big and use so many objects. That stinks if you're building a big 'ol base and suddenly have to stop. The Higher Settlement Budget mod fixes this, though keep in mind adding more object may lessen performance or even crash your game.
Homemaker
Fallout 4 cheats
Minecraft commands
Red Dead Redemption 2 cheats
GTA 5 cheats
The Sims 4 cheats
Ark: Survival Evolved cheats
Homemaker gives you more options for your settlements. It includes two new plantable crops, more walls and fences, 30 new types of lights, and new containers like ammo boxes and lockers. You can even use meat bags, if you like storing your extra supplies in bags of meat. Some do.
Table of contents
- Settlement and crafting mods
- Visual improvements and weather
- Gameplay enhancements
- New locations and adventures
- Weapons and gear
- Tools and utilities
DEF_UI
It's not quite SkyUI for Skyrim, but it's miles better than the UI vanilla Fallout 4 provides. Fully customizable, packed with additional on-screen information, and much more useful and readable than the standard UI, this mod is a must for anyone and everyone playing Fallout 4.
Diamond City Enhanced
Diamond City is, let's face it, a bit disappointing. It simply doesn't feel like the bustling hub of survivors it should. This mod adds lots of additional details like trees and grass, lighting along alleys, new pathways, and more to both provide a lived-in feel and the sense that the city is growing.
Cel-Shaded SweetFX/Reshade EMB
If you're a fan of Borderlands-style cel-shading, you can apply it to Fallout 4 for a pretty visual overhaul. Reddit user 'Reddit_is_wrong' started out using a SweetFX preset for Fallout 4 and adjusted the .ini file to give it those thick edges and comic page look. Here's the thread that gives you the .ini file and a list of other mods being used to bring that style to life in your own game.
Vivid Weathers
If every day feels a bit same-y, here are 75 new weather variations, plus over a hundred new cloud textures. You'll notice the difference with enhanced sunrays, prettier sunsets, and new sound effects when it rains. Who says the end of the world can't be lovely?
Dynavision
This mod provides a convincing dynamic depth of field that changes depending on what you're looking at. There's a documentary-length video above you can watch above to see how it works, and in an extremely clever touch you can edit the mod settings while in-game by inserting a holotape in your Pip-Boy and fiddling with the settings.
Valentine Reborn
Your favorite android detective gets an HD makeover, and doesn't he deserve it? He's just so cool. You can use this mod to give Nick Valentine upgraded teeth, eyes, facial textures, and it also comes with an option to upgrade his exposed synthetic hand.
True Storms
More intense rain, dust storms, sheet lightning, heavy fog, radioactive rain, new sounds both outdoors and indoors, and storms that last longer... this mod will enhance your game with more extreme weather. It even comes with a custom installer that lets you easily choose the options you want.
Improved Map with Visible Roads
Let's face it: Fallout 4's Pip-Boy map kinda sucks. This mod makes the map actually useful, with clearly visible roads, train tracks, topography, distinct waterlines, better placement of map markers, optional numbered gridlines, and even the option to number regions. It also has three brightness settings to fine-tune your map-gazing.
FPS Dynamic Shadows
Predefined shadow rendering in Fallout 4 can cause performance loss, even on high-end machines, especially in areas with a high number of objects. Modder extraordinaire Alexander Blade whipped up this plugin to allow players to dynamically control shadow draw distance based on their desired FPS.
Stars Texture Overhaul
Stars have been upgraded from 1K to 4K resolution, making them brighter, crisper, and even giving them a bit of a glimmer when you're moving around the wasteland. You can choose from a few different versions of the mod, one which adds a few bigger and brighter stars, making the sky a little more interesting in the evenings. The same modder has also re-textured the moon.
Stalker Lighting
On the other hand, maybe you don't think the post-apocalypse should be quite so vibrant and colorful. Stalker Lighting bleeds away the colors, making the world look more harsh, more unforgiving, more bleak. It is the end of the world, after all. Now it'll actually look like it.
Vivid Landscapes
Close up, many of the textures in Fallout 4 aren't exactly breathtaking, which you've probably noticed if, like me, you carefully creep through the game instead of racing across it at top speed. A modder is working hard on increasing the detail of the landscape textures to make your jaunt through the wilderness a little lovelier.
Darker Nights
If you want your Fallout 4 nights to feel more like real nights, you'll want this mod. Giving you a choice of seven different nighttime settings, it'll make your evenings either a bit darker or utterly pitch black. Interiors will also be darker at night if they're not well-illuminated by lights. Tread carefully.
Rain of Brass
This mod makes shell casings from firefights visible from greater distances (500 meters) and stay where they fall for longer (an hour). It's not a big change, but it adds a little realism to the game. After a big fight, the ground would be littered with shell casings, and now it will be. It might go nicely with this mod that makes bullet impact decals longer-lasting and visible at greater distances.
FO4 Rain
Speaking of rain, someone has retextured Betheda's somewhat wimpy and barely visible raindrops. Now the droplets are thicker and chunkier, making you feel much more like you're in a post-apocalyptic downpour. The ripples caused when the raindrops hit water have also been retextured. You can watch a comparison video here.
AnimeRace Nanakochan
If your beef with Fallout 4 was that it didn't look anime enough, here's a mod to fix that.
On the next page, some mods to enhance your gameplay.
Table of contents
- Settlement and crafting mods
- Visual improvements and weather
- Gameplay enhancements
- New locations and adventures
- Weapons and gear
- Tools and utilities
Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch
This mod intends to become a massive, comprehensive collection of bug fixes for Bethesda's RPG. Currently there are fixes for object placements, audio bugs, item issues, meshes and textures, quests and NPCs, perks and stats, and much more. It will continue to grow as more items are added. Here's the complete changelog.
MGS Aiming ⭐
If you like to swap camera views a lot while playing Fallout 4, especially when aiming, this should appeal to you. It automatically switches from third-person to first-person perspective when looking down iron-sighs, just like Metal Gear Solid. No more tapping a key or scrolling the mouse wheel, and when you top aiming it'll switch back automatically, too.
Commonwealth Cleanup ⭐
Among its many drawbacks, the post-apocalypse is just so darn messy. Why not pitch in and pick up the place a little? Commonwealth Cleanup lets you pick up and recycle over 130,000 static items like trash, cars, tire piles, vending machines, air conditioners, and all the rest of the garbage that's lying around and, until now, was immovable. Whatever you salvage can be used as crafting scrap.
Intimidation Overhaul ⭐
It's fun to use the intimidation perk to pacify enemies, but other than making them raise their hands and stop shooting, there wasn't much else to do with them. This mod gives you a few more choices, like robbing them, putting them in handcuffs, or making them flee.
Take Cover
Adding a real cover system to Fallout 4, this mod will let you stick to cover, lean out to shoot, and snap back into safety. It can be customized, allowing you to enter cover automatically by sprinting into it, or by using a hotkey to activate it. You can even vault over low objects you are taking cover behind. Pretty cool.
Everyone's Best Friend
Seems a bit silly that you can't have Dogmeat at your side at all times, such as when you're with another companion, doesn't it? This mod fixes that oversight, allowing your faithful pooch to accompany you even if you're adventuring with another follower.
Faster Terminal Displays
I'm not sure why Bethesda thought we'd enjoy watching slowly-appearing text crawl across the hundreds of different terminals in Fallout 4. Sure, you can click to speed things up, or you can solve the problem permanently with this mod that allows you to customize how fast you'd like terminal text to appear, increasing the speed from 2x up to 100x. I'd go with 100x, personally.
Get Out Of My Face
Followers standing to close? Shove 'em. Mutated cow in your way? Shove it. Enemies, too? Yes, shove them! Maybe someone is blocking a doorway, maybe they're just being annoying, or maybe, like me, you're just a cruel and sadistic person. Whatever the reason, this mod lets you give people a shove and watch 'em fly. It's as if Skyrim's Fus-Ro-Dah has been imported into Fallout 4. It's fun. A lot of fun.
Eat off the Floor
This isn't as gross as it sounds: it's actually quite useful. When you find a food or beverage item in Fallout 4, you need to pick it up before you can consume it. That makes sense, but it's also a pain since picking it up instantly adds it to your inventory, which means opening your Pipboy and scrolling through the list to find the item that, logically, should still be in your hand. With this mod, you can choose to consume something right off the table, shelf, or floor, skipping the need to find it in your pack.
Beast Master
Fancy some new companions that do more than just mindlessly follow you around? Not only can you tame beasts, but you can also decorate them with paint or dress them in armor. Activate a tracking chip so you'll always be able to find them, manage their happiness by feeding them treats, and even teach them tricks.
Value Per Weight Indicator
Every sole survivor has found themselves with their pockets stuffed to the limit, crippled by the decision of what to loot and what to leave behind. Here to help you choose what to carry and what to ignore is this tweak to the Pip-Boy UI screen, which displays the monetary value versus how much an item weighs. Loot smarter, not harder!
Full Dialogue Interface
If you miss the dialogue option style from earlier Fallout games, and aren't a fan of the vague new one, help is here. This mod fully shows your options in conversations instead of just hinting at them. No more wondering how you're going to respond sarcastically, now you'll know for sure.
Deadly Radstorms
Radstorms are pretty neat but not serious enough to make you change your plans. If you've envisioned a more hostile world, however, now you can make them something to genuinely fear. You can up the amount of damage you take from radstorms, all the way up to 100 rads, as well as increase their frequency.
Vendor Caps
Tired of selling a bunch of stuff to a vendor, then realizing they don't have enough caps to pay for it, then having to spend extra time searching their store to buy stuff you don't even need just to break even? This mod means vendors have a more reasonable amount of cap-cash to pay you for the huge piles of garbage you're always dumping on them.
Docile Ragstags
Ragstags (mutated deer) are dumb. They're always marked as enemies even through they're almost never interested in attacking you. Your companions see them tagged as enemies and go crazy trying to kill them while you're simply trying to cross the wasteland and fight things that will fight back. This mod fixes the problem by tagging ragstags as friends, meaning your follower will leave them alone.
Lowered Weapons
Annoyed that your character, with his weapon drawn, will point it in front of him at all times when in first-person view? Me neither, but now that I think about it, it would make your arms really tired. This little immersion mod lowers your gun when you're not actively in combat but still have it in your hand.
On the next pages, some new ways to play.
Table of contents
- Settlement and crafting mods
- Visual improvements and weather
- Gameplay enhancements
- New locations and adventures
- Weapons and gear
- Tools and utilities
Pilgrim—Dread the Commonwealth ⭐
Fallout 4 can be a bit spooky from time to time, and often startling when ghouls come lunging toward you, but it's not a horror game. You can make it one now, though, using a mod called Pilgrim—Dread the Commonwealth. Dread is definitely the right word: just watch the trailer above and see Fallout 4 turned into what looks like a mix of the Stalker games and The Road. Pilgrim combines a horror-based ENB with an overhaul of Fallout 4's weather system, citing as inspiration the 2015 film The Witch, directed by Robert Eggers.
Frost Survival Simulator
If you're looking for a real survival experience in Fallout 4, this mod turns Bethesda's RPG into a freeform survival game set just after the bombs have dropped. There are no quests: your goal is simply to survive in an extremely deadly environment. Most NPCs have been removed, there are new and deadlier enemies to battle, and the surface world is extremely radioactive so you can't venture outside without protective gear. It's a harsh and deadly way to play for those interested in a real challenge.
Revolted
Tired of Fallout 4's holotape minigames? Here's something a bit more entertaining. It's a mod called Revolted, and it gives you a custom retro 1990s-style corridor shooter that you can play inside Fallout 4. The mod, created by Cohagen, has a pulse-pounding chiptune soundtrack, wonderfully stilted and over-serious voice acting, and some 2D digitized sprites sprinkled into the 3D levels for some added nostalgia. You'll find it in the Concord Speakeasy, playable on a computer terminal located on the second floor.
Beantown Interiors Project
There are lots of boarded-up buildings in Fallout 4—a little too many, considering the world is full of raiders who would certainly have forced their way inside by now. This modder's goal is to add custom interiors to all of these buildings (eventually), as was done to Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Not only does it give you need places to loot and explore, it makes the world a bit more realistic.
Subway Runner
This mod connects most of Fallout 4's subway stations with tunnels, giving you a new way to crisscross the dangerous world: by scurrying beneath it. The tunnels aren't abandoned but are home to ghouls, raiders, and other enemies. They will have to be dealt with before you can travel safely, but once you clear them out they won't repopulate and you can enjoy safe passage. You'll also find some beds down in the tunnels—useful if you're a survival mode enthusiast.
Alternate Start
Played through Fallout 4 a few times and looking for a new roleplaying experience? Alternate Start lets you skip the standard introduction and begin playing as someone other than a Vault dweller. You can begin your game as a newcomer to Goodneighbor, a raider or merc for hire, a member of the Church of Atom, or a passenger aboard a sinking ship. It's a fresh start and a new way to play.
On the next page, new weapons and gear.
Table of contents
- Settlement and crafting mods
- Visual improvements and weather
- Gameplay enhancements
- New locations and adventures
- Weapons and gear
- Tools and utilities
Remote Explosives ⭐
There's never quite enough ways to blow someone the hell up in Fallout 4, so here's a nice addition to the list. C4, plasma charges, and IEDs that can be dropped and detonated remotely. If you want to be really cool about it, plant one of 'em in someone's clothing, stroll away, and the trigger the bomb.
The Creation Club ⭐
Okay, obviously this is a bit of a dig at Bethesda's DLC library Creation Club, which produces items and gear people can spend real money on. But it's also pretty clever. This mod adds a golf club that, when swung, creates random (and free) items out of thin air. Once the novelty wears off, the club can also be used as a customizable melee weapon.
Fusion Gun
Got a few too many fusion cores lying around? You can now use them to craft ammo for this new weapon, which is really a new set of weapons. The Fusion Gun first comes into your possession as a pistol, but once you've got it you can craft it into any type of weapon you want, from a sniper rifle to shotgun to assault rifle. The trailer above shows its many looks and uses.
See-Through Scopes
If you don't like the opaque sniper scopes, or the quick fade to black that occurs when using them, this mod solves that issue. Now when holding up a weapon with a scope you can see through it. You have the option to add new scopes, or simply replace the existing ones. You can even customize the reticles of your scopes in-game.
Doombased Weapons Merged
Modder DOOM has been making sweet guns for Fallout 4 for a while, and now you can find all ten of them in one place. There are assault rifles, a Desert Eagle, a MAC-11 machine pistol, and even a replication of Deckard's PKD Detective Special from Blade Runner.
True Frags
We all love using explosives in Fallout 4. We'd love them more if the ones that were supposed to hurl shrapnel around actually did. Thanks to this mod, now shrapnel-based explosive weapons really work as they're supposed to. Instead of just an explosion, your frag grenades and frag mines, MIRV grenades, bottlecap mines, and baseball grenades will send a cloud of projectiles through the air, shredding the hell out of anyone within range. Duck and cover.
TNR Shoulder Lamp
If you're not a huge fan of the Pip-Boy's flashlight function, which provides a somewhat uninspiring general glow to your surroundings, now you can use the same shoulder-mounted lamp the Marines use in the film Aliens. I think you'll agree: it's way cooler with volumetric lighting and dynamic shadows. What's more, it can both be purchased from vendors or crafted at a chemistry table. You can also craft different colored lights for it at an armor workbench.
Armorsmith Extended
The hell with road leathers, why can't I strap pieces of armor on over my nice natty suit? In addition to being able to wear any outfit under your armor, you can also wear hats and helmets with gasmasks, you can add ballistic weaves to hats, and even craft new outfits altogether. This mod was created with FO4Edit.
Crossbows of the Commonwealth
This well-animated crossbow makes a great addition to your burgeoning arsenal, and it's not just a simple, static weapon. You can add attachments to it using your workbench, and craft a number of different types of bolts for it. The crossbow is silent, perfect for stealth kills, and its great damage is offset by its slow reload time so it won't unbalance the game.
Any Mod Any Weapon
If you want to take wasteland warfare to a whole new level, this mod will let you build the weapon of your fever dreams. It allows you to put any weapon attachment on any weapon, so you can electrify a triple-barreled minigun, splice a Fat Man onto an alien laser pistol, or build just about any Frankenstein-esque weapon you can imagine. The video above by Tyrannicon shows you just a few of the possibilities.
Craftable Ammunition
You can build a lot at your workstations, everything from weapon mods to medical items to grenades. Why not ammo? This mod lets you craft every single type of ammo in the game at your chemistry stations: shotgun shells, flares, mini nukes, flamer fuel, fusion cells... you name it, you can craft it (unless you're naming made-up ammo that doesn't exist, like moon-piercing tomato bullets). You'll still need higher level Gun Nut, Science, and Demolition perks to be able to craft the really powerful stuff.
On our final page, we'll look at some useful tools and utilities.
Table of contents
- Settlement and crafting mods
- Visual improvements and weather
- Gameplay enhancements
- New locations and adventures
- Weapons and gear
- Tools and utilities
Nexus Mod Manager
The NMM is compatible with Fallout 4, and as the years pass and the mods stack up, it'll be pretty much indispensable. What's more, it works with a bunch of other games like Bethesda's RPG, The Witcher 3, Dark Souls 1 and 2, and World of Tanks. It makes downloading and managing mods from the Nexus a breeze.
Fallout 4 Script Extender
As the modding scene for Fallout 4 grows, more and more will use the Fallout 4 Script Extender. It's a utility that allows mods to work without actually modifying the game's executable files, so even if something goes wrong with a mod it won't cause any permanent damage.
mods.bethesda.net
With the arrival of official modding tools came Bethesda's own repository for Fallout 4 mods. You'll need an account (it's free) and once you have one you'll be able to browse and download mods even while you're in the game.