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** A very close approximation, the Automatic Rifle, is now available with the Nuka-World DLC.
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* FaceHeelTurn: The player themselves can pull an epic one by allying with the Nuka-World raiders and taking over the Commonwealth to RapePillageAndBurn. Is made especially drastic if the Sole Survivor has previously been an ardent Minutemen supporter, so it's very likely they've personally established all those thriving settlements they're now sacking, and most of the settlers that have to suffer under the new raider gang were probably attracted ([[YouBastard lured?]]) to these "safe" outposts by the radio beacons the Survivor set up before becoming Raider Overboss.
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** In the ''Nuka-World'' DLC, you have the opportunity to become a Raider yourself. This involves turning some settlements into raider Outposts and pressuring other settlements into sending you supplies and money. While a good, Minuteman-aligned player can liberate every settlement in the game and link them all up via caravans using the Local Leader perk, Raider players only have to worry about maintaining the Outposts (they can't build anything in subjugated farms). Money starts piling up ''fast'' in your Overboss trunk once you have a lot of vassal farms, far quicker than money usually generated by stores in settlements you normally create.
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* FlunkyBoss: Oswald the Outrageous, the guy that's spamming the Sole Survivor with feral ghouls and irradiated water the whole way through Nuka-World's Kiddie Kingdom, continues this tactic during his BossFight by summoning wave after wave of ferals.
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* FlunkyBoss: Oswald the Outrageous, the guy that's spamming the Sole Survivor with feral ghouls and irradiated water the whole way through Nuka-World's Kiddie Kingdom, continues this tactic during his BossFight by summoning wave after wave of ferals. While that doesn't sound terribly troublesome, it actually is due to Oswald being semi-essential for a while. Once brought down to near-zero health, he'll teleport away and almost immediately reappear with full health somewhere else in the room before charging back into the fray. Every time he does that, at least three more ferals join the party, which can end very quickly in getting [[ZergRush zerg-rushed]] by many very powerful enemies. It's never touched upon how Oswald manages to survive dozens of headshots, missiles or even nukes at point-blank range, but he needs to be put down somewhere around ten times before finally staying down.
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* FlunkyBoss: Oswald the Outrageous, the guy that's spamming the Sole Survivor with feral ghouls and irradiated water the whole way through Nuka-World's Kiddie Kingdom, continues this tactic during his BossFight by summoning wave after wave of ferals.
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** During the main story quest Shadow of Steel, pretty much the first larger building the Sole Survivor's [[HellishCopter Vertibird]] passes by en route to the Prydwen is [[spoiler: the C.I.T. Ruins, directly under which the elusive Institute happens to be located.]]
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** The Minutemen are in a sense this to the Enclave. In doing a service to the people of the Commonwealth and upholding honorable values, they harken back to what Pre-War America ''wished'' it was. Whereas the Enclave represented the worst aspects of Pre-War America in reality. In fact, the recruitment radio tower, which presumably uses Minuteman tracks, plays the same patriotic music as Enclave Radio did in between broadcasts of the Sole Survivor's recorded urgings for people to come to a given settlement. They also serve as this to the Brotherhood of Steel by being, essentially, everything Elder Lyons ''wished'' he could turn the Brotherhood into but ultimately failed to do. They also do it with far less technology, resources, and influence.
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** The Minutemen are in a sense this to the Enclave. In doing a service to the people of the Commonwealth and upholding honorable values, they harken back to what Pre-War America ''wished'' it was. [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Whereas the Enclave represented the worst aspects of Pre-War America in reality. reality.]] In fact, the recruitment radio tower, which presumably uses Minuteman tracks, plays the same patriotic music as Enclave Radio did in between broadcasts of the Sole Survivor's recorded urgings for people to come to a given settlement. They also serve as this to the Brotherhood of Steel by being, essentially, everything Elder Lyons ''wished'' he could turn the Brotherhood into but ultimately failed to do. They also do it with far less technology, resources, and influence.
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* DiscOneNuke: Numerous examples can be found within the first few hours of game play if the player knows where to look or, thanks to addition of Legendary enemies dropping Legendary weapons and armor, gets very lucky. And thanks to the removal of skills, the player can use any weapon they have without any penalties as long as they have the right ammo (though the right perks do help).
** Power armor. You're given a suit for free on the first story mission, and there's a second not far from Sanctuary for your companion. Very few early-game enemies will be serious threats to you even in basic, non-upgraded power armor. Its use is limited by requiring fusion cores which are fairly rare early on. Since companions don't use up the fusion cores putting the first humanoid companion you find into your suit instead of wearing it yourself makes it a straight example.
** A Fat Man can be found at the Robotics Disposal Ground, and a mini nuke can be found at the USAF Station Olivia, both only a very short jog northeast of Sanctuary. (You can even program the Sentry Bot at the disposal ground to clear the Raiders outdoors at Olivia, making it easier.) These can be found in several other early-game locations as well, and have a chance to spawn on Raiders if the player is very lucky.
** The Laser Musket that you get at Concord, the second town you'll visit if following the main quest, is lying on the ground by a fallen Minuteman. This weapon can be [[ChargedAttack charged with extra ammunition]], allowing it to deal incredible amounts of damage at the start of the game. It can also be upgraded with better mods at lower levels of the Gun Nut and Science! perks than more standard laser weapons. It will eventually become outclassed, even with upgrades, but will get you through the early parts of the game quite easily.
** Justice, a unique variant of the Combat Shotgun that causes staggering, can be purchased in Covenant, which requires only a short side-trip to reach after Concord. Normally, legendary items available for purchase are too cost prohibitive for low level players, but for [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration quest related reasons]], the merchants in Covenant are selling at an incredible loss, meaning you only need to scrape up about 1000-1500 caps to purchase it (depending on Charisma and perks.) As a bonus, it comes with several mods already in place that a low-level character will be unable to craft for some time, adding to its usefulness.
** The Shishkebab, a FlamingSword melee weapon, can be obtained at low level by a settlement quest, though it requires you to fight through The Forged and their boss who is in power armor.
** The Pickman's Blade, a combat knife with Stealth Blade mod and an extra 25% bleeding damage, can be obtained at Pickman's Gallery, though it requires you to mop down a group of raiders and rescue [[MadArtist Pickman]] from them.
** You can get an almost full set of Heavy Combat Armor (which normally does not start to appear until you are around level 30) anytime by killing the Gunner boss Captain Bridget in Hub City Auto Wreckers. Because of the enemies with Missile Launchers and Fat Men occupying the highway overpass, including the boss, as well as multiple mines and traps, this is very difficult to pull off at a low level but quite rewarding.
** Power armor. You're given a suit for free on the first story mission, and there's a second not far from Sanctuary for your companion. Very few early-game enemies will be serious threats to you even in basic, non-upgraded power armor. Its use is limited by requiring fusion cores which are fairly rare early on. Since companions don't use up the fusion cores putting the first humanoid companion you find into your suit instead of wearing it yourself makes it a straight example.
** A Fat Man can be found at the Robotics Disposal Ground, and a mini nuke can be found at the USAF Station Olivia, both only a very short jog northeast of Sanctuary. (You can even program the Sentry Bot at the disposal ground to clear the Raiders outdoors at Olivia, making it easier.) These can be found in several other early-game locations as well, and have a chance to spawn on Raiders if the player is very lucky.
** The Laser Musket that you get at Concord, the second town you'll visit if following the main quest, is lying on the ground by a fallen Minuteman. This weapon can be [[ChargedAttack charged with extra ammunition]], allowing it to deal incredible amounts of damage at the start of the game. It can also be upgraded with better mods at lower levels of the Gun Nut and Science! perks than more standard laser weapons. It will eventually become outclassed, even with upgrades, but will get you through the early parts of the game quite easily.
** Justice, a unique variant of the Combat Shotgun that causes staggering, can be purchased in Covenant, which requires only a short side-trip to reach after Concord. Normally, legendary items available for purchase are too cost prohibitive for low level players, but for [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration quest related reasons]], the merchants in Covenant are selling at an incredible loss, meaning you only need to scrape up about 1000-1500 caps to purchase it (depending on Charisma and perks.) As a bonus, it comes with several mods already in place that a low-level character will be unable to craft for some time, adding to its usefulness.
** The Shishkebab, a FlamingSword melee weapon, can be obtained at low level by a settlement quest, though it requires you to fight through The Forged and their boss who is in power armor.
** The Pickman's Blade, a combat knife with Stealth Blade mod and an extra 25% bleeding damage, can be obtained at Pickman's Gallery, though it requires you to mop down a group of raiders and rescue [[MadArtist Pickman]] from them.
** You can get an almost full set of Heavy Combat Armor (which normally does not start to appear until you are around level 30) anytime by killing the Gunner boss Captain Bridget in Hub City Auto Wreckers. Because of the enemies with Missile Launchers and Fat Men occupying the highway overpass, including the boss, as well as multiple mines and traps, this is very difficult to pull off at a low level but quite rewarding.
to:
* DiscOneNuke: Numerous examples can be found within See the first few hours of game play if the player knows where to look or, thanks to addition of Legendary enemies dropping Legendary weapons and armor, gets very lucky. And thanks to the removal of skills, the player can use any weapon they have without any penalties as long as they have the right ammo (though the right perks do help).
** Power armor. You're given a suit[[DiscOneNuke/{{Fallout}} Fallout Disc One Nuke]] page for free on the first story mission, and there's a second not far from Sanctuary for your companion. Very few early-game enemies will be serious threats to you even in basic, non-upgraded power armor. Its use is limited by requiring fusion cores which are fairly rare early on. Since companions don't use up the fusion cores putting the first humanoid companion you find into your suit instead of wearing it yourself makes it a straight example.
** A Fat Man can be found at the Robotics Disposal Ground, and a mini nuke can be found at the USAF Station Olivia, both only a very short jog northeast of Sanctuary. (You can even program the Sentry Bot at the disposal ground to clear the Raiders outdoors at Olivia, making it easier.) These can be found in several other early-game locations as well, and have a chance to spawn on Raiders if the player is very lucky.
** The Laser Musket that you get at Concord, the second town you'll visit if following the main quest, is lying on the ground by a fallen Minuteman. This weapon can be [[ChargedAttack charged with extra ammunition]], allowing it to deal incredible amounts of damage at the start of the game. It can also be upgraded with better mods at lower levels of the Gun Nut and Science! perks thanmore standard laser weapons. It will eventually become outclassed, even with upgrades, but will get you through the early parts of the game quite easily.
** Justice, a unique variant of the Combat Shotgun that causes staggering, can be purchased in Covenant, which requires only a short side-trip to reach after Concord. Normally, legendary items available for purchase are too cost prohibitive for low level players, but for [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration quest related reasons]], the merchants in Covenant are selling at an incredible loss, meaning you only need to scrape up about 1000-1500 caps to purchase it (depending on Charisma and perks.) As a bonus, it comes with several mods already in place that a low-level character will be unable to craft for some time, adding to its usefulness.
** The Shishkebab, a FlamingSword melee weapon, can be obtained at low level by a settlement quest, though it requires you to fight through The Forged and their boss who is in power armor.
** The Pickman's Blade, a combat knife with Stealth Blade mod and an extra 25% bleeding damage, can be obtained at Pickman's Gallery, though it requires you to mop down a group of raiders and rescue [[MadArtist Pickman]] from them.
** You can get an almost full set of Heavy Combat Armor (which normally does not start to appear until you are around level 30) anytime by killing the Gunner boss Captain Bridget in Hub City Auto Wreckers. Because of the enemies with Missile Launchers and Fat Men occupying the highway overpass, including the boss, as well as multiple mines and traps, this is very difficult to pull off at a low level but quite rewarding.details.
** Power armor. You're given a suit
** A Fat Man can be found at the Robotics Disposal Ground, and a mini nuke can be found at the USAF Station Olivia, both only a very short jog northeast of Sanctuary. (You can even program the Sentry Bot at the disposal ground to clear the Raiders outdoors at Olivia, making it easier.) These can be found in several other early-game locations as well, and have a chance to spawn on Raiders if the player is very lucky.
** The Laser Musket that you get at Concord, the second town you'll visit if following the main quest, is lying on the ground by a fallen Minuteman. This weapon can be [[ChargedAttack charged with extra ammunition]], allowing it to deal incredible amounts of damage at the start of the game. It can also be upgraded with better mods at lower levels of the Gun Nut and Science! perks than
** Justice, a unique variant of the Combat Shotgun that causes staggering, can be purchased in Covenant, which requires only a short side-trip to reach after Concord. Normally, legendary items available for purchase are too cost prohibitive for low level players, but for [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration quest related reasons]], the merchants in Covenant are selling at an incredible loss, meaning you only need to scrape up about 1000-1500 caps to purchase it (depending on Charisma and perks.) As a bonus, it comes with several mods already in place that a low-level character will be unable to craft for some time, adding to its usefulness.
** The Shishkebab, a FlamingSword melee weapon, can be obtained at low level by a settlement quest, though it requires you to fight through The Forged and their boss who is in power armor.
** The Pickman's Blade, a combat knife with Stealth Blade mod and an extra 25% bleeding damage, can be obtained at Pickman's Gallery, though it requires you to mop down a group of raiders and rescue [[MadArtist Pickman]] from them.
** You can get an almost full set of Heavy Combat Armor (which normally does not start to appear until you are around level 30) anytime by killing the Gunner boss Captain Bridget in Hub City Auto Wreckers. Because of the enemies with Missile Launchers and Fat Men occupying the highway overpass, including the boss, as well as multiple mines and traps, this is very difficult to pull off at a low level but quite rewarding.
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** If you decide to be stubborn and refuse to fill out the Vault-Tec Rep's forms, [[ButThouMust your spouse does it for you.]]
** Spend too long exploring or walking around Pre-War Sanctuary Hills when the Great War starts and the game will trigger a NonStandardGameOver, as the bombs kill you instantly.
** Sturges has specific dialogue if you're already wearing a suit of Power Armor when you first meet.
** Sturges has specific dialogue if you're already wearing a suit of Power Armor when you first meet.
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** The raiders in the area all have some measure of interaction, and their terminals will have entries based upon which of them you've previously slaughtered.
** Spend too long exploring or walking around Pre-War Sanctuary Hills when the Great War starts and the game will trigger a NonStandardGameOver, as the bombs kill you instantly.
** If you go all the way through the game to have met Shaun before talking to Codsworth, there will be a different set of dialogue.
** Sturges has specific dialogue if you're already wearing a suit of Power Armor when you first meet.
** If you decide to be stubborn and refuse to fill out the Vault-tec forms, [[ButThouMust your spouse does it for you.]]
** Spend too long exploring or walking around Pre-War Sanctuary Hills when the Great War starts and the game will trigger a NonStandardGameOver, as the bombs kill you instantly.
** If you go all the way through the game to have met Shaun before talking to Codsworth, there will be a different set of dialogue.
** Sturges has specific dialogue if you're already wearing a suit of Power Armor when you first meet.
** If you decide to be stubborn and refuse to fill out the Vault-tec forms, [[ButThouMust your spouse does it for you.]]
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** The raiders in the area all have some measure of interaction, and their terminals will have entries based upon which of them you've previously slaughtered.
** Spend too long exploring or walking around Pre-War Sanctuary Hills when the Great War starts and theslaughtered. The game will trigger a NonStandardGameOver, as even add the bombs kill location of other raider bases to your Pip-Boy if you instantly.
** If you go all the way through the game to have met Shaun beforeoverhear one talking to Codsworth, there will be about joining a different set of dialogue.
** Sturges has specific dialogue if you're already wearing a suit of Power Armor when you first meet.
** If you decide to be stubborn and refuse to fill out the Vault-tec forms, [[ButThouMust your spouse does it for you.]]outfit.
** Spend too long exploring or walking around Pre-War Sanctuary Hills when the Great War starts and the
** If you go all the way through the game to have met Shaun before
** Sturges has specific dialogue if you're already wearing a suit of Power Armor when you first meet.
** If you decide to be stubborn and refuse to fill out the Vault-tec forms, [[ButThouMust your spouse does it for you.]]
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** If you somehow avoid going to Sanctuary Hills at all and meet Codsworth after you've concluded the main plot of the game, there's an entirely different dialogue with him.
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** If you somehow avoid going to skip Sanctuary Hills at all and meet Codsworth after you've concluded the main plot coming out of Vault 111 and go through most of, or even all of the game, there's an entirely game's main storyline, you'll have a very different dialogue upon being reunited with him.Codsworth.
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** If you take Nick Valentine with you to Acadia and talk to [=DiMA=] with him present, and subsequently earn enough approval with Nick that he shares his backstory with you, he has new dialogue that will reference what he discussed with [=DiMA=]
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** ''Far Harbor'' also ups the ante even further by introducing players to the fog crawler. These giant mutated shrimps are the Island's answer to the Commonwealth's Mirelurk Queens and Supermutant Behemoths. The crawlers are ridiculously fast for something their size, hit like a freight train and are so obscenely tough that not even an entire barrage of direct [[NukeEm Fat Man]] hits can stop them in their tracks. [[OhCrap They also like to assault player-owned settlements in waves, backed up by hordes of other nuclear nasties.]]
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Added Gatling Good section
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* GatlingGood:
** The Minigun is back with an extra helping of awesome. While not overly powerful [[GameBreaker unless blessed with certain legendary modifications]], it can now be equipped with a selection of barrel options to [[MoreDakka increase its already insane rate of fire even further]], or to trade some of the dakka for more punch per bullet. [[SoCoolItsAwesome Oh, and the barrels now glow ever brighter during sustained fire.]]
** Automatic laser weaponry also features a number of rotating barrels - three on laser rifles/pistols with automatic barrels, four on the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Gatling Laser]].
** The Minigun is back with an extra helping of awesome. While not overly powerful [[GameBreaker unless blessed with certain legendary modifications]], it can now be equipped with a selection of barrel options to [[MoreDakka increase its already insane rate of fire even further]], or to trade some of the dakka for more punch per bullet. [[SoCoolItsAwesome Oh, and the barrels now glow ever brighter during sustained fire.]]
** Automatic laser weaponry also features a number of rotating barrels - three on laser rifles/pistols with automatic barrels, four on the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Gatling Laser]].
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** It is a bit unintuitive though, as armor rating provides damage reduction based on the ratio between weapon damage and armor - having less armor rating than the base damage of the weapon hitting you makes you take ''significantly'' more damage than having armor equal or greater than the weapon's damage. Thus the diminishing returns don't kick in at a fixed cap, but rather are relative to the damage you're taking. Going from 100 to 200 armor won't give you a major increase in damage reduction against a 50 damage weapon, but will make a huge difference against a 150 damage weapon.
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* DavidVsGoliath: The Institute are the most powerful faction in the Commonwealth, with armies of synths, vast resources, and ties to the pre-war USA. The Eastern Brotherhood of Steel are arguably the most powerful faction ''in the whole of the US'' save possibly the NCR, with mighty Knights in PoweredArmor, a monopoly on advanced weaponry and other technology [[spoiler:and access to a HumongousMecha]]. It's possible for the Railroad - a loose collection of runaway synths, scientists, idealists and other wastelanders operating out of a few safehouses, and the Minutemen - a volunteer Wastelander militia army kitted out with {{MacGyver|ing}}ed SchizoTech laser muskets, to beat both these factions.
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* DavidVsGoliath: The Institute are the most powerful faction in the Commonwealth, with armies of synths, vast resources, and ties to the pre-war USA. The Eastern Brotherhood of Steel are arguably the most powerful faction ''in the whole of the US'' save possibly the NCR, with mighty Knights in PoweredArmor, a monopoly on advanced weaponry and other technology [[spoiler:and access to a HumongousMecha]]. It's possible for the Railroad - – a loose collection of runaway synths, scientists, idealists and other wastelanders operating out of a few safehouses, safehouses – and the Minutemen - – a volunteer Wastelander militia army kitted out with {{MacGyver|ing}}ed SchizoTech laser muskets, muskets – to beat both these factions.
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* InfiniteFlashlight: There's no concern about running out of juice for the Pip-Boy's "lantern" mode or the mining helmet headlamp.
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** A double case of irony, Game 4 of the World Series was supposed to play ''the day'' the bombs fell. Unlike in real life, the Curse of the Bambino was never broken, even as of 2077. The Red Sox had a win-loss streak of 3-0, and if the bombs hadn't fallen, they'd have potentially won and finally broke the curse.
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** A double case of irony, Game 4 of the World Series was supposed to play ''the day'' the bombs fell. Unlike in real life, the Curse of the Bambino was never broken, even as of 2077. The Red Sox had a win-loss streak of 3-0, and if the bombs hadn't fallen, they'd have potentially won and finally broke broken the curse.
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** Paladin Danse claims that air superiority will give the Brotherhood the edge they need to fight the Institute. Vetribrids are [[ArmoredCoffins flying deathtraps]] that get shot down frequently by small-arms fire.
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** Paladin Danse claims that air superiority will give the Brotherhood the edge they need to fight the Institute. Vetribrids Vertibirds are [[ArmoredCoffins flying deathtraps]] that get shot down frequently by small-arms fire.
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* HeWhoFightsMonsters: A very tragic case with the Brotherhood of Steel. In previous Fallout games, the [=BoS=] fought against the Enclave, who wanted to kill anyone that wasn't a "pure" human. In Fallout 4, the [=BoS=] have arrived in the Commonwealth to wipe out every synth as well as anybody who helps them. Ghoul's probably are next on their kill list although this is not directly stated.
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* HeWhoFightsMonsters: A very tragic case with the Brotherhood of Steel. In previous Fallout games, the [=BoS=] fought against the Enclave, who wanted to kill anyone that wasn't a "pure" human. In Fallout 4, the [=BoS=] have arrived in the Commonwealth to wipe out every synth as well as anybody who helps them. Ghoul's Ghouls probably are next on their kill list although this is not directly stated.
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** Deacon can be seen spying on you in various locations such as Goodneighbor before you officially meet him.
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* GameMod: It wouldn't be a Bethesda game without having a Creation Kit... or in this case, the '''G'''arden of '''E'''den '''C'''reation '''K'''it. In a first for the series, the console versions are going to be able to have mods downloaded and installed just like the PC version, with the Xbox One receiving support in May 2016 and the [=PS4=] receiving support in June 2016. For the NSFW modding community, Bethesda has already given their full support on letting them do their thing. However, there are two drawbacks to the console ports getting mods: 1) downloading and installing mods disables achievements/trophies until they are uninstalled; and 2) the mod storage size is capped. [[note]]The Xbox One currently has a limit of around 2GB and has no limit on supported mods; the [=PS4=] closed beta has a lower limit of around 900MB, can't properly support texture mods due to possible performance issues, and can't support sound files due to the [=PS4=] sound format being proprietary, but Bethesda are working with Sony to fix these issues.[[/note]]
to:
* GameMod: It wouldn't be a Bethesda game without having a Creation Kit... or in this case, the '''G'''arden of '''E'''den '''C'''reation '''K'''it. In a first for the series, the console versions are going to be able to have mods downloaded and installed just like the PC version, with the Xbox One receiving mod support in May 2016 and the [=PS4=] receiving support in June 2016. mod whenever Bethesda and Sony come to a compromise. [[note]]The [=PS4=] can't properly support texture mods due to possible performance issues from using PC version textures and can't support sound files due to the [=PS4=] sound format being proprietary.[[/note]] For the NSFW modding community, Bethesda has already given their full support on letting them do their thing. However, there are two drawbacks to the console ports getting mods: 1) downloading and installing mods disables achievements/trophies until they are uninstalled; and 2) the mod storage size is capped. [[note]]The Xbox One currently has a limit of around 2GB and has no limit on supported mods; 2GB; the [=PS4=] closed beta has a lower limit of around 900MB, can't properly support texture mods due to possible performance issues, and can't support sound files due to the [=PS4=] sound format being proprietary, but Bethesda are is working with Sony to fix these issues.raise it.[[/note]]
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* DavidVsGoliath: The Institute are the most powerful faction in the Commonwealth, with armies of synths, vast resources, and ties to the pre-war USA. The Eastern Brotherhood of Steel are arguably the most powerful faction ''in the whole of the US'' save possibly the NCR, with mighty Knights in PoweredArmor, a monopoly on advanced weaponry and other technology [[spoiler:and access to a HumongousMecha]]. It's possible for the Railroad - a loose collection of runaway synths, scientists, idealists and other wastelanders operating out of a few safehouses, and the Minutemen - a volunteer Wastelander militia army kitted out with {{MacGyver|ing}}ed SchizoTech laser muskets, to beat both these factions.
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** The new Pole Hook melee weapon in the Far Harbor DLC. With a base damage of 69, weapon mods (x1.5), melee perks (x6), global damage perks (x1.15) sneak attack perks (x12), and critical hit perks (x9.375), a sneak critical can deal more than 80,000 damage. It is also cheap, requires no ammunition, and is available as soon as one can survive the opening combat to the DLC.
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** The new Pole Hook melee weapon in the Far Harbor DLC. With a base damage of 69, weapon mods (x1.5), melee perks (x6), global damage perks (x1.15) sneak attack perks (x12), and critical hit perks (x9.375), a sneak critical can deal more than 80,000 damage. It is also cheap, requires no ammunition, and is available as soon as one can survive the opening combat to the DLC.
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New example, Infinity+1 Sword
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** The new Pole Hook melee weapon in the Far Harbor DLC. With a base damage of 69, weapon mods (x1.5), melee perks (x6), global damage perks (x1.15) sneak attack perks (x12), and critical hit perks (x9.375), a sneak critical can deal more than 80,000 damage. It is also cheap, requires no ammunition, and is available as soon as one can survive the opening combat to the DLC.
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** The Pickman's Blade, a combat knife with Stealth Blade mod and an extra 25% bleeding damage, can be obtained at Pickman's Gallery, though it requires you to mop down a group of raiders and rescue [[MadArtist Pickman]] from them.
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** Paladin Danse claims that air superiority will give the Brotherhood the edge they need to fight the Institute. Vetribrids are [[ArmoredCoffins flying deathtraps]] that get shot down frequently by small-arms fire.
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* HiddenDepths: Upon first meeting and saving her, Emogene Cabot comes across as incredibly naive and careless, and seems like quite the UngratefulBastard. However, hacking her Master-level terminal in Cabot House reveals that this perceived carelessness is due to her simply not caring all that much about her life. Like her other family members, she has lived for hundreds of years, and occasionally goes thrill-seeking to stave off her boredom. Her entries also reveal that she is a very capable hacker and fighter, documenting how she protected her mother and home from a security guard who betrayed their family, killing the man in the process. Considering Emogene's history and that this was far from her first trip into the wasteland, her UngratefulBastard behavior makes sense since she never needed saving to begin with. Indeed, neither Jack nor Edward seem all that worried about Emogene, only their [[MyBelovedSmother fussy mother]].
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* GameMod: It wouldn't be a Bethesda game without having a Creation Kit... or in this case, the '''G'''arden of '''E'''den '''C'''reation '''K'''it. In a first for the series, the console versions are going to be able to have mods downloaded and installed just like the PC version, with the Xbox One getting them in May 2016 and the [=PS4=] getting them in June 2016. For the NSFW modding community, Bethesda has already given their full support on letting them do their thing. However, there are two drawbacks to the console ports getting mods: downloading/installing mods disables achievements/trophies and the combined size of all the mods installed is capped at 2GB.
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* GameMod: It wouldn't be a Bethesda game without having a Creation Kit... or in this case, the '''G'''arden of '''E'''den '''C'''reation '''K'''it. In a first for the series, the console versions are going to be able to have mods downloaded and installed just like the PC version, with the Xbox One getting them receiving support in May 2016 and the [=PS4=] getting them receiving support in June 2016. For the NSFW modding community, Bethesda has already given their full support on letting them do their thing. However, there are two drawbacks to the console ports getting mods: downloading/installing 1) downloading and installing mods disables achievements/trophies until they are uninstalled; and 2) the combined mod storage size is capped. [[note]]The Xbox One currently has a limit of all around 2GB and has no limit on supported mods; the [=PS4=] closed beta has a lower limit of around 900MB, can't properly support texture mods installed is capped at 2GB.due to possible performance issues, and can't support sound files due to the [=PS4=] sound format being proprietary, but Bethesda are working with Sony to fix these issues.[[/note]]
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** The cymbal banging toy monkeys scattered throughout the land. Though they don't harm your character, they are very creepy looking, and a first time encounter will probably be freaked out by it. Additionally, if there are any nearby enemies, the monkey will alert them to your presence.
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** The cymbal banging toy monkeys CymbalBangingMonkey toys scattered throughout the land. Though they don't harm your character, they are very creepy looking, and a first time encounter will probably be freaked out by it. Additionally, if there are any nearby enemies, the monkey will alert them to your presence.
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[[Fallout4/TropesAToC Tropes A-C]] | '''Tropes D-I''' | [[Fallout4/TropesJToP Tropes J-P]] | [[Fallout4/TropesIToM Tropes I-M]] | [[FalloutNewVegas/TropesNToR Tropes N-R]] | [[FalloutNewVegas/TropesSToZ Tropes S-Z]]
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[[Fallout4/TropesAToC Tropes A-C]] | '''Tropes D-I''' | [[Fallout4/TropesJToP Tropes J-P]] | [[Fallout4/TropesIToM [[Fallout4/TropesQToZ Tropes I-M]] | [[FalloutNewVegas/TropesNToR Tropes N-R]] | [[FalloutNewVegas/TropesSToZ Tropes S-Z]]Q-Z]] |
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[[Fallout4/TropesAToC Tropes A-C]] | '''Tropes D-I''' | [[Fallout4/TropesEToH Tropes E-H]] | [[Fallout4/TropesIToM Tropes I-M]] | [[FalloutNewVegas/TropesNToR Tropes N-R]] | [[FalloutNewVegas/TropesSToZ Tropes S-Z]]
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[[Fallout4/TropesAToC Tropes A-C]] | '''Tropes D-I''' | [[Fallout4/TropesEToH [[Fallout4/TropesJToP Tropes E-H]] J-P]] | [[Fallout4/TropesIToM Tropes I-M]] | [[FalloutNewVegas/TropesNToR Tropes N-R]] | [[FalloutNewVegas/TropesSToZ Tropes S-Z]]
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[[Fallout4/TropesAToC Tropes A-C]] | '''Tropes D-I''' | [[Fallout4/TropesEToH Tropes E-H]] | [[Fallout4/TropesIToM Tropes I-M]] | [[FalloutNewVegas/TropesNToR Tropes N-R]] | [[FalloutNewVegas/TropesSToZ Tropes S-Z]]
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!!!''VideoGame/Fallout4'' provides examples of the following tropes:
* DamageTyping: There's four different sources of damage -- ballistic, energy, poison and radiation. All four can be resisted via different types of armor. However, unlike the other three, Radiation damage causes MaximumHPReduction.
* TheDeadHaveNames: Inside the recently-destroyed Switchboard base for the Railroad, you find quite a few Railroad agent corpses. Every one of them has a different and colorful code name.
* DeadlyLunge: One of the Feral Ghouls' new forms of attack; they rush at you then do a lunge that inflicts both physical and radiation damage if it hits. On the plus side, they also take time to recover, so it's the perfect time to cave their skulls in.
* DeadpanSnarker: In almost every encounter, there is a player dialogue choice simply labeled "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Sarcastic]]". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e9vk4S-nRo A compilation.]]
** Most of your teammates also have a wealth of amusing comments ready for almost any given situation.
-->[upon finding a bombed house crumbling into the river]
-->'''Valentine''': I think they're going to have to forfeit their deposit.
-->[entering a school that's been overrun by Super Mutants]
-->'''Valentine''': Say what you will about the ambiance, but you can bet the Mutants improved the freshness of the meals in here.
* DeathbringerTheAdorable: The Far Harbor DLC has [[spoiler:The Red Death, who is hyped up as a terrifyingly powerful mirelurk, only to actually be incredibly tiny and weak.]]
* DeathWorld:
** As usual, almost everything living in this world wants to kill you, but with the addition of monsters that can spawn out of the ground (including Deathclaws!), radiation storms, and just how plain toxic nearly every food and water source is, survival will be a task. Various Endurance perks ease the pain by increasing your health and toughness, and giving you a lot of ways to mitigate radiation poisoning, but even then, there's no permanent way to be immune to all sources of radiation.
** Special mention goes to the Glowing Sea, the crater and surrounding area of a nuclear blast that takes up the entire bottom-left corner of the map. Radiation there is so bad that a hazmat suit or PoweredArmor are a must if you're to survive for long. It's home to packs of feral ghouls, Radscorpions, all manners of buzzing insects that can kill you with their sting, and (of course) Deathclaws. It's telling that even supermutants who are immune to radiation are completely absent from there. [[spoiler:All but [[QuestGiver one]], anyway.]]
** There is a small town to the far west in the Commonwealth called Natick Banks which lies very close to the northern edge of the Glowing Sea. You will find bodies of dead raiders ''and'' supermutants there. What killed them will become obvious when you encounter the only living creatures in the area, namely the multiple deathclaws that have traveled north from the Glowing Sea.
* DecoyProtagonist: The male protagonist, if you choose to play a female character. The opening is narrated by him, giving a monologue on his grandfather's service in World War II and how [[ArcWords "war never changes"]]. Then he dies in the first 15 minutes, and the story turns out to be about his wife instead.
* DegradedBoss:
** The Deathclaw fought near the start of the game appears later on as a regular enemy.
** The Synth Courser fought as a storyline boss becomes a regular albeit very tough enemy in the "Defend the Castle" mission.
** The Mirelurk Queens you can encounter while exploring (such as at Murkwater) are noticeably smaller than the huge Dagon-sized one fought as a boss battle in "Taking Independence", though they're still extremely tough enemies. In a weird backwards case, you may very well run into these first, if you like exploring.
* DesignItYourselfEquipment: Item crafting allows you to build your own weapons, power armor, and even settlements. There are 700 modifications to customize the barrel, stock, ammo, grip, scope and so on of the 50 basic melee weapons and guns alone. So you can mod a laser pistol into multiple varieties of the laser rifle from ''Videogame/{{Fallout 3}}'', such as an assault rifle, a shotgun, or a sniper rifle. Or upgrade a baseball bat with nails, or give it an aluminum body with a mahogany grip and screw sawblades to the end, among many other possibilities. This is taken almost to ridiculousness with pipe weapons. It's very possible to pick up a pipe pistol at the start of the game, and mod it into a supermutant killing assault rifle over the course of the game.
* DevelopersForesight:
** Codsworth has a database of 924 names that he can call you by, as opposed to "Sir" or "Ma'am". Want him to call you "Joe" or "Rose"? Go ahead. Wanna be "[[Manga/{{Trigun}} Vash]]" or "[[Film/MadMaxFuryRoad Furiosa]]" instead? You can do that too. Wanna be called "Mr. Fuckhead" or "Ms. Boobies"? Why not!
** There is a very impressive amount of unique NPC dialogue depending on who your companion is at any given time; for instance, bringing John Hancock or Strong (a ghoul and a mutant, respectively) into a Brotherhood of Steel base causes them to complain about how much they hate ghouls and mutants.
** Civilized areas such as Diamond City change when a holiday rolls around on the in-game calendar. Don't be surprised to see a Christmas tree up by the noodle stand and lights strung about toward the end of December. [=NPCs=] will even comment on it.
** The raiders in the area all have some measure of interaction, and their terminals will have entries based upon which of them you've previously slaughtered.
** Spend too long exploring or walking around Pre-War Sanctuary Hills when the Great War starts and the game will trigger a NonStandardGameOver, as the bombs kill you instantly.
** If you go all the way through the game to have met Shaun before talking to Codsworth, there will be a different set of dialogue.
** Sturges has specific dialogue if you're already wearing a suit of Power Armor when you first meet.
** If you decide to be stubborn and refuse to fill out the Vault-tec forms, [[ButThouMust your spouse does it for you.]]
** If you choose to visit Vault 81 with your Vault suit on, the conversational and ambient dialogue will be different than if you wear Commonwealth clothing
** If you somehow avoid going to Sanctuary Hills at all and meet Codsworth after you've concluded the main plot of the game, there's an entirely different dialogue with him.
** In ''Far Harbor'' you can get yourself recruited by the Children of Atom. If you go to the Crater of Atom in the Glowing Sea, the lady there will have unique dialogue for you.
* DiegeticInterface:
** You still interact with your Pip-Boy directly in the world to view stats, inventory, and lore.
** The collector's edition takes this UpToEleven by including a physical Pip-Boy armband which you can socket a smartphone into and run a special dual-screen app on to make a ''fully functional, game-affecting interface.''
** If you're wearing a power armor helmet, the HUD changes to reflect that, with the minimalistic bars and meters of the normal display replaced with intricate fuel gauges.
* DifficultButAwesome: Artillery. You need several quests and a lot of settlements unlocked to even begin the quest, have to fight two extremely powerful boss monsters, and need a shitload of resources to be able to build the cannons, but when you do, you have the equivalent of multiple Fat Man bombardments anywhere you can safely throw a grenade. And the more manned cannons you have nearby, the more bombardment. It takes a ''lot'' of investment but you can eventually get Minuteman coverage almost everywhere you care to explore in the wasteland, and can easily shell raider compounds to dust. Sufficient artillery coverage is also what evens the odds in a clash with the Minutemen against the Brotherhood of Steel, by [[spoiler: bombarding the Prydwen and removing it from the equation]].
** Robot Settlers as of ''Automatron.'' They require a fair amount of relatively rare resources just to build the base frame of a no-frills Protectron, but once it's done you have a worker that never needs a bed or food and whose happiness never goes below 50. Arming them as you see fit into a horrible death machine (for example, a provisioner Sentry Bot that can easily defend itself) is just a bonus.
** Beast cages in ''Wasteland Workshop'' require a variety of animal resources to create and you need two seldom-used perks in the Charisma tree, Wasteland Whisperer and Animal Friend, to make use of the Beta Wave Emitter structure, but put 'em together and you have the ability to generate tamed monsters that provide a free defense bonus to your settlement. Just make sure you don't have different types of monsters in the same open area or they'll attack each other...
* DiminishingReturnsForBalance: Armor rating (Ballistic Defense and Energy Defense) gives less damage reduction the higher the value. For example, 60 Armor rating gives 30% damage reduction, but about 93 Armor rating turns into 40% damage reduction. And the difference between 560 Armor rating (T-45 Power Armor) and 1280 Armor rating (T-60 Power Armor) is 81% and 87% damage reduction respectively.
* DiscOneNuke: Numerous examples can be found within the first few hours of game play if the player knows where to look or, thanks to addition of Legendary enemies dropping Legendary weapons and armor, gets very lucky. And thanks to the removal of skills, the player can use any weapon they have without any penalties as long as they have the right ammo (though the right perks do help).
** Power armor. You're given a suit for free on the first story mission, and there's a second not far from Sanctuary for your companion. Very few early-game enemies will be serious threats to you even in basic, non-upgraded power armor. Its use is limited by requiring fusion cores which are fairly rare early on. Since companions don't use up the fusion cores putting the first humanoid companion you find into your suit instead of wearing it yourself makes it a straight example.
** A Fat Man can be found at the Robotics Disposal Ground, and a mini nuke can be found at the USAF Station Olivia, both only a very short jog northeast of Sanctuary. (You can even program the Sentry Bot at the disposal ground to clear the Raiders outdoors at Olivia, making it easier.) These can be found in several other early-game locations as well, and have a chance to spawn on Raiders if the player is very lucky.
** The Laser Musket that you get at Concord, the second town you'll visit if following the main quest, is lying on the ground by a fallen Minuteman. This weapon can be [[ChargedAttack charged with extra ammunition]], allowing it to deal incredible amounts of damage at the start of the game. It can also be upgraded with better mods at lower levels of the Gun Nut and Science! perks than more standard laser weapons. It will eventually become outclassed, even with upgrades, but will get you through the early parts of the game quite easily.
** Justice, a unique variant of the Combat Shotgun that causes staggering, can be purchased in Covenant, which requires only a short side-trip to reach after Concord. Normally, legendary items available for purchase are too cost prohibitive for low level players, but for [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration quest related reasons]], the merchants in Covenant are selling at an incredible loss, meaning you only need to scrape up about 1000-1500 caps to purchase it (depending on Charisma and perks.) As a bonus, it comes with several mods already in place that a low-level character will be unable to craft for some time, adding to its usefulness.
** The Shishkebab, a FlamingSword melee weapon, can be obtained at low level by a settlement quest, though it requires you to fight through The Forged and their boss who is in power armor.
** You can get an almost full set of Heavy Combat Armor (which normally does not start to appear until you are around level 30) anytime by killing the Gunner boss Captain Bridget in Hub City Auto Wreckers. Because of the enemies with Missile Launchers and Fat Men occupying the highway overpass, including the boss, as well as multiple mines and traps, this is very difficult to pull off at a low level but quite rewarding.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Your physical from the Brotherhood of Steel is a trifle ''odd'' as they're not concerned with your physical health or psychological stability. Instead, they ask if you've been exposed to large amounts of radiation, have ever had sex with a nonhuman, or would hesitate to kill any enemy of the Brotherhood. See ANaziByAnyOtherName.
* DoomedHometown: Sanctuary Hills, the housing development that you start the game in. It doesn't look nearly as nice after a major war and two hundred years of looting and neglect. Unlike just about any example of the trope in [=RPGs=], however, you can rebuild it from scratch yourself.
* DoorToBefore: A ubiquitous [[AntiFrustrationFeatures anti-frustration feature]] of just about every old building you can explore that figures in a main quest or side quest. This is due to internal damage inconveniently blocking doorways and corridors, turning the interior into TheMaze. The quest objective will always be found at the end, accompanied by a direct exit to the outside world that is either extremely well hidden or difficult to access from the outside until the quest is completed. For those with high lockpicking skills, finding such doors offer alternative routes that allow the player to bypass entire sections of enemies.
* TheDreaded:
** The Institute is only spoken of in hushed whispers in Diamond City, and is largely suspected of producing synthetic replicants of people to spy on others.
** Nobody goes into the Boston Common because of Swan, a Behemoth that sleeps in the lake and wears a swan boat as armour. The area is littered with warning signs, from notes on dead [=NPCs=], signs saying "Danger", chains across the entrances and even a Railroad sign that they usually reserve for areas infested with Institute synths. Several companions also make nervous comments if you get too close.
** Coursers are elite Synths, whose main job is to assassinate specific persons, or retrieve captured synths. The first one you run into during the quest "Hunter/Hunted" manages to deliver a CurbStompBattle to an entire building of gunners, and can be a tough fight if you have to fight it as well without decent gear.
** Deathclaws likewise have a similar reputation, as they are very tough to kill until you have decent gear and perks. There's a reason everyone and everything else tries to stay as far away from their nests as possible.
* DramaticIrony:
** The Overseer in Vault 111 left all the staff trapped until they died because he was convinced the radiation levels would still be immediately fatal 180 days after the Great War. In ''Fallout'' canon, radiation levels effectively normalized within '''two''' days of the Great War.
** The East Coast Brotherhood of Steel has become more like the Western Brotherhood after the policies of such got it destroyed in a war with NCR.
** The Sole Survivor searches for their infant son [[spoiler: only to find out he's an old man grown up to the BigBad.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: You can find skeletons lying in positions that imply they did this. To point out a specific example, there's a trailer southeast of Country Crossing, where a skeleton is sitting in a chair and a snubnosed .44 revolver lies on the floor below its hand.
* DuctTapeForEverything: Adhesive is used in all forms of weapon modification and is somewhat uncommon compared to steel and wood as far as crafting materials go. It's most commonly found in, naturally, rolls of duct tape you see lying around. When that's insufficient, you can cook up a bunch of vegetables to make vegetable starch, which then becomes adhesive.
* DudeWheresMyRespect:
** Both played straight and subverted. Mostly, the people of the Commonwealth pay respect where it's due, and your more shining track records are acknowledged properly. In fact, some characters like Paladin Danse seems to give you a disproportionately ''high'' amount of respect, giving you plenty of respect and referrals even if your record is greener than a Super Mutant, potentially having only had a couple missions under your belt.
** Played completely straight, however, with the Minutemen. Despite apparently being the head of the organization, ''no one'' in the Minutemen treats you with the slightest deference, or the vaguest acknowledgement that you are their boss. Your "second-in-command" Preston will be ordering you to the frontlines day and night to do every other menial task, and the grunts hardly ever acknowledge your leadership, if at all. There is even one mission (which can happen after you have long established yourself as THE conquering hero who leads the Minutemen) in which a Minutemen sergeant commanding four or five people will rudely treat you, his General, as cheap backup who happened to be passing by, and when you tell them to stand down on their current objective, will in no uncertain terms tell YOU (read: his top boss) to basically fuck off. This is actually a bug since in some games he can be ordered to stand down.
* DugTooDeep: Dunwich Borers LLC returns in the Commonwealth with more mining-based misfortune. This time, however, [[spoiler:someone dug up something on purpose, and it still rests down there.]]
* DummiedOut: At one point the Chinese Assault Rifle from ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' was going to make a return, but it never made it into the final cut. It's (untextured) model is still in the game but it doesn't have any associated scripting to make it usable, nor does it have proper animations. There is a mod that partially restores it, but as with ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' custom animations are still a bit difficult to work in.
* EarlyBirdBoss: The Deathclaw in Concord is just a Deathclaw. That is, it's "just" a ten-foot-tall razor-clawed murder machine with iron-scaled skin. The issue is, however, that Concord is the location of the second mission of the main quest after leaving the vault. This means that you are likely going to be at a very low level without many perks and rather lacking in equipment. You do get a damaged, low-end suit of power armor and a mini-gun to help, but neither is really up to the task of combating a Deathclaw. (The mini-gun alone requires an entire drum of ammo through over a full minute of sustained fire ScratchDamage to actually kill the beast.) Most of the other Deathclaws in the game are in the southern half of the map, and by the time you challenge their territory, you should have the perks and the gear to take them on properly.
* EarlyBirdCameo: During the Railroad mission to infiltrate their former headquarters, you find [[http://fraghero.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1-9.jpg this poster]] that depicts some of the buildable robot combinations from the ''Automatron'' DLC.
* EarlyGameHell:
** Before you've built up your level and scavenged a good amount of armor and weapons, it can be a real pain to wander through the wasteland. Once you have decent armor, weapons that can one-shot common mooks, and enough Stimpaks and [=RadAway=] to keep yourself healthy, only the boss enemies will be a problem.
** Until you have a steady supply of adhesive, modding is a nightmare. Armor isn't quite as bad, since you can strip mods from the pieces you find at no cost, but weapons don't have that option. Once you have a town that can grow the items needed for vegetable starch, however, it becomes a lot easier to get your guns up to spec.
** Until you either reach Diamond City or get to a high enough level that you can build and man your own medical clinic, you have no easy way to deal with radiation - which can be found in the Commonwealth in abundance, particularly on the feral ghouls that infest the place. You can use [=RadAway=], but [=RadAway=] is scarce and expensive in this game; it's not something you find in every first aid kit. And since AdamSmithHatesYourGuts, you're not going to have enough caps to buy it from the few shops that can be found in the northwest corner of the map.
* EasilyForgiven: When first entering Diamond City, Piper will say that you manage a caravan and will be coming with supplies tomorrow if the city lets both of you in now. You can then talk to the guard and continue Piper's lie, which, if a charisma roll is successful, will prompt him to give you some bottlecaps in advance. You can then say you were lying about the whole thing, and the guard will brush this off with some "that's Piper for you" sentiment, allowing you to keep the bottlecaps with no penalty or admonishment.
** Most of your actions will be easily forgiven by your followers, even if you get the message: "X hated that." Cannibalism, selling children into slavery, these actions won't drive them away individually. However, accumulate enough disapproval and they'll leave permanently. Preston, Deacon and X6-88 will also turn hostile if you harm their respective factions.
* EiffelTowerEffect: The game uses Boston city landmarks, like the USS Constitution, Fenway Park, the Paul Revere Statue, North Church, the Massachusetts State House, Faneuil Hall, and the Bunker Hill Monument, to establish you are playing in Boston, while not being a one-to-one recreation of the city.
* EliteMook: Legendary enemies. Denoted by having "Legendary" in their name and a star at the end, these enemies have the ability to regenerate to full health once if reduced to half health or less. When this happens, they get a stat boost which makes them much more dangerous. In addition, all legendary enemies carry a legendary armor piece or weapon with an effect that cannot be obtained with ordinary mods, which they will use against you. The current difficultly level determines how often they spawn.
* EpicFail: Just north of Gunner Plaza there is a shack that will explode in a massive fireball the first time you approach as the inhabitant botched a batch of moonshine that blew up in his face. What makes it a truly epic fail is the sheer size of the explosion which dwarfs even a mini nuke.
* EscortMission:
** Some of the Minutemen missions require that the player rescue a kidnapped settler and escort them out of the building there were held in.
** Similarily, a radiant Brotherhood mission requires you to escort a scribe to a certain terminal in a certain building and back so he can download data.
** "The Big Dig" is one, with you escorting Bobbi, Mel and Sonya (an Eyebot modified by Mel who uses sonic waves to dig walls). The good news is that they can put up a fight, and can't die; the bad news is that Sonya's pathfinding is very buggy and tends to get her stuck, and you ''need'' her to reach the fragile walls in order to advance through the level.
** "Trouble Brewin" ends with you escorting a brewery on legs through the city to Goodneighbor, protecting it from raiders, Super Mutants, and hostile wildlife. This isn't really that bad, since 'Buddy' is A) armed with lasers, and B) NighInvulnerable. However, it is also C) very, very slow, so that part of the mission winds up being more tedious than anything else. This can be avoided by telling the machine to head there on its own however but it will still take a while for it to get there.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: As part of the general effort to [[WhatMeasureIsAMook humanize Raiders]], they can be seen caring for each other as a close team, and one terminal indicates that one of the Raider bosses you can slaughter genuinely loves her sister...too bad she was [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally killed by her kidnapper]]. Oh, and then, in a sense, there's [[spoiler:your son, the by-default BigBad.]]
** Occasionally you can find a raider mourning over a grave site (they'll still go after you if they notice your presence though).
** Tessa, one of the Gunners responsible for the Quincy Massacre has feelings for Baker, another high ranking Gunner in Quincy. Her last terminal log ends with her pointing out how she CannotSpitItOut.
* EveryCarIsAPinto: A ''nuclear'' Pinto! It's very possible to inadvertently set off a chain reaction of exploding fusion-powered cars if you or your enemies are careless around them.
* EveryoneIsBi: The protagonist can choose to be in romantic relationships with all of his/her human companions, regardless of their gender.
* EverybodysDeadDave: The protagonist awakens from a 210 year long cryogenic hibernation to find the world a blasted ruin, with everybody they knew either dead (from natural causes or otherwise) or horribly mutated.
* EveryBulletIsATracer: Played straight with the minigun and machine-gun turrets. It's especially noticeable in VATS.
* EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture: In contrast to the Brotherhood of Steel, which has been mostly just ''salvaging'' old tech, the Institute has been busily researching new tech ever since the bombs fell. Their Synths and Institute Laser Guns look sleek, white and plasticky compared to the boxy chrome and steel of pre-war laser weapons and robots.
** The in-universe reason for averting EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture in the Fallout series is because the worldwide petrol shortage has made the manufacturing of commercial plastics incredibly expensive, hence why nearly every weapon has a wood or metal stock (as opposed to a carbon one), every home device is made of metal, and everything generally looks like the pre-plastic world. There are only a handful of junk items (inexplicably a bread box and salt and pepper shakers) that are plastic, but this was for gameplay balancing reasons, since energy weapons require plastic to modify, so it must be found in at least some scrappable objects. Meanwhile, you can visit Cambridge Polymer Labs, where attempts were being made to synthesize alternative plastics out of some kind of radioactive material.
* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: One of the traps you can build with the Wasteland Workshop [=DLC=] is a gorilla trap. Said gorillas provide 10 defense for your settlement (that's as much as a Deathclaw!) ''and'' improve the settlement's morale.
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: All wildlife and most thinking beings in the Commonwealth will try to murder you on sight.
** Roaming downtown Boston? Expect raiders and supermutants in every building to come out and shoot at you.
** South Boston is owned and run by the Gunners and they're as friendly as the average raider.
** Out in the wilderness? You'll run into feral dogs, [[TechnicallyLivingZombie feral ghouls]], BigCreepyCrawlies, [[BearsAreBadNews mutated bears]], and [[TheDreaded deathclaws]]. They are all of course, hostile.
** Want to take a stroll along the beach? Have fun playing with the [[GiantEnemyCrab mirelurks]]. Hell, a puddle of water is as likely to contain a horde of buried mirelurks as an entire swamp, lake or shoreline.
* EvilAlbino: Most creatures in the Wasteland have albino variants that for some reason are considerably deadlier.
* EvilPaysBetter: The raiders who inhabit the Libertalia have a computer terminal containing logs from their leader. It turns out they're what remains of a band of ex-Minutemen who tried to create a peaceful settlement there by trading and hiring out their services to caravans and Bunker Hill. One log entry tells of how the leader hung two of his men for raiding a caravan for food when they were desperately running low. The penultimate log reveals that the caravans no longer trust the ex-Minutemen and keep stiffing them on deals for food. The final log triumphantly tells of how the group is now getting all the food they need by [[{{Hypocrite}} attacking the caravans]], or [[ShameIfSomethingHappened being paid to leave them alone]]. The leader says in his log that the caravans refer to his group (who were once defenders of the Commonwealth) as [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen "Raiders"]] now. Since he decided principles are worthless to a starving man, he doesn't even care anymore, but still feels guilt thinking about the shame this would have brought to his general.
* ExactWords: Occasionally the Synths in the Institute will remark "If it weren't for Father, we wouldn't be here", simultaneously paying homage to him as their creator but also underlining the involuntary nature of their relationship.
* {{Expy}}:
** The Eastern Brotherhood of Steel has adopted Elder Maxson as their absolute leader despite the fact he was selected to be so at ''age 10.'' They are now a power-armored collection of supersoldiers on a mission to eradicate all non-humans. [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Yes, this means they're effectively Space Marines now.]]
** The "Silver Shroud" hero of comic books and radio serials is an obvious expy of Radio/TheShadow, a popular hero of 1930s pulp novels and radio serials as well as ComicBook/ThePunisher.
** On the Silver Shroud quest, the player has to kill a raider named "Smiling Kate" who sports a GlasgowGrin along with the appropriate makeup and attitude of a [[SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker popular comic book villain.]]
** Stingwings are expies of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas[='=]'' Cazadores, being flying bugs with a venomous sting. This is justified as Cazadores are confined to the Mojave wasteland.
** Synth coursers appear to be expies of ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' robots.
** The Gunner faction is essentially ''4'''s equivalent of the Talon Company Mercenaries, given their reputation as unsavory soldiers-for-hire who are willing to do any job for the right price. Unlike their Talon counterparts, they appear to be fiercely territorial of whatever settlements they can get their hands on.
* FaceDeathWithDignity:
** Played straight with the Army and Vault-Tec guards at Vault 111, who calmly and quietly get as many people as they can to the bunker before the bomb hits, even though their chances on the surface are pretty bad. The Army officer who clears the Sole Survivor and their family through even wishes ''them'' luck.
** Averted with the Vault-Tec rep from the beginning who tries to [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections force his way into the Vault because he works for Vault-Tec.]] The minigun wielding, power armored guards are not impressed. [[spoiler: He survives as a ghoul though and can be found at Goodneighbor.]]
* FactionCalculus: A rare non-strategy game example. The Minutemen are Balanced, the Brotherhood of Steel are the Powerhouse, the Institute are Subversive, and the Railroad are Cannons.
* FailedASpotCheck: To the player, it's obvious what Vault 111's experiment is, as the vault makes no effort to even try to conceal the cryogenic equipment and the frost coating everything. To the inhabitants inside, they're lead to believe that the stasis pods are decontamination chambers. If their lives being spared from a nuclear blast weren't still fresh in their heads, they might have questioned it.
* FantasticRacism:
** Synths are loathed throughout the Commonwealth, resulting in such paranoia that brothers and friends turn on their loved ones to kill them. This is more {{justified}} than most examples as the Synths are very often used as assassins for the Institute. If Synths are freed from their masters, they prove to be more or less like anyone else.
** Ghouls have recently been exiled from Diamond City despite the fact they're great sources of history and technological expertise. [[spoiler: You eventually find out that the guy who threw them out is a Synth plant from the Institute, working to get rid of anyone with knowledge of the pre-War world.]]
* FantasticSlur: The Synthetics created by the Institute are just called Synths by the locals of the wasteland.
* TheFederation[=/=]TheRepublic:
** The Commonwealth of Allied Settlements was getting close to becoming this in the backstory [[spoiler:before it was purged by the Institute.]]
** While the Minutemen are TheAlliance, they can partner up with much of the Commonwealth [[spoiler:including the Railroad]] and help lay down the foundations of something like the NCR.
* FilkSong: [[https://youtu.be/NJS3bIpGYT0 Going Nuclear]] and [[https://youtu.be/nTY9JimeXuw Some Things Never Change]], both courtesy of Music/MiracleOfSound. The first is an upbeat swing piece about the singer "going nuclear" out in the wasteland and having fun, while the second is a much more somber piece about the state that the world has fallen into and how the Sole Survivor is perceiving it through the filter of their Pre-War life. Some Things Never Change also carries several stylistic choices and a lyrical callback to his earlier piece for ''[[VideoGame/{{Fallout3}} Fallout 3]]'', [[https://youtu.be/D_KEFGY-CPg Beauty Bleak]].
* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: [[spoiler: Kellogg's]] age is spoiled early but subtly in the quest "Dangerous Minds." The first memory the Sole Survivor explores is [[spoiler: Kellogg]] as a boy of about ten years old talking to his mother after a radio announces that the New California Republic has officially formed. This happened in 2189, nearly a hundred years before the events of the main game, spoiling the fact that he lived much longer than initially obvious because of Institute tinkering. However, this is the only mention given to the NCR, and their official founding hasn't been mentioned since ''Fallout 2.''
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: The player character was born before the Great War, but ended up 210 years in the post-apocalyptic future due to their Vault having an experimental cryogenics program.
* FlamingSword: The Shishkebab is back, and unlike the previous games' Shishkebab, Fallout 4's version is more well made. Rather than made crudely from lawnmower blade and motorcycle fuel tank in the previous games, this time it is made from a [[KatanasAreJustBetter Wakizashi]] and a modified blowtorch.
* FlashStep: The Blitz perk increases your VATS melee range... UpToEleven. When maxed out, you'll be able to teleport all around a room using melee weapons, slashing/bludgeoning enemies. Using this ability you can even reach areas like balconies that normally would need a circumvent dungeon crawl to get to later.
* FluffyTheTerrible:
** If you invite the [[spoiler:ghoulified Vault-Tec salesman]] to Sanctuary and have Deacon as a companion, Deacon will jokingly complain about how you'll take in a "stray" but won't let him keep a pet Deathclaw named "Fluffy".
** There's a Super Mutant Behemoth hiding in a park in Boston. His name is Swan. Everyone is terrified of him.
* FluffyTamer: ''You,'' with the Wild Wasteland and Animal Friend perks. Better still, with the ''Wasteland Workshop'' DLC, you can build cages that generate monsters and build a pacifying emitter next to them that cause the monsters to be friendly to the settlement, providing a free defense bonus. Yes, you can have giant mutant bears and deathclaws guarding your homesteads.
* {{Foil}}:
** The Sole Survivor to the Lone Wanderer. The Lone Wanderer is an individual leaving their comfy, pleasant, and secure Vault in search of their father. The Sole Survivor is leaving their decaying, frozen tomb of a Vault in order to find their missing son and avenge their dead spouse. They also serve as one to James, who left his family to build a New World while the Sole Survivor manages to juggle looking for their child with constructing new settlements as well as inspiring the people around them.
** The Minutemen are in a sense this to the Enclave. In doing a service to the people of the Commonwealth and upholding honorable values, they harken back to what Pre-War America ''wished'' it was. Whereas the Enclave represented the worst aspects of Pre-War America in reality. In fact, the recruitment radio tower, which presumably uses Minuteman tracks, plays the same patriotic music as Enclave Radio did in between broadcasts of the Sole Survivor's recorded urgings for people to come to a given settlement. They also serve as this to the Brotherhood of Steel by being, essentially, everything Elder Lyons ''wished'' he could turn the Brotherhood into but ultimately failed to do. They also do it with far less technology, resources, and influence.
** The Institute serves as another foil for the Enclave and the Brotherhood of Steel. As a Pre-War Institution of higher learning and intelligence, it has dedicated itself to making the Wasteland a better place. It also does so with ruthlessness, pragmatism, and behind-the-scenes manipulation which makes their brute force approach look trite. The Institute replaces racism against Wastelanders with racism against Synths and is willing to incorporate the best into their ranks. To this end, they also bear some similarity and antithesis to both Mister House as well as the scientists of the Big Empty.
** The Railroad is one to the Followers of the Apocalypse, being more focused on the anarchism and "fight the power" elements of the group over science as well as knowledge. Whereas the Followers are frequently co-opted by NCR, the Great Khans, and other groups to build their empires, the Railroad actively tears them down but has a far less positive effect on society as a whole (while still helping individuals).
** The Brotherhood of Steel now act almost exactly like the [[VideoGame/FalloutTacticsBrotherhoodOfSteel Midwest chapter]], who functioned with a feudal model.
* FollowThePlottedLine: In a departure from previous games in the series, the main questline is not only mandatory, but doesn't let you skip steps until the branching point (with the exception of the Minutemen's opening quest, which gives you a lead that you could technically get just by going south). There are still plenty of sidequests, but the main quest isn't optional this time.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: During the Dangerous Minds quest, while observing Kellogg's first memory there's a radio playing in the background, with a host talking about the formation of the New California Republic and Aradesh being elected its first president. ''Fallout'' history buffs will note this event takes place in 2189, 98 years before the events of ''Fallout 4'', hinting that there might be ''something'' more to Kellogg's age than first meets the eye. The last memory echoes the first, with Shaun reading while Kellogg sits. Notice what Shaun's reading?]]
** Earlier, when looting Kellogg's body, the Sole Survivor will note that Kellogg [[spoiler:is so heavily augmented he's "more machine than man." Implying one should not trust his otherwise normal human appearance too much - in particular his age]].
* FoeTossingCharge: The Strength 10 perk Pain Train (which requires power armor to use), in the style of charging at your enemies and ramming them. At rank 3 you can knock even Deathclaws out of your way and can nearly kill low level raiders by ramming them.
* FourStarBadass: The leader of the Minutemen was always selected from the most respected and powerful of their warriors. [[spoiler: Which includes you when Preston points out he doesn't have the chops to rebuild the order.]]
* FriendlyFireproof: The Inspirational perk at its lowest level makes companions unable to hurt you. At second level, your companions become immune to your attacks.
* FromNobodyToNightmare:
** The Institute thinks that the Railroad are a nuisance but ultimately only able to help escaped synths and doesn't even spare a thought for the Minutemen. [[spoiler:You can help either faction blow the Institute to hell]].
** Ten years ago, the Children of the Atom were a weird religion from Megaton and were mostly harmless (the incident in ''Broken Steel'' aside) but now they're an absolute terror, wandering the Commonwealth with their gamma guns and murdering anyone they find to "spread Atom's word."
** Arthur Maxson - the timid child from Fallout 3 who liked writing stories and had a crush on Sarah Lyons - grew up into a charismatic yet fanatical demagogue, leading the Brotherhood of Steel on a crusade to cleanse the Wasteland of "abominations" (including Synths, Robots, Super Mutants, and likely Ghouls too) and rule over the rest of the population as feudal lords.
* FutureImperfect: Moe Cronin, the owner of the bat store in Diamond City believes that baseball was a BloodSport in which players beat each other to death with "swatters." Nobody else seems to believe him and if you tell him the actual rules he decides that he likes his version better.
* GameBreakingBug:
** Not the very deadly variant, but Dogmeat and Rex Goodman are very easy to glitch out of the elevator during the mission to recruit Strong.
** It's also possible that the Brotherhood Elder will get stuck in an inaccessible room if you choose to side with them, effectively making you unable to proceed in the main storyline and consequently unable to beat the game. At least on the PC you can use the console to drag him back.
** You can get stuck in an unbreakable animation loop that requires you to load an earlier save [[note]] or - at least in the PC version - use teleport cheat [[/note]] in order to be able to play again. This can happen with anything from using flavor objects like water pumps to the incredibly important workshop tables.
** One of the side quests from the Railroad is to clear out various buildings that used to be Railroad safehouses of hostiles. If you've already been to any of the buildings and cleared them out before, it won't properly flag the building and the quest can't be completed. With the other factions, the building is refilled.
** An example of a bug breaking the game by making it too ''easy'' was [=MacCready=]'s companion perk ''Killshot'' before it was patched. It is supposed to increase headshot accuracy in VATS by 20%. Instead, it increased it by ''2000%''. Every headshot you attempted to make had a displayed 95% (the max), but effectively 100% chance of hitting. The only thing that could prevent a headshot with this bug was if the enemy's head went behind cover after you had already targeted it.
* GameMod: It wouldn't be a Bethesda game without having a Creation Kit... or in this case, the '''G'''arden of '''E'''den '''C'''reation '''K'''it. In a first for the series, the console versions are going to be able to have mods downloaded and installed just like the PC version, with the Xbox One getting them in May 2016 and the [=PS4=] getting them in June 2016. For the NSFW modding community, Bethesda has already given their full support on letting them do their thing. However, there are two drawbacks to the console ports getting mods: downloading/installing mods disables achievements/trophies and the combined size of all the mods installed is capped at 2GB.
* GameWithinAGame: Your Pip-Boy can accept game cartridges to play CaptainErsatz versions of real-life video games. These include ''[[VideoGame/DonkeyKong Red Menace]],'' ''[[VideoGame/MissileCommand Atomic Command]],'' ''[[VideoGame/{{Pitfall}} PipFall]],'' ''[[VideoGame/SpaceInvaders Zeta Invaders]],'' ''[[VideoGame/{{Wasteland}} Grognak and the Ruby Ruins]],'' and ''[[VideoGame/Robotron2084 Automatron]]'' [[note]] Added in the ''Automatron'' DLC[[/note]].
* GameplayAllyImmortality:
** All of your companions are nearly invincible while travelling with you. If their health hits 0, then they collapse to the ground and will only get up if either you inject them with a Stimpak or once combat is over.
** Similarly, settlers are nigh invincible unless you kill them personally, though they can die if the town is being attacked and you don't help or if they are hit with a massive amount of damage. (Such as an explosion if they are already in a "knocked out" state or are hit by an insta-kill move, like the one a Deathclaw can administer.)
* GameplayAndStoryIntegration:
** The Institute's Synth Coursers are ruthless ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' expies who are designed to not only look exactly like humans, but be superior in every way, shape and form. That being said, X6-88's stats total to a whopping ''98'' SPECIAL points, almost twice that of all your other companions' individual stat sums.
** While we're on the subject of X6-88, let's talk about The Railroad HQ. The leadership there makes it explicitly clear that the Institute wants them gone. They also make it clear that Coursers are searching for their HQ. As that follows, bringing X6 to their hideout will instantly turn them against you forever. If you like Deacon (or want to go with the Railroad ending), '''''never''''' '''take X6-88 to the Railroad.'''
** Fast-Travelling to and from the Institute will not only play a [[spoiler:teleportation animation]], but in-game time will only pass by 1 minute.
** There's a reason Institute synths are feared like boogiemen: it is entirely possible for any of your settlers (barring companions) to be replaced with a synth. If other settlers realize that a synth is among them and find out who it is, they will kill them, and their corpse with have synth components on them.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
** When talking to Codsworth, the protagonist is surprised that two centuries have passed, although the player is able to look at the date and time at the moment they activate the PIP-Boy. A DownplayedTrope example since the situation is disorientating and nightmarish to say the least.
** In the fluff, Power Armor was powered via a back-mounted micro-fusion reactor that was filled with 100 years worth of fuel and ''Van Buren'' was supposed to reveal that the earliest versions were grossly energy inefficient due to running on small energy cells, rather than fusion cores. The Power Armor in ''Fallout 4'' is a mix of the two versions: keeping the integrated reactor, while "adding" a backup power source for when the primary one fails. While it may seem like a huge technological step backwards, it gives a reason as to why you can't go around in Power Armor all the time now like you could in the previous games.
** The lore for the Laser Musket explicitly states the weapon is powered by the crank. In gameplay, cranking simply ''loads'' the weapon with fusion cells.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: In-universe example. While Cherry Nuka-Cola proved to be wildly unpopular in America before and after the War, apparently it has garnered a cult following in the Commonwealth and has seen some marketing success there; it being called Nuka Cherry.
* GenderedOutfit: Mostly averted this time, unlike the previous games. A female dress will still look like a female dress when worn by a male character. Likewise, the [[TooManyBelts Harness]] outfit will look just as revealing female characters as it is on male and will inevitably reveals the character's bra. The reward for the mission Curtain Call is a suit or dress depending on the Sole Survivor's gender.
** Though certain outfits will change their fit to suit whoever is wearing it. Road leathers on a male has a full jacket, while on a female it shows a peeking midriff.
** Also played straight with [[spoiler: Grognak's Costume]], in an inversion of the usual case, the female version features a leather bra while the male version [[WalkingShirtlessScene covers even less]].
* GhostTown: University Point looks like a player built settlement, including stuff the player can build like generators, water purifiers, shops. But it's uninhabited. [[spoiler:It used to be a thriving settlement, until a girl found the secret Army lab under the Bank. Then Institute demanded the labs contents be given to them. When the town didn't immediately agree to do it on that day's town meeting (Note that they had not categorically refused either), the Institute returned 3 days later and killed everyone in University Point]].
* GiantEnemyCrab:
** The Mirelurks are back, and then there's also the Mirelurk Queen boss, who's at least five times their size and has a lot of health.
** ''Far Harbor'' adds hermit crabs, which are massive crabs that use ''buses'' as shells.
* GiantMook: The Mutant Behemoths from ''Fallout 3'' are back, and just as large, angry, and powerful as before. Mirelurk Queens are also worryingly big
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: During the quest "When Freedom Calls", the player is tasked to eliminate Raiders from Concord. After beating them and their leader, a huge Deathclaw appears from nowhere and attacks the player, serving as the "boss" of the area. There's very little and vague foreshadowing about it (with Mama Murphy saying that "There's something comin'. And it is... angry" and Preston saying that there's "something else outside").
* GoldenEnding: [[spoiler:Many consider the Minutemen ending to be this, as it involves the least loss of life. The only faction you ''have'' to wipe out is the Institute, the darkest of the game's factions. The Railroad will remain peaceful so long as you remember to sound the evacuation order in the finale, and the Brotherhood will tolerate you so long as you don't antagonize them. All other factions require you to at least kill one of the others, without exception.]]
* TheGoomba:
** Radroaches fill this role like in most ''Fallout'' series games, being the very first mooks that the player fights in the game.
** The Sole Survivor will occasionally even deliver a FinishingStomp to kill them if the player uses a melee attack on them in V.A.T.S.
* GoombaStomp: Entirely plausible with PoweredArmor if you have a steep drop on a foe, or have a jetpack.
* GrayAndGrayMorality: Unlike ''Fallout 3'' and more like ''Fallout: New Vegas'', there isn't a clear-cut "good" or "evil" faction, with both the Brotherhood of Steel and the Institute, as well as the various smaller factions, each making a compelling argument why their path is the best one for the future of the Commonwealth and humanity. In turn, the conflict between the Brotherhood of Steel and the Institute falls into the lines of Romanticism (The Brotherhood of Steel) versus Enlightenment (The Institute), see RomanticismVersusEnlightenment trope below.
** The Brotherhood of Steel is noticeably more bigoted against ghouls and mutants than displayed in previous games, with one NPC literally saying that all ghouls and mutants should be exterminated.
** The "Human Error" quest will force you to side with Honest Dan, or the denizens of Covenant. [[spoiler:Dan is simply trying to rescue Amelia per his contract, but the Covenant citizens are survivors of synth assassins, who infiltrated their families and friends and killed them. As a result, they're attempting to develop a psychological exam to help spot synths, but are unfortunately torturing a lot of innocent people in the process too.]]
** Even ''[[AlwaysChaoticEvil raiders]]'' are significantly humanized via conversations the player can overhear between them when they haven't been detected, and terminals in various raider-controlled settings show countless shades of villainy among them.
* GreaserDelinquents: The Atom Cats are the post-apocalyptic version of a 1950s hot rod greaser gang. Only instead of customizing hot rods, they customize power armor suits. They also happen to help repair the machinery at a local farm and hold poetry nights...
* GunshipRescue: If you're allied with the Brotherhood, you can deploy a flare to signal a Vertibird gunship to pick you up, then hop in with your dog and grab a hold of the side mounted mini-gun.
* GuideDangIt:
** The settlement system only has one extremely bare-bones tutorial, which introduces you to the three basic things a settlement needs (food, water, defense), as well as the basics of assigning settlers to a task. It does not touch upon surplus resources, the nuances of the happiness system, or even basic house construction. The only other hints you get are from tips on the loading screen and the description of the Local Leader perk, the latter being vital to larger settlements and to propping up new settlements. The game only tells you once that the defense rating has to be kept equal to or higher than the total amount of resources being produced by the town, and it never tells you how to set up a power grid, how shipments of junk work, or how food/water surpluses are shared (or even ''that'' they can be shared.)
** In order to get into the Institute, you have to build a relay platform using the settlement interface. This seems simple on its surface, but several of the specifics can be confusing. The platform itself consists of a large, three-pronged cover and a smaller platform, the latter snapping onto the former, which the game doesn't make clear. The operating console has to be within earshot of the platform so the operator's dialog will register and move the quest along. Finally, all three parts have to be on the same power grid.
** Though the story missions do tell you outright when you're going to make a faction hostile permanently, the intertwined nature of the missions mean a lot of them can conflict with each other even before you've reached a turning point. For example, one Brotherhood mission causes the Railroad Assaultron P.A.M. to enter a "security lockdown" mode in which she will not respond to any attempts at conversation, even if you have quests to turn in. Furthermore, this will happen even if you haven't fulfilled the first objective of speaking to the quest giver. The conversation priority system, which determines how characters respond if there's multiple options, will also prioritize secondary objectives of other quests over that character's personal quests. For example, when Institute quests give you the option to warn the Brotherhood, this warning will be prioritized over any quests you may have active with Maxson.
** Keeping all of the non-Institute factions and their related companions in play through the ending is possible, but requires a very specific order in doing quests for all three factions with very specific cutoffs that can make the A-Ending requirements from Main/ValkyrieProfile seem sane. And even then, doing the wrong things during the final mission can permanently anger certain factions companions into leaving you. Doing so will also make you miss out on endgame rewards from the Brotherhood and Railroad. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUFEeYdQnVc This is how it's done.]]
** The game doesn't tell you that Critical Hits always hit, and there is a non-trivial difference between "more powerful attack" and "more powerful attack that never misses."
* GunFu: The Agility 10 perk, which makes it easier to pull off shots against multiple targets in V.A.T.S.
* TheGunslinger: A good pistol build, especially one that uses V.A.T.S., can feel very much like an Old Western gunfighter or a similarly badass gun-user.
* HandCannon: The game's DesignItYourselfEquipment system classifies a weapon as a pistol so long as it has a pistol grip instead of a full-sized stock. Thus you can get "pistols" with things like enormous magazines, barrels meant for ''sniper rifles'', large scopes, and attachments like a muzzle brake or bayonet.
** The most powerful pistols are the .44 Revolver and the Deliverer, a PPK-like 10mm that does more damage than even a maxed-out 10mm pistol. Pipe weapons can also be customized to deliver some truly heinous stopping power with the right mods and the right ranks in Gun Nut.
** The Broadslider is a ''literal'' example of this trope, it is essentially a handheld cannon which fires cannonballs to your enemies. An unused version of Broadslider can even fire a ''[[YouNukeEm Nuke]]'' at someone.
* HappyEndingOverride:
** A DownplayedTrope example regarding the Lone Wanderer with their friendship to the Brotherhood of Steel. Given the CuttingOffTheBranches and NoCanonForTheWicked, it's now clear that the Lone Wanderer helped the Brotherhood of Steel conquer and assimilate the resources of the Enclave as well as establish themselves as the prominent power in the Capital Wasteland. While certainly better than the hell it was before, the Brotherhood of Steel is now implied to rule over the territory it conquers absolutely and is actively expanding its influence.
* HardModePerks: Higher difficulties feature more legendary enemies, which means more legendary weapons and items.
* HarderThanHard: The Survival Difficulty, as of patch 1.06. No Fast Travel, manual saving is disabled unless you sleep at a bed, carry weight is heavily reduced, and enemies do far more damage to the player. Much like Hardcore Mode in ''Fallout: New Vegas'', you also need to regularly eat food, drink water, and sleep. Failure to do so will result in increasingly weaker SPECIAL stats due to hunger, thirst, and fatigue. You can now catch various illnesses that debilitate your character until you visit a doctor or use Antibiotics. Healing from Stimpaks and other consumables is much slower, and using [=RadAway=] will make you both hungry and increase you chances of getting an illness.
* HaveANiceDeath: Just as there are many ways to [[ChunkySalsaRule explodinate and gib]] your enemies, the many different ways apply to you as well. For example, when a Deathclaw (nearly) kills its prey, it can show the Deathclaw lifting it up into the air, take a moment to savor the kill, extend its claws, and slash the victim dead.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: A very tragic case with the Brotherhood of Steel. In previous Fallout games, the [=BoS=] fought against the Enclave, who wanted to kill anyone that wasn't a "pure" human. In Fallout 4, the [=BoS=] have arrived in the Commonwealth to wipe out every synth as well as anybody who helps them. Ghoul's probably are next on their kill list although this is not directly stated.
* HealingShiv:
** An interesting first for the series comes in the form of the gamma gun. Deals insane amounts of radiation damage that is most certainly not healthy, well not for humans. Ghouls are healed by radiation and the damage from the gamma gun is no exception. You can use this to quickly heal ghoul companion John Hancock.
** There's a legendary weapon mod called "Medic's" which will cause the weapon to heal a target instead of doing damage. This means the player can potentially find a fat man with the mod which would make it a healing nuke. (Someone found a Medic's Fat Man and tested it. It only heals someone it directly hits, only for a tiny amount, and does no splash damage or healing otherwise.)
* HeavilyArmoredMook: Any character in Power Armor, which generally are limited to either Brotherhood of Steel soldiers or certain particularly tough Raiders. Railroad Heavies are also this to a lesser degree, as they're geared with heavy armor and weaponry and are the only Railroad members really equipped for a straight stand-up fight.
* HellishCopter: Chances are that you'll see Vertibirds spiraling out of control as often as you see them flying.
* HellIsThatNoise:
** The beeping mini-nuke of a [[ActionBomb Super Mutant Suicider]]. Pray you have a powerful ranged weapon handy or enough AP to hit the hand carrying the bomb from afar.
** The sound of multiple Feral Ghouls rising from their "dead" state before their inevitable ZergRush. Pray you aren't in the middle of them when you hear it...
** The whistling of a incoming mini-nuke from an raider or Gunner armed with a Fat Man. Get ready to die to this sound over and over as you try to find where the shot came from.
** The cymbal banging toy monkeys scattered throughout the land. Though they don't harm your character, they are very creepy looking, and a first time encounter will probably be freaked out by it. Additionally, if there are any nearby enemies, the monkey will alert them to your presence.
** In Bedlam's terminal in the Dunwich Borers location, her initial logs complain that the raiders in the area are just yellow-bellied cowards who can't do their job and deliver the shipment of scrap needed by the Saugus Ironworks factory. She then decides to go deeper into the mine herself, to see what's going on down there. Then her third entry is nothing but "I'm safe in the light" repeatedly, indicating that whatever was down there spooked her as well. As you travel deeper, you can also hear rumbles and footsteps of whatever's down there.
* HelloInsertNameHere: The game has a dynamic dialogue system with a database of 924 popular male/female names. If the PC's name is a match, then Codsworth will use the appropriate dialogue snippet.
** Also Protectrons: "I will be your personal escort during your visit to NAME OF OPERATIONAL AREA."
* HiddenInPlainSight: The Institute uses the [[spoiler:Classical Radio station to encode the data they use to teleport synths in and out of their home base]].
* HistoricalInJoke: The only thing played on the Silver Shroud radio station are broadcasts of the eponymous pulp hero's serial show (think Radio/TheShadow), and one of the episodes deals with a plot by the corrupt mayor to tear down Scollay Square, where the settlement of Goodneighbor is located. In real life, Scollay Square was torn down by the city of Boston to put up new developments.
* HintSystem: Mama Murphy can tell you where to go and what to do in the story missions, and sometimes even tell you easier ways to get through (like by giving a code phrase that Skinny Malone will remember, so he backs off without a fight). The downside is this takes a toll on her and she requests her own chair to sleep in constantly, so she won't work as a settler anymore. Plus, most of your companions don't like it and too many drugs will kill her.
* HoistByTheirOwnPetard:
** A case that can happen to an unwitting player; don't leave a Power Suit in the open with a fusion core still plugged in. There's literally nothing stopping a Raider from hopping in and [[OhCrap using it against you.]]
** Power armored raiders are a real nuisance and thanks to the [=AI's=] new brilliance their weaker friends will fan out around them to try and flank or pin you down. Thanks to the new power armor mechanic of fusion cores, you can target the core, which not only does huge damage to the raider but also turns the core into a high powered grenade. Alternately, if you get the drop on the tin can, you might try and covertly deprive that suit of its fusion core through pickpocketing. The operator will egress from the dead suit, giving you an opportunity to apply a high-power weapon to their head at short range outside the suit helmet's protection. Reinstall the core, and then turn the raiders' power armor against them.
** Enemies can now use the ''[[NukeEm Fat Man]]'', which was up until now a player-only toy. Much like the player can when using such a powerful weapon, they can accidentally [[LudicrousGibs blow up themselves]] and many of their allies. An errant piece of overhanging cover can potentially cause the raider armed with the Fat Man to [[EpicFail wipe out]] his entire camp. They also don't seem to understand that a mini-nuke is ''not'' a close combat weapon.
** The [[ActionBomb Super Mutant Suicider]] holds a primed Mini Nuke and attempts to charge the player to blow both up in a huge explosion. If the player manages to shoot the mini nuke, ''he'' blows up with his own Super Mutant friends instead.
** The Luck 10 perk Ricochet gives a chance for an enemy's ranged attack that hits the player to deflect back to them ''and'' [[OneHitKill instantly kill]] them instead.
** The Institute ending has the player [[spoiler:infect Liberty Prime with a virus, causing him to identify the ''Prydwen'' as a hostile and knock it out of the sky, blowing up the entire airport]].
* HollywoodSilencer: Returning from ''Fallout 3'' and ''Fallout New Vegas'', but in addition the heavy sniper rifles that you could suppress in ''New Vegas'', you can now add suppressors to revolvers of any type or even to shotguns. That said, they are more realistic than previous incarnations, even on the quietest guns they don't completely silence the sound of the bullet and enemies will still become alerted by a near miss or you firing near them. Suppressors also notably reduce the gun's recoil, a trait of suppressors that most works of fiction ignore.
* HostileWeather: In addition to normal storms, you will occasionally be subject to radiation storms, sickly greenish-yellow thunderstorms which release intermittent bursts of radiation. The radiation is minimal, but it can be annoying if you're stuck in combat.
* HumanPopsicle: Vault 111's "experiment" was placing its denizens into cryogenic stasis and studying the effects of long term stasis. [[spoiler: You're the only survivor due to a number of factors. Most of the Vault staff died in a mutiny about six months after the bombs fell. About 150 years later, the Institute popped in, killed your spouse to take Shaun away from you, and only reactivated the life support system for ''your'' cryo pod, leaving the rest of the "test subjects" to suffocate to death.]]
* HumansAreBastards: This is most exemplified by the the Robobrain research and production facility in the new Automatron expansion. The facility was run by human scientists who thought it was ethically and morally acceptable to [[BodyHorror extract the brains of human criminals and put them into robots]].
** The subjects for brain extraction were all maximum security criminals, but a few had committed crimes that weren't even deserving of a full life sentence. One log entry refers to an ideal subject who only committed ''manslaughter''. Computer logs show the absolute terror of the people who were awake after their brains were removed and preserved in jars until their minds were wiped by the callous scientists.
** Only the most callous and sociopathic of experimental victims proved able to handle the experience, and they alone went on to be turned into Robobrains, resulting in callous killing machines that [[JackassGenie preferred to interpret orders in the most evil, sadistic way possible]]. And the facility is huge — hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women, many of them minor or accidental crooks, mental patients with IQ ratings below 80, some likely innocent outright, were subjected to monstrous experiments and butchered by order of their own government.
** The army officer in charge of the prison wing housing the test subjects was determined to put a stop to the madness until he was [[ReassignedToAntarctica reassigned to a post cleaning toilets in Anchorage]] and replaced by someone more "patriotic".
** One scientist pulled a prank on another by making a brain-shaped birthday cake by covering an actual extracted brain in frosting. He laughed his ass off when his colleague took a bite and reacted accordingly.
** And then the Mechanist found the defunct facility and decided that the project which spawned robobrains which were defective to the point of violent insanity is just what the people of the commonwealth need for their protection.
* HyperactiveMetabolism: Like other ''Fallout'' games, eating food heals you... unlike other ''Fallout'' games, however, cooking food at a cooking station can heal you ''more'' than a Stimpak does, especially in the early-game, due to Stimpaks now healing based on a percentage rather than a set amount of health, and start out at 30% without any perks. Cooked food also has (unlike most raw foods) no radiation and typically provides some nifty buffs. This is taken to absurd extremes in some cases, as a Nuka-Cola Quantum heals ''400 HP'' right off the bat. Also, drinking from water pumps very quickly restores your health, much more than in previous games.
* IAmAHumanitarian: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paYU1neP3xM It's an "acquired taste".]] It's a good way to turn most enemies into free healing, but the downside is most companions dislike it.
* ICallItVera: Players can now ''give custom names'' to weapons and (most) armor pieces in their possession. Sadly, there is no way to name Power Armor.
* IHaveNoSon: [[spoiler: The Survivor can be sufficiently pissed and disappointed in Shaun enough to tell him that they're deeply offended by what he's been doing and that he isn't the son they cared for way back when.]]
* IconicOutfit: Every game gets one. The T-60 Power Armor is featured heavily in the ''Fallout 4'' promotional material, just like the T-51b in ''Fallout'', Enclave Advanced Power Armor in ''Fallout 2'', the T-45d in ''Fallout 3'', and NCR Veteran Ranger Armor in ''New Vegas''.
** An in-universe example stems from a sidequest where you have to find the outfit of the Silver Shroud, a pre-war detective superhero in the vein of TheShadow.
* IdiotSavant: The Luck 5 perk. It gives you a random chance of getting hugely multiplied experience points from any action, said chance being higher the lower your Intelligence is.
* ImpossibleItemDrop: While most loot is set to match the species (deathclaws will drop deathclaw meat and maybe a deathclaw hand - making it an even more annoying enemy, since you only get comparatively little loot out of a comparatively difficult fight - bloodbugs will only drop bloodbug parts and blood, while humanoid characters may carry some random junk items), legendary enemies are an exception, since they always have a legendary item in the loot, which will be either a weapon or a piece of armor. So it's possible for a mole rat to drop a rocket launcher bigger than it is. Also, opening a Vault-Tec lunchbox may pop a Nuka-Cola, which is bigger than the lunchbox's interior.
* InexplicablyPreservedDungeonMeat: You can come across Port-A-Diners, which contain a slice of somehow [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal perfectly preserved pie]]. The chance of actually getting it out of the machine is infinitesimal, though it increases ''slightly'' with a high Luck stat.
* InfantImmortality:
** While children aren't killable like in the first two games, this can potentially be averted for [[spoiler:Austin, who will die if he's not given a cure.]] Otherwise played straight such as if you kill the child's parents at a settlement. They still can't be attacked, but will run away so as to free up the slot space at the settlement.
** [[spoiler:In most of the non-Brotherhood endings, you end up blowing up ''Prydwen'' near the endgame. There are multiple children on deck.]]
** During the Brotherhood of Steel quest "Leading by Example", a young squire follows and watches you fight while you clear out an area of enemies. Said squire is completely invulnerable to any damage, or even kill commands on the PC. Enemies will also ignore them, giving you free reign to fight them however you wish without worrying about collateral damage.
* InfinityMinusOneSword: Several mundane weapons can be very damaging if you fully upgrade them at workbenches and take a few levels in the relevant perks. For example, the Laser Rifle, Combat Shotgun and .44 Pistol can all do over 150 damage at maximum power. For context, 150 is the base damage of the Missile Launcher. Level locking of skills and perks prevents a DiscOneNuke scenario.
* InfinityPlusOneSword: The Gauss Rifle is the most damaging ballistic weapon, capable of doing over 400 damage, depending on mods and perks. It is also rare and expensive, and has rare and expensive ammunition.
* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: You may have superhuman strength or be packing enough explosive firepower to personally re-enact the Great War, but you aren't getting through an intact chain link fence. Nor will maxed out Strength and Agility enable you to climb it. Boarded-up doors are equally unpassable.
* IntercontinuityCrossover: Unexpectedly, [[spoiler:Lorenzo Cabot appears in the backstory to have stumbled upon the actual titular Nameless City of Creator/HPLovecraft's short story.]]
* InvulnerableCivilians: Lots of characters are considered "essential" in this game to ensure that you can always complete the main questline. In particular, the original Sanctuary Hills settlers are invulnerable, preventing you from killing off the last of the Minutemen (since the Minutemen provide the opportunity for a Wild Card ending).
* IrishNames: It's Boston so yep, Irish Americans with Irish surnames. Oddly, most of the game's Boston is the North End, a neighborhood known for its Italian American population.
* ItemCrafting: You can scrap junk and materials in the world to build and customize thousands of weapons, power armor, houses, generator, defenses, and even settlements all over the game.
* IOwnThisTown: You can build entire settlements from scratch, organize defensive militias, and set up trade routes, making your own pocket kingdom in the Boston Wasteland.
* {{Irony}}:
** Before the War (and in our world), Fenway Park's left wall was the "Green Monster", known for stopping home runs when fly balls slammed into it. Now, it's Diamond City's "Green Guardian", and the people there give it a near-religious veneration as it keeps out the monsters and raiders.
** A double case of irony, Game 4 of the World Series was supposed to play ''the day'' the bombs fell. Unlike in real life, the Curse of the Bambino was never broken, even as of 2077. The Red Sox had a win-loss streak of 3-0, and if the bombs hadn't fallen, they'd have potentially won and finally broke the curse.
** There is a bug in place where [[DumbMuscle Strong]] will have almost no interval in his passive commentary. This occurs when left at base. What is one of his statements? '''"Humans talk too much."'''
** Lampshaded by Nick when rescued by a female Sole Survivor:
--> '''Nick:''' Gotta love the irony of the reverse DamselInDistress situation. But the question is, what's a doll like you doing rescuing this old private eye?
* IronicName: One unique legendary weapon is a laser gun named "Good Intentions". Said weapon is carried by Clint, the guy who betrayed the Minutemen and defected to the Gunners during the Quincy Massacre.
* IWorkAlone: The "Lone Wanderer" perk increases your armor and carrying capacity as long as you have no companions. Well, [[GoodBadBug except for Dogmeat]].
----
!!!''VideoGame/Fallout4'' provides examples of the following tropes:
* DamageTyping: There's four different sources of damage -- ballistic, energy, poison and radiation. All four can be resisted via different types of armor. However, unlike the other three, Radiation damage causes MaximumHPReduction.
* TheDeadHaveNames: Inside the recently-destroyed Switchboard base for the Railroad, you find quite a few Railroad agent corpses. Every one of them has a different and colorful code name.
* DeadlyLunge: One of the Feral Ghouls' new forms of attack; they rush at you then do a lunge that inflicts both physical and radiation damage if it hits. On the plus side, they also take time to recover, so it's the perfect time to cave their skulls in.
* DeadpanSnarker: In almost every encounter, there is a player dialogue choice simply labeled "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Sarcastic]]". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e9vk4S-nRo A compilation.]]
** Most of your teammates also have a wealth of amusing comments ready for almost any given situation.
-->[upon finding a bombed house crumbling into the river]
-->'''Valentine''': I think they're going to have to forfeit their deposit.
-->[entering a school that's been overrun by Super Mutants]
-->'''Valentine''': Say what you will about the ambiance, but you can bet the Mutants improved the freshness of the meals in here.
* DeathbringerTheAdorable: The Far Harbor DLC has [[spoiler:The Red Death, who is hyped up as a terrifyingly powerful mirelurk, only to actually be incredibly tiny and weak.]]
* DeathWorld:
** As usual, almost everything living in this world wants to kill you, but with the addition of monsters that can spawn out of the ground (including Deathclaws!), radiation storms, and just how plain toxic nearly every food and water source is, survival will be a task. Various Endurance perks ease the pain by increasing your health and toughness, and giving you a lot of ways to mitigate radiation poisoning, but even then, there's no permanent way to be immune to all sources of radiation.
** Special mention goes to the Glowing Sea, the crater and surrounding area of a nuclear blast that takes up the entire bottom-left corner of the map. Radiation there is so bad that a hazmat suit or PoweredArmor are a must if you're to survive for long. It's home to packs of feral ghouls, Radscorpions, all manners of buzzing insects that can kill you with their sting, and (of course) Deathclaws. It's telling that even supermutants who are immune to radiation are completely absent from there. [[spoiler:All but [[QuestGiver one]], anyway.]]
** There is a small town to the far west in the Commonwealth called Natick Banks which lies very close to the northern edge of the Glowing Sea. You will find bodies of dead raiders ''and'' supermutants there. What killed them will become obvious when you encounter the only living creatures in the area, namely the multiple deathclaws that have traveled north from the Glowing Sea.
* DecoyProtagonist: The male protagonist, if you choose to play a female character. The opening is narrated by him, giving a monologue on his grandfather's service in World War II and how [[ArcWords "war never changes"]]. Then he dies in the first 15 minutes, and the story turns out to be about his wife instead.
* DegradedBoss:
** The Deathclaw fought near the start of the game appears later on as a regular enemy.
** The Synth Courser fought as a storyline boss becomes a regular albeit very tough enemy in the "Defend the Castle" mission.
** The Mirelurk Queens you can encounter while exploring (such as at Murkwater) are noticeably smaller than the huge Dagon-sized one fought as a boss battle in "Taking Independence", though they're still extremely tough enemies. In a weird backwards case, you may very well run into these first, if you like exploring.
* DesignItYourselfEquipment: Item crafting allows you to build your own weapons, power armor, and even settlements. There are 700 modifications to customize the barrel, stock, ammo, grip, scope and so on of the 50 basic melee weapons and guns alone. So you can mod a laser pistol into multiple varieties of the laser rifle from ''Videogame/{{Fallout 3}}'', such as an assault rifle, a shotgun, or a sniper rifle. Or upgrade a baseball bat with nails, or give it an aluminum body with a mahogany grip and screw sawblades to the end, among many other possibilities. This is taken almost to ridiculousness with pipe weapons. It's very possible to pick up a pipe pistol at the start of the game, and mod it into a supermutant killing assault rifle over the course of the game.
* DevelopersForesight:
** Codsworth has a database of 924 names that he can call you by, as opposed to "Sir" or "Ma'am". Want him to call you "Joe" or "Rose"? Go ahead. Wanna be "[[Manga/{{Trigun}} Vash]]" or "[[Film/MadMaxFuryRoad Furiosa]]" instead? You can do that too. Wanna be called "Mr. Fuckhead" or "Ms. Boobies"? Why not!
** There is a very impressive amount of unique NPC dialogue depending on who your companion is at any given time; for instance, bringing John Hancock or Strong (a ghoul and a mutant, respectively) into a Brotherhood of Steel base causes them to complain about how much they hate ghouls and mutants.
** Civilized areas such as Diamond City change when a holiday rolls around on the in-game calendar. Don't be surprised to see a Christmas tree up by the noodle stand and lights strung about toward the end of December. [=NPCs=] will even comment on it.
** The raiders in the area all have some measure of interaction, and their terminals will have entries based upon which of them you've previously slaughtered.
** Spend too long exploring or walking around Pre-War Sanctuary Hills when the Great War starts and the game will trigger a NonStandardGameOver, as the bombs kill you instantly.
** If you go all the way through the game to have met Shaun before talking to Codsworth, there will be a different set of dialogue.
** Sturges has specific dialogue if you're already wearing a suit of Power Armor when you first meet.
** If you decide to be stubborn and refuse to fill out the Vault-tec forms, [[ButThouMust your spouse does it for you.]]
** If you choose to visit Vault 81 with your Vault suit on, the conversational and ambient dialogue will be different than if you wear Commonwealth clothing
** If you somehow avoid going to Sanctuary Hills at all and meet Codsworth after you've concluded the main plot of the game, there's an entirely different dialogue with him.
** In ''Far Harbor'' you can get yourself recruited by the Children of Atom. If you go to the Crater of Atom in the Glowing Sea, the lady there will have unique dialogue for you.
* DiegeticInterface:
** You still interact with your Pip-Boy directly in the world to view stats, inventory, and lore.
** The collector's edition takes this UpToEleven by including a physical Pip-Boy armband which you can socket a smartphone into and run a special dual-screen app on to make a ''fully functional, game-affecting interface.''
** If you're wearing a power armor helmet, the HUD changes to reflect that, with the minimalistic bars and meters of the normal display replaced with intricate fuel gauges.
* DifficultButAwesome: Artillery. You need several quests and a lot of settlements unlocked to even begin the quest, have to fight two extremely powerful boss monsters, and need a shitload of resources to be able to build the cannons, but when you do, you have the equivalent of multiple Fat Man bombardments anywhere you can safely throw a grenade. And the more manned cannons you have nearby, the more bombardment. It takes a ''lot'' of investment but you can eventually get Minuteman coverage almost everywhere you care to explore in the wasteland, and can easily shell raider compounds to dust. Sufficient artillery coverage is also what evens the odds in a clash with the Minutemen against the Brotherhood of Steel, by [[spoiler: bombarding the Prydwen and removing it from the equation]].
** Robot Settlers as of ''Automatron.'' They require a fair amount of relatively rare resources just to build the base frame of a no-frills Protectron, but once it's done you have a worker that never needs a bed or food and whose happiness never goes below 50. Arming them as you see fit into a horrible death machine (for example, a provisioner Sentry Bot that can easily defend itself) is just a bonus.
** Beast cages in ''Wasteland Workshop'' require a variety of animal resources to create and you need two seldom-used perks in the Charisma tree, Wasteland Whisperer and Animal Friend, to make use of the Beta Wave Emitter structure, but put 'em together and you have the ability to generate tamed monsters that provide a free defense bonus to your settlement. Just make sure you don't have different types of monsters in the same open area or they'll attack each other...
* DiminishingReturnsForBalance: Armor rating (Ballistic Defense and Energy Defense) gives less damage reduction the higher the value. For example, 60 Armor rating gives 30% damage reduction, but about 93 Armor rating turns into 40% damage reduction. And the difference between 560 Armor rating (T-45 Power Armor) and 1280 Armor rating (T-60 Power Armor) is 81% and 87% damage reduction respectively.
* DiscOneNuke: Numerous examples can be found within the first few hours of game play if the player knows where to look or, thanks to addition of Legendary enemies dropping Legendary weapons and armor, gets very lucky. And thanks to the removal of skills, the player can use any weapon they have without any penalties as long as they have the right ammo (though the right perks do help).
** Power armor. You're given a suit for free on the first story mission, and there's a second not far from Sanctuary for your companion. Very few early-game enemies will be serious threats to you even in basic, non-upgraded power armor. Its use is limited by requiring fusion cores which are fairly rare early on. Since companions don't use up the fusion cores putting the first humanoid companion you find into your suit instead of wearing it yourself makes it a straight example.
** A Fat Man can be found at the Robotics Disposal Ground, and a mini nuke can be found at the USAF Station Olivia, both only a very short jog northeast of Sanctuary. (You can even program the Sentry Bot at the disposal ground to clear the Raiders outdoors at Olivia, making it easier.) These can be found in several other early-game locations as well, and have a chance to spawn on Raiders if the player is very lucky.
** The Laser Musket that you get at Concord, the second town you'll visit if following the main quest, is lying on the ground by a fallen Minuteman. This weapon can be [[ChargedAttack charged with extra ammunition]], allowing it to deal incredible amounts of damage at the start of the game. It can also be upgraded with better mods at lower levels of the Gun Nut and Science! perks than more standard laser weapons. It will eventually become outclassed, even with upgrades, but will get you through the early parts of the game quite easily.
** Justice, a unique variant of the Combat Shotgun that causes staggering, can be purchased in Covenant, which requires only a short side-trip to reach after Concord. Normally, legendary items available for purchase are too cost prohibitive for low level players, but for [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration quest related reasons]], the merchants in Covenant are selling at an incredible loss, meaning you only need to scrape up about 1000-1500 caps to purchase it (depending on Charisma and perks.) As a bonus, it comes with several mods already in place that a low-level character will be unable to craft for some time, adding to its usefulness.
** The Shishkebab, a FlamingSword melee weapon, can be obtained at low level by a settlement quest, though it requires you to fight through The Forged and their boss who is in power armor.
** You can get an almost full set of Heavy Combat Armor (which normally does not start to appear until you are around level 30) anytime by killing the Gunner boss Captain Bridget in Hub City Auto Wreckers. Because of the enemies with Missile Launchers and Fat Men occupying the highway overpass, including the boss, as well as multiple mines and traps, this is very difficult to pull off at a low level but quite rewarding.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Your physical from the Brotherhood of Steel is a trifle ''odd'' as they're not concerned with your physical health or psychological stability. Instead, they ask if you've been exposed to large amounts of radiation, have ever had sex with a nonhuman, or would hesitate to kill any enemy of the Brotherhood. See ANaziByAnyOtherName.
* DoomedHometown: Sanctuary Hills, the housing development that you start the game in. It doesn't look nearly as nice after a major war and two hundred years of looting and neglect. Unlike just about any example of the trope in [=RPGs=], however, you can rebuild it from scratch yourself.
* DoorToBefore: A ubiquitous [[AntiFrustrationFeatures anti-frustration feature]] of just about every old building you can explore that figures in a main quest or side quest. This is due to internal damage inconveniently blocking doorways and corridors, turning the interior into TheMaze. The quest objective will always be found at the end, accompanied by a direct exit to the outside world that is either extremely well hidden or difficult to access from the outside until the quest is completed. For those with high lockpicking skills, finding such doors offer alternative routes that allow the player to bypass entire sections of enemies.
* TheDreaded:
** The Institute is only spoken of in hushed whispers in Diamond City, and is largely suspected of producing synthetic replicants of people to spy on others.
** Nobody goes into the Boston Common because of Swan, a Behemoth that sleeps in the lake and wears a swan boat as armour. The area is littered with warning signs, from notes on dead [=NPCs=], signs saying "Danger", chains across the entrances and even a Railroad sign that they usually reserve for areas infested with Institute synths. Several companions also make nervous comments if you get too close.
** Coursers are elite Synths, whose main job is to assassinate specific persons, or retrieve captured synths. The first one you run into during the quest "Hunter/Hunted" manages to deliver a CurbStompBattle to an entire building of gunners, and can be a tough fight if you have to fight it as well without decent gear.
** Deathclaws likewise have a similar reputation, as they are very tough to kill until you have decent gear and perks. There's a reason everyone and everything else tries to stay as far away from their nests as possible.
* DramaticIrony:
** The Overseer in Vault 111 left all the staff trapped until they died because he was convinced the radiation levels would still be immediately fatal 180 days after the Great War. In ''Fallout'' canon, radiation levels effectively normalized within '''two''' days of the Great War.
** The East Coast Brotherhood of Steel has become more like the Western Brotherhood after the policies of such got it destroyed in a war with NCR.
** The Sole Survivor searches for their infant son [[spoiler: only to find out he's an old man grown up to the BigBad.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: You can find skeletons lying in positions that imply they did this. To point out a specific example, there's a trailer southeast of Country Crossing, where a skeleton is sitting in a chair and a snubnosed .44 revolver lies on the floor below its hand.
* DuctTapeForEverything: Adhesive is used in all forms of weapon modification and is somewhat uncommon compared to steel and wood as far as crafting materials go. It's most commonly found in, naturally, rolls of duct tape you see lying around. When that's insufficient, you can cook up a bunch of vegetables to make vegetable starch, which then becomes adhesive.
* DudeWheresMyRespect:
** Both played straight and subverted. Mostly, the people of the Commonwealth pay respect where it's due, and your more shining track records are acknowledged properly. In fact, some characters like Paladin Danse seems to give you a disproportionately ''high'' amount of respect, giving you plenty of respect and referrals even if your record is greener than a Super Mutant, potentially having only had a couple missions under your belt.
** Played completely straight, however, with the Minutemen. Despite apparently being the head of the organization, ''no one'' in the Minutemen treats you with the slightest deference, or the vaguest acknowledgement that you are their boss. Your "second-in-command" Preston will be ordering you to the frontlines day and night to do every other menial task, and the grunts hardly ever acknowledge your leadership, if at all. There is even one mission (which can happen after you have long established yourself as THE conquering hero who leads the Minutemen) in which a Minutemen sergeant commanding four or five people will rudely treat you, his General, as cheap backup who happened to be passing by, and when you tell them to stand down on their current objective, will in no uncertain terms tell YOU (read: his top boss) to basically fuck off. This is actually a bug since in some games he can be ordered to stand down.
* DugTooDeep: Dunwich Borers LLC returns in the Commonwealth with more mining-based misfortune. This time, however, [[spoiler:someone dug up something on purpose, and it still rests down there.]]
* DummiedOut: At one point the Chinese Assault Rifle from ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' was going to make a return, but it never made it into the final cut. It's (untextured) model is still in the game but it doesn't have any associated scripting to make it usable, nor does it have proper animations. There is a mod that partially restores it, but as with ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' custom animations are still a bit difficult to work in.
* EarlyBirdBoss: The Deathclaw in Concord is just a Deathclaw. That is, it's "just" a ten-foot-tall razor-clawed murder machine with iron-scaled skin. The issue is, however, that Concord is the location of the second mission of the main quest after leaving the vault. This means that you are likely going to be at a very low level without many perks and rather lacking in equipment. You do get a damaged, low-end suit of power armor and a mini-gun to help, but neither is really up to the task of combating a Deathclaw. (The mini-gun alone requires an entire drum of ammo through over a full minute of sustained fire ScratchDamage to actually kill the beast.) Most of the other Deathclaws in the game are in the southern half of the map, and by the time you challenge their territory, you should have the perks and the gear to take them on properly.
* EarlyBirdCameo: During the Railroad mission to infiltrate their former headquarters, you find [[http://fraghero.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1-9.jpg this poster]] that depicts some of the buildable robot combinations from the ''Automatron'' DLC.
* EarlyGameHell:
** Before you've built up your level and scavenged a good amount of armor and weapons, it can be a real pain to wander through the wasteland. Once you have decent armor, weapons that can one-shot common mooks, and enough Stimpaks and [=RadAway=] to keep yourself healthy, only the boss enemies will be a problem.
** Until you have a steady supply of adhesive, modding is a nightmare. Armor isn't quite as bad, since you can strip mods from the pieces you find at no cost, but weapons don't have that option. Once you have a town that can grow the items needed for vegetable starch, however, it becomes a lot easier to get your guns up to spec.
** Until you either reach Diamond City or get to a high enough level that you can build and man your own medical clinic, you have no easy way to deal with radiation - which can be found in the Commonwealth in abundance, particularly on the feral ghouls that infest the place. You can use [=RadAway=], but [=RadAway=] is scarce and expensive in this game; it's not something you find in every first aid kit. And since AdamSmithHatesYourGuts, you're not going to have enough caps to buy it from the few shops that can be found in the northwest corner of the map.
* EasilyForgiven: When first entering Diamond City, Piper will say that you manage a caravan and will be coming with supplies tomorrow if the city lets both of you in now. You can then talk to the guard and continue Piper's lie, which, if a charisma roll is successful, will prompt him to give you some bottlecaps in advance. You can then say you were lying about the whole thing, and the guard will brush this off with some "that's Piper for you" sentiment, allowing you to keep the bottlecaps with no penalty or admonishment.
** Most of your actions will be easily forgiven by your followers, even if you get the message: "X hated that." Cannibalism, selling children into slavery, these actions won't drive them away individually. However, accumulate enough disapproval and they'll leave permanently. Preston, Deacon and X6-88 will also turn hostile if you harm their respective factions.
* EiffelTowerEffect: The game uses Boston city landmarks, like the USS Constitution, Fenway Park, the Paul Revere Statue, North Church, the Massachusetts State House, Faneuil Hall, and the Bunker Hill Monument, to establish you are playing in Boston, while not being a one-to-one recreation of the city.
* EliteMook: Legendary enemies. Denoted by having "Legendary" in their name and a star at the end, these enemies have the ability to regenerate to full health once if reduced to half health or less. When this happens, they get a stat boost which makes them much more dangerous. In addition, all legendary enemies carry a legendary armor piece or weapon with an effect that cannot be obtained with ordinary mods, which they will use against you. The current difficultly level determines how often they spawn.
* EpicFail: Just north of Gunner Plaza there is a shack that will explode in a massive fireball the first time you approach as the inhabitant botched a batch of moonshine that blew up in his face. What makes it a truly epic fail is the sheer size of the explosion which dwarfs even a mini nuke.
* EscortMission:
** Some of the Minutemen missions require that the player rescue a kidnapped settler and escort them out of the building there were held in.
** Similarily, a radiant Brotherhood mission requires you to escort a scribe to a certain terminal in a certain building and back so he can download data.
** "The Big Dig" is one, with you escorting Bobbi, Mel and Sonya (an Eyebot modified by Mel who uses sonic waves to dig walls). The good news is that they can put up a fight, and can't die; the bad news is that Sonya's pathfinding is very buggy and tends to get her stuck, and you ''need'' her to reach the fragile walls in order to advance through the level.
** "Trouble Brewin" ends with you escorting a brewery on legs through the city to Goodneighbor, protecting it from raiders, Super Mutants, and hostile wildlife. This isn't really that bad, since 'Buddy' is A) armed with lasers, and B) NighInvulnerable. However, it is also C) very, very slow, so that part of the mission winds up being more tedious than anything else. This can be avoided by telling the machine to head there on its own however but it will still take a while for it to get there.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: As part of the general effort to [[WhatMeasureIsAMook humanize Raiders]], they can be seen caring for each other as a close team, and one terminal indicates that one of the Raider bosses you can slaughter genuinely loves her sister...too bad she was [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally killed by her kidnapper]]. Oh, and then, in a sense, there's [[spoiler:your son, the by-default BigBad.]]
** Occasionally you can find a raider mourning over a grave site (they'll still go after you if they notice your presence though).
** Tessa, one of the Gunners responsible for the Quincy Massacre has feelings for Baker, another high ranking Gunner in Quincy. Her last terminal log ends with her pointing out how she CannotSpitItOut.
* EveryCarIsAPinto: A ''nuclear'' Pinto! It's very possible to inadvertently set off a chain reaction of exploding fusion-powered cars if you or your enemies are careless around them.
* EveryoneIsBi: The protagonist can choose to be in romantic relationships with all of his/her human companions, regardless of their gender.
* EverybodysDeadDave: The protagonist awakens from a 210 year long cryogenic hibernation to find the world a blasted ruin, with everybody they knew either dead (from natural causes or otherwise) or horribly mutated.
* EveryBulletIsATracer: Played straight with the minigun and machine-gun turrets. It's especially noticeable in VATS.
* EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture: In contrast to the Brotherhood of Steel, which has been mostly just ''salvaging'' old tech, the Institute has been busily researching new tech ever since the bombs fell. Their Synths and Institute Laser Guns look sleek, white and plasticky compared to the boxy chrome and steel of pre-war laser weapons and robots.
** The in-universe reason for averting EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture in the Fallout series is because the worldwide petrol shortage has made the manufacturing of commercial plastics incredibly expensive, hence why nearly every weapon has a wood or metal stock (as opposed to a carbon one), every home device is made of metal, and everything generally looks like the pre-plastic world. There are only a handful of junk items (inexplicably a bread box and salt and pepper shakers) that are plastic, but this was for gameplay balancing reasons, since energy weapons require plastic to modify, so it must be found in at least some scrappable objects. Meanwhile, you can visit Cambridge Polymer Labs, where attempts were being made to synthesize alternative plastics out of some kind of radioactive material.
* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: One of the traps you can build with the Wasteland Workshop [=DLC=] is a gorilla trap. Said gorillas provide 10 defense for your settlement (that's as much as a Deathclaw!) ''and'' improve the settlement's morale.
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: All wildlife and most thinking beings in the Commonwealth will try to murder you on sight.
** Roaming downtown Boston? Expect raiders and supermutants in every building to come out and shoot at you.
** South Boston is owned and run by the Gunners and they're as friendly as the average raider.
** Out in the wilderness? You'll run into feral dogs, [[TechnicallyLivingZombie feral ghouls]], BigCreepyCrawlies, [[BearsAreBadNews mutated bears]], and [[TheDreaded deathclaws]]. They are all of course, hostile.
** Want to take a stroll along the beach? Have fun playing with the [[GiantEnemyCrab mirelurks]]. Hell, a puddle of water is as likely to contain a horde of buried mirelurks as an entire swamp, lake or shoreline.
* EvilAlbino: Most creatures in the Wasteland have albino variants that for some reason are considerably deadlier.
* EvilPaysBetter: The raiders who inhabit the Libertalia have a computer terminal containing logs from their leader. It turns out they're what remains of a band of ex-Minutemen who tried to create a peaceful settlement there by trading and hiring out their services to caravans and Bunker Hill. One log entry tells of how the leader hung two of his men for raiding a caravan for food when they were desperately running low. The penultimate log reveals that the caravans no longer trust the ex-Minutemen and keep stiffing them on deals for food. The final log triumphantly tells of how the group is now getting all the food they need by [[{{Hypocrite}} attacking the caravans]], or [[ShameIfSomethingHappened being paid to leave them alone]]. The leader says in his log that the caravans refer to his group (who were once defenders of the Commonwealth) as [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen "Raiders"]] now. Since he decided principles are worthless to a starving man, he doesn't even care anymore, but still feels guilt thinking about the shame this would have brought to his general.
* ExactWords: Occasionally the Synths in the Institute will remark "If it weren't for Father, we wouldn't be here", simultaneously paying homage to him as their creator but also underlining the involuntary nature of their relationship.
* {{Expy}}:
** The Eastern Brotherhood of Steel has adopted Elder Maxson as their absolute leader despite the fact he was selected to be so at ''age 10.'' They are now a power-armored collection of supersoldiers on a mission to eradicate all non-humans. [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Yes, this means they're effectively Space Marines now.]]
** The "Silver Shroud" hero of comic books and radio serials is an obvious expy of Radio/TheShadow, a popular hero of 1930s pulp novels and radio serials as well as ComicBook/ThePunisher.
** On the Silver Shroud quest, the player has to kill a raider named "Smiling Kate" who sports a GlasgowGrin along with the appropriate makeup and attitude of a [[SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker popular comic book villain.]]
** Stingwings are expies of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas[='=]'' Cazadores, being flying bugs with a venomous sting. This is justified as Cazadores are confined to the Mojave wasteland.
** Synth coursers appear to be expies of ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' robots.
** The Gunner faction is essentially ''4'''s equivalent of the Talon Company Mercenaries, given their reputation as unsavory soldiers-for-hire who are willing to do any job for the right price. Unlike their Talon counterparts, they appear to be fiercely territorial of whatever settlements they can get their hands on.
* FaceDeathWithDignity:
** Played straight with the Army and Vault-Tec guards at Vault 111, who calmly and quietly get as many people as they can to the bunker before the bomb hits, even though their chances on the surface are pretty bad. The Army officer who clears the Sole Survivor and their family through even wishes ''them'' luck.
** Averted with the Vault-Tec rep from the beginning who tries to [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections force his way into the Vault because he works for Vault-Tec.]] The minigun wielding, power armored guards are not impressed. [[spoiler: He survives as a ghoul though and can be found at Goodneighbor.]]
* FactionCalculus: A rare non-strategy game example. The Minutemen are Balanced, the Brotherhood of Steel are the Powerhouse, the Institute are Subversive, and the Railroad are Cannons.
* FailedASpotCheck: To the player, it's obvious what Vault 111's experiment is, as the vault makes no effort to even try to conceal the cryogenic equipment and the frost coating everything. To the inhabitants inside, they're lead to believe that the stasis pods are decontamination chambers. If their lives being spared from a nuclear blast weren't still fresh in their heads, they might have questioned it.
* FantasticRacism:
** Synths are loathed throughout the Commonwealth, resulting in such paranoia that brothers and friends turn on their loved ones to kill them. This is more {{justified}} than most examples as the Synths are very often used as assassins for the Institute. If Synths are freed from their masters, they prove to be more or less like anyone else.
** Ghouls have recently been exiled from Diamond City despite the fact they're great sources of history and technological expertise. [[spoiler: You eventually find out that the guy who threw them out is a Synth plant from the Institute, working to get rid of anyone with knowledge of the pre-War world.]]
* FantasticSlur: The Synthetics created by the Institute are just called Synths by the locals of the wasteland.
* TheFederation[=/=]TheRepublic:
** The Commonwealth of Allied Settlements was getting close to becoming this in the backstory [[spoiler:before it was purged by the Institute.]]
** While the Minutemen are TheAlliance, they can partner up with much of the Commonwealth [[spoiler:including the Railroad]] and help lay down the foundations of something like the NCR.
* FilkSong: [[https://youtu.be/NJS3bIpGYT0 Going Nuclear]] and [[https://youtu.be/nTY9JimeXuw Some Things Never Change]], both courtesy of Music/MiracleOfSound. The first is an upbeat swing piece about the singer "going nuclear" out in the wasteland and having fun, while the second is a much more somber piece about the state that the world has fallen into and how the Sole Survivor is perceiving it through the filter of their Pre-War life. Some Things Never Change also carries several stylistic choices and a lyrical callback to his earlier piece for ''[[VideoGame/{{Fallout3}} Fallout 3]]'', [[https://youtu.be/D_KEFGY-CPg Beauty Bleak]].
* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: [[spoiler: Kellogg's]] age is spoiled early but subtly in the quest "Dangerous Minds." The first memory the Sole Survivor explores is [[spoiler: Kellogg]] as a boy of about ten years old talking to his mother after a radio announces that the New California Republic has officially formed. This happened in 2189, nearly a hundred years before the events of the main game, spoiling the fact that he lived much longer than initially obvious because of Institute tinkering. However, this is the only mention given to the NCR, and their official founding hasn't been mentioned since ''Fallout 2.''
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: The player character was born before the Great War, but ended up 210 years in the post-apocalyptic future due to their Vault having an experimental cryogenics program.
* FlamingSword: The Shishkebab is back, and unlike the previous games' Shishkebab, Fallout 4's version is more well made. Rather than made crudely from lawnmower blade and motorcycle fuel tank in the previous games, this time it is made from a [[KatanasAreJustBetter Wakizashi]] and a modified blowtorch.
* FlashStep: The Blitz perk increases your VATS melee range... UpToEleven. When maxed out, you'll be able to teleport all around a room using melee weapons, slashing/bludgeoning enemies. Using this ability you can even reach areas like balconies that normally would need a circumvent dungeon crawl to get to later.
* FluffyTheTerrible:
** If you invite the [[spoiler:ghoulified Vault-Tec salesman]] to Sanctuary and have Deacon as a companion, Deacon will jokingly complain about how you'll take in a "stray" but won't let him keep a pet Deathclaw named "Fluffy".
** There's a Super Mutant Behemoth hiding in a park in Boston. His name is Swan. Everyone is terrified of him.
* FluffyTamer: ''You,'' with the Wild Wasteland and Animal Friend perks. Better still, with the ''Wasteland Workshop'' DLC, you can build cages that generate monsters and build a pacifying emitter next to them that cause the monsters to be friendly to the settlement, providing a free defense bonus. Yes, you can have giant mutant bears and deathclaws guarding your homesteads.
* {{Foil}}:
** The Sole Survivor to the Lone Wanderer. The Lone Wanderer is an individual leaving their comfy, pleasant, and secure Vault in search of their father. The Sole Survivor is leaving their decaying, frozen tomb of a Vault in order to find their missing son and avenge their dead spouse. They also serve as one to James, who left his family to build a New World while the Sole Survivor manages to juggle looking for their child with constructing new settlements as well as inspiring the people around them.
** The Minutemen are in a sense this to the Enclave. In doing a service to the people of the Commonwealth and upholding honorable values, they harken back to what Pre-War America ''wished'' it was. Whereas the Enclave represented the worst aspects of Pre-War America in reality. In fact, the recruitment radio tower, which presumably uses Minuteman tracks, plays the same patriotic music as Enclave Radio did in between broadcasts of the Sole Survivor's recorded urgings for people to come to a given settlement. They also serve as this to the Brotherhood of Steel by being, essentially, everything Elder Lyons ''wished'' he could turn the Brotherhood into but ultimately failed to do. They also do it with far less technology, resources, and influence.
** The Institute serves as another foil for the Enclave and the Brotherhood of Steel. As a Pre-War Institution of higher learning and intelligence, it has dedicated itself to making the Wasteland a better place. It also does so with ruthlessness, pragmatism, and behind-the-scenes manipulation which makes their brute force approach look trite. The Institute replaces racism against Wastelanders with racism against Synths and is willing to incorporate the best into their ranks. To this end, they also bear some similarity and antithesis to both Mister House as well as the scientists of the Big Empty.
** The Railroad is one to the Followers of the Apocalypse, being more focused on the anarchism and "fight the power" elements of the group over science as well as knowledge. Whereas the Followers are frequently co-opted by NCR, the Great Khans, and other groups to build their empires, the Railroad actively tears them down but has a far less positive effect on society as a whole (while still helping individuals).
** The Brotherhood of Steel now act almost exactly like the [[VideoGame/FalloutTacticsBrotherhoodOfSteel Midwest chapter]], who functioned with a feudal model.
* FollowThePlottedLine: In a departure from previous games in the series, the main questline is not only mandatory, but doesn't let you skip steps until the branching point (with the exception of the Minutemen's opening quest, which gives you a lead that you could technically get just by going south). There are still plenty of sidequests, but the main quest isn't optional this time.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: During the Dangerous Minds quest, while observing Kellogg's first memory there's a radio playing in the background, with a host talking about the formation of the New California Republic and Aradesh being elected its first president. ''Fallout'' history buffs will note this event takes place in 2189, 98 years before the events of ''Fallout 4'', hinting that there might be ''something'' more to Kellogg's age than first meets the eye. The last memory echoes the first, with Shaun reading while Kellogg sits. Notice what Shaun's reading?]]
** Earlier, when looting Kellogg's body, the Sole Survivor will note that Kellogg [[spoiler:is so heavily augmented he's "more machine than man." Implying one should not trust his otherwise normal human appearance too much - in particular his age]].
* FoeTossingCharge: The Strength 10 perk Pain Train (which requires power armor to use), in the style of charging at your enemies and ramming them. At rank 3 you can knock even Deathclaws out of your way and can nearly kill low level raiders by ramming them.
* FourStarBadass: The leader of the Minutemen was always selected from the most respected and powerful of their warriors. [[spoiler: Which includes you when Preston points out he doesn't have the chops to rebuild the order.]]
* FriendlyFireproof: The Inspirational perk at its lowest level makes companions unable to hurt you. At second level, your companions become immune to your attacks.
* FromNobodyToNightmare:
** The Institute thinks that the Railroad are a nuisance but ultimately only able to help escaped synths and doesn't even spare a thought for the Minutemen. [[spoiler:You can help either faction blow the Institute to hell]].
** Ten years ago, the Children of the Atom were a weird religion from Megaton and were mostly harmless (the incident in ''Broken Steel'' aside) but now they're an absolute terror, wandering the Commonwealth with their gamma guns and murdering anyone they find to "spread Atom's word."
** Arthur Maxson - the timid child from Fallout 3 who liked writing stories and had a crush on Sarah Lyons - grew up into a charismatic yet fanatical demagogue, leading the Brotherhood of Steel on a crusade to cleanse the Wasteland of "abominations" (including Synths, Robots, Super Mutants, and likely Ghouls too) and rule over the rest of the population as feudal lords.
* FutureImperfect: Moe Cronin, the owner of the bat store in Diamond City believes that baseball was a BloodSport in which players beat each other to death with "swatters." Nobody else seems to believe him and if you tell him the actual rules he decides that he likes his version better.
* GameBreakingBug:
** Not the very deadly variant, but Dogmeat and Rex Goodman are very easy to glitch out of the elevator during the mission to recruit Strong.
** It's also possible that the Brotherhood Elder will get stuck in an inaccessible room if you choose to side with them, effectively making you unable to proceed in the main storyline and consequently unable to beat the game. At least on the PC you can use the console to drag him back.
** You can get stuck in an unbreakable animation loop that requires you to load an earlier save [[note]] or - at least in the PC version - use teleport cheat [[/note]] in order to be able to play again. This can happen with anything from using flavor objects like water pumps to the incredibly important workshop tables.
** One of the side quests from the Railroad is to clear out various buildings that used to be Railroad safehouses of hostiles. If you've already been to any of the buildings and cleared them out before, it won't properly flag the building and the quest can't be completed. With the other factions, the building is refilled.
** An example of a bug breaking the game by making it too ''easy'' was [=MacCready=]'s companion perk ''Killshot'' before it was patched. It is supposed to increase headshot accuracy in VATS by 20%. Instead, it increased it by ''2000%''. Every headshot you attempted to make had a displayed 95% (the max), but effectively 100% chance of hitting. The only thing that could prevent a headshot with this bug was if the enemy's head went behind cover after you had already targeted it.
* GameMod: It wouldn't be a Bethesda game without having a Creation Kit... or in this case, the '''G'''arden of '''E'''den '''C'''reation '''K'''it. In a first for the series, the console versions are going to be able to have mods downloaded and installed just like the PC version, with the Xbox One getting them in May 2016 and the [=PS4=] getting them in June 2016. For the NSFW modding community, Bethesda has already given their full support on letting them do their thing. However, there are two drawbacks to the console ports getting mods: downloading/installing mods disables achievements/trophies and the combined size of all the mods installed is capped at 2GB.
* GameWithinAGame: Your Pip-Boy can accept game cartridges to play CaptainErsatz versions of real-life video games. These include ''[[VideoGame/DonkeyKong Red Menace]],'' ''[[VideoGame/MissileCommand Atomic Command]],'' ''[[VideoGame/{{Pitfall}} PipFall]],'' ''[[VideoGame/SpaceInvaders Zeta Invaders]],'' ''[[VideoGame/{{Wasteland}} Grognak and the Ruby Ruins]],'' and ''[[VideoGame/Robotron2084 Automatron]]'' [[note]] Added in the ''Automatron'' DLC[[/note]].
* GameplayAllyImmortality:
** All of your companions are nearly invincible while travelling with you. If their health hits 0, then they collapse to the ground and will only get up if either you inject them with a Stimpak or once combat is over.
** Similarly, settlers are nigh invincible unless you kill them personally, though they can die if the town is being attacked and you don't help or if they are hit with a massive amount of damage. (Such as an explosion if they are already in a "knocked out" state or are hit by an insta-kill move, like the one a Deathclaw can administer.)
* GameplayAndStoryIntegration:
** The Institute's Synth Coursers are ruthless ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' expies who are designed to not only look exactly like humans, but be superior in every way, shape and form. That being said, X6-88's stats total to a whopping ''98'' SPECIAL points, almost twice that of all your other companions' individual stat sums.
** While we're on the subject of X6-88, let's talk about The Railroad HQ. The leadership there makes it explicitly clear that the Institute wants them gone. They also make it clear that Coursers are searching for their HQ. As that follows, bringing X6 to their hideout will instantly turn them against you forever. If you like Deacon (or want to go with the Railroad ending), '''''never''''' '''take X6-88 to the Railroad.'''
** Fast-Travelling to and from the Institute will not only play a [[spoiler:teleportation animation]], but in-game time will only pass by 1 minute.
** There's a reason Institute synths are feared like boogiemen: it is entirely possible for any of your settlers (barring companions) to be replaced with a synth. If other settlers realize that a synth is among them and find out who it is, they will kill them, and their corpse with have synth components on them.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
** When talking to Codsworth, the protagonist is surprised that two centuries have passed, although the player is able to look at the date and time at the moment they activate the PIP-Boy. A DownplayedTrope example since the situation is disorientating and nightmarish to say the least.
** In the fluff, Power Armor was powered via a back-mounted micro-fusion reactor that was filled with 100 years worth of fuel and ''Van Buren'' was supposed to reveal that the earliest versions were grossly energy inefficient due to running on small energy cells, rather than fusion cores. The Power Armor in ''Fallout 4'' is a mix of the two versions: keeping the integrated reactor, while "adding" a backup power source for when the primary one fails. While it may seem like a huge technological step backwards, it gives a reason as to why you can't go around in Power Armor all the time now like you could in the previous games.
** The lore for the Laser Musket explicitly states the weapon is powered by the crank. In gameplay, cranking simply ''loads'' the weapon with fusion cells.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: In-universe example. While Cherry Nuka-Cola proved to be wildly unpopular in America before and after the War, apparently it has garnered a cult following in the Commonwealth and has seen some marketing success there; it being called Nuka Cherry.
* GenderedOutfit: Mostly averted this time, unlike the previous games. A female dress will still look like a female dress when worn by a male character. Likewise, the [[TooManyBelts Harness]] outfit will look just as revealing female characters as it is on male and will inevitably reveals the character's bra. The reward for the mission Curtain Call is a suit or dress depending on the Sole Survivor's gender.
** Though certain outfits will change their fit to suit whoever is wearing it. Road leathers on a male has a full jacket, while on a female it shows a peeking midriff.
** Also played straight with [[spoiler: Grognak's Costume]], in an inversion of the usual case, the female version features a leather bra while the male version [[WalkingShirtlessScene covers even less]].
* GhostTown: University Point looks like a player built settlement, including stuff the player can build like generators, water purifiers, shops. But it's uninhabited. [[spoiler:It used to be a thriving settlement, until a girl found the secret Army lab under the Bank. Then Institute demanded the labs contents be given to them. When the town didn't immediately agree to do it on that day's town meeting (Note that they had not categorically refused either), the Institute returned 3 days later and killed everyone in University Point]].
* GiantEnemyCrab:
** The Mirelurks are back, and then there's also the Mirelurk Queen boss, who's at least five times their size and has a lot of health.
** ''Far Harbor'' adds hermit crabs, which are massive crabs that use ''buses'' as shells.
* GiantMook: The Mutant Behemoths from ''Fallout 3'' are back, and just as large, angry, and powerful as before. Mirelurk Queens are also worryingly big
* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: During the quest "When Freedom Calls", the player is tasked to eliminate Raiders from Concord. After beating them and their leader, a huge Deathclaw appears from nowhere and attacks the player, serving as the "boss" of the area. There's very little and vague foreshadowing about it (with Mama Murphy saying that "There's something comin'. And it is... angry" and Preston saying that there's "something else outside").
* GoldenEnding: [[spoiler:Many consider the Minutemen ending to be this, as it involves the least loss of life. The only faction you ''have'' to wipe out is the Institute, the darkest of the game's factions. The Railroad will remain peaceful so long as you remember to sound the evacuation order in the finale, and the Brotherhood will tolerate you so long as you don't antagonize them. All other factions require you to at least kill one of the others, without exception.]]
* TheGoomba:
** Radroaches fill this role like in most ''Fallout'' series games, being the very first mooks that the player fights in the game.
** The Sole Survivor will occasionally even deliver a FinishingStomp to kill them if the player uses a melee attack on them in V.A.T.S.
* GoombaStomp: Entirely plausible with PoweredArmor if you have a steep drop on a foe, or have a jetpack.
* GrayAndGrayMorality: Unlike ''Fallout 3'' and more like ''Fallout: New Vegas'', there isn't a clear-cut "good" or "evil" faction, with both the Brotherhood of Steel and the Institute, as well as the various smaller factions, each making a compelling argument why their path is the best one for the future of the Commonwealth and humanity. In turn, the conflict between the Brotherhood of Steel and the Institute falls into the lines of Romanticism (The Brotherhood of Steel) versus Enlightenment (The Institute), see RomanticismVersusEnlightenment trope below.
** The Brotherhood of Steel is noticeably more bigoted against ghouls and mutants than displayed in previous games, with one NPC literally saying that all ghouls and mutants should be exterminated.
** The "Human Error" quest will force you to side with Honest Dan, or the denizens of Covenant. [[spoiler:Dan is simply trying to rescue Amelia per his contract, but the Covenant citizens are survivors of synth assassins, who infiltrated their families and friends and killed them. As a result, they're attempting to develop a psychological exam to help spot synths, but are unfortunately torturing a lot of innocent people in the process too.]]
** Even ''[[AlwaysChaoticEvil raiders]]'' are significantly humanized via conversations the player can overhear between them when they haven't been detected, and terminals in various raider-controlled settings show countless shades of villainy among them.
* GreaserDelinquents: The Atom Cats are the post-apocalyptic version of a 1950s hot rod greaser gang. Only instead of customizing hot rods, they customize power armor suits. They also happen to help repair the machinery at a local farm and hold poetry nights...
* GunshipRescue: If you're allied with the Brotherhood, you can deploy a flare to signal a Vertibird gunship to pick you up, then hop in with your dog and grab a hold of the side mounted mini-gun.
* GuideDangIt:
** The settlement system only has one extremely bare-bones tutorial, which introduces you to the three basic things a settlement needs (food, water, defense), as well as the basics of assigning settlers to a task. It does not touch upon surplus resources, the nuances of the happiness system, or even basic house construction. The only other hints you get are from tips on the loading screen and the description of the Local Leader perk, the latter being vital to larger settlements and to propping up new settlements. The game only tells you once that the defense rating has to be kept equal to or higher than the total amount of resources being produced by the town, and it never tells you how to set up a power grid, how shipments of junk work, or how food/water surpluses are shared (or even ''that'' they can be shared.)
** In order to get into the Institute, you have to build a relay platform using the settlement interface. This seems simple on its surface, but several of the specifics can be confusing. The platform itself consists of a large, three-pronged cover and a smaller platform, the latter snapping onto the former, which the game doesn't make clear. The operating console has to be within earshot of the platform so the operator's dialog will register and move the quest along. Finally, all three parts have to be on the same power grid.
** Though the story missions do tell you outright when you're going to make a faction hostile permanently, the intertwined nature of the missions mean a lot of them can conflict with each other even before you've reached a turning point. For example, one Brotherhood mission causes the Railroad Assaultron P.A.M. to enter a "security lockdown" mode in which she will not respond to any attempts at conversation, even if you have quests to turn in. Furthermore, this will happen even if you haven't fulfilled the first objective of speaking to the quest giver. The conversation priority system, which determines how characters respond if there's multiple options, will also prioritize secondary objectives of other quests over that character's personal quests. For example, when Institute quests give you the option to warn the Brotherhood, this warning will be prioritized over any quests you may have active with Maxson.
** Keeping all of the non-Institute factions and their related companions in play through the ending is possible, but requires a very specific order in doing quests for all three factions with very specific cutoffs that can make the A-Ending requirements from Main/ValkyrieProfile seem sane. And even then, doing the wrong things during the final mission can permanently anger certain factions companions into leaving you. Doing so will also make you miss out on endgame rewards from the Brotherhood and Railroad. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUFEeYdQnVc This is how it's done.]]
** The game doesn't tell you that Critical Hits always hit, and there is a non-trivial difference between "more powerful attack" and "more powerful attack that never misses."
* GunFu: The Agility 10 perk, which makes it easier to pull off shots against multiple targets in V.A.T.S.
* TheGunslinger: A good pistol build, especially one that uses V.A.T.S., can feel very much like an Old Western gunfighter or a similarly badass gun-user.
* HandCannon: The game's DesignItYourselfEquipment system classifies a weapon as a pistol so long as it has a pistol grip instead of a full-sized stock. Thus you can get "pistols" with things like enormous magazines, barrels meant for ''sniper rifles'', large scopes, and attachments like a muzzle brake or bayonet.
** The most powerful pistols are the .44 Revolver and the Deliverer, a PPK-like 10mm that does more damage than even a maxed-out 10mm pistol. Pipe weapons can also be customized to deliver some truly heinous stopping power with the right mods and the right ranks in Gun Nut.
** The Broadslider is a ''literal'' example of this trope, it is essentially a handheld cannon which fires cannonballs to your enemies. An unused version of Broadslider can even fire a ''[[YouNukeEm Nuke]]'' at someone.
* HappyEndingOverride:
** A DownplayedTrope example regarding the Lone Wanderer with their friendship to the Brotherhood of Steel. Given the CuttingOffTheBranches and NoCanonForTheWicked, it's now clear that the Lone Wanderer helped the Brotherhood of Steel conquer and assimilate the resources of the Enclave as well as establish themselves as the prominent power in the Capital Wasteland. While certainly better than the hell it was before, the Brotherhood of Steel is now implied to rule over the territory it conquers absolutely and is actively expanding its influence.
* HardModePerks: Higher difficulties feature more legendary enemies, which means more legendary weapons and items.
* HarderThanHard: The Survival Difficulty, as of patch 1.06. No Fast Travel, manual saving is disabled unless you sleep at a bed, carry weight is heavily reduced, and enemies do far more damage to the player. Much like Hardcore Mode in ''Fallout: New Vegas'', you also need to regularly eat food, drink water, and sleep. Failure to do so will result in increasingly weaker SPECIAL stats due to hunger, thirst, and fatigue. You can now catch various illnesses that debilitate your character until you visit a doctor or use Antibiotics. Healing from Stimpaks and other consumables is much slower, and using [=RadAway=] will make you both hungry and increase you chances of getting an illness.
* HaveANiceDeath: Just as there are many ways to [[ChunkySalsaRule explodinate and gib]] your enemies, the many different ways apply to you as well. For example, when a Deathclaw (nearly) kills its prey, it can show the Deathclaw lifting it up into the air, take a moment to savor the kill, extend its claws, and slash the victim dead.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: A very tragic case with the Brotherhood of Steel. In previous Fallout games, the [=BoS=] fought against the Enclave, who wanted to kill anyone that wasn't a "pure" human. In Fallout 4, the [=BoS=] have arrived in the Commonwealth to wipe out every synth as well as anybody who helps them. Ghoul's probably are next on their kill list although this is not directly stated.
* HealingShiv:
** An interesting first for the series comes in the form of the gamma gun. Deals insane amounts of radiation damage that is most certainly not healthy, well not for humans. Ghouls are healed by radiation and the damage from the gamma gun is no exception. You can use this to quickly heal ghoul companion John Hancock.
** There's a legendary weapon mod called "Medic's" which will cause the weapon to heal a target instead of doing damage. This means the player can potentially find a fat man with the mod which would make it a healing nuke. (Someone found a Medic's Fat Man and tested it. It only heals someone it directly hits, only for a tiny amount, and does no splash damage or healing otherwise.)
* HeavilyArmoredMook: Any character in Power Armor, which generally are limited to either Brotherhood of Steel soldiers or certain particularly tough Raiders. Railroad Heavies are also this to a lesser degree, as they're geared with heavy armor and weaponry and are the only Railroad members really equipped for a straight stand-up fight.
* HellishCopter: Chances are that you'll see Vertibirds spiraling out of control as often as you see them flying.
* HellIsThatNoise:
** The beeping mini-nuke of a [[ActionBomb Super Mutant Suicider]]. Pray you have a powerful ranged weapon handy or enough AP to hit the hand carrying the bomb from afar.
** The sound of multiple Feral Ghouls rising from their "dead" state before their inevitable ZergRush. Pray you aren't in the middle of them when you hear it...
** The whistling of a incoming mini-nuke from an raider or Gunner armed with a Fat Man. Get ready to die to this sound over and over as you try to find where the shot came from.
** The cymbal banging toy monkeys scattered throughout the land. Though they don't harm your character, they are very creepy looking, and a first time encounter will probably be freaked out by it. Additionally, if there are any nearby enemies, the monkey will alert them to your presence.
** In Bedlam's terminal in the Dunwich Borers location, her initial logs complain that the raiders in the area are just yellow-bellied cowards who can't do their job and deliver the shipment of scrap needed by the Saugus Ironworks factory. She then decides to go deeper into the mine herself, to see what's going on down there. Then her third entry is nothing but "I'm safe in the light" repeatedly, indicating that whatever was down there spooked her as well. As you travel deeper, you can also hear rumbles and footsteps of whatever's down there.
* HelloInsertNameHere: The game has a dynamic dialogue system with a database of 924 popular male/female names. If the PC's name is a match, then Codsworth will use the appropriate dialogue snippet.
** Also Protectrons: "I will be your personal escort during your visit to NAME OF OPERATIONAL AREA."
* HiddenInPlainSight: The Institute uses the [[spoiler:Classical Radio station to encode the data they use to teleport synths in and out of their home base]].
* HistoricalInJoke: The only thing played on the Silver Shroud radio station are broadcasts of the eponymous pulp hero's serial show (think Radio/TheShadow), and one of the episodes deals with a plot by the corrupt mayor to tear down Scollay Square, where the settlement of Goodneighbor is located. In real life, Scollay Square was torn down by the city of Boston to put up new developments.
* HintSystem: Mama Murphy can tell you where to go and what to do in the story missions, and sometimes even tell you easier ways to get through (like by giving a code phrase that Skinny Malone will remember, so he backs off without a fight). The downside is this takes a toll on her and she requests her own chair to sleep in constantly, so she won't work as a settler anymore. Plus, most of your companions don't like it and too many drugs will kill her.
* HoistByTheirOwnPetard:
** A case that can happen to an unwitting player; don't leave a Power Suit in the open with a fusion core still plugged in. There's literally nothing stopping a Raider from hopping in and [[OhCrap using it against you.]]
** Power armored raiders are a real nuisance and thanks to the [=AI's=] new brilliance their weaker friends will fan out around them to try and flank or pin you down. Thanks to the new power armor mechanic of fusion cores, you can target the core, which not only does huge damage to the raider but also turns the core into a high powered grenade. Alternately, if you get the drop on the tin can, you might try and covertly deprive that suit of its fusion core through pickpocketing. The operator will egress from the dead suit, giving you an opportunity to apply a high-power weapon to their head at short range outside the suit helmet's protection. Reinstall the core, and then turn the raiders' power armor against them.
** Enemies can now use the ''[[NukeEm Fat Man]]'', which was up until now a player-only toy. Much like the player can when using such a powerful weapon, they can accidentally [[LudicrousGibs blow up themselves]] and many of their allies. An errant piece of overhanging cover can potentially cause the raider armed with the Fat Man to [[EpicFail wipe out]] his entire camp. They also don't seem to understand that a mini-nuke is ''not'' a close combat weapon.
** The [[ActionBomb Super Mutant Suicider]] holds a primed Mini Nuke and attempts to charge the player to blow both up in a huge explosion. If the player manages to shoot the mini nuke, ''he'' blows up with his own Super Mutant friends instead.
** The Luck 10 perk Ricochet gives a chance for an enemy's ranged attack that hits the player to deflect back to them ''and'' [[OneHitKill instantly kill]] them instead.
** The Institute ending has the player [[spoiler:infect Liberty Prime with a virus, causing him to identify the ''Prydwen'' as a hostile and knock it out of the sky, blowing up the entire airport]].
* HollywoodSilencer: Returning from ''Fallout 3'' and ''Fallout New Vegas'', but in addition the heavy sniper rifles that you could suppress in ''New Vegas'', you can now add suppressors to revolvers of any type or even to shotguns. That said, they are more realistic than previous incarnations, even on the quietest guns they don't completely silence the sound of the bullet and enemies will still become alerted by a near miss or you firing near them. Suppressors also notably reduce the gun's recoil, a trait of suppressors that most works of fiction ignore.
* HostileWeather: In addition to normal storms, you will occasionally be subject to radiation storms, sickly greenish-yellow thunderstorms which release intermittent bursts of radiation. The radiation is minimal, but it can be annoying if you're stuck in combat.
* HumanPopsicle: Vault 111's "experiment" was placing its denizens into cryogenic stasis and studying the effects of long term stasis. [[spoiler: You're the only survivor due to a number of factors. Most of the Vault staff died in a mutiny about six months after the bombs fell. About 150 years later, the Institute popped in, killed your spouse to take Shaun away from you, and only reactivated the life support system for ''your'' cryo pod, leaving the rest of the "test subjects" to suffocate to death.]]
* HumansAreBastards: This is most exemplified by the the Robobrain research and production facility in the new Automatron expansion. The facility was run by human scientists who thought it was ethically and morally acceptable to [[BodyHorror extract the brains of human criminals and put them into robots]].
** The subjects for brain extraction were all maximum security criminals, but a few had committed crimes that weren't even deserving of a full life sentence. One log entry refers to an ideal subject who only committed ''manslaughter''. Computer logs show the absolute terror of the people who were awake after their brains were removed and preserved in jars until their minds were wiped by the callous scientists.
** Only the most callous and sociopathic of experimental victims proved able to handle the experience, and they alone went on to be turned into Robobrains, resulting in callous killing machines that [[JackassGenie preferred to interpret orders in the most evil, sadistic way possible]]. And the facility is huge — hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women, many of them minor or accidental crooks, mental patients with IQ ratings below 80, some likely innocent outright, were subjected to monstrous experiments and butchered by order of their own government.
** The army officer in charge of the prison wing housing the test subjects was determined to put a stop to the madness until he was [[ReassignedToAntarctica reassigned to a post cleaning toilets in Anchorage]] and replaced by someone more "patriotic".
** One scientist pulled a prank on another by making a brain-shaped birthday cake by covering an actual extracted brain in frosting. He laughed his ass off when his colleague took a bite and reacted accordingly.
** And then the Mechanist found the defunct facility and decided that the project which spawned robobrains which were defective to the point of violent insanity is just what the people of the commonwealth need for their protection.
* HyperactiveMetabolism: Like other ''Fallout'' games, eating food heals you... unlike other ''Fallout'' games, however, cooking food at a cooking station can heal you ''more'' than a Stimpak does, especially in the early-game, due to Stimpaks now healing based on a percentage rather than a set amount of health, and start out at 30% without any perks. Cooked food also has (unlike most raw foods) no radiation and typically provides some nifty buffs. This is taken to absurd extremes in some cases, as a Nuka-Cola Quantum heals ''400 HP'' right off the bat. Also, drinking from water pumps very quickly restores your health, much more than in previous games.
* IAmAHumanitarian: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paYU1neP3xM It's an "acquired taste".]] It's a good way to turn most enemies into free healing, but the downside is most companions dislike it.
* ICallItVera: Players can now ''give custom names'' to weapons and (most) armor pieces in their possession. Sadly, there is no way to name Power Armor.
* IHaveNoSon: [[spoiler: The Survivor can be sufficiently pissed and disappointed in Shaun enough to tell him that they're deeply offended by what he's been doing and that he isn't the son they cared for way back when.]]
* IconicOutfit: Every game gets one. The T-60 Power Armor is featured heavily in the ''Fallout 4'' promotional material, just like the T-51b in ''Fallout'', Enclave Advanced Power Armor in ''Fallout 2'', the T-45d in ''Fallout 3'', and NCR Veteran Ranger Armor in ''New Vegas''.
** An in-universe example stems from a sidequest where you have to find the outfit of the Silver Shroud, a pre-war detective superhero in the vein of TheShadow.
* IdiotSavant: The Luck 5 perk. It gives you a random chance of getting hugely multiplied experience points from any action, said chance being higher the lower your Intelligence is.
* ImpossibleItemDrop: While most loot is set to match the species (deathclaws will drop deathclaw meat and maybe a deathclaw hand - making it an even more annoying enemy, since you only get comparatively little loot out of a comparatively difficult fight - bloodbugs will only drop bloodbug parts and blood, while humanoid characters may carry some random junk items), legendary enemies are an exception, since they always have a legendary item in the loot, which will be either a weapon or a piece of armor. So it's possible for a mole rat to drop a rocket launcher bigger than it is. Also, opening a Vault-Tec lunchbox may pop a Nuka-Cola, which is bigger than the lunchbox's interior.
* InexplicablyPreservedDungeonMeat: You can come across Port-A-Diners, which contain a slice of somehow [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal perfectly preserved pie]]. The chance of actually getting it out of the machine is infinitesimal, though it increases ''slightly'' with a high Luck stat.
* InfantImmortality:
** While children aren't killable like in the first two games, this can potentially be averted for [[spoiler:Austin, who will die if he's not given a cure.]] Otherwise played straight such as if you kill the child's parents at a settlement. They still can't be attacked, but will run away so as to free up the slot space at the settlement.
** [[spoiler:In most of the non-Brotherhood endings, you end up blowing up ''Prydwen'' near the endgame. There are multiple children on deck.]]
** During the Brotherhood of Steel quest "Leading by Example", a young squire follows and watches you fight while you clear out an area of enemies. Said squire is completely invulnerable to any damage, or even kill commands on the PC. Enemies will also ignore them, giving you free reign to fight them however you wish without worrying about collateral damage.
* InfinityMinusOneSword: Several mundane weapons can be very damaging if you fully upgrade them at workbenches and take a few levels in the relevant perks. For example, the Laser Rifle, Combat Shotgun and .44 Pistol can all do over 150 damage at maximum power. For context, 150 is the base damage of the Missile Launcher. Level locking of skills and perks prevents a DiscOneNuke scenario.
* InfinityPlusOneSword: The Gauss Rifle is the most damaging ballistic weapon, capable of doing over 400 damage, depending on mods and perks. It is also rare and expensive, and has rare and expensive ammunition.
* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: You may have superhuman strength or be packing enough explosive firepower to personally re-enact the Great War, but you aren't getting through an intact chain link fence. Nor will maxed out Strength and Agility enable you to climb it. Boarded-up doors are equally unpassable.
* IntercontinuityCrossover: Unexpectedly, [[spoiler:Lorenzo Cabot appears in the backstory to have stumbled upon the actual titular Nameless City of Creator/HPLovecraft's short story.]]
* InvulnerableCivilians: Lots of characters are considered "essential" in this game to ensure that you can always complete the main questline. In particular, the original Sanctuary Hills settlers are invulnerable, preventing you from killing off the last of the Minutemen (since the Minutemen provide the opportunity for a Wild Card ending).
* IrishNames: It's Boston so yep, Irish Americans with Irish surnames. Oddly, most of the game's Boston is the North End, a neighborhood known for its Italian American population.
* ItemCrafting: You can scrap junk and materials in the world to build and customize thousands of weapons, power armor, houses, generator, defenses, and even settlements all over the game.
* IOwnThisTown: You can build entire settlements from scratch, organize defensive militias, and set up trade routes, making your own pocket kingdom in the Boston Wasteland.
* {{Irony}}:
** Before the War (and in our world), Fenway Park's left wall was the "Green Monster", known for stopping home runs when fly balls slammed into it. Now, it's Diamond City's "Green Guardian", and the people there give it a near-religious veneration as it keeps out the monsters and raiders.
** A double case of irony, Game 4 of the World Series was supposed to play ''the day'' the bombs fell. Unlike in real life, the Curse of the Bambino was never broken, even as of 2077. The Red Sox had a win-loss streak of 3-0, and if the bombs hadn't fallen, they'd have potentially won and finally broke the curse.
** There is a bug in place where [[DumbMuscle Strong]] will have almost no interval in his passive commentary. This occurs when left at base. What is one of his statements? '''"Humans talk too much."'''
** Lampshaded by Nick when rescued by a female Sole Survivor:
--> '''Nick:''' Gotta love the irony of the reverse DamselInDistress situation. But the question is, what's a doll like you doing rescuing this old private eye?
* IronicName: One unique legendary weapon is a laser gun named "Good Intentions". Said weapon is carried by Clint, the guy who betrayed the Minutemen and defected to the Gunners during the Quincy Massacre.
* IWorkAlone: The "Lone Wanderer" perk increases your armor and carrying capacity as long as you have no companions. Well, [[GoodBadBug except for Dogmeat]].
