Recommended Fallout 4 Mods

I used to play a lot (a lot, a lot) of Fallout 4. Recently a good friend asked me for a list of recommended mods. I said, "it'll be really long," and they said, "hit me," so I made this in a Google doc. Fifteen pages later, I thought I might as well post it here, to make up for a year of no posts (I have more in the works; my MFA thesis has been eating all of my time, and is also filling the Skyrim-shaped niche in my life).

Generally speaking, I have a more negative relationship with FO4 than I do with Skyrim. I love the gameplay; the gunplay and the settlement-building. I fucking hate basically all of the writing in the entire game. But I like the characters! Even though they're all contradictory and inconsistent and thematically incoherent. You know. It's whatever. Point being, I have to do a lot more work to make it into a game that I actually want to play. That's what this list is.

It's way more mods than the Skyrim equivalent, and it takes more work to get them running, and the game is more finicky and prone to crashing, at least for me. Take what you want and leave the rest.

All of these mods except for two (noted in their descriptions) are from NexusMods. Almost all of them can be installed through the official Nexus mod manager, Vortex. Here's a tutorial for setting it up. The categories and the mods are in alphabetical order for the sake of navigation.

This list assumes that you're using the Game of the Year edition, or otherwise have all of the DLC. Many mods don't require certain DLC data, but many do, so if you're missing any DLC then do your do diligence.

The categories are sort of wack, because I half-assed it and wrote this only for one person's reference. If I knew I would be publishing it, I would have trended more towards NM's categories, but it is what it is. Sometime I'd like to reformat the list, and it's subject to update in the future.

Absolute Essentials

These are the mods that are essential for the other mods in the list to work correctly, or that I would never play the game without.

Achievements Mods Enabler

Lets you earn achievements with mods installed. MUST BE INSTALLED MANUALLY, instructions on NM page.

Armor and Weapons Keywords Community Resource (AWKCR)

Modder’s resource; essentially, smooths the way for custom or modified armor and weapons. Necessary for many mods.

F4SE - Fallout 4 Script Extender

Modder’s resource; essentially, smooths the way for custom or modified armor and weapons. Necessary for many mods.

To use F4SE, you download the .zip and add the files to your Fallout 4 directory as instructed, and then instead of launching the game normally, you launch the F4SE .exe, which runs a code injection which launches the game for you. I add F4SE to my Steam library to launch it easily.

Additionally, it completely breaks with every official software update, but the F4SE team usually gets a corresponding new version out within a day or two.

Full Dialogue Interface

Changes the dialogue interface to actually show what your character will fucking say.

KeyNuker and Keyring - Hidden Keys

Adds a new item in your inventory - the Keyring - that hides all keys and passcodes inside of it, instead of them all displaying individually in the Misc tab as they do in vanilla.

Settlement Menu Manager

Adds the ability to add custom menus to the workshop menu. Mods that add workshop categories will not work without this.

Shaikujin’s Better Warning for Settlements Being Attacked

Adds a popup message box that lets you know when a settlement is under attack, instead of the easily-missable notification in vanilla.

Armor and Clothing

Armorsmith Extended

Tons of stuff; lets you layer clothes and armor, adds clothing modification at armor workshops, adds additional modification to vanilla armor (including ballistic weave), adds clothing and armor crafting at Armorsmith benches, and more.

Requires AWKCR

Legendary Modification

Makes legendary effects detachable, addable, and craftable; fully configurable with different difficulty levels that change requirements.

Note that it hasn’t been updated since 2015, but it was still functional the last time I played the game a few years ago.

Legendary Modification - DLC and Additional Fixes

Adds DLC support to Legendary Modification, and fixes some bugs.

More Armor Slots

Lets you layer armor pieces on top of clothing. Theoretically obsolete with Armorsmith Extended installed, but apparently I used them both, so idk.

Automatron Changes and Overhauls

Automatron Expanded Weapons System

Expands Automatron DLC’s robot customization and re-tunes some DLC weapon effects and meshes.

Automatron Rebooted

Overhauls a ton of elements from Automatron, including robot vendor dialogue, Robotics Expert perk effects, and more.

More Robot Voices for Automatron

Adds new voice types to craftable Automatron robots.

Robot Vendors and Doctors Dialogue Fix

Adds dialogue to robots serving as vendors and doctors.

Character Creation

I highly recommend only having one hairstyle mod for either gender installed at once; otherwise your catalog will be very unwieldy.

LooksMenU

Modifies the character creation engine and its UI to make it easier to use, and to add support for modded content like hair meshes and color overlays.

Lots More Hairstyles

Male version

Female version

Adds many, many, many new hairstyles to the character creator, mostly through frankenmeshing vanilla meshes together.

Ponytail Hairstyles by Azar V2.5A

Adds a few dozen hairstyles to the character creator.

Companions

Everyone’s Best Friend (Dogmeat and Companion at Same Time - No Console - No Hack)

Lets you have Dogmeat and another companion at the same time.

Immersion/Verisimilitude

Craftable Balcony Supports

Adds craftable balcony supports that snap to floors. Vanilla floors are flat and often float over uneven terrain, and second-floor balconies don’t have supports. This mod lets you craft supports when you want them.

Give Me That Bottle

Adds empty bottles to your inventory when you drink bottled drinks.

Lowered Weapons

Makes your character lower their weapon when you’re not aiming, so you’re not pointing your gun forward literally all of the time.

Lowered Weapons - DLC Addon

Adds DLC support to Lowered Weapons.

Requires Lowered Weapons.

No More Floating Razorgrain

Extends the razorgrain mesh lower so that it clips through the ground instead of floating above it.

No More Gaps Under Junk Fences

Extends the junk fence meshes lower to that they clip through the ground instead of floating above it.

Pip-Boy Flashlight (PipBoy - Power Armor - Lamp Overhaul)

Changes the Pip-Boy flashlight and power armor light. Fully configurable in-game through the armor workbench.

Proper Flyers and Posters

Retextures the faded, white posters and flyers around the wasteland to slightly faded but still readable propaganda posters, advertisements, pinups, etc.

Overhauls

Real World Damages

Rebalances damage to NPCs and the player based on body part hit, weapon type, and armor worn to make damage more realistic. Different files have different damage modifiers and are listed in their descriptions.

Wasteland Imports - Goods From All Across the Wasteland…

Integrates many lore-friendly items from previous Fallout games into the world.

Radio

Boston Pirate Radio - Anarchist Raider Punk

Adds a new radio station with punk and psychobilly music, a new placeable radio tuned to it, and those radios added to various raider dens.

Cadillac Jack's Radio Shack

New radio station with music and full voice acting, and a new placeable radio.

Independence Radio - Now in New Vegas

Changes the Castle’s radio broadcast to old-timey Southern folk and blues.

More Where That Came From - Diamond City Radio Edition

Adds 111 new lore-friendly songs to Diamond City Radio.

I feel like I remember needing to install this manually following the instructions on the page for it to work properly, but I don’t know for sure.

Settlements - Decoration

CREAtive Clutter

My personal favorite decoration/junk-and-furniture arrangement mod.

Unfortunately, only available through the in-game Bethesda mod catalog. Navigate to that menu, log in, and search for it.

Dino's Decorations - Clutter Arrangements Fot Your Settlements

Placeable clutter arrangements.

Included in CREAtive Clutter.

[PC] Do It Yourshelf Updated

Adds shelves with snapping points for custom clutter arrangements.

Unfortunately, only available through the in-game Bethesda mod catalog. Navigate to that menu, log in, and search for it.

Filled Weapon Displays

Decorative filled weapon displays.

Functional Displays - Display Your Collection

Adds functional display shelves and containers for collectibles, such as drink crates, port-a-diners, pool tables, etc, and adds new collectible models across the Wasteland that you can display.

LNL's Decoration Arrangements for Settlements

Adds some new clutter and furniture decorative arrangements.

Requires Settlement Menu Manager.

Maritime Paintings

Adds twelve maritime-themed paintings to the Workshop menu.

OCDecorator - Static Loot

Place Junk objects anywhere; you can move them in Workshop mode, but they can’t be knocked over in game mode.

Nixie Wall Clocks

Adds cool wall-mounted nixie-tube wall clocks to Settlement mods.

Signs of the Times - Posters

Adds a ton of vanilla posters to the Workshop catalog.

Settlements - Function and Resources

Better Balanced Generators

Moderately increases the power output of vanilla generators.

Brighter Settlement Lights

Brightens placed settlement lights.

Connectible Electricpoles [sic]

Adds a set of electric poles to the Workshop catalog.

Craftable Turret Stands

Lets you craft wooden turret stands to place on walls in your settlements.

Farming Resources

Adds a ton of farm-type stuff to the workshop, including chickens, rabbits, brahmins, guard dogs, and cats, plus a chicken coop and a cat ball and bowl with animations.

Homemaker - Expanded Settlements

Adds a shitload of new craftable objects including prefab buildings, functional planters, farmable silt beans and tarberries, functional furniture, and many decorative objects.

Requires Settlement Menu Manager.

Immersive Vendors

Adds several new level 3 vendor counters, and adds items to vendor counters when vendors are working.

Improved Shack Bridges

Adds two new buildable wooden bridges and adds snap nodes to attach them to floors and stairs.

Longer Power Lines

Increases the maximum wire length, so that you can connect powered items from further away. Pick which multiplier and download that file; I use 3X.

Modular Vault 88 Rooms

Adds new modular vault room types and pieces for building Vault 88. Make sure you download the main file AND “Modular Vault 88 Rooms for More Vault Rooms” and “Vault 88 Railings.”

Northland Diggers Resources

Adds lots of animals, new resource stations, and landscape items to the Settlement menu.

There is an unofficial “fixes and tweaks” mod by another author, but I haven’t tried it - https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/53395

Settlement Objects Combined - Lore Friendly

A bunch of individual settlement object mods combined into one.

I do not recommend downloading this mod! It is huge and unwieldy. Instead, go to its page and look at the list of the individual mods that it combines, and decide which of those you want, if any, and download them individually. I recommend Toilets, Wells, Showers, and Bridges and Stairs.

Thematic and Practical - Workshop Settlements - Structures and Furnitures [sic]

Adds many new lore-friendly objects to the Workshop menu in various themes, including prefab buildings, shack-building parts that snap, and lots of “scavenger”-themed furniture cobbled together from scavenged pieces like tires, cinderblocks, and sleeping bags.

An absolute essential for building creative, lore-friendly scavenger settlements.

Vault 88 Room Corners Plus

Adds Vault 88 room and atrium corners with windows.

Settlements - New Settlement Locations and Changes

Hangman's Alley Interior Apartments

Adds a ton of interior space to Hangman’s Alley, my favorite settlement.

Home Plate - Mechanist Lair - Full Workbenches

Adds full workbench functionality to the Home Plate and Mechanist Lair workbenches.

Nuka World Farm Settlement

Adds a new Settlement to an abandoned farm on the Nuka World map.

Settlements - Scrapping and System Changes

Immersive Scrapping

Overhauls junk and scrap to have more realistic components.

Mo Betta Scrap - Scrap Material Overhaul

Overhauls junk and scrap to have more realistic components.

More Oil

Changes the amount of oil you get from scrapping oil-containing objects to be more realistic and immersive.

Movable Power Armor [sic]

Lets you pick up and move power armor frames like any other Settlement object.

New Infinite Settlement Budget Plugin

Makes the Settlement build budget ridiculously high.

If you build your settlements too large/complex, this will CRIPPLE your system. In order to not fuck your game, pay attention to how it runs in your settlements and adjust your builds accordingly.

If it doesn’t work, try Settlements Expanded instead.

Place Everywhere

Lets you place Settlement objects anywhere, regardless of collision, air, or water. An absolute must for creative settlement-building.

Real Name Settlers

Randomly generates names for settlers that are nameless in vanilla.

Compatible with Minutemen Squads with patch.

Scrap Dead Things

Lets you scrap dead creatures, skeletons, and corpses.

Known bug: sometimes lets you scrap living enemies if you enter Workshop Mode during combat.

Scrap That Misc

Lets you scrap miscellaneous items that aren’t scrappable in vanilla, like folders and burnt books.

Scrappable Commonwealth

Lets you scrap the structural components that settlements come with, like walls and other structures. Makes any mods that let you workshop anywhere significantly more usable.

Spring Cleaning

Lets you scrap all sorts of obnoxious items not scrappable in vanilla, such as leaf piles, fence pieces, rubble, etc.

Vault 88 Unlimited Build Budget

Increases the build budget for Vault 88.

Some settlement budget mods include Vault 88, some don’t. Even if you don’t install any of those, this one is highly recommended, because Vault 88 is fuck-off huge, and you’ll meet the vanilla budget very quickly.

Weapons

Quad-Barrel Shotgun - Fallout Miami Standalone

Bitchin’ quad-barrel shotgun made for fanmod Fallout Miami and uploaded by the team. Includes a short quest to get a unique version of the weapon.

True Frags - Watch Out for Shrapnel

Makes grenades and mines more deadly. Fully configurable.

Visuals and Graphics

Enhanced Lights and Fx

Overhauls light and effects to create more atmospheric and immersive lighting.

Glowing Animals Emit Light

Makes glowing animals emit light. Also available in 2X Brighter.

UWVE - Under Water Visuals Enhanced [sic]

Makes it so you can actually fucking see underwater. There’s a ton of stuff down there.

Weather

Darker Nights

Makes the nights darker. Fully configurable.

True Storms - Wasteland Edition (Thunder-Rain-Weather Redone)

Adds many new weather features to the wasteland.

Requires patches for DLC compatibility; see Optional Files.

Untested

These are mods that I have bookmarked, but haven’t tested.

Campsite - Simple Wasteland Camping (and HD Sleeping Bags)

Adds craftable camping supplies, including sleeping bags. It seems like it would vastly improve the quality of life in Survival Mode.

Damn Apocalypse

Huuuuge overhaul of multiple systems.

Find My Power Armor

Adds map markers to your owned power armor frames; fully configurable from an in-game holotape.

This sounds useful to me because if I don’t bring my power armor to a specific designated settlement that I choose, I forget where I put it and lose it.

Requires F4SE.

The Mobile Mechanic - Portable Workbenches and Junk Scrapping

Adds a craftable, portable workbench that lets you craft and scrap junk.

Survival Options

Fully configurable options for Survival Mode, which presumably makes it tenable instead of a miserable fucking nightmare. Includes options for autosave/timer save, hunger, thirst, and sleep decay rates, companion auto-heal, damage modifiers, and more.

Contents

Lots More Hairstyles

Connectible Electricpoles [sic]

Movable Power Armor [sic]

UWVE - Under Water Visuals Enhanced [sic]