I'm attempting to start up my first playthrough of Fallout 4, but I'm encountering a strange bug that causes the objects and walls of my character's house to be rainbow colored. I searched for a fix on google, but wasn't able to find anything. If you’re new to the modding scene in Bethesda games or perhaps just want to enhance Fallout 4 a tad, these 15 mods are so insane that you cannot miss out on them. Honestly, these mods are so great, we didn't even include the Star Wars mod we used in the header image, though you can find that here.Some of the mods mentioned below simply add a unique firearm or tweak the AI a tad. It is really bad because T-AA is suppose to be good anti aliasing technique (ex. Fallout 4) but the way they are using it in this game is bad in the closed beta it was better the T-AA method was not blurry and perfect.
No video game can ever be considered perfect, especially when modern titles are so vast and ambitious that even the designers themselves struggle to iron out issues months after launch. Thankfully, with Fallout 4 – a title which has its fair share of bugs and balancing issues – it’s possible to enable user-generated mods which fix problems, introduce new gameplay mechanics and even offer fresh weapons. We’ve compiled 15 essential mods you’ll want to try out below.
Best Fallout 4 Mods: Beast Whisperer
Sure, human companions in Fallout 4 are entertaining to a point, but when you’ve been foraging around the wasteland for months with all of survival hope slowly diminishing, the last thing you really want is someone else moaning about how much their feet hurt or how hungry they are.
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The answer? Recruit some animals to be your buddies! This mod grants access to the Beast Whisperer collar, which can be placed on the creatures you capture in cages to turn them into faithful pals. Fancy some four-legged friendship? This is the mod for you.
Best Fallout 4 Mods: Armorsmith Extended
The armour system in Fallout 4 is pretty great, allowing you to equip all manner of outfits to give yourself a better chance of survival out there in the wilderness. However, there’s room for improvement – and Armorsmith Extended has improvements in spades.
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The change that really matters is the fact that you can now wear outfits underneath suits of armour, allowing you to show off your sense of style even when you’re suited, booted and ready for combat. You can also wear a bandana or gas mask with any helmet that doesn’t totally cover your face. There’s plenty of other good stuff here, but the fact that you can now customize your appearance an entirely different level makes this an essential mod for seasoned Fallout 4 players.
Best Fallout 4 Mods: Lowered Weapons
Very much like running with scissors, it’s not wise to dash around with a gun pointing forwards all the time. Sure, you’re ready to tackle any oncoming foe, but it’s not particularly realistic or safe – and therein lies the focus of the Lowered Weapons mod. This simple change forces your character to lower their weapon when not firing it, which makes the whole experience that little bit more immersive.
Best Fallout 4 Mods: Eyes of Beauty
The character models in Fallout 4 are full of rich detail and unnervingly realistic, but there’s one element which doesn’t quite sit right with us – those eyes. They’re not awful as such, but they could certainly be a lot better – hence the Eyes of Beauty mod.
You can customize your character’s eyeballs to make them more detailed, striking and lifelike; some of the textures are taken from actual medical picture repositories, and with a 512×512 resolution, they offer twice the detail of Fallout 4’s standard eyes.
Best Fallout 4 Mods: Bullet Time
Fallout 4’s V.A.T.S. mechanic is great, and allows you to target various limbs on enemies for precise damage. However, if you feel that it removes too much control, you can install this mod which slows down time when you’re shooting, but calls for a little more skill than V.A.T.S. does. While you might assume this turns the game into a Matrix-style snorefest, it actually ramps up the challenge as you have to be much more precise with your aim. It also ironically makes things feel more face-paced, as you don’t have V.A.T.S. kicking in all the time.
Best Fallout 4 Mods – The unofficial patch
Fallout 4 is a beast in terms of scope, and taking this into account it’s easy to cut Bethesda a little slack in relation to the many bugs that litter the wasteland – and we’re not talking about those hidden under tiny rocks, either.
The developer is constantly improving and refining the experience, but a team of fans have taken it upon themselves to go the extra mile and clean up the game independently. The unofficial patch fixes hundreds of gameplay, quest, NPC, object, item, text and placement bugs and is one of the first mods you should install. While it doesn’t add any new content, it makes the whole experience more pleasurable.
Best Fallout 4 Mods – Take Cover
Fallout 4’s cover system is radically improved when compared to previous entries in the series, but still leaves a lot to be desired when compared to others in the genre.
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This mod aims to rectify that by offering a raft of improvements, including a third-person camera so you can judge your surroundings better, and a lean-and-shoot option plus the ability to quickly vault over cover to place yourself in a better tactical position. You can also edit how your character enters cover to get more control over the process.
Best Fallout 4 Mods – Deckard’s Coat
This cosmetic mod will allow you to indulge in all of your Blade Running fantasies. Enable it and you’ll feel like you’re skulking the rain-soaked streets of Los Angeles tracking down rogue replicants. OK, so that might not actually be true, but by golly you’ll look amazing on your wasteland explorations (Rutger Hauer poetry sadly not included).
Best Fallout 4 Mods – Better Settlers
Building settlements is a big part of Fallout 4, and once you’ve done this you’re bound to attract settlers. If you’re bored of staring at the same generic faces all the time then this mod will allow you to introduce some much-needed variety. Better Settlers not only makes your townsfolk more varied, but it also equips them with better gear and makes them more effective at withstanding assaults. That means your settlement should be a more secure place to live, too.
Best Fallout 4 Mods – Doom on your Pip-Boy
Your Pip-Boy isn’t just a handy tool for staying alive – it can run classic games to keep you occupied during down time. This mod takes things to the next level by offering a scaled-down version of Doom. It’s still in the very early stages so don’t expect much, but it’s a perfect example of how inventive these mods can get.
Best Fallout 4 Mods – See-Through Scopes
The use of weapon scopes in Fallout 4 is, by default, a bit rubbish, so we’re thankful that a mod exists which makes the process appear more realistic.
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With this mod enabled, when you use your scope you’ll be presented with a cool animation of it being raised to your eye, and you also benefit from peripheral vision during the aiming process. This is the perfect example of how user-made mods can iron out some of Fallout 4’s weaknesses.
Best Fallout 4 Mods – Campsite
The wasteland is a pretty hostile and unforgiving place, so it’s little wonder that Fallout 4 encourages you to seek proper, solid shelter before taking a few hours of shut-eye. However, if you’re feeling really adventurous then you can enable this mod and camp anywhere in the game. The mod allows you to erect a tent, build a campfire and use sleeping bags to rest in. You can even cook food on the fire.
Best Fallout 4 Mods – Be The Dog
One of the more amusing mods, the title of this one should be self-explanatory. Instead of venturing through the game on two legs, you can assume the role of a dog – either the famous Dogmeat or another canine character.
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You still get the trusty Pip-Boy – strapped rather awkwardly to one of your four legs – but you can’t use power armour or guns. Instead, you’ll have to rely entirely on your teeth and the assistance of Dogmeat; that’s right, you can still recruit the pooch companion even though you’re a dog yourself.
Best Fallout 4 Mods – Classic V.A.T.S.
V.A.T.S. – Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, in case you didn’t know – has been a massive part of the Fallout series for a while now. With Fallout 4, Bethesda changed things up a little by slowing time rather than stopping it completely, and not all fans were pleased with the alteration. If you’re one such fan then you can switch to the “classic” V.A.T.S. – as seen in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas – by installing this mod. With it enabled, time will pause while you pick your targets, rather than slowing to a crawl.
Best Fallout 4 Mods – Atom Bomb Baby
One of the more bizarre weapon modifications available for Fallout 4, Atom Bomb Babies is literally what it says on the tin – you fire baby projectiles which explode on contact. Amusing and rather unsettling in equal measures, it might not strictly be an essential mod, but it’s so strange to see in action you’ll have to try it out at least once.
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What’s your favourite Fallout 4 mod? Have we missed something off the list? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll update!
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Why we’re different
I've been known to write too much redundant nonsense, so I'll try to keep the descriptions short and concise this time.
When Fallout 4 launched I thought it was amazing. When I was 10 hours in or so, I started getting very disappointed by some design decisions, or straight up lack thereof. Features, systems and concepts that I felt needed to be in here were nowhere to be found. Even worse, some basic things that were present in Fallout 3 didn't even make it in here. Ultimately, the game felt bare bones and stripped to me. It wasn't the push forward that I expected.
There is an absolute fantastic game in here, evidenced by the fact that it outperformed Skyrim, it just needs some help getting out. Help in the terms of mods. Here are some that I use. If I have marked it with 'Essential' it indicates that this feature either should have been in the game to begin with, or is impossible to imagine playing the game without it. Check those out first.
Visual
True Storms: Wasteland Edition - Essential
Alters existing weather conditions like rain and thunder to be more realistic, noticeable and impactful. It also adds several new types of weather that, beyond just looking awesome, also affect gameplay. My favorite, the radiation storm, reduces visibility and makes you take constant radiation damage if you're out and about. You will end up having a reason to take cover inside and find a bed to sleep in to wait it out. This fits exceptionally well with Survival Mode.
Radiant Clouds and Fogs
If anything, I'm impressed by this mod's restraint to not overdo anything. It is a very nuanced tweak to clouds and fogs, that is more noticeable when it is in movement while playing. Also works with True Storms to add more nuance to the weather types.
WET - Water Enhanced Textures
Makes water look significantly better, especially in motion. Also adds new, better animations when rainfall interacts with water and such. It was a hard decision to say this isn't essential because the impact isn't that big, but I do highly recommend it.
Interiors Enhanced - Essential
This is one of those mods where upon experiencing it, you're baffled how poor vanilla was in retrospect. I had never noticed before how washed out and surreal the lighting was in vanilla interiors until I turned this mod off. This improves the atmosphere in a great way.
Better Handmade Weapon Textures
Did you ever notice how Pipe-Rifles and such were completely yellow/brownish? It looked pretty jarring. This mod replaces those textures with a more realistic look. At least, it looks more realistic to me, perhaps in reality weapons would turn completely yellow and brown over time, but it looks like garbage.
Enhanced Blood Textures
Makes blood looks significantly better and.. fresh. Admit it, you love murder. You need and want to be confronted with the aftermath of murder as realistic as possible. I have a misplaced sense of integrity that makes me not say this is essential because the impact is low, but trust me, you need this in your life.
Darker Nights - Essential
Did you ever notice there was a day/night cycle in Fallout 4? I sure did. Because I saw stars in the sky once, but that was about the only change. I could still see everything just as clearly. You need this because you want nighttime to matter. You want a reason to sleep. You want to feel that change in atmosphere. You want to have to use your Pip-Boy Light (I bet you didn't even know there was one). It also comes with the option of changing enemy visibility during nighttime so they can't see you as easily if your Pip-Boy Light is turned off (seriously, there is a light). Increasing stealth viability and further adding reason to choose either day or nighttime.
Improved Map - Essential
Did you ever notice the icons on your map are not placed where the actual point of interest is in the world? It's off by a bit. This mod not just fixes that, but also adds the main roads to your map so you can see which approach you are supposed to take to reach a certain point of interest. That means, no more trying to 'Skryim' your way up a cliff you're not supposed to be able to scale just because you are clueless how to actually get to the place you want to go to.
Eyes of Beauty
Makes eyes more sparkling, colorful and lush. While it may look a bit much on this comparison, I found it actually looks good and proper in the game itself.
Companion Overhaul
Does not overhaul anything except for their appearance. It makes the companions look more distinct and overall better. It's more than just increased pixels or texture replacers though, the characters also look different than their vanilla counterparts, so you may not appreciate this one. I did.
Seasons
Ever thought the Fallout world looked a little too destroyed? A little too brown and grey? This adds four distinct seasons to the game along with more grass and plants depending on the season you are in. You can only have one season active at a time, the way mods work with the game prevents the mod from having an active season rotation while playing. You can still install all four and then deactivate and activate whichever season you want at any time during your save, but you do have to exit the game first. My advice is to either use the one season you like best or set a timer and change your season when it goes off (for me every 10 hours).
Hot Mama Murphy
Replaces Mama Murphy with a more attractive skin. Does not alter her voice at all. No, I'm not twelve, shut up.
Radiant Birds
Apparently all birds died in the explosion, which makes sense. But I still like to believe some birds survived and are making due. This adds bird sounds to the game, which I enjoy a lot. There is also a 'less radiant' mod version.
I don't even know if I'm allowed to link to this mod, so as a precaution I won't. It makes female bodies look better and adds the option to have them appear nude if they don't have any clothes on. I also have a mod installed that does the same for men. Yes, I'm probably a dirt-bag, but that's not why I have these mods. Here's the thing, it always bothered me that there are explosions going off left and right, limbs flying everywhere, blood and brain matter splattered on the floor and walls, but if you strip someone off their clothes they still have underwear on? If you're on a quest where a guy is 'collecting nude bodies' and you discover his 'stash' and they still all have underwear on? Listen, I'm not going to say the game has perfect immersion other than this, but I want to be as close as I can get. When people are stripped of their clothes, they are naked. I don't like the taboo on nudity and/or sex and this makes me very aware there is still underwear on these people because it's still socially unacceptable otherwise. That breaks immersion for me, I don't like it.
Gameplay
Lowered Weapons
You like pointing that weapon straight forward all the time do you? It's probably smarter and more comfortable to hold it down if you're exploring and not in immediate combat, so that's what you should do.
Weightless Ammo For Survival
Survival Mode is a fantastic mode. I like not being able to fast travel and having to sleep and eat. But some of the things go a little far. I still want to play the game so carrying 20 pound cement blocks that I need for base building from place to place and having to make literally 6 trips is a little much. Another such thing is ammo. It should weigh nothing to make the game better for what it is.
Weightless Junk and Other Items
See description above. Makes junk and other items weightless. This has options build in to decide which items you want to make weightless. For me, it was all the junk that has no use to the player other than base building. I still made food and such have weight.
Equipped Armor Weight Reduction
Speaking of which.. this alters the Strong Back perk to also reduce the weight of currently equipped armor, which makes a lot of sense and makes that perk better.
Fusion to Fusion
Allows the crafting of fusion cores, which are finite items in vanilla that you require for the use of power armor, by using fusion cells. You find plenty of fusion cores over the course of the game, but unfortunately they do run out. Having to use a wiki to look up where I can find more is less preferable.
Higher Settlement Budget - Essential
Because the default cap doesn't allow you to build nearly enough. If you want to build anything worthwhile, this is absolutely necessary. It is perfectly safe and stable to increase the amount by 3 without problems. Note you have to activate this mod in the game too, look at the description for this mod.
Wearable Backpacks and Ammo Pouches
Circumvent one of the most annoying systems in Bethesda games, carry weight, by increasing the amount you can carry while having an in-world logical reason to be able to do so. Because unlimited carry weight is too much, but vanilla is too restrictive and increasing it outright is not elegant.
Functional Weapon Racks
We need a home base. And it has to look good.
Fallout 4 Rainbow Glitch
OCDecorator - Essential
Speaking of looking good, I remember setting plates on tables along with cups and such, only to have it fall through the floor when I had left and came back later. The save states in Fallout 4 for objects do not support what they are supposed to. This mod allows you to make certain objects static, so they can't fall over, which also means they will stay in the place you put them when you return later. This means Dogmeat can also walk all over it and it won't matter. Roleplay friendly.
Fallout 4 Rainbow Texture Fix
Campsite
If you like Survival Mode, this enhances your experience. No fast travel means sleeping bags and campfires that allow you to cook are awesome and make in-world sense.
Take Cover
Allows you to take cover in third person mode to get better situational awareness and shoot as you want. I don't use it a lot, but it helps in certain situations.
Craftable Floor Supports
Because while we understand there are no actual physics involved when building, it does look very dumb when things stick out without support of any kind. This is not required for you to use, but you can to make things look more realistic.
Colorful Survival Icons
Survival Mode is great, but knowing how hungry, thirsty or sleepy you are could be a little less obtuse. Color coding always works great to distinguish things.
Maibatsu Melee Weapons
I'm not one to quickly recommend visual weapon mods, but can you say these look bad?
Fallout 4 Texture Glitch
Unlock All Hairstyles At Game Start - Essential
Doesn't need further elaboration, but I will say having hairstyles locked behind completing the game and starting a new character for a game like this makes absolutely no sense. Thanks mod, at least you're reasonable.
First, I realize that the above sentence makes it sound like beards are their own type of gender, but I'm generally happy how it came out. Second, more hairstyles are always a good thing. The mods linked add over 150 to each, some of them are going to be garbage but there are a lot of cool ones in there that fill a void.
Visible Companion Affinity
See when affinity goes up, down, by how much and your totals. Also, request affinity updates at any time. Makes the somewhat weird affinity system more transparent.
Using two wrenches, tighten the connection over the joint compound and plumbers tape. Why use plumbers tape and pipe joint compound. Connections that rely on threaded pipes and fittings are prone to leaks if they're not sealed with either Teflon tape or Teflon pipe joint compound. Will caulk fix a leaking threaded elbow joint system. Cut the pipe on either side of the leaking joint at least 1 inch away from the fitting. This step is necessary to allow you to unscrew the fittings at the pipe's joints.
Nano Suit
Son, you need this craftable suit. It looks great.