8 Fallout 4 Replay Ideas to Make the Commonwealth Feel Brand New

Vault-Tec has new guidelines for you

What do you do when you want to play Fallout 4 again, but you already know how that first firefight in Concord goes, and how every fight after it ends? You’re not alone: One Reddit user with more than 1,000 hours in the game asked the same thing after trying every build and mod they could think of. Hundreds of hours in, even a world this big can start to feel like a to-do list — another settlement under attack, another warehouse full of raiders, another supply run. Once you’re running the Minutemen, Preston Garvey’s quests do start cycling back through places you’ve already cleared.

Here are eight self-imposed rules to get you out of that rut, from swearing off anything invented after the Dark Ages to hunting animals for a living to taking over Nuka-World as a raider warlord.

8 Play Survival with one life

Vault-Tec guidelines: Start a new character on Survival difficulty. Treat dying as the end of your run. No reloading allowed.

Climb out of Vault 111 and you’ll find yourself in the Commonwealth, a ruined version of Boston in the year 2287. It’s already a hostile place, with raiders, feral ghouls, and super mutants roaming the rubble. Survival mode makes it a lot less forgiving. Here’s what you’ll face: Fast travel is disabled, you can only save by sleeping, and hunger, thirst, fatigue, and disease all demand attention. Meanwhile, enemies hit harder, ammo has weight, and legendary enemies show up more often. Permadeath isn’t built into Survival mode, so you’re going to have to keep yourself honest, there, but this rule changes the calculus before you undertake any expedition. Do you have enough clean water? Where’s the nearest bed? Is this fight a risk to everything you’ve built? These seem like questions the Sole Survivor, a pre-war parent who wakes from cryosleep to find their spouse dead and their infant son kidnapped, would be asking…

7 Become Grognak the Barbarian

Vault-Tec guidelines: Melee only. No guns, explosives, or powered gear. And you’ll heal with sleep, food, and water instead of chems.

Fallout 4 is full of comic books, including one about Grognak the Barbarian, a hero whose issues (both paper and emotional) are scattered around the Commonwealth. One player’s idea for a roleplay run casts the Sole Survivor as a barbarian who “doesn’t use anything post-Dark Ages.” Grognak is the clear model here. To properly become Grognak, you’ll need to avoid a whole litany of things that make your life in the game easier. No guns, no explosives, no power armor, combat armor, or synth armor, and no Stimpaks, Rad-X, or RadAway. Metal, leather, and raider armor are fine. The exceptions are Molotov cocktails and the syringer rifle, which is basically a blowgun. This type of run even bans the Blitz perk (which teleports you to enemies in VATS) and hazmat suits. Don’t worry, you’ll figure out how to navigate the radioactive Glowing Sea without protection. Probably.

6 Live off one settlement

Vault-Tec guidelines: Pick one settlement as your home base and stay close to it. Find your food, materials, and gear nearby.

Settlements in this game are ruined neighborhoods you can clear, furnish, and fill with settlers. Most players end up building a sprawling network of them as they make their way across the map. This run asks you to adopt a different strategy: Stay close to one settlement and scavenge for anything you can find. Pick any settlement you’d like. Sanctuary Hills, the Sole Survivor’s old neighborhood, is the obvious base, but a more remote one could be strategic, too. Then, everything around your chosen settlement gets a specific job: A nearby farm is your sole pantry, your settlement’s workbench is the only place you can mod a gun, and the junk you scrounge from the ruins around it is the only material you’re allowed. Any trip that takes you away from these resources is one you’re really going to have to justify.

5 Go full raider warlord

Vault-Tec guidelines: Play a ruthless raider. Take over Nuka-World as Overboss. Claim settlements across the Commonwealth.

At least initially, most players tackle Fallout 4 with some version of altruism, helping settlers out by clearing nearby threats and building up their defenses as they work toward the ultimate goal of finding their kidnapped son. And that’s a wonderful way to play, but what would happen if you left your good intentions at the door? Let’s say you’re a raider slowly spreading their influence around the Commonwealth, holding Red Rocket, Sanctuary, and the Drive-In, taking over Abernathy Farm, and building an army to go to war with the other gangs. Once you take over Nuka-World, the game’s raider add-on, and become its Overboss, you’ll command the Operators, Disciples, and Pack. You’ll be able to turn settlements into raider outposts. Preston Garvey does not approve.

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4 Be a wasteland hunter

Vault-Tec guidelines: Hunt animals, cook what you kill, and sell only meat and hides. Don’t kill humans unless they attack first.

The Commonwealth is crawling with mutated wildlife. Seen through a certain lens, that’s an entrepreneurial opportunity. Wear a winter jacket, an ushanka, and sunglasses, and carry a hunting rifle, a sidearm pistol, and a knife. You can only sell animal products, raw or cooked — so no water, chems, junk, weapons, armor, or ammo. Avoid humans, who you’ll fight only in self-defense. Bring Dogmeat as your hunting dog. Your goal will be to reach level 50 without killing a person. At least, nobody who didn’t very clearly deserve it.

3 Go full nomad

Vault-Tec guidelines: Don’t build settlements, don’t use permanent storage, and carry only what you can take with you.

At some point in this game, you will be asked to become a landlord. You’ll be able to found and support settlements, complete with residents, defenses, and supply lines across the Commonwealth. This is a major part of the game. Unless you’re attempting another type of run. Instead, you’ll wander the ruins of Boston with only what fits on your back. You’ll need to justify the weight of every piece of junk. You’ll need to feel good about the time you’re spending for every detour. Heads up that there’s a good chance you’ll want to make one exception. The Molecular Level, the quest that gets you into the Institute, features one route that has you build a teleporter at a workshop you choose. You can allow that, if you like. Or you’ll just need to pick a different route.

2 Play with no HUD and no fast travel

Vault-Tec guidelines: Turn off quest markers and the compass, if you can. Skip fast travel, and navigate by roads, signs, and landmarks.

How well do you know the Commonwealth, really? It’s a remarkably fleshed-out world under the rubble: You can see Boston’s elevated highways, its ballpark-turned-town, its skyline of half-collapsed towers. Turn off the HUD and skip fast travel, and those landmarks become your map. This playstyle suits the Sole Survivor well, who wakes up and has to navigate a city that’s somewhat familiar but has completely moved on without them. You’ll come to recognize routes by, say, the shape of a collapsed overpass instead of a simple arrow in the corner of your screen. This might be a slower and occasionally frustrating run, but it’s the quickest way to make a known world feel new. And it makes sense to learn your routes without relying on tech, anyway. The super mutants have already done exactly the same thing, and you wouldn’t want to give them an edge if you ever ran into one.

1 Make the Castle a companion convention

Vault-Tec guidelines: Recruit every companion you can, send them to the Castle, and rotate them through your party between trips.

The Castle used to be the Minutemen’s headquarters, until a giant mirelurk queen overran it in 2240 and killed most of their leadership. Retaking it with Preston Garvey gets you a fortified base and the Radio Freedom transmitter. Gather all your companions there for a standoff when you defend it, and they’ll all blurt out their opinions at once. Max out their affinity first, though, or you’ll rack up dislikes. Now, you can’t bring your whole roster along at once, so you’ll need to rotate: Nick Valentine for detective work, Piper for Diamond City, and Danse for the Brotherhood’s take. Keep Danse and Nick in separate rooms, though. Danse has strong feelings about synths. And Nick is one.