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The 15 best Fallout 4 mods, from must-haves to total overhauls

Like any Bethesda game, Fallout 4 has been kept alive by an enthusiastic modding community. These are 15 of the best Fallout 4 mods you can download today.

Fallout 4 may have had a rocky launch way back in 2015, but since then, the game has retained a consistent playerbase. This is a Bethesda game after all, meaning the modders of the world were hitting it hard from day one, and these days, some of the best Fallout 4 mods can fundamentally alter your gameplay experience in positive, refreshing, or outright crazy ways.

With several years of development behind them, Fallout 4 mods range from deviant, to useful, to bizarre. There are graphics overhauls and gameplay overhauls, companion mods, weapon mods, and… yep, there are adult mods. With so much to choose from, it can be tough to even begin.

For the sake of highlighting some more interesting options, we’re not including any Unofficial Patches, script extenders, or mod managers such as Mod Organiser 2 in this list. If you’re modding Fallout 4, you should simply be using these. If you’re modding on console, rest assured that adding mods to the game is surprisingly easy these days thanks to the built-in Bethesda.net mod resource.

And if you haven’t grabbed Fallout 4, you’ll obviously need to own the game to install these mods. Grab the game here (or through Xbox Game Pass) before you get started with the best Fallout mods out there.

Horizon

horizon overhaul

If you’re newer to modding and looking for a one-size-fits-all Fallout 4 mod that makes everything feel shiny and new, Horizon is your best bet. It’s a large-scale overhaul that rehashes many of the game’s basic systems, designed with a few goals in mind; to embrace Fallout’s basic pillars of survival, exploration, and crafting, and balance the game so that your playthrough remains interesting, even at higher levels.

Horizon is easily one of the biggest and best Fallout 4 mods out there, containing thousands of changes. It’s the kind of mod that’ll last you several new playthroughs.

Download this absolutely massive mod here.

Outcasts and Remnants

outcasts and remnants

Over the years and across many Bethesda games, some especially ambitious modders have taken it upon themselves to develop entire DLC-sized campaign mods. Outcasts and Remnats is perhaps the most popular and well-regarded for Fallout 4. 

It includes around 20 hours of brand new gameplay, comprising new factions, quests, voiced NPCs, weapons, armour, and pretty much everything else you’d expect from an official DLC packet. To add to that, four additional mods (Project Valkyrie, Depravity, Fusion City Rising, and 50 Ways to Die at Dr. Nick’s) can provide an additional 60 hours of content if you love Outcasts and Remnants.

Fallout 4 mods don’t get much better than this.

Download Remnants and Ashes here.

Unique NPCs – Creatures and Monsters of the Commonwealth

When you’ve been playing the game for years, you’ll know the best Fallout 4 mods are the ones that can deliver something that makes the game feel fresh. After a while, you start to recognise pretty much everything it can throw at you – even in a game as large as this.

Unique NPCs adds a ton of variation to the various creatures found throughout the wastleland. New species and sub-species of the beasts you love and hate – from Deathclaws to the cute old Brahmin – will all be on display.

Spice up your life with some variety right here.

Armorsmith and Weaponsmith Extended

armorsmith and weaponsmith extended

Double trouble! We’re counting this as two mods, but in reality, Weaponsmith and Armorsmith Extended are collections of many existing Fallout 4 mods. Author Gambit77 has compiled them into convenient packages, meaning you’ll only have to download two mods, rather than many.

The mods add a ton of armour and weapons to your base game, as well as tightening up the clothing modding system to account for the flood of new gear. For players who obsess over how their character looks, these are some of the best Fallout 4 mods, period.

Download Armorsmith Extended here and Weaponsmith Extended here.

Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul

And now for a mod you can’t see at all. Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul makes some tweaks to the game’s reverb settings, making for a much more realistic-sounding environment. It also adds some dynamics elsewhere in the game’s sound mixing.

Audio mods are a rare breed, but they can do some seriously heavy lifting in terms of player immersion. By slipping up or down a fader here or there, Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul does a whole lot, making it one of the best Fallout 4 mods for audiophiles.

Grab your favourite gaming headset and download the mod here.

Vivid Fallout

vivid fallout 4 texture pack

It’s hard to pick just one texture mod, so we’ve picked the mod that covers the most ground. Vivid Fallout is a collection of Hein84’s various Vivid Fallout mods, all rolled into one convenient package.

Not only are the textures more detailed than the base game’s, but they’re better optimised. So tell that poor GPU it can enjoy a slightly less taxing experience thanks to this mod.

Download Vivid Fallout here.

Full Dialogue Interface

best fallout 4 mods dialogue interface

The Full Dialogue Interface is an absolute must for Fallout 4. On day one of Fallout 4‘s release, players were complaining that the game’s dialogue options weren’t really representative of what the player character would say. You’d choose a slightly perturbed option, and your character would punch an NPC in the jaw. The name of the mode, Full Dialogue Interface, actually came from one of the tweets complaining.

One of the best Fallout 4 mods for its simplicity, Full Dialogue Interface simply replaces the original dialogue options with the sentence your character will actually say; minimising the chances of punching an NPC in the jaw.

Download the mod here.

Sim Settlements

If you’re tired of building everything for your settlers, this mod is for you. Sim Settlements allows you to designate areas of your settlement for certain societal functions – for instance agricultural, residential, or commercial – and then lets you sit back and watch as your settlers do the heavy lifting.

It’s a great piece of game design, serving a dual function of removing a monotonous task while adding a neat slice of reality. One of the best Fallout 4 mods for settlement junkies, it also adds a progression system as well as some killer new rewards for those who embrace the mod to its fullest… but we won’t spoil those.

Download the Sim Settlements mod here.

True Storms

fallout 4 true storms

One of the most popular Skyrim mods out there comes to Fallout 4! True Storms is from the same author as the huge Elder Scrolls mod, bringing a range of heavy weather effects to the Commonwealth.

Expect acid rain, dust storms, blanketing fog, and more. You know, the kind of weather you’d expect from a nuclear wasteland.

Download the here – and don’t forget to pack some goggles.

Place Everywhere

fallout 4 place everywhere

One of the most deceptively simple Fallout 4 mods, this one does exactly as it says on the box, allowing you to place building objects and clutter anywhere. No more red!

There’s not much else to say – it’s just good and it just works.

Find the mod here.

Lowered Weapons

fallout 4 minigun

Some of the best Fallout 4 mods are the ones that do something so simple and effective that it makes you wonder why it was left out of the base game.

Lowered Weapons will – wait for it – lower your equipped weapon when not in use, clearing up your first person view a whole lot.

Grab the mod here.

Start Me Up

best fallout 4 mods start me up alternate start

Start Me Up is another mod for those players who’ve been through Fallout 4 one too many times. No matter how different each playthrough can be – you can build your character differently, complete different quests, use different weapons – you’ll always have to start the game in the exact same way.

Well, not with this mod. Start Me Up adds a few options to spice up the game’s opening moments. You can do a quicker version of the original start (minus the pre-war bits), the normal start, or a range of alternate starts comprising 38 different starting locations and factions. Hell, you don’t even have to be Shaun’s parent.

Start Fallout 4 once again by downloading the mod here.

Wearable Backpacks and Pouches

fallout 4 wearable backpacks and pouches

Carry weight getting you down? Wearable Backpacks and Pouches gives you a lore-friendly way of beefing up your characters carrying capacity – no need to jack it up in the console or with cheat mods.

The backpacks and pouches are all integrated into Fallout 4 naturally through the crafting system. Go forth and carry shit.

Download the mod here.

FallUI

FallUI Fallout 4

And to finish with an absolute banger, FallUI is a sister mod to Skyrim’s popular SkyUI – simply one of the must-have and best Fallout 4 mods you can download.

FallUI overhauls the in-game menus (including your Pip-Boy as well as options and crafting menus) to make information more accessible, better presented, and generally just… better.

Download FallUI here.

Cheat Terminal

Cheat Terminal is one of the best Fallout 4 mods for Xbox One, and possibly one of the best Fallout 4 mods full stop (obviously depending on how you feel about cheating). Essentially it gives you easy access to a Cheat Menu, so you can activate what you want at the time you want it. Cheats include God Mode and infinite ammo.

You can down load the Fallout 4 Xbox One mods here.

 

Buy Fallout 4 on the Microsoft Store or download it as part of Xbox Game Pass.