Fallout 4 exploits

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This page lists exploits in Fallout 4.

• Exploits should be written with brevity and clarity in mind.
• Please observe the editing guideline. In particular, do not use first-person or forum-style speech.
• Videos should not be included unless the exploit cannot be explained without one.

Gameplay exploits

Changing Building Limit Without Console

1. Drop weapons from inventory
2. Enter building mode
3. "Store" those dropped weapons to workbench from building mode (PC default TAB/XB1 B/PS4 ◯). Scrapping the weapon will also work in reducing the size if done from building mode.
4. Gamma guns are particularly effective in reducing size quickly with this exploit. Hangman's Alley can be reduced from full to near zero with 10 stores. It works with modded gamma guns too and they have the advantage of being relatively lightweight.

This also seems to work with junk items.

1. Drop all junk items on the floor.
2. Enter building mode.
3. Scrap items to increase building limits.

This can be automated by setting up a vacuum hopper to pull out junk from a container and drop them on the ground. Build limits are measured internally in polygons. Weapons have a high polygon count, which is why they are most effective in reducing the build limit, but any scrappable item will have some effect.

This exploit has been re-tested on PS4 (14th Apr 2016) after patch 1.5, and it is still working. As of July 10, 2023, this method still works on the PC version.

Free Shield

Using the hold mechanic, the player character can hold an item and use it as a shield. This does not prevent the player from using their weapon, making it an effective tool. First, drop an item (preferably one with a large surface area) on the ground. Now, hold the grab button (A on XB1, ⨯ on PS4) until the player character is holding the item. They now have a shield that bullets cannot pass through.

• The player character should be aware of their weight limit, as picking up something already on the ground may make them overencumbered.
• This best works with items such as: Power armor, Fat Man or minigun.
• Different weapons shoot at different heights (differences can be also be caused by whether the player character is using Hip-fire or Aiming). Due to this, they won't be able to use some weapons.

Item Duplication

If a player character stores an item in their storage then returns it to their inventory fast enough, the item will duplicate itself. This is can be done by rapidly pressing the button used for storing said items, while the crosshair is pointed at a low point near the center of the object, and then pressing the accept button. This can be an easy way of fulfilling the needs of your settlements when used on things like crops, and it even works in Survival.

Wall Jumping

If a player character holds an item and jumps against a wall, it is possible to scale to the very top. This can be used to scale high buildings (eg. Trinity Tower). It is easier do this with an object that has a large surface area, such as a Power Armor torso piece.

Settlement Gravity Exploits

An exploit used in order to create inaccessible areas. The player character can build a high stairway or stack of prefab cubes above their base and place several guard positions or turrets, then scrap all the supporting objects and the sentries or towers will stay afloat. Whenever the base is attacked the sentries or turrets will have a 360° and largely unobstructed view of the settlement . These positions in mid air are difficult to attack with grenades and impossible to melee, at the expense of being more exposed to enemy ranged direct fire. It is also possible to build other resources in unreachable places, or even the entire settlement. However unless stairs are retained, settlers will not be able to path to the settement objects, though they may teleport to them or be already at these objects when the player character enters the cell. This kind of isolation is not foolproof, as attackers may also teleport to the settlement objects in some cases.

Reverse Pickpocketing to Non-Allies

It is not normally possible to give grenades to NPCs who are not currently allied (settlers or companions). A workaround to this is to first reverse-pickpocket a non-lethal grenade (signal grenade, relay grenade or artillery grenade), then in the same action reverse-pickpocket one or more lethal grenades. Only the first grenade to be reverse-pickpocketed, detonates. The other grenades will be transferred safely, and the effects of the first grenade exploding will not aggro the NPC, and (hopefully) will not be lethal to them. There is still the risk of the pickpocketing operation aggro'ing the NPC.

Traps

The exploit is used by saving then intentionally detonating/ tripping traps. Then if the player reloads their save, the traps will be pre-tripped/detonated. Bottlecaps from bottlecap mines will not be present.

Overpowered Rules Exploits

There is no evidence these are bugs, unlike the options outlined earlier in this section, but they are at least features that appear to be overly powerful.

Armor Mods

The player character can use mods from lower tier armor for higher tier of the same type, such as crafting a deep-pocketed mod for standard combat armor and applying it on heavy combat armor without having the perk to craft it for Heavy. (This goes for all armor types with "standard," "sturdy" and "heavy" versions, which is not by design, or the cost would always be calculated for the light armor variant). There are three separate categories of mods for an armor set (limbs, torso, and helmet) whose mods cannot cross over.

Bleed Stacking Exploit

Bleeding effects (such as Wounding) stack damage rather than extending the duration. Meaning that weapons with this ability and high attack rate values (such as auto fire weapons) can do extremely high damage per second.

Suppressed Auto Exploit

Sneak attack damage multipliers, base multipliers as well as Perk-derived multipliers, are applied to every shot from a suppressed auto weapon, not just the first shot or first burst. Attacking outside VATS while Hidden with a suppressed auto weapon can cause extremely high levels of damage.

V.A.T.S. Auto-aim Without Using AP

Like in Fallout 3, picking a target in V.A.T.S. auto-aims the crosshair reticle to that target. This can still be exploited by the player to a high degree in close quarters situations (mole rat rush) by:

1. Going into V.A.T.S. and highlighting the target or part they want to hit.
2. Cancel out of V.A.T.S. and repeatedly press the fire button as they do so.
3. Hold the V.A.T.S. button again to quickly slow down time again and select another target.
4. Repeat.

This is applicable in long-range engagements, but practicality varies. In close quarters, it is more consistent. On long-range engagements, it can be difficult to hit it accurately.

V.A.T.S. Slow-time Situational Recon

By holding down the VATS key it is possible to freely traverse the camera in all directions, and gain complete situational awareness in extremely slow time.

Menu, HUD, Inventory, and Radio-related exploits

Build Mods Without Having the Perk or Materials for it

This glitch can give a player character slightly better weapons and armor mods than their perks or assets might allow for, giving them an early game edge straight out of the vault.

When in the workbench mod menu list, any mod not highlighted and listed directly above or below one that can normally be constructed is capable of being built in its place. The process requires that adjacent mod not be built or in the player character's inventory. The player character must select the mod that can be built while quickly press in the direction of the mod on the list that is normally not selectable. If timed correctly the materials window will appear but the selected line will have moved from the one with the known mod to the line one above or below it. Executing the build creates the mod from the new line at the cost of materials from the originally selected one. If the action is mistimed back out of the materials window without executing the build.

Additionally, any mod slot where the first line allows for a mod to be removed and not replaced can be used to build whatever mod is on the next line down for free, if another mod in that list is already attached. The player character must select the first line that removes the current mod while quickly pressing down, then execute if the menu focus switches the the second line. Since the original line has no material cost, the first mod below it is free.

in addition, this also works at cooking/chemistry stations, allowing the player to make nearly infinite amounts of various chems and meals-as long they don't share material costs.

Duplicate Weapons

This allows for duplication of any weapon. The player character kills an enemy wielding the desired weapon, such that the weapon falls to the ground, then instructs their follower to pick up the weapon. They then aim their crosshair at the corpse and get the hovering list of its inventory. When the follower picks up the weapon, it does not disappear from the hovering list, allowing the player character to also loot it from the corpse and resulting in both the player character and their follower now having duplicate copies of the weapon.

If one reverse-pickpockets a weapon into an enemy's inventory beforehand, this can duplicate the weapon.

Free Ammunition Exploit

This allows for the player character to have a free full magazine of ammo which does not take away from their current supply.

The player character selects the weapon they wish to have a free magazine for, then finds any container, and stores all ammunition for that weapon in that container. This stored ammo is not deducted from the current (loaded and total) ammo count indicators of the equipped weapon. The total ammo count will go to 999. When this magazine of free ammo is exhausted, both counters are correctly updated to zero. The player character can go back to the container and pick up the previously stored ammo for that gun. Then, if repetition of this exploit is desired, the player character must unequip and reequip the weapon. While using this exploit, reloading the weapon, unequipping it, swapping to any other weapon, or picking up ammo for the weapon will automatically end the exploit.

There is another way to procure free ammo of a desired type: settlers do not consume ammunitions but they "generate" them over time, even if in small quantities. Settlers are normally equipped with pipeguns using .38 rounds and they normally have around a dozen bullets with them. If the player removes all but one bullet (usually removing all of them and then giving the settler one single bullet back), over time the number of bullet possessed by the same settler will grow back again to around a dozen (time needed still to be defined). This works for all kind of ammo for all weapons available for the settler (i.e., if the settler is equipped with a 10mm pistol and a pipegun and a single bullet for each of them, after a while the settler will have around a dozen of bullet for both weapons). This can be used to farm ammunition from the settlements.

Free Fat Man/Mini Nukes

The player character can easily gain an infinite amount of free Fat Mans and Mini Nukes. All they have to do is travel to Kill or Be Killed in Goodneighbor. To KL-E-0's left, there will be a mini nuke. To her right, there should be a Fat Man. The player character needs to position the cursor over the Fat Man/Mini Nuke, then hold down the activation button so that they are holding the Fat Man, being careful not to tap the button, as that will steal it. The player character must then walk into the upstairs portion of the shop and go to the right side of the room and enter sneak mode. The sneak indicator may say detected or caution, in which case the player character may have to adjust their position until the sneak indicator says that they are hidden. The player character can now tap A/X to drop the Fat Man/Mini Nuke, then steal it. To repeat this exploit, the player character will need to fast-travel away and Sleep or Wait for a week (167 hours). If the player character plans on selling the Fat Mans, they should do so before they leave Goodneighbor, as she will restock caps every week.

Robot Workbench Exploit

This glitch unlocks/creates mods without having the necessary components or perk level for. All the player must do is hold down a direction until it speed scrolls and immediately hit X on the one right after the locked mod while still scrolling (the player must be able to create/install the mod right next to it). When the player presses X on the one they were aiming for it will always highlight the one right before the one they pressed X on. This trick works works both up an down as long as there is enough room for it to start speed scrolling. The player should keep in mind that they might want to take off any mod they want to keep that it is replacing because it will turn into whatever mod they are installing.

Punch Warp Exploit

Sometimes melee attacks in VATS freeze for a moment before the player character teleports to his target. This happens when a target is in range for a melee attack but there are obstacles blocking the player character from their target. If such an attack is interrupted, target coordinates are stored and next time VATS is used for a melee attack, player character will move to the stored coordinates.

Forced Weapon Mod Exploit

When using a weapon workbench, input scrap then modify at almost the same time. Doing so will allow you to apply mods from the scrapped weapon to the next alphabetical item in your inventory. By renaming your weapons to be sequential eg. (Space Space) and (Space Space) or (.01) and (.02), weapon mods from one weapon may be placed on another, although some combinations may not work.

Experience (XP) exploits

Infinite XP

• After reaching the Prydwen and completing Show No Mercy, the player character can speak to Proctor Teagan (Weapons Merchant) and ask him about extra work. He will give the player character a mission acquiring crops from the citizens of the Commonwealth. The first location will be a random settlement (Tenpines Bluff, Somerville Place, and the Slog confirmed) and, after completion, will award around 100 caps and 125 XP (leveled, above level 50 rewards 390XP). Asking for extra work again will give the player character the exact same quest as before, convincing the same settlement to contribute crops. This can be repeated for unlimited XP and caps. Playstation 4 Xbox One Termination of the residents will result in termination of the exploit.
• After reaching the Brotherhood of Steel's Prydwen, the player character can ask Proctor Quinlan to do a scribe escort. After he gives the player character the quest, they can head out to the flight deck (where an area near a couple of barrels is visible) and the player character can kill the scribe in secret. Once this is done, they can return back to him saying the scribe died, and he will award the player character with XP and caps still. Alternatively, instead of sniping the scribe from the flight deck, the player character can choose to fast travel down to the airport, sprint to him, and speak with him as to get him to follow them. In this manner, the player character can "beam him up" back to the Prydwen by once again fast traveling back to it. Now, the player character can take the scribe to an area where they can execute him while hidden (best done by going into the Quarters at the end of the hall, just behind the player character when they enter the main hall). Executing the scribe in person will net the player 3-5 stimpaks and a holding of fusion cells, usually 16. It is imperative that the player character is not seen and kills the scribe quickly (easily done by temporarily setting the game at very easy and stealth killing him.) They can then turn right around and speak with Proctor Quinlan just down the hall. The player character can repeat this for a healthy supply of stimpaks and fusion cells to go with their XP and caps. The quest rewards the same amount of caps and XP whether the player character complete the mission as normal or simply kill the scribe. Xbox One Though the XP may stop being granted for the exploit, the player character will still receive the caps. It can be fixed by attempting the mission and the scribe being killed by an enemy. This is best accomplished with Black-Rim Glasses (CHR +1), Gray Knit Cap (LCK +1), and Reginald's Suit (CHR +3). (Or any other CHR and LCK awarding apparel).

Reapplied Armor Mod for XP

The Dense mod for metal leg armor can be reapplied, giving additional XP, after selecting another leg mod. The higher the the level of the metal armor the more XP is awarded. This can be repeated as long as raw materials are still available to craft with. The materials are consumed just as if a new Dense Metal Leg Armor mod were created, however no additional copies of the mod are added to the player character's inventory.

Settlement Build Object Spamming for XP

Certain settlement items such as fence posts and shelves have very low resource costs and/or recover a substantial part of their resources when scrapped. Particularly in locations like Sanctuary Hills that have a very large quantity of materials available, large amounts of XP can be obtained quickly by simply building, scrapping and rebuilding these settlement objects.

Repeatable Lockpicking

If the player character happens to find a locked safe right next to a terminal that can also control the lock on the safe, it is possible for them to pick the lock, use the terminal to lock the safe, then repeat the same process over and over. They will earn the XP for picking the lock every time they do it. This is most useful with a master lock, and even faster with the unbreakable lockpicks perk. This method cannot however be used to infinitely gain approval with Piper unless the player quicksaves and reloads in between each try, or sleeps in a bed for about 2–3 hours to burn through the internal "cooldown" after each attempt. Some locations with safes connected to terminals include:

• Cambridge Polymer Labs near a desk in the upper floor of the lab.
• Expert Safe next to an Advanced Terminal in the radioactive shack at Jalbert Brothers Disposal.
• Expert Safe next to a Novice Terminal on the roof of Weston water treatment plant.
• Novice Safe next to a Novice Terminal inside the Leasing Office of Fiddler's Green Trailer Estates.
• Inside main building in University Point (Unknown if level based). Requires Locksmith Perk level 2 for one door to get to terminal and safe.
• Expert safe inside tall blue building immediately north of Faneuil Hall.
• Safe to the left of Lance's terminal in West Everett Estates.
• Safe on the opposite wall from a terminal inside Suffolk County Charter School.

Succeed on Every Risky Dialogue Choice

To achieve a 100% success rate on dialogue choices, the player character must enter the dialogue menu or already have it open, then pause and quicksave, before attempting a dialogue choice. If it fails, the player can reload their save until they are successful. This is a useful way to bypass the dialogue choice mini-game.

Note: It appears that the player character has an infinite amount of attempts when they would normally have one.

Trigger Bright Idea on Quest Completion

Idiot Savant on second rank gives the player 5* XP on random actions, including quest completions (basic go fetch quests 200XP+). The player can quicksave before handing quest in and then reload the quicksave until they trigger the perk. May take a few attempts, but easily worth it to gain 5 quests worth of XP.

Money and loot exploits

Legendary Item Farming

By saving prior to entering an interior cell, it is possible to repeat the random generation of legendary item loot from legendary enemies in that cell, by restoring from the same save and re-entering the interior cell, until the desired legendary item is obtained.

Note that there is a cooldown timer that prevents the same type of legendary time from being issued again for a while. This exploit does not defeat that cooldown timer.

ArcJet Loot Farming

As Paladin Danse cannot be killed, he can be left in the Engine area of ArcJet systems indefinitely, fighting and killing synths whose loot can be collected after the scene ends. Eventually the loot drops of the synths reach an internal limit for the game (platform-specific) and will not increase any more.

More generally, on the ArcJet mission, it is possible to lag behind Danse and let him do all the fighting, and collect a very large amount of loot in terms of weapons and ammunition from the synths and turrets Danse single-handedly defeats.

Vertibird Loot Farming

Using vertibird signal grenades to summon a Vertibird, the Vertibird can be destroyed and the pilot killed. The pilot can be looted for items of a greater value than the signal grenade expended. Melee weapons can be used to do most of the damage to the Vertibird while it is grounded, reducing ammo expenditure to minimal levels.

Synth Relay Grenade Farming

Similarly, synths can be summoned and killed without penalty, and their loot will typically be of greater value than the cost of the relay grenade, provided the synths are killed with economical use of ammo.

Unattended Water Farming

Normally high water production creates a high risk of attack, necessitating building strong defences and periodically responding to attacks. However a settlement with zero population will never be attacked. Hence gigantic water farms can be built at zero risk, and without any expenditure on defences or on settlers.

Water Pump Spamming

One constraint on water farming is usually the amount of accessible water surface area in the settlement. However water pumps (manual or powered) do not have this constraint. Water pumps only require dirt, and this can be provided by building planters. Furthermore, planters can be stacked vertically, enabling water pumps to be stacked vertically. In many cases using this method the entire 3D volume of a settlement can be filled with water pumps, running unattended. For manual pumps, no generator infrastructure is required, making this far more resource-efficient than all but the most advanced water purifiers, and massively more water production in relation to the size of the settlement.

Note that these type of water farms place a large load on the game engine and can become very laggy. It is advisable not to spend much time in these settlements, and visit them only to collect the water.

Infinite Item Unencumbered Stack Transport

An infinite number of items of one type (such as purified water) can be transported by dropping the stack onto the ground and picking the stack up with the Hold button. The stack needs to be dropped and picked up when passing through world cell transitions. This is very useful for transporting large amounts of trade goods to markets for sale.

Encumbrance does not apply when aboard a transport Vertibird, so this is another way to transport extremely large quantities of items to a market for sale, particularly when combined with the preceding technique.

Strong Back perk at level 4 allows the player to fast travel even if encumbered, basically having the same effect of this exploit.

Safe Stealing

An object that is in an area observed by NPCs can be safely stolen by using the 'hold' technique to move the item to another area where the player character is unobserved, dropping it on the ground, and only then doing the action to take/steal the item into inventory.

This will still increment the Theft counter and trigger negative reactions from companions, who are always aware of the player character's actions while they are the current companion. But it avoids the risk of detection and hostility or attack from NPCs in the area. In effect this method completely bypasses the game's theft/stealing mechanic, except when stealing an item that is in an NPCs' inventory.

Bullets as Currency

Normally caps are the only item which does not suffer a loss when the player character exchanges them for other items. However for a reasonable band of barter ability (though not the lowest), .38 bullets have the property that they can be bought for the same price that they sell for, 1 cap. In a non-survival game where ammo has no weight, this makes them a currency almost as functional as caps, and with the advantage that they can be stored in containers or in other characters' inventories. While there are a few other 1-cap items that also have this 'currency' property, none of them are as common as .38 bullets, which are ubiquitous in the game.

Infinite Harpoons

After shooting about 16 harpoons into a wall, the first harpoon can be picked up but will not disappear afterwards allowing it to picked up again multiple times indefinitely. This can be combined with the Forced Weapon Mod to acquire an infinite supply of almost any ammo.

NPC and Companion-specific exploits

Bypass Companion Carryweight Limits

All companions (except Dogmeat) are able to pick up an infinite amount of items even when their carrying capacity is maxed out. The player character simply drops the item they want them to carry and then commands their companion to pick the item up. They will pick the item up and put it in their inventory regardless of the weight they are already carrying. This does not let the companion carry more items through "Trade", and some companions will refuse to pick up items that are marked as stolen so they must be added through "Trade" or carried by the player character themselves. If a player wants to transfer numerous items from their inventory to a companion, they can transfer all items they want to pass to the companion in a container (even dead enemies) and repeatedly ask the companion to check the container/body. This is very useful in confined spaces, like inside buildings, or where the terrain does not allow one to easily spot dropped items.

While this exploit can be attempted with Dogmeat, and will often succeed, there is a significant risk that it will cause some or even all of his current inventory to be deleted. The lost items can then only be recovered by restoring a previous save. (Tested 28 Sep 2020).

Companion Character and Settler Clothing Exploit

Companions and settlers can be reduced to wearing only underwear, even though the game UI tries to prevent it by hiding their currently worn piece of clothing from their inventory. This method will not work on Danse, who won't change his clothes at all. Nick Valentine is only affected by this exploit if the player character has him enter power armor. His trench coat will appear in his inventory.

The player character must Trade with a companion/settler NPC and give them a piece of over-clothing, ideally a single piece that takes up armor slots such as a dress for the legs and torso or Radstag Outfit, and then press Y/△/T to have the NPC equip it. The NPC's previously hidden initial clothing is now listed in their inventory (and can be taken).

Now, the player character must give the NPC a piece of apparel (usually armor or accessories) that uses some of the same armor slot(s) as the equipped over-clothing, and press Y/△/T for the NPC to equip. Equipping the armor piece automatically unequips the over-clothing, leaving the NPC wearing no clothing, only the piece of armor. The player character can then take back the over-clothing. They can also take back (or unequip) the armor piece, so that the NPC is wearing nothing at all, other than (for most NPC models in the vanilla game) underwear.

Dogmeat Fetch Exploit

Dogmeat is able to fetch a variety of items including the Cryolator, which normally requires the level 3 Locksmith perk, and other items that are out of reach, like the grenade bouquet over the entrance to West Everett Estates.

Note: The ability to 'fetch' the Cryolator appears to be more successful when attempting very early in a playthrough.

• Tested on Aug 2019 patched version on PC at player character level 1 and working.
• Tested on the latest version (Dec 2019) on Xbox One (X) at approx. player character level 12, 24 & 45 and not working.
• Tested on the latest version (Dec 2019) on Xbox One (S,X) at player character level 1 and working.
• Tested on the latest version (Dec 2019) on ps4 at player character level 1,5,10 and working.

Hazardous Fetch Exploit

Any companion, not just Dogmeat, can be ordered to fetch items from unsafe areas, such as radioactive areas, even if the companion is themselves vulnerable to radiation.

Increasing Companion Affection by Recruiting Them

When the player character recruits a companion, the companion's affinity increases by 3%. The companion recruit counter can be reset by finishing any quest or progressing any quest to next objective, meaning that the player character can recruit all companions and increase their affinity by 3%, complete a radiant quest and then come back and recruit them again which increases their affinity by another 3%.

Multiple Active Follower Exploit

It is possible to have more than one follower, including the current companion. A number of NPCs can be used for this exploit. In each case the NPC is acquired as a temporary follower and then, by failing to proceed with their quest, can be retained indefinitely.

For example, by meeting X6-88 to hunt the rogue, then simply not going to the targets location, he will follow the player character anywhere they go. However, he will fight with BoS and other various potential allies of the player character. At this point he is not yet eligible to be a companion and is considered a temporary follower. Travis Miles, the radio DJ, can become a temporary follower in a similar way during the Confidence Man quest, by meeting him at the kidnapping location but not proceeding with the rescue, giving the player character another follower. Similarly Honest Dan can similarly be recruited as a temporary follower, by accepting his quest but not proceeding with it after meeting him at Covenant's bunker. This also works with Preston Garvey in Taking Independence; he will follow the player character as long as they don't destroy enough eggs to spawn the mirelurk queen. Unlike the other followers listed above, Preston is already available as a permanent companion at this time, but becomes a temporary follower during this portion of the quest. Cleansed is also available as a temporary follower during the quest Trip to the Stars.

Unkillable Follower

Some of the recruitable temporary followers in the previous section can be recruited in a state when they are not killable. For example see the entry on Honest Dan. In this state they will self-recover in a few seconds after losing all their HP, without requiring stimpaks or any intervention from the player.

Upgrading Weapons of Temporary Followers and Un-allied NPCs

It is not possible to enter the Trade dialog with temporary followers or other un-allied NPCs, such as caravan guards, Bunker Hill traders and residents, etc. To attempt to change their equipment it possible to drop weapons or armor and have them walk over it, or leave weapons (with matching ammo) in a container during combat. If it's better than what they already have, they will sometimes pick it up and equip it. Using this method they will not equip armor or grenades. They may equip melee weapons, but only if they have no ranged weapon or no ammo for their ranged weapon. Broadly speaking they will pick up a weapon if it has higher DMG than their current weapons. Alternatively one can reverse-pickpocket the equipment into their inventory, saving first in case the follower detects the pickpocketing and goes hostile.

Disarming NPCs

Pickpocketing except at high levels cannot remove an NPCs equipped weapon. However their ammo is always exposed for pickpocketing. If all of their ammo is stolen, they are effectively disarmed as they cannot use the weapon. Since they then unequip the weapon, that makes the weapon itself also available for stealing. This is useful as a preliminary to attacking that NPC or other NPCs allied to them.

Disarming NPC vendors

Disarming a NPC vendor is even easier - they will sell their own weapon and the ammo for it. Buying either of those makes them effectively disarmed.

Physics engine exploits

1.0 Fly Exploit

With the 1.0 build, it is possible for the player character to fly by grabbing an item they are standing on. This may kill the player character though. This might possibly be avoided by equipping power armor prior to attempting the exploit.

Meat Shield Exploit

Sometimes V.A.T.S. will end and seem like the target was missed, but then a few seconds later, the bullet hits. This was tested multiple times at point blank and ranged V.A.T.S. The target can be used as a meat shield while the bullet is "frozen".

Prop Climb Exploit

The player character can walk backwards up any wall in the game by dropping an item, crouching down, grabbing it without putting it in their inventory (hold ⨯ on PS4), standing up, and walking backwards towards a wall. Works best with flat walls and walls that don't have a lip at the top as the player character might end up falling once they reach the lip. Fall damage still applies while doing this, unless the player character equips power armor or Freefall Legs.

Power Armor Walk Through Walls

The player character can walk through walls by standing directly in front of a wall with power armor, entering third person view, exiting the Power armor while holding the right thumb stick to the left, and tapping the A button on Xbox One or the X button on PS4. If done right, the player character will clip somewhat into the Power armor, then will enter the Power armor, clipping through the wall in the process. After regaining control, you can just continue walking to pass through completely and end up out of bounds in certain locations (Hubris Comics, Memory Den, etc.) or fall out of bounds and teleport back in bounds.

Moving Immovable Objects

Objects (such as vehicles) that can not normally be moved by the player character can be pushed from their current position by picking up an object from the ground with the Hold key (a rifle is usually a good choice, because it is long and thin), and pushing the large object with the held object. This can be used to push large objects inside settlement boundaries and scrap them, or to create tactically useful obstacles. It is not just large objects that are immovable, there are also many small objects that are immovable, though these are less useful. Not all objects can be moved in this way, it depends on the specific object.

It is also possible to move immovable objects slightly by throwing non explosive grenades (relay, vertibird, artillery) at them, or firing flares at them, as these impart a small amount of kinetic energy.

Settlement-related exploits

Duplicate Materials

This allows for infinite raw materials at any settlement. This works best with no junk in the workbench, as retrieving the material from storage is much faster.

• The player character must drop desired materials on the ground, then press the scrap button(XB1 X, PS4 ◻) and quickly follow that up with the accept button(XB1 A, PS4 ⨯) then almost instantly after that, the store button(XB1 B, PS4 ◯). If done correctly, the player character should have had the scrap menu pop up and go away and be at the store menu. They should ensure that they now have cloned resources. This is most effective with large quantities and can also be used as a caps glitch.
• Another more effective method is for the player to quickly press and hold the accept and store buttons at the same time after the player releases the scrap button. They should have both menus open for as long as they hold the buttons, then release the select button, it should scrap and still have the option to store. The player should then let go of the scrap button and press the accept button.

Note: The "scrap" and "accept" actions trigger on button release, whereas the "store" action triggers on button press. Since the player essentially wants to trigger the "store" action while the "scrap" and "accept" actions are queued, the simplest way to do this is for the player to hold (but don't release) "scrap" and "accept" with the fingers of one hand, and ready one finger of their other hand over the "store" button. Then, they should release "scrap" and "accept" in quick succession, keeping in mind that it's the releasing of these buttons that triggers these actions - and they need to be released in the correct order while simultaneously tapping "store" with their other hand. Using this technique should make it significantly easier to pull off this trick consistently.

• One more way to do this resource duplicate process, and also makes it possible to be sure the player does not destroy the item they is trying to get resources from is for them to drop the item onto the ground, go into workshop mode, hover over the item, then press and hold "scrap" (◻ on PS4) button with one finger and with another finger or hand, they need to press "store" (◯ on PS4) and hold it, at nearly the exact time they release ◻. While holding ◯, now the player should notice that both accept menus are there. If they get them both the player should press accept on them both while still holding ◻. This will scrap the item, and return the original copy of it to storage. If the player only gets one menu or the other, they can cancel it without destroying the item or having to go take it back out of the workshop bench.

Rug Glitch for Illegal Placement of Objects

When the player character moves a carpet without using group-select, any objects on top of the carpet (including other carpets) move with it, but only the original carpet is checked for clipping. For example, the player character can stack two carpets end on end, then place a store on top of the second carpet in order to clip that store through an existing countertop in their settlement, or they could use it to place a bed halfway through a wall. This doesn't work on walls, floors, or any objects that snap onto things.

Note: Sometimes when removing the carpets, the objects may "jump" up or down. This might make it impossible to retrieve secondary carpets in addition to ruining the looks.

Wires Without Limits

In order to connect two objects with wires while ignoring any barriers or distance limitations, the player character can do the following:

1. Ensure there's an existing wire connecting to at least one of the two objects in question.
2. Be within wiring range of that object.
3. In workshop mode, look through an existing wire at that object, so that the object is under the targeting reticle but the wire is highlighted.
4. Even though there's no button prompt for it at the bottom of the screen, press the wire connect button (△ on PS4, Y on XB1, Space on PC). One will hear the sound of a wire connecting, and there will possibly be sparks as though there were a free end of a wire floating in space.
5. Go to the second object, and hit the wire connect key, and the wire will connect. It'll also display the player's copper count as though they were still building a wire, despite the patch removing the cost for wiring, so back out (◯ on PS4, B on XB1).

Things to Note:

• The player character can use two normal wall conduits on either side of a wall, rather than working with the more expensive and bulkier wall pass-through conduit.
• The wires can sag down to ground level or even underground, possibly ruining immersion (unless simulating underground wiring is the player's intention).
• If the player character is trying to move an object with illegal wiring, the only valid placement areas will be those with legal wiring, so store the wires before moving and replace them when done.
• It's possible the floating sparks will remain. They may disappear after the player either saves and reloads or leave area and come back. They may persist.

Steal Materials From Unallied Settlements

The player character may craft at the workstations of unallied settlements, using materials that are not visible in the inventory view of the workstation, but are shown as available in the crafting recipe details. In some cases the player character will bring some of the materials required to complete the crafting recipe. For example it is possible to bring only plastic to Abernathy farm and craft Jet using Fertilizer that is taken from the settlement's workshop inventory. These settlement inventories do repopulate with items (particularly crops and fertilizer) even when the settlement is not allied to the player character, so the exploit is repeatable over time, after waiting for the settlement's production cycle.

This also applies to faction settlements such as Boston Airport which un-ally when the player character is expelled from the faction: resources in the settlement can be used for crafting at that settlement.

Quest-specific exploits

Out of the Fire Exploit

Near the end of the Saugus Ironworks quest Out of the Fire to retrieve Jake and the Shishkabob, Slag tells Jake to kill the prisoner. If the player character successfully convinces Jake to not harm the prisoner, Slag will wait for a few seconds before turning hostile. If the player character saves during this brief moment, when they reload, all of the Forged in the room will remain friendly until they are fired upon. This affords the player character the opportunity to lay numerous mines at all of the enemies feet, which will not explode as long as they remain friendly. Now, when the player character takes a shot at one of them, they will all turn hostile, and all of the mines will detonate, killing them all very easily. This exploit has only been tested at Saugus Ironworks, but may work in other similar situations if enemies wait for a while before turning hostile and the player is able to save during that countdown.

The player character may also do the same exploit during the dialogue when Jake asks them what he should do. If the player then presses their sideways movement key/button until the dialogue window disappears, they can then walk around and lay mines or do whatever preparation they like for the fight. The player can save prior to the beginning of the fight, and if they don't get the outcome they want, they can reload the save to make setup changes. In this manner, the player character can easily save both the prisoner and Jake. Immediately after the fight, Jake may appear to be hostile, but when spoken to, he should lower his weapon and admit his mistake in joining Slag's gang.

Location-specific exploits

Jamaica Plain

There are 49 steel, crystal and fiber optics if all of the laser trip wires just prior to the room with the two Protectrons are disarmed, in the town hall basement. If the player character hits the red button at the end corridor, they can start the trip wires over and can get an infinite amount of steel, crystal and fiber optics. This can be done even after destroying all turrets. There will be no rewarded XP though. Bethesda must have thought about this exploit and removed the XP given.

Add-on-specific exploits

Ahab's Helm Glitch

This requires the player to have the Automatron add-on installed, a robot workbench, and the Sentry Ahab's helm looted from Ahab. It will not work with an "Ahab's Helm" created using the robot workbench.

1. Create a new automatron.
2. In the "Head" slot, build the "Sentry Head."
3. In the "Head Armor" slot, build any mod other than "No Head Armor" or "Ahab's Helm." Either of the "Reaper Helm" or "Hydraulic Frame" makes this easier, since they appear directly above and below "Ahab's Helm."
4. The player character should now ensure that they have none of the components required to build "Ahab's Helm," either in their workshop or in their inventory, and that they are carrying the Sentry Ahab's helm looted from Ahab in their inventory.
5. Now in the "Head Armor" slot, when the player character attempts to attach the "Ahab's Helm" mod, instead of attaching the one the player character is holding, it will instead create a new one, without using any materials, and grant the player character the XP for crafting it.
6. Now re-attach the other previously created "Head Armor" mod, and a duplicated "Ahab's Helm" with a different Form ID will be added to the player character's inventory.
7. Repeat from step 5. Each iteration will grant the player some XP and another duplicated "Ahab's Helm," which can be sold for caps later.

Amoral Combat Infinite Free Nuka-Cola (all flavors)

This requires the player to have the Nuka-World add-on installed, and to have completed The Grand Tour, but not Open Season. Nuka-World contains several Nuka-Cola machines that regularly respawn a random selection of six (or in one case 12) bottles of various Nuka-Cola flavors, or empty Nuka-Cola bottles. Once Amoral Combat has triggered, in the period between talking to Fritsch and agreeing to fight in the arena, and actually fighting to complete the quest the four machines in Nuka-Town (and possibly all the others) will respawn every time Nuka-Town is fast-traveled to from outside. This can be exploited to amass a large quantity of the various Nuka-Cola flavors in a short period. One method is as follows:

Having completed The Grand Tour, the player character must fast-travel to Nuka-Town after a few days pass using Wait, then they simply wait a minute or so after arriving or they can walk through the main entrance and Amoral Combat should trigger. The player character then turns almost completely around to their left and walks back to the wall past the bus stop to collect the six bottles from the machine in the car park outside the main entrance. Then the player character turns back around and heads in to Nuka-Town bearing right around the market and collects the six bottles from the machine opposite the Cola-cars arena entrance, by the slave with the blow torch. Heading north through the doorway in the barricade and going past Cappy's Cafe the player character collects the six bottles from the machine on the left just before the Nuka-Cade. They then enter the Nuka-Cade and agree to fight in the arena and abruptly leave the Nuka-Cade. Heading north again towards Fizztop Grille through the next doorway in a barricade they then bear right around the lake, and exit Nuka-Town USA through the east entrance. Optionally, they can collect the three bags of cement and the shovel just outside the entrance if the items have respawned, and also head east a short distance to the pool with the large red Nuka-Cola bottle fountain to collect the three Ash blossom if the blossoms have respawned, then head south / south-west following the wall to the fourth machine where there should be 12 bottles. These may be scattered on the floor (as only six should fit in the machine). Now from this fourth machine, the player fast-travels 'back' to Nuka-Town USA and repeats from step 2 (omitting talking to Fritsch) - all four machines should have respawned, enabling 30 mixed bottles to be collected in about 1 game hour or a couple of real-time minutes. This can now be repeated as often as desired until Amoral Combat is completed, when the machines will revert to their usual respawning schedule. Cappy's Cafe and The Parlor both contain respawning Nuka-Cola machines, but both require two loading screens to collect (one in, one out). This may make it not worth it to collect those bottles, given that the other 30 bottles can be collected for one loading screen (the fast-travel from the last machine back to the first). A similar argument applies to the other machines in the park e.g. the four machines in the open in the Galactic Zone could be visited but it might be slower than simply repeatedly circling through Nuka-Town USA as detailed above.

Basketballs

Crafting a Nuka-World basketball in the player character's settlement costs 2 rubber, but scrapping the same basketball provides 3 rubber providing a method for unlimited XP. Crafting a basketball in the player character's settlement does count against its build limit. The player character can use the weapon storage exploit to lower the settlement's build limit every time it fills. Home Plate has a build limit, but does not appear to be permanent. Craft basketballs, pick them up and start over. No weapon storage exploit necessary. By building on the output belt on a sorter to a conveyor belt, the constant stream of basketballs can roll into Conveyor storage so they can be easily picked up and placed in the player character's workbench inventory. The player character can not build directly onto a conveyor belt.

Patched exploits

The following exploits were patched in the versions specified below. If the reader finds that any other exploits that worked in a previous version, no longer work after a patch, please move them here.

On consoles, it's possible to delete and reinstall the game to revert the game version back to v1.1.21 if the player wants to reproduce these. It may be necessary may need to disconnect the console from the internet to prevent it from auto-updating to the latest version. It is unlikely savefiles created with later versions of the game will load correctly, so this will only work if the player intends to start a new character. Saves created in v1.1.21 should load fine if the player then update the game back to the latest version.

Patch 1.2

The following exploits no longer work as of patch 1.2.

Infinite Caps Exploit

Glitching ammo from vendors for infinite selling caps.

Infinite XP From Crafting Exploit

Crafting exploit for infinite experience on XB1. Remained on PS4 until patch 1.4.

Patch 1.3

The following exploits no longer work as of patch 1.3.

Dogmeat Duplication

The player character would have to:

1. Drop an item
2. Command Dogmeat to pick up the item. (Generally works best if he's some distance from the item)
3. While he's moving towards item, adjust position so recticle changes for the player to "pick up xxx"
4. When he approaches, Dogmeat will stop and dip his head to pick up item. Just as he starts dipping his head, pick up the item. The player will hear the "picked up" sound and Dogmeat will appear to have nothing in his mouth. He'll come to them and drop the duped item.

• This works with bullets or any stacked item. After Dogmeat drops the duplicated item, one bullet/one item from the stack, the player character should drop the rest of their duplicated item inside their inventory on to the ground. Quicksave then manually quit to the main menu reload the quicksave. The player character should now have two copies of the stacked item.
• For PC players, it only works on low FPS count (24-30 FPS is ideal for this)
• As for magazines, will work with You're SPECIAL! only, allowing the character to max out their stats. After picking up a duplicated item, drop all issues and upon picking them up, the player character will get the chosen Stat window.
• With a base installation of the game on XB1 (without the Day 1 Patch) it has been reported that the player character will be able to increase their S.P.E.C.I.A.L. to values above 10 using You're SPECIAL!
• Also works well for duplicating vendor shipment papers for materials such as Adhesive or Aluminum
• Armor however is near impossible to duplicate this way because he simply grabs near the beginning of his animation giving the player character little chance to grab it before he does.

Unlimited Items and XP After Patch

• Playstation 4 Xbox One To obtain unlimited items (any item), the player character must have Dogmeat as a companion. For this instance, use copper. First, go to a settlement of their choice, and begin the duplication process with Dogmeat. Once Dogmeat has picked up and dropped the copper, the player can drop the copper they picked up. They should now have two different bars on the ground in front of them; one that says the amount they had in their inventory, and the single bar that Dogmeat picked up. At this point, the player should save the game. They then need to quit the game and reenter the game through continue, or load their most recent save. Once done, two bars with the original amount are on the ground. Pick up first the item Dogmeat dropped and then the original item. Once this is done, drop both again, go into workshop mode and scrap both items. After this is complete, when the player goes into their workbench, takes out the item they just duplicated and drops it, it will be consolidated into one item. This can be repeated until the player character reaches their desired amount.
• Playstation 4 With the above exploit, the player doesn't have to quit the game after saving. After Dogmeat drops the junk item then the player character drops theirs, save the game then go into build mode and scrap the items. This also works with stacked junk items. This alternate method was tested using the base game with no patches. Once the player character has duplicated the copper to their desired amount, they will be able to build statues to increase their XP. (Picket Fences issue #3 magazine found in Saugus Ironworks)

Alternative Method (Junk items only): For this example, the player character has twenty copper in their Junk inventory. When the player character drops it, use Dogmeat to duplicate it. Drop all the copper in their Junk inventory after Dogmeat has dropped his. The player character should see twenty copper on the original bar and twenty on Dogmeat's duplicate bar. (If the player dropped their copper from their inventory before Dogmeat does, the player's copper bar and his may be reduced to one). At this point, the above instructs to quicksave, quit and load. The player character can actually scrap both in the workshop menu and it will show both as twenty and twenty as being scrapped. The player character should now have forty copper in their Workshop. They can then extract the forty copper and rinse and repeat.

Note: Not only does this method save time, but also ensures that the junk items are joined together and do not separate when dropped. If the player character has less than six items the game will not ask to drop all together, so the player character can use Dogmeat to make more than six and then follow the above guide.

Notes

• The player character can only consolidate raw materials within their “Junk” tab. The player can duplicate ammo this way, but they won’t be able to merge the ammo together.
• Picking up items of 25k or more may cause the game to freeze, causing the player to have to restart the console.

Weapon Mod Duplication

Buy a weapon modification from a vendor, such as "Triple barrel X+" and have an "accelerated barrel" for the minigun, and attach triple barrel X+ then switch to accelerated barrel. Now constantly between the two barrels and the player character should be awarded a triple barrel or triple barrel x+ every time the player character switches.

Patch 1.4

The following exploits no longer work as of patch 1.4.

Crafting Exploit for Infinite Experience

Every time the player character crafts an item at a settlement, they earn experience, and the experience earned seems to depend on the overall value of consumed items used to craft the item. There is a method that can be used to create an infinite amount of crafting materials by purchasing one of the "shipment of xxx" dockets from a vendor. Therefore, any items crafted from said infinite material will yield the player character an infinite amount of experience as long as they continue to farm the material, build an item crafted from the material, scrap all the items used to build the material (since the player character can only place so many items in a settlement) and repeat.

First, the player character must obtain a "shipment of xxx" docket from a vendor, of which types are available vary from vendor to vendor. As an example, the player character may use the shipment of copper docket from Arturo in Diamond City. They simply need to purchase one, however it is most efficient if the player was to use the wait feature to purchase as many dockets as the player is willing to collect. Once obtained, the player character should take the docket to one of their settlements. The player character must not place the shipping docket into the workshop inventory until they are prepared to perform the exploit. If they were to place it too early, the docket(s) will swiftly be converted into its shipped material and the docket(s) will disappear, requiring a load of an old save or the player to buy a new docket. It is highly suggested that, for this reason, the player saves the game quite frequently every time they go to access their workshops inventory. The next thing they should do is make sure there is no inventory in the workshop, and that the only junk item in the player character's inventory is/are the docket(s). The next step is tricky, and it is advised that one saves before attempting it, and throughout save in tiers as to prevent having to start all over: while in the workshops inventory, the player is to press Y (△ on PS4) to store all junk items and immediately afterwards, press X (◻ on PS4) to take all). If done properly and quickly enough, the materials provided from the docket should be created, and the player character will collect the "shipment of xxx" docket without it disappearing. This method can be repeated quite quickly in succession, simply by rapidly pressing Y-X-X (△-◻-◻ on PS4) over and over again to store all junk, immediately collect all junk items in the workshop, and then open the workshops inventory again. Doing this obviously benefits the player in a multitude of ways: they can use this to farm an infinite amount of a rare/valuable crafting material (such as aluminum, copper, or adhesive) collect an infinite amount of caps from vendors simply by selling the farmed materials, or farming a vary large amount of experience points in a fairly short period of time by simply crafting something which uses this duplicated material over and over again.

It seems to be one of the better methods, if not the absolute best method, is to obtain the Picket Fences #3: Essential Upgrades! magazine from Saugus Ironworks, as this allows for the crafting of copper statues. The very first statue, which features a baseball player, uses 10 copper and provides the player character anywhere between 25-35 experience (based on the player's intelligence) every time it is placed. By walking backwards and rapidly pressing A (⨯ on PS4), the statues will be placed one after the next, netting the player character several thousand experience points in just a few minutes. Exact gain of experience is difficult to determine, however trial of this exploit resulted in leveling up from level 35 to 100 within approximately 3 hours of gameplay.

This exploit can be used to level up from level 1 at the very start of the game to level 271 (wherein all perks had been maxed out) in less than 18 hours of gameplay. While 18 hours of doing one action seems arduous, it is significantly more efficient than leveling up by playing the game normally, which one can estimate to be around 300+ hours of gameplay, even with high modifiers to Intelligence throughout.

Another method, albeit slower, is for the player character to acquire specific items and find a Chem Workshop, where the player character can, for example, craft Buffjet by pressing ⨯ and ◯ on PS4 (A+B on XB1) at the same time. If done correctly, the Crafting confirmation screen will appear, however it will be back at the crafting menu. If not done correctly, it will still be on the same page as before. This is also very easy to do as Buffout and Jet can be obtained in the beginning of the game. Keep in mind that this method will take longer.

Patch 1.5

The following exploits no longer work as of patch 1.5.

Bypass Approval Cooldown Timer

The approval cooldown (e.g. the time the player character needs to wait after crafting a mod for Codsworth/Preston or picking a lock for Piper until they "like" it again) can be reset by saving and reloading the game.

This works exceptionally well with MacCready, who will gain affinity points regardless of what the player character steals. With just the items available in the Third Rail where the player character recruits him, the player character can get the Long Road Ahead quest before leaving the building. The player character can gain approval by stealing, quicksaving, reloading, and stealing another item (vase, desk fan, etc).

Hacking Robots With Weapon

If the player character has a weapon equipped and see a robot (doesn't matter if it's idle or actively attacking) the player character can zoom in using the weapon and hack the robot from a far distance.