Fallout Online: The Co-Op Experience

Chapter I: Welcome to Fallout Online!

For Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4, a GameFAQs message board topic titled '2 player coop'. Online co-op comes to the Fallout universe for the first time ever. Derek Strickland @DeekeTweak. Published Thu, Jan 28 2016 4:31 PM CST Updated Tue, Nov 3 2020 12:01 PM CST. Online multiplayer (2-24) Online co-op (2-4) 4K Ultra HD. In Fallout 76: Wastelanders, people are now coming back to West Virginia. Two vying factions are struggling to gain the upper hand as the secrets of West Virginia are revealed. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars. There are 121059 reviews 121K. Full price was $29.

The first thing I noticed was the cold. It was bone deep, like it was inside me and driving into my bones like knives. And then - it was the lack of air. My lungs were screaming, on fire, like I'd been drowning for years and years and years. Lifting my arm, the limb flopped, nerves tingling with pins and needles. Again, I tried. Again, it flopped. But, on the third time I managed it.

My eyes were sealed shut by frost, pain blossoming as I tried to pull them apart. Getting my hands over them helped. Whatever sliver of body heat that escaped me in this frozen Hell began the process of freeing me. It still took me ten deep, shuddering, painful, coughing, hacking, heaving breaths to blink shards of ice out of my gaze and take in my prison. Barely cognizant, with hunger and thirst finally making themselves known as they welled up inside what felt like a hollowed out cavern instead of my stomach.

I was in some kind of pod, glass and metal cocooning me, as I desperately searched for a way out. Panic was beginning to well up inside my stomach before I saw a big, red button. Obviously, I had no idea what it would do or if it would work but I was on the verge of a full blown panic attack. So I punched it.

It was the sounds of whirring, grinding motors that announced my rebirth as I fell forward, barely catching myself before I slammed into the floor. Several dry heaves later and I lay there, on the ground, barely cognizant of my surroundings before the sound of more whirring motors and a deep, cracking hiss made me look up and take in the row after row after row of frozen, metal pods around me.

And out came out another guy. Wearing a blue jumpsuit with yellow numbers on the back, I managed to climb to my, admittedly unsteady, feet and walked over to him.

'Hey man. You ok?' I reached out a hand, eager to help him up, and then I realized what was on his back. 111. 'Uh. Crap. No way.' I looked down at my own chest, seeing the yellow and blue, and almost fell over. 'Holy mother of God there's no way this is real!'

*Ding*

And that was when a glowing, blue screen popped up in front of me.

WELCOME PLAYER TO THE PREMIERE AFTER LIFE FULFILLMENT EXPERIENCE!

So, the obvious was that I'd ended up reincarnating. Taking a deep breath, I sat down, leaning against the cold metal of a still closed pod, and covered my mouth. Part of me wanted to scream, part of me wanted to be sick, part of me wanted to cry. Instead, I just let out a deep breath of air.

Looking around, I saw the other guy was staring at a similar screen, mine having followed me and still hovering in about the same spot, and that was when he glanced up at me.

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'Just what is going on…?' I had to wonder to myself. First, I had to deal with a very familiar scene, except as if I was strapped to the most realistic VR torture device ever made. Then, there was that oh so soft fall directly into aged and unmaintained concrete. I worked too many jobs to not immediately know concrete that was in dire need of being ripped out and reset. So, falling onto the cracked pavement was fun.

Well, at least the pain had been useful as far as knocking the numbing cold out of my system as I stared out at an enormous layer of futuristic looking pods, each one occupied by a different, frostbitten body. Bluish-black faces covered in permafrost weren't exactly leaving me confident that they were as alive as I.

Just as I thought that I should be seeing a familiar looking woman across the aisle from me, instead it was a strange guy. Tall and burly, he seemed to only have gotten to his feet, and hadn't even gotten the hang of walking either. Still, he had, apparently, mastered the basics of motor functions well enough to help me stand up myself, to which I was grateful.

He was trying to say something, but I ignored him as what sounded like a bell resounded in my ears, accompanied with the most ridiculous thing from this whole situation, which I was increasingly concluding was nary more than a drug-filled hallucination. Funny that, since I didn't even smoke or drink, let alone do hard hallucinogens.

Welcome to the Premiere After Life Fulfillment Experience!

Walls and walls of text followed the large headline. Seemed like some sort of legalese mixed with corporatespeak, all with the same energy of a used car salesman trying to upsell me something I'd, against my better judgement, already decided to buy.

Locking eyes with the larger man, who probably had a couple inches on me in height, but was definitely bulkier than I was, I could see that he was just as lost as I was. 'I'm just gonna say it. I have no idea what's going on, who you are, or why we're here. I have this vague notion of where we are, even if this whole thing seems so impossible that I'm sure I'm on a dozen and a half different drugs for it to feel this real. Do you have anything actually useful that pertains to this situation, or are you as lost as I am?'

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'I guess that means you're a person too. Or at least a particularly convincing delusion. Are you also getting a… well, what seems like a video game license? It's asking for permission to upload to my auric hardware and update the firmware drivers needed to display pan dimensional retro-cognizant temporal concordances.'

'Uh….'

I took that as agreement. Scanning through it, I recognized about two words in three. However, what had me around the bend, was that I maybe, kinda sorta could figure out what it was asking. Or at least communicating. Not in any meaningful detail, even if I knew a shitty contract from a mile away, but enough to guess that it wanted me to agree to something that I had agreed to without being aware of what I was agreeing to. And maybe it had happened in the past or the future? There, frankly, weren't enough context clues to guess it.

'Fuck it.'

I hit the agree button. And, then, after a quick scroll of symbols I couldn't make out, a credit screen played.

'Fuck!'

My eyes were bleeding as I tried to screw them shut. Somehow, the sudden blast of… things that hurt to try to remember had communicated information to me. Information that made me whimper as I dried to stop the pain racking my skull. Eventually, another jingle played and I looked up, noticing a few key differences.

'Health bar...stamina bar, hot keys,durability meters, hunger, sleep, and hydration meters. So I'm in a gamer series. Huh.'

WELCOME TO FALLOUT: ONLINE, AFTERLIFE EDITION.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY BETHESDA SOFTWORKS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NETFLIX, EXPERIENCE YOUR FAVORITE SERIES IN PATENTED REAL LIFE QUALITY TODAY

'So, are you seeing what I'm seeing?'

'If you're talking about how Bethesda somehow sold out even more than I imagined possible and we're now the protagonists in a Netflix Live Adaptation, then yes. Yes, I am seeing the same thing as you.'

Fallout 4 Online Co Op Games

'Do you think this is Hell?'

'Considering the universe? Seems more like Purgatory to me. Can't say that's all that much better though.' He looked around a bit before continuing. 'Well, at least we're in the nice, safe and cozy Vault 111. Population: you, me, and a fuckton of radroaches. Now all we need is something to squish 'em with.

'How many do you think there are?' I stood up again, deciding that, if this was how I was going to spend the rest of my likely short, brutal life, I wouldn't die on my ass. 'I mean, the Vault was dead in canon. Nothing down there to eat. No way radroaches could have survived down here. And if a food source did get inside, we likely have bigger, hungrier problems to worry about. And crap.' I waved the other guy over, even as I bent down to the tangled, half chewed apart mass of wires and scraps. 'This looks like a synth.'

'Not much else it could be, really. Looks like a Gen 2 prototype. You think it came in with Kellogg? Well, at least that gives us an idea of the minimum year it is.' He didn't spare the Synth a second glance as he peered into the pods. 'Here's Nora, dead as she always is. And it looks like Nate is also suffering from a permafrost-induced ice nap. Guess… whatever reality we're in isn't too hung up on keeping things canon. Maybe it's more into realism?'

'Realism is a double edged sword. Especially for us.' This was definitely an issue. The chosen ones were dead, there was no one to help me out except for this random guy across from me, and…. 'At least this thing left its gun behind.' Sans a few nibble marks, there was an institute energy pistol knocked into a corner. Picking it up, I checked the lock on the power cell and, after a few jiggles, took it out and put it back in. 'Aside from a hilariously crappy design, this thing looks mostly intact. I don't suppose you have any super powers for shooting energy weapons do you?'

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The familiar whirring sound of a laser pistol caught my attention. The other guy was right, and the synth really had left its gun. Rather, it seemed that our good friend Kellogg had decided to leave his comrade - and all that he'd brought with him - to the roaches. Well, he never did like the Institute anyways, from what I could remember.

'Shame to say that I don't have much experience in that department, no. I doubt that a shotgun is too much like one of those things, enough alike for my past life to be of any use that is. Do you have much experience in that department?'

'This kind of thing? No. But since you aren't exactly an expert yourself, I think I'll hold onto it.'

I shrugged. 'Whatever. You're gonna have to take point though.' I was happy to let him put himself in danger, something else was interesting me far more. All these people were dead, and that wasn't a big surprise. I'd played enough of this game to know that. However, I'd also played enough of this game to know that there were too many pods. It could be insignificant, but it was more likely as I'd said before.

This place might be more realistic. If that was the case, then there were some possibilities to worry about. One such thing was what were the roaches feeding on? The bigger thing to worry about was if the Vault - and by extension, the rest of the world - was bigger now. Then there were these… game mechanics.

There were all sorts of bars filling my vision in all sorts of colors, with various symbols. When I thought about my vision being too cluttered, they disappeared from my line of sight. When I thought about wanting to see one of them, only that one returned. 'Hey, you think these… mechanics are supposed to match up with a survival mode of the game?' I ask after a few more moments of experimentation.

'No. I only played on the higher difficulties, even if this was a shit entry, and this is way more than from that. Plus some of these look a bit like they're from New Vegas… and I don't recognize some of them at all. Plus we're missing the compass and movement pips.'

I nodded along as he spoke, only half-listening. 'Well, the HUD seems very responsive to my thoughts, changing based on what I want.'

'Huh. You're right. I hadn't even tried to do that.' Walking over to the door, the man fiddled with control panel before it opened with a pneumatic hiss. 'At least these are working. The buttons didn't want to respond at first, but it seems fiddling with them is enough to get through. Fingers crossed it doesn't get worse from here on out.'

'Guess the roaches haven't tried to eat the wiring, at least.' I noted while searching through the room for anything that might be helpful. The only thing that could be even remotely useful, I determined, was using the Vault Dwellers as a food source - an extremely last resort, but possibly necessary - and scrapping the Synth for parts after we'd decided to set up a base. It would be a bit difficult to haul him though, without a… wait a minute.

'Seems we really lucked out.' I couldn't help the smirk settling onto my lips as a new screen popped up. 'I managed to open up my inventory by thinking about it, give it a shot.' I instruct the other guy. Yeah, it's completely empty besides the Vault Suit I've got 'equipped', but it would be extremely useful for later.

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'Hmm. Not… as bad as it could be.' I was looking at the pistol, currently labeled 'equipped', and it was showing as having a four percent charge and being on ten percent durability. Once more, I had no way to know what that represented, but, assuming I had at least a single shot, I'd be able to estimate how much durability and energy was spent per blast.

'Well, unless you wanna try breaking off a popsicle, we should probably get moving.'

I didn't wait for the other guy to answer. If he jumped me, he jumped me. And while he might be an eldritch abomination cyborg vampire demigod, I figured that he either wasn't or I was fucked no matter what I did.

Surprisingly, there was no sudden attack by giant roaches. In fact, for a good long while, the first three doorways at least, there was no one and nothing. No skeletons, no other side rooms, not even a maintenance sign. It wasn't until we reached a junction that I was willing to take a guess why. 'Hey, you've played this game, right?'

'Far more than I probably should have, yeah. 100% on all the faction endings and then plenty of modded games after that. Why?'

'Because the hallway was longer than the vault was in-game. And, since Nate and Nora were led into a specific set of pods in game, that might have been the control section. Meaning that two of these junctions probably lead to the other sets of pods and the last one leads to entrance.'

'You're not wrong. There were also far more pods in the cryo chamber than in-game. I was thinking about it and it's possible, perhaps even probable, that the Vault is larger than we're used to. Perhaps even the whole of the Commonwealth and whatever lies beyond it. Whatever brought us here might not suffer from the same limitations that forced Bethesda to create such a small-scale map.'

'If it's true to scale we're probably fucked. Massachusetts would be home to a lot of people, meaning a lot of raiders and a Hell of a lot more super mutants.' Fingering the pistol I couldn't help but reflect on what that meant for the Institute. And the normal people. 'I mean, there might not even be non raider human factions out there. Depending on when this is the Minutemen might have already collapsed. At that point, there's nothing to stop the gunners from creating a warlord state.'

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, coughing slightly as I choked on dust and slightly stale air. 'But that doesn't matter. So. I guess we have a choice. Do you want to investigate the other cryo vaults? See if anyone else survived. Kellog sabotaged all the pods in the game, but there are far more probable chambers. Do you think he would have put the effort in to screw them all up?'

'What would that actually do though? We find other people and what if they're NPCs? A bunch of middle-class and upper middle-class softies that will have a mental breakdown the first time they see a radroach or molerat, let alone raider gangs. I say we're better off scrounging this place for supplies, doing some recon and situating ourselves first. We can't exactly take care of anyone else until we've taken care of our basic needs first.'

'And who says we won't break down the first time we have to kill something.' The point was moot, of course. If we, and somehow it had become a 'we', screwed up - then that was it. 'But yeah. Straight ahead it is. Let's just hope we don't get locked out of here.'

This door was working better, requiring only a single press of the button to get it to open. However, what waited beyond was far less comforting. There was a mold or mildew of some kind across much of the floor. Small pieces of rusted, half disintegrated metal covered in it. 'Maybe from where they left people's stuff on the ground.' The other guy just shut the door behind us as he stepped through.

I nodded. A smart idea. No reason to let anything in here get back there. So, lifting the pistol, I walked forward. Mostly, there was other crap. More of the mildew, a few things that looked like a destroyed toolbox, a few ladder, and badly peeling paint on thankfully still sound looking - given my highly limited knowledge of construction - metal walls. All in all, the sort of thing that could definitely be worse.

Hopefully our luck would hold out long enough to find someone - or something - to help us. Or at least offer us a few directions. That would be nice.

[][][]

I had absolutely zero qualms with letting the bigger man take point. He was a larger target, and it gave me a chance to do at least a little inspection of the rooms we passed through. I was still experimenting with the mechanics of our… systems, to try and identify literally anything that might be of use.

Storing things in the inventory was as simple as the other mechanics. That is to say, it was as fast and easy as thinking about it. A rusted wrench went into storage when I touched it, adding a miniscule amount to the carry weight value. When it did, it got its own line with various bits and bobs of info.

The weight itself was listed, an 'approximate value' if it was traded, a potential damage output, the condition it was in and even a blank space for 'added effects'. All in all, it seemed rather useful. I tried storing a ball-peen hammer I saw next at a distance, but no dice. Seems I absolutely needed to make physical contact for it to work. That was potentially useful information.

I managed to snag about half a dozen different things in that section. Nothing inherently deadly, just a bunch of tools and a glass mug that was somehow not broken or degraded much. The bigger guy opened the door leading out of this section of the hallway and stopped. 'What's up? Something up there that wants to eat us?' I wonder.

'Listen. Can you hear that rustling noise?' If I listened really closely, I could, in fact, hear something just past the threshold, but it was a bit difficult to pick out what. It wasn't much, but I… summoned, for lack of a better word, that ball-peen hammer into my hand from my inventory. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

'I guess we're going to be meeting those roaches faster than I thought. I sure hope that thing has enough charge to keep us from having to get up close to them. We're a bit far from Florida to be dealing with insects that big.'

'Huh. Neat.' He didn't do more than glance at his own weapon before opening the next door. And letting out a little scream. 'Fuck!' The lance of blue energy leapt from the weapon and slammed into the shiny carapace of a roach the size of a large cat. Said roach promptly exploded in a shower of half cooked flesh and ash as the pure light and heat vaporized a good chunk of the thing's body. Looking at his weapon again, he did a bit of a double take. 'Huh. Guess the energy weapons are more like they were in 1 and 2. That's… scary.'

'So, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that this place is more interested in realism than balance.' Looking at what was left of the roach, I sighed. 'Also, we should probably not fuck with the Institute or Gunners for a very long time if that's what laser pistols do. I can't even imagine plasma weapons.' Pausing a moment, I shuddered. 'Or those fuckers with the Church of Atom. This Vault is seeming safer and safer by the moment.'

'Well, to be honest, in the earlier games energy weapons were incredibly rare, relatively speaking. And that was in a far more… stableish region than the Commonwealth. So long as we don't pick a fight with the Institute we should be mostly fine.' He paused for a moment. 'Mostly.'

'Sure, in terms of energy weapons, maybe.' I point out as he starts walking again. 'What about the Super Mutants with rocket launchers, the well-armed raiders with ballistic weapons, the hordes of aimless robots, the Children with their now-very-lethal gamma guns and the countless species of irradiated wildlife and ghouls that would love nothing more than to eat us?'

Strangely, despite my rant, I wasn't actually feeling that scared. I knew that I should, that I should be absolutely terrified for what was sure to be coming after we left the Vault. I knew I should be having an emotional breakdown upon realizing all of this but I just… didn't. I wasn't even feeling all that numb, so it wasn't shock. I knew what that felt like thanks to a few… mishaps in my life. 'Hey, are you scared about what this world is gonna do to us?'

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'Objectively, I suppose.' I was self aware enough to know that I was definitely going to cry later. 'But it's not real. Emotionally, at least. I just kinda… expect to wake up. I think I'm still in full denial. Though if this is just a lucid dream I quite like the gun. And, uh, that used a .2% charge and I had a 4% before hand. I don't know if it's consistent across all charge levels, but that means I have 19 shots left. Not awful. But I do hope we don't have a surprise deathclaw. And, hey, that looks like medical. Let's check it out.'

Leading the way again, I popped another roach, this one on the ceiling, and stepped around the slightly smouldering corpse as I hit the button on the door frame. The loud buzzer obviously told me it was locked but the, only slightly faded and grimy, card reader told me how to open it too.

'Hey man, did you happen to pick up a key card of any kind? I'm not gonna lie, I was mostly trying not to look at the giant bugs.'

'You know what, I just might've.' The other guy responded as it appeared in his hand with a flash of blue light. 'I've kind of been snatching literally anything not nailed to the floor to test out how the inventory works. Also, it may or may not be instilled in me that every piece of junk is scrap worth snatching in the Commonwealth. Anyways, see if this works.' He held it out, glancing around the hall with his hammer held tightly, tight enough his knuckles were turning white.

'Thanks.' I swiped it and the door made a rather noisy metallic sound that I took for the locks disengaging. As the door opened up I swept the room with the laser pistol, glad that, despite its bulk, it was a relatively light weapon and the shots had no recoil. 'Looks like nobody's home.'

Oddly, the 'Medical Screening Room' as a heavily faded, painted sign told me was like a particularly long doctor's office. Maybe two dozen curtained off areas, large enough to hold an examination table and a few other bits and pieces, along with what looked like a bathroom, two wash stations, and a couple computer terminals. 'Uh… maybe this is where they screened people before letting them into the pods? Didn't they hand out vault suits in the game or whatever. I can't imagine they'd have wanted people, especially not kids, changing next to one another like that.

'Game logic really falls apart as soon as you think too hard, huh? Yeah, it makes sense that they'd want their subjects to be nice and comfy changing in their own little rooms so as to not arouse suspicion. I wonder if any of the supplies here are still good? Would be really valuable if they were.' He glanced around, with a frown. 'Though, if this was just a screening room, you think the really good medical supplies are off somewhere else, or would just the bare necessities be here to give off the illusion that this was a real Vault?'

'Well, most of the people were probably evacuated before the bombs actually detonated. But, considering there were still army and Vault-Tec personnel on the surface, plus a few of the test subjects, I'd say basic anti radiation meds, maybe some iodine pills issued to them beforehand, and some stuff to treat burns and scrapes. If I was an evil scientist, I'd definitely want a baseline though. Plus maybe anti nausea and anti depression medication? Maybe something for any hysterical subjects too?'

'Well, see if you can find anything in the cabinets. I'm gonna check out this terminal.' He responded and turned to the somehow still functioning computer screen in the room, hyper-focused on reading through the entries.

'Sure. Let me know if it's full blown evil science shit. Though, if you don't mind, I'm actually gonna check the water first. My throat is on fucking fire.' Twisting the nob a few times,a jet of blackish brown water finally shot out of the end. Wrinkling my nose, I let it run as hot as I could get it for a bit before it went clear and stopped smelling like death. 'Well, this water is either bad or its not. And since this vault ran out of supplies in canon, I imagine this is all that's left. Fuck. Hey, other guy, think this is safe to drink? Should we hold off and try and find any canned or bottled water?'

He looked up from the screen. 'Name's Alex. If I remember right, the water in the Vault, in-game, never had any rads, so it might be safe. The power still works, which means this place either has a working Fusion Generator, or one of those fancy Vault-Tec spherical generators from the DLC. Might be that the water purifiers are still functioning as well. If so, we probably hit the jackpot, cause we'd have the cleanest source of water for hundreds of miles. Find something to put it in and store it in your inventory. Might tell you the effects of drinking it.' He pointed out.

That was logical and so I did. Checking the cabinets, I found an empty glass bottle, gave it a good rinse, and then filled it with cool water. 'Placing' it in my inventory with a thought it assuaged most of my worries, enough that I 'used' it.

'That's interesting.' Suddenly, I felt refreshed. Like I'd splashed my face with ice water or something and the hydration bar on my screen jumped up. 'It seems like we can use consumables inside our inventories. And we don't even lose anything either.' The glass bottle reappeared in my hand. 'Completely broken. Weight might not consider volume or fragility. If so, we'll need to find out if items decay in there or can be affected in other ways. Because, if not, we're probably the luckiest merchants in human history.'

'Certainly would make transporting medical supplies and pre-ware electronic components a lot safer.' He agreed. 'So, it looks like the doctor wasn't actually in on too much, even less than the security personnel were. He knew about the experiment, sure, but his entries get more and more manic as the food starts running out. From the looks of it, he just shot himself in the end instead of dealing with the starvation.

'Does talk about a… hydroponics facility though. Seems like it was being used as a secondary experiment to cultivate hardy foodstuffs using the cryogenic technology, make it possible to terraform Anatartica or something. It's, apparently, three levels down. Meaning that this Vault is at least four levels, so I think it's fair to say this place is a lot bigger than we're used to.'

'Logical. If you're going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build a facility like this, why wouldn't you get as much out of it as you could.' The question was obviously rhetorical. 'Anyways, I've got a couple bottles of water, you should come get some too, and I checked the medical supplies There are some locked first aid kits, plenty of gauze, some burn cream, and basic radiation meds. But I don't want to start busting open any cabinets in case we set off some kind of alarm. Anything usable in the desk?'

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'Depends on how usable you think office supplies are going to be.' I replied rather bluntly. 'It is rather odd that the first aid kits are locked, but I suppose it makes sense if they were having to ration things out. We can get into the good Doctor's cache later though.' Standing, I followed the other guy's advice and got myself some bottled water. 'So, since it seems we're gonna be stuck together for a while, seems odd to be thinking of you as 'the other guy'. As I said before, I'm Alexander, but Alex is fine. You?'

'Uh. I honestly don't know. Like, I know I have a name, and that I should be weirded out by the fact I don't have one. But, well, I just don't. You know what? Since the poor bastard's dead, Nate. I'll go with Nate. Also, don't underestimate the value a notepad can hold.'

'Sure, sure. But not too useful until we can be sure we won't have to worry about a roach the size of a German Shepherd gnawing on us at night. Priorities and whatnot.' I pointed out as I finished with the sink. 'Okay, since we've got a bit of a respite, some room to think, what's our gameplan? We're probably gonna want to leave the Vault eventually, but it seems a good enough base to start from to me. The wildlife is fucking terrifying and I don't want to stumble upon a Yaoi Guai or Bloodbug exploring until we've got some actual protection. Any ideas?'

'Well, I suppose our first goal should be finding a pipboy or something. Those things are just immensely useful and we know it can connect to internal vault systems. So getting one, then maybe finding an armory. A place like this had to have guns. And if we're lucky, it should be pretty intact and -' As Nate opened the door, he screamed. 'Oh dear God!' And opened fire.

A chittering, squealing wave of chitin surged forward, moving with an alien speed and viciousness that belied their relatively small size. Still, charged photons moved faster than any number of legs could carry them. That, combined with the short distance, made aiming simple enough that the laser pistol handled half a dozen of the things before I could've stepped in.

'An armory sounds like the very best of ideas.' I finally broke the silence and walked towards the door. 'We should probably stay moving if we want to stay alive. The Overseer's Office or the Vault entrance would be our best bet for a Pip-Boy. Or we could try to locate the barracks ourselves, get some of that Vault-Tec Security Armor.'

Nate's hand was shaking, his chest slowly rising and falling as the cooked shells of horrific, gnawing, chewing, swarming little monsters. 'Yeah. Armor sounds good. Uh… lead the way, if you don't mind.' Skirting around the smoking remains of the little horrors, he quickly made his way over to me.

Glancing at him, at the gun in his hand, then back to my hammer, I sighed but nodded. 'Sure, I'll take point with my trusty old toolbox.' I took extra care to be as attentive to detail as I possibly could, not wanting another nest to sneak up on us. I could probably kill one or two roaches with this thing, but six? Nope, that would require my own firearm.

Thankfully though, the hallway didn't seem to contain any more. The end of this hallway had a door that opened up into a four-way intersection, each one blocked by its own electronic door. The one we came out of was labeled 'Medical'. Cryogenic pods were probably categorized as medical technology, thinking about it.

The other four were labeled as 'Vault Entrance', 'Security' and '2nd Floor'. Well, we said we wanted the barracks, so Security seemed the best bet. 'Alright, let's head this way, be ready in case anything else wants to kill us, okay Nate?' I turned my head slightly to look at him as I prepared to open the door, just hoping that we weren't going to be stuck with another swarm. Hopefully they'd chosen literally any other room to make their nest in.

Getting a nod from him, I hit the button and watched in anticipation as it opened up. No chirping. No skittering. It sounded safe enough. Taking one step in, I glanced down the hall and noted several doors off to the sides, each with their own signs declaring them as Barracks, or a Recreation Area, or a Mess Hall.

The middle door on the right, though, caught my attention. Just past the mess hall, which was closest to us, and before the barracks, which was furthest away, sat the armory. It took all of my willpower not to run over there. Making too much noise might attract those things to us. They were far more aggressive than actual roaches, that was for sure.

Again, there were no signs of trouble as I opened the Armory's door. The lights still worked and shined down from above like some sign from heaven. I de-summoned the hammer as I looked around the room and grabbed a 10mm handgun from its rack. After only minimal searching, a fully loaded, plastic magazine found its way into it.

'Now we're getting somewhere. Hm… looks like the condition is a bit under half on this thing, and I don't imagine any of the others will be much better. You think this thing is even safe to fire, Nate?'

'Short answer, no. Long answer, the guns might need a bit of work, but it's the ammunition we should be worried about. But before that, let's take an inventory of this place.' He materialized a notepad. 'See if you can find any keys, key cards, or a working terminal. I'll start - wait. You know what. Let's see what happens if… huh.' He had reached over and touched a sealed container of ammunition. 'Sixty four out of a hundred bullets, 10mm, of then all but four are showing as 'undamaged'. That's… way more generous than it should be, realistically speaking. But I suppose we can chalk that up to this world being generous with pre-war supplies. Actually, yeah, let's take an inventory of this room, get equipped, then we can try and find something to eat.'

'Something besides Radroaches, you mean?'

And that's it!

So, this is a little pet project that AlvorTheWarhawk and I have been cooking up in the background. Hope you guys enjoy it, and make sure to spam his PMs with your thoughts.

Actually, go ahead and spam both of our PMs with them! Or send a review out way, okay?

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Orpheus out! See ya!

What the Fallout 4 weapons stats mean and how modifications change them.

Modifying weapons in Fallout 4 is an essential but complex part of the game, so to make it (hopefully) less complex we've explained how weapon stats work, how mods change those stats, and what you need to build them. We spent an unholy amount of time at the weapons bench getting this info.

What weapon stats mean in Fallout 4

Fallout 4 Weapon Damage

No brainer. Damage refers to the damage per single shot/hit of your weapon. A subcategory of this is DPS, or how much damage the weapon can deal every second, which is affected by your fire rate as well as the base damage score. A slow, heavy sledgehammer might still have a higher DPS than a small pipe pistol because even though the pistol is faster the sledgehammer has a higher damage per hit. That's some nice RPG knowledge right there. You like that? Go play some World of Warcraft and get back to us.

Fallout 4 Weapon Fire Rate/Speed

This is how quickly you can get off shots or swing your weapon - melee weapons have a speed of Fast, Medium or Slow. Slower melee weapons tend to do more damage but you can leave yourself open while you're hefting it. Bosses that telegraph their attacks really obviously? Slow fire rate, mate.

Fallout 4 Weapon Range

If you're a bit of a pansy and you don't like getting in too close then go for range.This is how far your gun can effectively fire a bullet, so rifles, for example, will have a higher starting range than pistols. If you increase your gun's range then it will have better accuracy at distance both in and out of VATS.

Fallout 4 Weapon Accuracy

This, obviously, affects how likely you are to hit something you're aiming at, even if it's the side of a barn. Increasing your accuracy score can drastically improve your chance to hit in VATS, and will give you more focused aim when you're using your gun in the wild.

Fallout 4 Weapon Weight

We're not going to dignify this entry with an explanation of what 'weight' means.

Fallout 4's Guns

Gun weapon mods in Fallout 4

Almost all the guns you'll pick up will share the same mod slots, so we've broken down how these change a gun's stats when you're tinkering with them. The exceptions are energy weapons which have a couple of slightly different slots, although we've got your back and covered them with the other mods below.

Remember that although you'll instinctively want to stack high damage sometimes that's not always the best choice when you're choosing between mid-level modifications: a sniper might want to keep more range, for example.

Fallout 4 Gun Receiver

Upgrading the receiver affects a gun's damage and rate of fire, and, in some cases, accuracy and critical shot damage. For some weapons a new receiver can also modify the ammo caliber of a gun (a .50 caliber will do far superior damage to a .38, for example).

On laser and plasma weapons this slot is replaced with the capacitor, which changes damage, ammo capacity, and critical hit damage, as well as potentially adding additional burning damage to your shots.

Fallout 4 Gun Barrel

Different barrels will adjust the sighted and hip-fire accuracy on a gun, as well as recoil and range. Generally superior range and sighted accuracy means sacrificing some hip fire accuracy. Gamma guns have a dish instead of a barrel, which you can beef up for more range and damage.

Fallout 4 Gun Grip/Stock

These, as you might imagine, mostly improve your recoil and aim with sights and scopes. Larger stocks will sometimes give you a bigger wallop when you smack an enemy with your gun (or, as the game puts it, 'improved bash').

Fallout 4 Gun Magazine

These change your ammo capacity and reload speed. Some larger magazines have a slow reload, but the top tier Large Quick Eject Mag gives you both.

Fallout 4 Gun Sights/Scopes

Sights improve accuracy. Obviously. There are a few other things to take into account, though: some improve focus and sighted accuracy, while actual scopes can have different levels of magnification. Some add night vision, and a Recon Scope will add a tracking marker to an enemy you've targeted, so you always know where they are.

Is Fallout 4 Multiplayer Coop

Fallout 4 Gun Muzzles

Muzzles reduce the range of your gun, but in return you get better recoil or, if you choose to add a bayonet, a gun you can stab people with. You can also affix a Suppressor as a muzzle, which is a silencer by another name. On a minigun you can add blades to the spinning barrels so you can blend while you shoot. Very convenient.

Perks you need for gun modifications in Fallout 4

Gun Nut (which goes up to rank four) will take care of your standard pistol, rifle, and heavy gun modifications. For the high-tech energy weapons (laser, plasma, and gamma guns) you'll need the Science! Perk. These are both predicated on Intelligence, but Gun Nut needs only a lowly three points of it, whereas Science! needs you to have at least six points of standardised smartness. If you're not investing that far into intelligence but still want to use guns then ditch high-tech weapons, because you're probably going to level past them quickly.

Components you need for gun modifications in Fallout 4

Gears, oil, and screws are your go to, as well as some aluminium or steel depending on the mod. Steel in particular is very common; it's basically a tripping hazard, but you can check out our more detailed guide to finding components for the others.. You'll also need adhesive for almost all of the mods, and you can farm your own supply, but if you're not the settlement building type then pick up loads of Wonderglue and duct tape.

Scopes will need a little bit of glass or crystal for the, you know, scope part, and glow sights need a bit of nuclear material - you can get that from the Blast Radius Board Game or biometric scanners. Killing the squisher, glowier ghouls is the more messy option.

Fallout 4 Melee Weapons

Fallout 4 Coop Pc

It turns out that melee weapons are some of the most creatively evil in the entire game. If we listed every single melee mod option it would be a really long list and you wouldn't be arsed reading it, so we've split them into blades and blunts. These mods all principally affect damage and weight, because when you're close enough to hit them who needs accuracy?

Bladed melee weapon mods in Fallout 4

On swords and other knife style weapons it's mostly just changing the stabby bit itself (for example, by adding a Serrated Blade), and in some cases you can even electrify the blade, although it seems like that would be a recipe for hurting oneself. Rippers, the horrible little hand-held chainsaw things, can have their blade modified to increase damage and add bleeding or disarming options.

Blunt melee weapon mods in Fallout 4

Modifying blunt weapons involves gluing stuff like steel and concrete on them to add more and different types of damage (crippling, bleeding, limb damage and so on). You can wedge bits of steel into a pipe wrench grip to make smacking someone upside the head even more horrible: a hook for disarming, a spike for armour piercing, a load of screws to cripple and deal extra limb damage. The same sort of thing applies to pool cues, pipes, and baseball bats, which come chain wrapped, bladed and barbed, amongst others.

Perks you need for melee weapon modifications in Fallout 4

All you really need from the Perk chart is Blacksmith, which eventually gives you access to all the melee weapon mods. This requires a strength stat of at least four, but since melee weapons are usually the favourite of characters on a strength build we'll assume you're alright there.

Components you need for melee weapon mods in Fallout 4

As we mentioned, a lot of melee mods are sticking even more sharp bits of metal on to whatever you've chosen to hit and/or stab people with, so you need adhesive and steel. Some of the more advanced melee mods require you to toss in some aluminium or oil, or, occasionally, fibreglass (which you can find pretty easily in boxes of Abraxo Cleaner).