Carl's Fallout 4 Guide
for PC, Xbox One, and PS4

I'm writing a Guide to Nuka World, piece by piece. Here are the newest/most popular pages:
See a full list of guides on the Nuka World page. I've written over a dozen in just a week and plan to continue. There is much more to this DLC, it will just take time to write it all. Check back for more. Comment on the appropriate page if you have a tip to share with other readers.

Fallout 4 Chems

Drug Effects, Crafting Materials, and Durations

Chems in Fallout 4 can be crafted Chems can be crafted at a crafting station. You can find one in Sanctuary behind a house to the right when facing the bridge.

Taking chems is a great way to boost your combat potential, survivability, or xp gain in Fallout 4. These drugs can now be crafted at any chemistry station. This guide to chems will list all the materials you need to make each of them, their effect and how long they last. I'll also list the effects of addiction, so that you can see it's not actually that bad, while listing the ways you can get rid of a chem addiction within the game.

Chem Addiction
The chems in the list below will only give you one addiction - the one whose name is stated first for the hybrids, with Chems like Orange/Berry Mentats getting you addicted to 'all Mentat Chems'. Chemical Addiction can be cured by purchasing Addictol from vendors (usually Doctors), which will allow you to remove addictions in the field. Under the 'Cure Me' menu you can find that it's cheaper to have the Doctor cure you. Waiting never has removed a drug addiction for my, so this seems to be a necessary step. Save any Radscorpion Eggs you find, for they can be used at a cooking station to create a Radscorpion Egg Omelet, which will also remove all addiction. Here are the effects of various chem addictions in Fallout 4:

Doctors can cure drug addictions in Fallout 4

Taking any drug with a name that starts with the drug you're addicted to will satisfy the addiction penalties and give you relevant buffs. Each drug seems to be able to be taken 5-7 times before you'll become addicted, though this can be doubled with the Chem Resistant (Endurance 4 Perk), or completely eliminated with a second point. I haven't ever got addicted on the first time, even when testing this many times. You may choose to conserve your Addictol if you've become addicted but also used a second drug several times but not yet become addicted, as Addictol does not reset the counter on the drug you're not yet addicted to - only established addictions. This seems an unfortunate oversight.

Fallout 4 Chem List

Buff effects from chems can be stacked, if you use them in the right order. Stacking chem buffs means using them in the right order, and not wasting those with the same base drug.

Stacking Chem Effects
For people who want to stack chems for difficult situations, note that certain effects will be overwritten by others. Taking Bufftats then Buffout will result in buffout overwriting the better Bufftats' stats. You CAN stack beneficial effects if the base drugs are different. For example, Psychobuff and Buffjet work fine together, because the base (first) drugs are different. Taking Buffout afterward, you'd overwrite Buffjet's +stat effects with worse ones, while keeping the +AP and slow time effect of Buffjet. The best advice I can give in this matter is to take the worse drugs, then the more potent ones to ensure you do not overwrite a powerful effect with an inferior one. In the example, it's a waste to take buffout because you'd completely overwrite ALL effects. You can take Fury, Psychobuff, and Med-X and get +75 Damage resistance, while keeping all 3's other positive effects.

Note on Durations
If it says 8 minutes, it means it. Same with foods that say 2 hours - they mean real-time, not game time. You can increase how long chems last by taking ranks in the Intelligence Perk, Chemist. Just 1 rank will unlock the 4 Chemist-only drugs, while boosting the duration of all these by 50%. You can triple the duration with further points, but will not unlock any addictional chems.

Berry Mentats

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+5 Intelligence, highlights living targets.8 minutesAnti Freeze Bottle, Mentats, Tarberry x 2

Buffjet

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
Slow Time, +3 Strength, +3 Endurance, +65 Max Health, +35 Max AP15 seconds.Buffout, Jet

Bufftats

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+3 Strength, +3 Endurance, +65 Max Health, +3 Perception8 minutesBuffout, Mentats

Calmex

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+3 Agility, +3 Perception, +2x Sneak Attack Multiplier8 minutesVery rarely found on vendors who sell drugs, even less often in containers.

Daddy-O

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+3 Intelligence, +3 Perception, -2 Charisma8 minutesCannot be Cooked

Day Tripper

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+3 Charisma, +3 Luck, -2 Strength8 minutesCannot be Cooked

Grape Mentats

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+5 Charisma and Barter 10% Better8 minutesHubflower x 2, Mentats, Whiskey

Jet

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
Slow Time10 SecondsFertilizer, Plastic

Med-X

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+25 Damage Resistance8 minutesCannot be Cooked

Mentats

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+2 Intelligence, +2 Perception5 minutesAbraxo Cleaner, Brain Fungus x2, Lead

Orange Mentats

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+5 Perception and +10% VATS Accuracy8 minutesAsbestos, Carrot x 3, Mentats

Psycho

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+25% Damage, 25 Damage Resist5 minutesAcid, Circuitry, Hubflower x2, Stimpak

Psycho Jet

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
Slow Time, +25% Damage, +35 Damage Resist, +40 Max AP15 SecondsJet, Psycho

Psychobuff

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+25% Damage, +3 Strength, +3 Endurance, +65 Max Health8 MinutesBuffout, Psycho

Rad-X

EffectDurationNotes
+100 Radiation Resistance3 MinutesNo addiction potential. This is stackable. Taking 5 will give you +500 Radiation Resistance for the duration. Good for moments when you are caught without Power Armor or a Hazmat suit.

X-Cell

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+2 to All Stats2 MinutesEvidently only about a dozen exist in the game as leveled loot, so they are rare to come across. Highly addictive, 50% addiction rate.

Fury (Chemist Required)

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+50% Melee Damage, +25 Damage Resist, -5 Perception8 MinutesBerserk Syringe, Buffout

Jet Fuel (Chemist Required)

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+35 Max AP, increased AP Regen8 MinutesFlamer Fuel, Jet

Overdrive (Chemist Required)

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
+25% Damage, +25% Critical Chance8 MinutesAcid x 2, Nuka Cola, Psycho

Ultra Jet (Chemist Required)

EffectDurationCrafting Materials
Slow Time and +100 Max AP45 SecondsBloodleaf, Fertilizer, Jet, Plastic X2

More Fallout 4 Guides

Share Tips and Strategies Below



Back to Top


Share Tips and FAQs (6)

Josh Hawthorne
I found the chem article very interesting. Could you do an article in the junkie's modifier with all the addictions active? I am really curious to see how powerful a weapon can become.
Admin:
I'll try to do something like that when I can. I think it sounds fun to try to stack as many modifiers as possible (including perks) and do the math to see just how much damage you could get out of it. It would also enlighten people to all the possible generic damage boosts via perks/drugs/sneak attacks and crits.
5th January 2016 1:03am
Richie
Junkies Shishkebab made a melee build viable especially since Im on Vanilla no patches mixed with some other glitches on it... (Sacraficial blade attached) *cough* *cough* all on xboxone dont judge i just play for the role play lol KRATOS FURIOUSA FTW... will get the rest of the dlc when im bored of it lol
22nd May 2018 3:50am
Red
I really like having the list easy to reference. Especially the durations since the game only shows you that when crafting, not when actually activating the drugs.

Can you make a chart like this for the cooked foods? That'd be super swell.
12th January 2016 6:41pm
Carl
I found the lack of duration info annoying myself, which is why I did it. I wish it'd show how much time is left under show effects. I will definitely do something similar on cooking. Thanks for the feedback :)
13th January 2016 6:15am
Ryan
Just a note that Refreshing Beverages (which also have a requirement of Chemist 1 in Survival Mode) also cure addiction, in addition to health and radiation.
10th May 2016 12:13pm
Germ
I've read (on the Fallout 4 wiki) that Chem Resistant rank 2 does not actually prevent addiction, due to the counter. If that's true (and I wish I knew) then that's a waste of 2 perk points.
10th August 2017 3:11pm
Page 1 of 1

Join In

Captcha
Refresh
 
Enter code:
 
Remember my name and email for future contributions.
 

Search the Guide

Far Harbor DLC Guides

See my Far Harbor Guide for new features in the DLC. There, you can also watch the trailer and view new weapons that can be found. The area is massive, so we can expect plenty of quests and exploration in a foggy, rugged area with new and challenging creatures to battle.

Pleae note there are different endings for this DLC, something we all wanted! It's like the actual end-game of FO4 in that you can choose the outcome.

Walkthroughs
Islander's Almanac Magazine Locations
Far From Home: Quest 1
Walk in the Park: Quest 2
Where you Belong: Quest 3
Best Left Forgotten: Quest 4
Ware's Brew Quest New
The Striker New

Automatron Guides & Walkthrough

The final quest Restoring Order (Mechanist Fight/Options) is now available. I've also released a page that describes Getting Started in Automatron to accompany the main page about the DLC. This covers how to make the Robot Workbench to begin making your own Automatrons, and walks you through the first two quests while providing some tips for fighting the Mechanist's creations. Quest 3 Walkthrough: Headhunting is also live on the site.

Robots in Automatron New
Mechanist's Lair, Eyebots, and Rogue Robots covers what happens after the Mechanist story is complete.

Perks & Bobbleheads

Now that I've written about all Perks in Fallout 4, I've put them all in a list, with how they work, what you can expect, and my own opinions on them. Hope this is handy! I've also compiled map shots of all Bobblehead Locations in the game. You can choose to explore the locations on your own or read descriptions for those I've taken notes about.

shopify analytics ecommerce