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 Level Cap, XP & Health

Endurance/HP on Level Up and Spending Perk Points

Perk Points are gained when you level up in Fallout 4 Fallout 4's Perk point system is excellent. You can choose to raise SPECIAL stats and unlock access to more perks, each with multiple ranks that improve their effectiveness. It's a wonderful leveling system.

Fallout 4 is perhaps the most open-ended title in the franchise yet, as it has no level cap and players can continue growing in power as long as they want. This guide will focus on the aspects of Leveling, getting XP, and how Endurance affects your HP.

Level Up Endlessly!

Track Quests with your Pip Boy Track Quests with your Pip-boy to show destinations on your map. Finishing quests gives the most XP by far, though so does adding things to Settlements and improving your weapons and armor.

Level Cap
Fallout 4 has no level cap, meaning you can continue with your first character and get almost every Perk available so long as you continue. The game features Legendary variants of enemies and equipment that are worth pursuing, so every new encounter is exciting and ripe with possibilities.

Unlike other games (Skyrim), you level immediately even if you do not spend your Perk point, so you should do so. Enemies grow stronger as you do, so it may not be wise to level too quickly if you're not keeping up in equipment improvements. You'll gradually find better and better equipment as the game world changes.

Leveling Mechanics

Finishing quests gives loads of XP Every level up grants you more HP and a Perk point, which you can use to define your character. This makes up your build.

Gaining XP
Every time you build something in a Settlement, make an armor modification, finish a quest, or discover a new location, you'll get experience points to count toward the next level. Each level up will make the next take more XP, but you'll get more from quests and tougher enemies. Sometimes half a level for a main quest. The amounts you get are set, but can be boosted by your Intelligence score. Higher Int will make you level a touch faster - about 3% per point. It's not that important a boost, but you can use it.

Power Armor can boost Intelligence. The Internal Database upgrade on Power Armor helmets can give you +2 Intelligence, granting +6% XP.

If you raise your Intelligence via gear that provides it or mentat drugs before turning in a quest or engaging in a big fight, you will increase your XP gain. So gear that raises Intelligence, or Power Armor with the Intelligence bonus (internal database on helmet) can be saved for turning in big quests if you want to level up quickly. Beware that Mentats are addictive, but the game does give many ways of recovering from addiction. You can similarly lower shop prices by wearing gear that raises Charisma before talking to the shopkeeper.

I personally do not use a companion, as any kill they make - or NPCs in general for that matter - will not count toward your XP. The main benefit of having them around is for carrying extra things and being a human shield at times. Taking the Lone Wanderer Perk will let you carry more items and take less damage, and what is more Dogmeat does not break this Perk's benefits - you can also store items on Dogmeat and retrieve them when you get back to town. Good stuff!



XP Required to Level Up

To condense info, the following table uses the formula for Fallout 4's leveling system: 75*(Current Level-1) + 200 so it takes 75*0+200 to reach level 2 (200 xp), and 500 XP to reach level 6 (75*(5-1)+200) (for mathematically challenged that's 75*4 = 300 + 200 = 500).

While the wiki doesn't go very high, I've bothered to list 36 of the game's levels and what your XP to next level will be when you reach it. You can experience points required between these levels to be in that same ballpark, as the increase is linear - 75 extra XP required for each level up. Level = Current Level of Character TNL = XP To Next Level.

LevelExperience to next levelLevelExperience to next level
1200906,875
5500957,250
108751007,625
151,2501108,375
201,6251209,125
252,0001309,875
302,37514010,625
352,75015011,375
403,12516012,125
453,50017012,875
503,87518013,625
554.25019014,375
604,62520015,125
655,00021015,875
705,37522016,625
755,75023017,375
806,12524018,125
856,50025018,875

According to the Wiki, which lists XP Requirements up to level 50, it's Lone Wanderer Perk in Fallout 4 The Lone Wanderer Perk works with Dogmeat, so you can get its bonus while still having your dog buddy around to help in fights. Dogmeat can also carry things!

Level-Up Cheat
There is a Cheat to instantly raise your level to whatever you desire. Pressing ` (next to 1) then typing player.setlevel 50 will instantly make you level 50. I've gone as high as 200 with the cheat while testing.

Harder monsters will spawn in the wasteland as you level up. Gaining levels will make harder monsters spawn. Some can be legendary and very tough, you'll also find raiders with better gear - but you too are stronger so long as you do not level too fast!

Perks & SPECIAL Stats
Every time you level up, you gain one Perk point. It's not obvious to some players, but you CAN use it to increase your SPECIAL stats so that you can unlock access to later Perks. So, you may start with only 4 Charisma, but need to get 2 points in it to get Local Leader, which lets you make shops in your Settlements. If you know you want that, but have very specific desires for your build, you may wait for the Charisma Bobblehead after getting 5 points.

Magazine Perks Every time you read one of the special perk magazines, you gain a rank. There are 10 Covert Operations Magazines in the Fallout 4 World.

Bobbleheads & Magazines
Bobbleheads will give you one extra point each in SPECIAL as you find them, but there's much more to discover in Fallout 4's huge world. There are also magazines that give you hidden perks unrelated to those you will find in Fallout 4's Perk Tree. Finding all of these can make your character godlike, so searching everywhere in each area you locate is not a bad idea. You never know what you'll discover. For every additional magazine of that type you find, you will gain a point in that hidden perk, making it a little stronger. Some of them have as many as 10 ranks.

Perks ARE Skills
Fallout 4 does not have the skills of the previous games. For example, you will not get better at picking locks. If you want to unlock advanced locks, you must take that perk. Some see this as problematic, but you are still gaining strength and choosing the direction for your character as you level. Additionally, you may find Bobbleheads unrelated to Special Stats that give permanent perks like that pictured above. The removal of a level cap was a wise move on Bethesda's part.



Bobbleheads can increase skills and special stats Bobbleheads, found throughout the world of FO4, can increase special stats as well as give you permanent perks like the one pictured above.

Getting 11 base stats
Bobbleheads can allow you to get to 11 in each stat, but only if you wait to pick them up when you already have 10 points. If you use them early, you'll be capped at 10 - but the difference is not major. You can go past 10 in other ways - via drugs and power armor bonuses.

You're Special!
Players can get a very early +1 to one of their SPECIAL stats by finding the You're SPECIAL! magazine near the baby's crib once they're out of the vault. Just return to your home and search the nursery to locate it, then allocate the point. This WILL NOT let you go past 10 in a stat, so saving it for later is pointless.

Perks ARE your skills in Fallout 4 To pick advanced and expert locks, you must take the Perk for them. There are no skills in Fallout 4. You raise your character's abilities through the Perk system however, which pretty much amounts to the same thing only less directed.

Endurance & Health
On each level up, you will gain HP. 2.5 HP base. Each point of Endurance adds 1/2 a point on each level up. So if you have 5 Endurance, you'll get 5 HP each level. 6 would give you 5.5, and HP is rounded up. Therefore, every other level you'd get 6, then 5 points. Odd numbers produce a reliable gain.

You fortunately do not have to worry about having high Endurance early in order to give your character a high health pool. Adding Endurance is retroactive, as it's a simple calculation as explained above. Getting to level 40 and taking an extra point in Endurance will give you 20 HP, while if you took that point at 60 you'd get 30 - but the end result is the same, so this takes some stress out of character planning.

The only difference is the base health, which is 80 + your endurance x 5. So a player who starts with high endurance will have just a tiny bit more hp (think +20 for starting at 8 vs 4) - in the end game, that is not a very big difference at all. There is a Life Giver perk that can give you +20 each rank, and Power Armor makes you nigh-unkillable by most normal enemies.

What's Fallout 4's Maximum Health?
While you can keep leveling past it, the point that you have all Perks covered is around level 275, minus any bobblheads that weren't used to get stats to 11. Gains are retroactive and you can have 11 base Endurance (from waiting to take the Endurance Bobblehead until 10 END). Another factor is that your starting HP is 80 + END x 5. So let's go with a base of 4 Endurance and go from there - so 100HP. With the formula of Level * (2.5 + (End x 0.5)) for each level gained, you'd get 254 * 8 per level, or a massive 2,438 HP. You can keep going and achieve over 4k by level 500, but would not be able to continue to invest Perk points. It can be even higher with extra Endurance. While it doesn't increase your base health, it does apply retroactively while you are wearing that gear. Each END over 10 would add 50 HP per 100 levels.

More Fallout 4 Guides

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Share Tips and FAQs (3)

Rick
Just a little note. I am at 1000 hrs in fallout 4. Only reached level 185. Even after Nuka world. Was going to play to get all perks(273) but tired of doing endless missions killing the same enemies over and over. Is there an advantage to using console cmds to get levels higher? Are there new monsters, etc?
11th September 2016 12:46am
Beau
Damn son, I'm level 65 after nukaworld. I feel op I can't even imagine you... Anyway, if you are talking about mods, you can get things like the "stories of the commonwealth" which adds many new quests, many of which are better than bethesdas quests. As for monsters, I'm sure you could find some. However, mods disable achievements. Hell, I could be missing the point entirely. Don't know what cdm means.
21st October 2016 1:13am
Rayn
You may have learned by now, but console commands are like using God Mode built into the game to do things like raise your levels and such without having to go the mods route. It also allows you to do things like manually set frame rates, etc. depending on the game and the level of privilege they allow you. I find it funny with Bethesda that they give you console God powers (like in Skyrim a companion would always get lost somewhere and you'd just run a command that warps her right to you, or if an NPC dies you can go to an NPC graveyard and ressurect them using console) and it doesn't muck with achievements like Mods do. You can even advance past parts of quests that you find too difficult using console commands.

However, the first mod you should install if you care about cheevo's is the mod that enables achievements even while using non-Bethesda mods. (The second mod is of course the unofficial patch.) From there you can fall down the modding rabbit hole and learn great things about load order and such. Although Nexusmods and LOOT help take most of the headache out of any issues that arise from using mods.
29th December 2016 7:54pm
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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.

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