Fallout 4 Survival Mode: 10 Tips & Tricks You Can't Live Without

By Robert Zak / April 5, 2016

Fallout 4 is now as familiar to us as our own backyards - if our backyards were filled with decaying cars, pockmarked by mole rat burrows, and have an irradiated pond at the back that€™s home to a family of mirelurks.

This has left many of us looking for a new challenge in the wasteland, and now Bethesda have answered our calls by announcing a new survival mode for Fallout 4. which makes things like hunger, thirst, sleep and disease factors in your survival, removes enemy markers, fast travel and manual saving, and makes weight more of a worry than ever, among countless other tweaks.

The survival mode beta has now been released, and I can tell you after playing it, Christ is it hard. It forces you to completely rethink how you play Fallout 4, but though it may be tough, it€™s also extremely satisfying and rewarding once you adapt to it.

It€™s a whole new experience, and a great excuse to jump back into the Boston wastes if you haven€™t visited them for a while. To help get you on your feet, here are 10 crucial tips and tricks to help you find your feet in the tough, cruel world of Fallout 4 survival mode.

10. Invest Points Into Strength

Whether you€™re continuing your game as a character that hasn€™t focused on strength until now or starting a new game, you€™ll be shocked at how quickly you can find yourself over-encumbered in the new survival mode. What€™s more, being in this state actually causes damage to you (harsh, right?), so you want to avoid it as much as possible.

The first step to doing this is by investing points into Strength - six of them, to be precise. This€™ll give you access to the Strong Back perk, which increases your carrying capacity, and at Level 20 allows you to run even when encumbered by using you Action points.

The Rank 4 Strong Back perk, which lets you fast travel while over-encumbered, won€™t work, because there is no fast travel in the tough, cruel world of survival mode.