If you just watched the Fallout series on Amazon and want to experience (or re-experience) the games, there’s no better time to jump back into Fallout 4. Now updated with improved graphics on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X, the fourth edition of the storied RPG franchise is one of the easier games to access and play these days. And after revisiting it, there’s so much we totally forgot, didn’t remember, or never discovered in the first place.
Like any good Bethesda RPG, the tiny details are what matters — and when you’re free to explore a vast wasteland, there’s a lot of stuff you’re just not going to experience. We’re dredging up our favorite tiny secrets in Fallout 4 to share. And there’s a lot of weird little things, both old and new, we simply never noticed in Fallout 4 until now. Some of these might be obvious to you, but unless you’re a real Fallout expert, I guarantee you didn’t know about everything on this list.
#1: Snapping Necks
Stealth is strong in Fallout 4, and if you’re stealthy enough to sneak up behind enemies, you can get a unique animation we’ve literally never seen before. While unarmed, it’s possible to snap necks with your bare hands. You can body slam enemies in melee combat by performing a power attack finisher — pressing the attack button twice quickly. The neck snap is like a stealth variant of that. In addition to neck snapping, you can also perform a stealth kill stab with knives or crush smaller enemies while wearing Power Armor.
Sneaking is fun, but doling out Arnold Schwarzenegger justice is even more fun. Who doesn’t love a good neck snap! Or smashing little bugs or doing all sorts of other special moves depending on what weapon you’re carrying. Neck snaps are just our favorite.
#2: You Can Perform Melee Counters Too
Every new game has a cool parry mechanic — Resident Evil 4 Remake has parries, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has parries, and Fallout 4 does too. Sure, Fallout 4 is a lot older, but that’s probably why parrying isn’t really explained at all. By pressing a button at the right time, you’ll to break through enemy guard in melee combat by countering attacks. You only have a brief moment to counter and attack, and like everything else in Fallout 4, it’s a little wonky. This isn’t a tight parry from something like Hifi Rush, this is going to take a little practice. You’ll need to time your attack right before an enemy attack lands. Look, it’s really weird but it works.
Oh, and it can only be done on humanoid enemies. You won’t be parrying radroaches or mirelurks. Even though that would be really cool. You can block everything though. You can block giant monster attacks just as easily as a punch from a normal dude — it looks weird, but it’s incredibly useful. The parrying is what’s really important here. You might be doing it and you didn’t even notice.
#3: Yes Man Is Back (Sort Of)
We’re barely scratching the surface of Fallout 4 and we’re already talking about a different Fallout game — New Vegas. Early in New Vegas, you’ll meet one of the game’s most memorable characters. Yes Man is a Protectron voiced by Kids In The Hall member Dave Foley, and he’s an instant favorite. Just play the game if you haven’t already, it’s an even better story to explore if you’re riding that high after watching Fallout on Amazon Prime.
There’s a fun little Yes Man Easter egg in the latest patch for Fallout 4. By completing the All Hallows Eve quest — which automatically unlocks after downloading the next-gen update — you’ll earn the De-Capitalistic Head Piece. This can be further customized to show the familiar, smiling face of Yes Man. Look, I so rarely look through every paint or customization option in Fallout 4, there are so many of them, but sometimes you’ll get some gold. Enjoy a little more Yes Man in your life.
#4: Weird Weapon Customization
While we’re talking about Customization, some of the most fun you can have in Fallout 4 is making your weapons even weirder, and there are some really fun customization tricks you can pull to turn regular weapons into weirdo contraptions. The new update already adds the fun Piggy Bank mod for the Fatman, which we’ve talked about before, but there are more weird alternate forms.
Probably one of the weirdest weapon customizations is turning your Plasma Rifle into a flamethrower. Remove the nozzle and you’ll be spraying green fire, melting everything you come into contact with.
The best weird weapon mod has to go to the Shredder Bayonet Mod for the Minigun. This turns the minigun into a chainsaw, and it is ridiculously strong. You’ll literally chew through enemies. Hop into a suit of Power Armor, and enjoy turning everything into mincemeat. This is so absurdly strong, it probably shouldn’t be allowed. But it is allowed, so we’re going to do it anyway. Just try to stop me Todd Howard.
#5: A Better Light
Here’s a quick one all about your dinky Pip-Boy light. The little green glow isn’t great for combat, and even exploring interior spaces can be pretty crummy. If you want to improve your flashlight, equip the Mining Helmet. While wearing this, you’ll gain a full headlamp that illuminates so much more of the area ahead of you. You’ll actually see all those ghouls in the subway or Super Mutants in abandoned buildings. Not exactly powerful, but so incredibly useful. Great for everyone that’s sick of green.
(Oh, and you can change your Pip-Boy color in the settings! Go to Settings, then Display and scroll down. You can choose any color you want, and your new colors will also reflect in your Pip-Boy light. That’s a neat little feature.)
#6: Brahmin For Sale
If you explore enough, you’ll run into unique random encounters with Brotherhood of Steel patrols, battles between factions, and other assorted weirdness. One random encounter we never knew about until now is the Brahmin vendor. The Brahmin vendor will do exactly what you think — sell you a Brahmin, one of those weird two-headed cows that vendors use to move their junk from settlement to settlement. Brahmin have become an unofficial mascot of the Fallout series, so who wouldn’t want to get one of these cuddly freaks of nature?
Brahmin actually have a use in Fallout 4. Feeding Brahmin with a trough will generate Fertilizer in your settlement — which has a wide range of uses for crafting, including making different ammo types. Brahmin also increase settlement food production. Not a bad benefit for a big weird cow!
And Brahmin don’t need to be purchased. If you’ve been playing Fallout 4 for long, you’ll quickly learn that Brahmin can be attracted simply by recruiting — there’s a low chance they’ll appear instead of a human settler and live in your settlement. Always good to have at least one Brahmin. For good luck.
#7: Hacking And You
Who knew so many people still had trouble hacking computer terminals. The Hack skill is one of the most useful for unlocking doors or disabling killer robots, and you’ll be seeing that obnoxious mess of broken code so often if you play Fallout 4 for long. So many players don’t understand how this puzzle works. Instead of playing the puzzle game, some people rapidly select the first few password options, quit, and try again until it is solved. Brute forcing is a totally legit trick.
But we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about a feature we absolutely didn’t notice. The terminal hacking minigame gets easier the higher your Intelligence stat. If you have max intelligence, you’ll see far, far fewer password options than any player (or creature) attempting to hack. Even after hundreds of hours of playing, I never noticed this tiny detail. And the opposite is also true. Lower intelligence will get more password options, making the minigame more difficult. That’s one benefit of being a super genius, I guess.
#8: Reverse Pickpocketing For Profit
Here’s a trick literally everyone knows. If you pickpocket an enemy, you can drop a grenade in their pants. Sneak away and it’ll explode, dealing crazy damage — like the world’s most lethal prank. That’s fun, but there’s something else you can do with pickpocketing that’s also fun, and something we had no idea the game would account for.
The subways of the Commonwealth are guarded by unique Subway Protectrons. You’ll also find lots (and lots) of Subway Tokens in the underground tunnels. Because you’re trespassing, Subway Protectrons will start blasting you on-sight. If you reverse pickpocket these robots and drop in some Subway Tokens, they’ll turn docile and stop attacking you. It makes perfect sense. You paid the toll, so now you’re allowed inside. I always wondered what all those Subway Tokens were used for. Now we all know.
#9: Starting An Adhesive Farm
Adhesive is one of the most valuable resources in Fallout 4 because it is required for almost every type of modification. You’ll need it for customizing armor, weapons and robots if you have the Automatron DLC. Because it is so uncommon but absolutely required for everything, players at launch were instantly desperate to scrounge up every last drop of adhesive in the Wasteland. And none of it is required.
You can make your own Adhesive at home. By growing crops of Tato, Muttfruit and Corn you can craft an item called Vegetable Starch. Take any of these vegetables and add Dirty Water to get starch. Create the starch at any Cooking Station, then break it down for Adhesive. This makes one of the most important resources in Fallout 4 infinitely easier to earn while playing through the vanilla game.
#10: Guessing The Password
And one of the funniest little moments in Fallout 4 can be easily missed. Talking to Daisy in Goodneighbor will begin the quest ‘Public Knowledge’ — sending you to the Boston Public Library to solve a Super Mutant problem. There are two ways to get in the library. You can sneak in through a subway station or use a locked security door. The door asks you for a password, and if you’re really brave, you can guess what the password might be.
Choosing to guess the password, your character will give the code “1-2-3-4-5-6” — and it works. The dumbest password imaginable will get you through the locked door with zero effort. No sneaking required. This is one of the most fun moments in Fallout 4, and the sort of thing you’d find in one of the original Fallout RPGs. Who would even think about guessing the password? And it works!
And those are 10 fun details we never knew while playing through Fallout 4 for the first time. We’re sure there are many, many more you discovered that we missed, so let us know what weird stuff you love in the comments section below. We’re always hungry to absorb so much more of that sweet Fallout radiation.
