Fallout 4: Survival Mode - Character Build Guide

Fallout 4's Survival Mode is almost here, so I've decided to update my character build guide with what I now believe is the strongest build in the game, which also means we can dive right into the actual game when Survival Mode arrives.
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The music track is Fanfare for Space, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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[@robhendrix4265]

I think you've said the term "glass canon" in six or seven consecutive Fallout 4 videos now. That should be your character's name.

[@jaystonepk]

+Rob Hendrix I think it should be Glass Joe or Glass Jane ;)

[@ksixkrauss8906]

Mike tysons punch out lmao yes

[@AlexSamaras]

Arguably, putting your charisma up high enough to get the Local Leader perk might be VERY useful for survival mode. This is because you'll be able to establish supply lines, and with no fast travel, it may be hard to build up your stores of materials unless your settlements are linked. This is one thing I plan to do on my build (which I'll start in a few hours when I get off work for the day :D ).

[@charltoncates5824]

I would take all points out of luck and dump into charisma

[@tomcat978]

I love watching your video guides and let's plays. They're always entertaining and informative. Keep up the good work Jon.

[@darqblue42]

Thank you for posting this video and explaining everything with so much detail (even the obvious things). For someone who's new to the game, the valuable nuggets of information you provide are incredibly helpful for playing in the more difficult modes, especially Survival. Thanks again!

[@VAULT-TEC_INC.]

I think you're undercutting the usefulness of supply lines in Survival Mode, which will require Local Leader II.

[@ManyATrueNerd]

+Sunset Rider True, I reckon it worth subsequently boosting Charisma to 6 - but it's not enough to justify going Ch-6 with your initial points.

[@ishoulddegoogle]

+Sunset Rider Supply lines only require Local Leader I, but overall it's perfectly possible to create functioning settlements without supply lines. True, you won't be able to build massive settlements everywhere, but for the most part the settlements are self-sufficient when you find them. Hangman's Alley, Covenant, and Greygarden are all central to my play-through due to their location, and aside from Greygarden (which doesn't require much if you just unassign the robots from the plants), they're all built up enough to where you don't even need to worry about building up their defenses.

[@DrGhoztz]

+Jackson Lee This guy had poor ideas from the start. I wasnt taking him seriously after saying he was choosing to specialise in 3 combat skills. As you can see, he contradicts himself (he said charisma was utterly useless and scoffed at trade routes). This was a basic concept from the mere mention of hardcore survival; Endurance and a Rifle. Theres nothing technical about it.

[@josephiles5793]

+Dr. Ghoztz I guess you haven't watched the survival series he's doing with this build.. He's utterly dominating the game, so you can't really say he is incompetent. Also, he didn't say to stretch your build in 3 different combat ways. He said to build for rifles, supplemented by explosives. Which is pretty common, grenades are powerful and explosive rifles are ridiculous. As to the third pillar of his combat, he said to use stealth melee. But as you can see, he didn't stretch his build in that direction. His strength is 2. He simply said you could get it up easily at any time with drugs. This is essentially a stealthy rifleman build, with explosives and a little bit of utility. That's a great build, nothing wrong with it. You're a silly man.

[@somethingotherthanmyrealname]

+Dr. Ghoztz at least comment on the guy's reply-_-

[@Jaxxy_Deer]

Jon April fools should be an attempt at only live once on fallout4 where u fail at the first load of enemies

[@jwebb4750]

first radroach

[@Jaxxy_Deer]

+Jack Webb no I would have some faith in John

[@alebamber]

That is genius!!

[@islarf5095]

Maybe he actually plays skyrim this time?

[@CJSwitz]

+Jonathan Butterworth Only move backwards run

[@jazzfiend6473]

Great Guide! Very informative, I've been creating and debating what builds would be most effective/fun in Survival.

[@abraham7273]

S.2 P.4 E.2 C.2 I.5 A.8 L.5 These are the stats John chose

[@thomaskelly4855]

Jon*

[@dotjackel]

This is what I've been waiting for to start my second play- through.

[@Dolkarr]

I would rather use the special book to raise intelligence to 6 instead of luck. Not just because of the experience, but by taking Science early, you can improve the laser musket to deal more than 150 damage per hit, which can kill almost everything in the early game in a single sneak attack. In my opinion that's more useful than critical banker, which you're probably not going to take immediately anyway.

[@s0vnds]

Amazing insight, thankyou

[@leeman27534]

the issue going with the laser musket is that a bright laser isn't too good for staying sneaking...

[@Armant.]

Definitely wrong idea. Firstly - laser musket, like most of energy weapons, is a piece of garbage. You can't use silencers on them, so you are loosing 50% damage boost from mister sandman. Also after first shot you are loosing your stealth and damage boosts from Ninja and Cloak&Dagger perks. The only case in which you should ever consider using energy weapons is build that doesn't use stealth at all. Secondly - even if you don't want to use stealth, laser musket is still garbage at the beginning of the game. It is extremelly heavy, you can't use it in VATS and there is no source of ammo until first quests for BoS/Railroad. Compare that to .308 suppressed pipe bolt-action rifle which you can easily assemble right at the start of game (sniper rifle from Concord, suppresor from Trudy) without any perk investments, which will one-shot kill almost everything (beside of deathclaw), which is really lightweight and which has quite common ammo-type... choosing laser musket over pipe rifle is a really bad idea...

[@leeman27534]

@@Armant. your first point only makes them garbage in a stealth build. a fat man hs the same considerations, but isn't automatically 'trash'. you also seem ignorant of the FACT that the laser musket with six crank is basically the second strongest attack in the entire game - above gauss rifle, even. gauss rifle can do better with a sneak build, effectively, but by that concept alone, means it's definitely not a bad choice. and i like the pipe guns, they're amazingly versatile right at the start, but they're still weak as hell. bolt action rifle and revolver variants also being really slow to reload, and definitely won't one shot 'kill almost anything besides a deathclaw'. there's a lot of decently, or even just high level, foes it can't take out, even with a stealth/crit build. there's also the idea that energy cells are an insanely common ammo crop. no matter what faction you fight, either the BOS or the institute drops them like crazy. and also, to even get to 'decent' levels, you need like 3 stealth ranks, or a lot of the mags, to be able to reliably stay in stealth, you need several ranks in the sneak/crit stuff, etc - or just gun nut and science to make a strong laser musket that's still outperforming a pipe rifle.

[@AceCorban]

I'm really thinking Local Leader is going to play a pretty big role in survival mode. Having a nearby settlement to craft medicines/food, tend to wounds and sleep/save will be quite helpful. And the only way that will really be manageable is with supply routes between settlements, since you'll need them all to be able to defend themselves. And not all settlements have enough scrap to build decent defenses.

[@benwillems8584]

I know this is a long time later, but it is. I am not settling every single place (no need for tenpines, red rocket and abernathy if you have Sanctuary and Hangman) but the places I do settle are well stocked with shops and scavenger stations

[@AceCorban]

@@benwillems8584 Heh blast from the past. I still believe local leader is very helpful in survival mode. Junk management is so much easier when you can set up a solid web of trade routes. Being able to drop junk at any settlement and use it at any settlement helps a lot. I agree, settling EVERY settlement is unnecessary, but strategic outposts with traderoutes makes life much easier.

[@theuniquegamer4678]

really enjoy watching your videos many a true nerd!

[@AureliusGameTheory]

Great insight. I'm rolling with full on agility and luck build, utilizing vats, ninja, gunslinger, mr. Sandman and action boy. Desdemona with the railroad gives you an amazing 10mm pistol that reduces AP cost. The problem I'm running into is that early game, this build is extremely difficult, but I love the challenge. It makes you have to be in sneak mode almost constantly, really makes you play very careful and smart as if it was real.

[@leeman27534]

this is basically the better survival strat - not going with 3 different offense types and whatnot... you can later upgrade from the deliverer to a sniper rifle when it's time, and sneak levels are key to pulling this off right, but trying to get enough damage to deal with targets easily and quietly to reduce incoming damage as much as possible, is vital.

[@AureliusGameTheory]

Also, do not underestimate the lead belly perk in survival mode.

[@Darkwolfpocco]

Do you still go by this now that you have played a lot of survival?

[@TheFunkybirds]

Hey Jon! First of all nice video as always. :) So i just started my first run on survival difficulty and i think that endurance 3 ist pretty important because it gives you lead belly which is just awesome because you need to drink water all the time.

[@Silrace]

Made a new character with an old build onto the new survival and crushing it just the same. SPECIAL at 3/1/10/3/7/1/3 at the start and the book used to get Perception to 2 for Rifleman. The drug penalties aren't bad enough and Jet is still too good, combined with Covenant always selling a Combat Shotgun with Staggering prefix. Run up to things with Jet slow-motion on and slaughter monsters just as before the new Survival changes came to be.

[@DatMageDoe]

If Grim Sprint isn't worth it, I found 4 Leaf Clover to be absolutely god tier once you get the third rank, It goes off like, every time you need it to, but trust me, you want to take Critical Banker to at least 2 before you take it.

[@nemanjaks229]

love you're vids keep it up👌

[@pwnage402]

Now I can't wait for Sunday. Damn you Jon!

[@Baloth86]

Hey Jon, have you thought about doing a "VATS only" run? Meaning that you can't fire a Weapon or hit Something without using VATS... I think that would be an interesting Challenge, maybe even for FO3/NV... P.S.: For those asking why this would be a Challenge: AP Management, no long Distance sniping, You're completely dependent on the calculated hit Probability etc.

[@goonyman90]

Still watching in 2021!! Such a good series.

[@Altashheth08]

Same here 👍

[@stephenmueller1506]

Good build and close to what I started with which is going well for me so far. I would recommend getting Charisma to 6 though for Local Leader (I started at 4, then added 2 with +1 from SPECIAL Book and +1 from Bobblehead). This ate into my Luck which I plan to build up later for Better Critical. I love the settlement portion of the game, and in survival mode no fast travel means fewer resources and supply lines can help a lot. Plus if you want to make sure you have all that is available to you when building settlements, this would be needed. Great advice by the way on endurance points over toughness & life giver; I was thinking of finally trying out life giver but I will probably opt for something else now.

[@christophercollins3632]

I’ve only ever played Survival. And blind. I’ve just recently allowed myself to dabble in a little research. Mechanics mostly. My most recent build is a challenge-run of sorts. I’m at level 35 now. It’s melee/explosives only, with pistols as a last resort. And just Dogmeat (no affinity perks allowed). There’s no way to abuse the well-known glitch and force Dogmeat to carry infinite items, which I’ve always done before with other companions. My starting stats were S7 P1 E7 C1 I1 A7 L3. My first two points went to L, to access idiot savant early. Then Blink. Then Rooted. Those last 2 perks form the foundation of survivability for melee. With them, a simple tire iron taken from the mongrel as you leave Sanctuary will serve you well for quite awhile. At level 35, S9 P1 E11 C4 I1 A9 L4. Sneak Rank 3 is important, not just aiding in positioning safely for Blink, or escape, but to not die from random traps and mines. Melee means getting close, quickly, and you don’t have the luxury of combing the floors every step of the way. Moving Target because you have to eat Lead sometimes to get close enough. And the last rank means you’ll have plenty of AP for attacks when you’re close enough to unload Blitz. Plus, it’s great for running everywhere in survival. Solar Powered Rank 2. One helluva convenience perk!!! RadAway sucks because of how tired you get. If you’re trying to make use of your Adrenaline Boost, needing to sleep sooner is bad. Doctors, clinics aren’t scarce, but you’re already running everywhere already. Save yourself the trip. Plus, you won’t need to carry as much clean food and water, as you can eat and drink anything you find during half the day. Being full HP nearly all the time rocks. Oh, +2STR/+2END has many uses, besides combat. Haul more, faster. Aquaboy 1. Swimming will cut travel times substantially. Plus, encounter-free. Get the magazine to swim 25% faster in Malden Drainage Ditch. Indispensable quality of life improvement in Survival. Medic 2. Sure, food heals. And it’s the way to go early on. Get the double meat magazine in Sunshine Tidings. But Stimpacks are percentage based. Once you’re where I am now, E11 at level 35, you’ll need a full buffet to heal. That’s a lot of carry weight you can eliminate. Consider rank 4, doubling the heal speed. Pop a couple stimpacks, and they stack their heal speed. Convenience perk? Save time, water, carry weight, and get back into the fight fast. Admantium Skeleton 2. Melee builds get hit. Being crippled is certain death. And requires emergency measures. Dig into the medicine cabinet and open wide. Or, don’t get crippled. You still took damage, but now a stimpack fixes your HP, recovers limb damage, and you didn’t get put into a life-or-death situation. An ounce of prevention or a pound of cure. Chem Resistant 1. I’m not suggesting a chems build. Just, that Jet is almost a necessity in melee. If nothing else as an oh-shit-button. It’s a bad feeling to be deep in a mission and proc an addiction. It’s convenience, but while you’re there, get rank 2, and enjoy all that good shit without seeing the inside of rehab. That’s the build. Sure, I’ve got ActionGirl to get places faster, and not need to fall back to wait for AP to regen. Lone Wanderer, because it’s a Dogmeat-only build. I’ll progressively level big leagues (I just put my first point in at level 34). I might get Inspirational, because Dogmeat dies a lot, especially when I’m chucking explosives. I’d love to have Local Leader, as Supply Routes makes settlement building infinitely easier. Plus, store your mods and uncooked ingredients anywhere, and use them wherever. Save a ton of carry weight when you can take only what you need for that mission, as well as trips to tweak gear. But I’ve been high charisma before, and it’s really good, so we’ll see. I’m loathe to take perception, as it does nothing for melee, but I’m trying to not use anything but explosives for ranged, and the extra damage and radius will help, eventually. Plus, I could craft fragmentation, bottlecap, and not just Molotov. Lifegiver 3 is tempting because it’s a constant percentage heal outside combat. Great for keeping topped off between fights, saving carry weight. Solar Powered 3 is similar, except it works in combat, but only outside during the day. Blacksmith is for fun. You can buy several of the weapons with their max upgrade, and transfer to a legendary. But many of the upgrades can’t be bought. Variety is the spice of life. I’ve already dominated with pickman’s Blade enough. Armorer, cuz Ballistic Weave is dope. But not make or break. High END just works. The ultimate convenience is Strong Back. Melee, Medic 2, Amantium 2, Lifegiver 3, doesn’t need much carry weight. But being able to walk normally overencumbered is just the best. That’s all I want it for. To not slow walk while equipping settlers, or shopping, or finding Dogmeat to take some stuff. I even want rank 4, just for the rare time when I’m willing to haul a truckload a great distance.

[@bendavies3945]

You can also use Power Armour as a way to raise your melee damage and strength.

[@MrDavePed]

Get the wasteland survival guide #9 at Sunshine Tidings Co-op settlement VERY early, like level 2 or 3. You will double your cooking experience and always have plenty to eat. You can add one intelligence to your already ten intelligence by drinking alcohol before you pick up the SPECIAL book in Shaun's room. That way your base intelligence is 11 once the alcohol wears off. Aqua boy is GREAT for evading enemies and getting to places you otherwise couldn't go without navigating through dangerous territory. The rivers become your safe highways. Nerd rage will save your hide a LOT especially if you have a high endurance, high hit point build. Blitz makes melee a joy even at low levels but it requires 9 agility. Agility will give you a lot of action points which are great for melee vats and sprinting. Demolition is a good skill as it will really add value to those grenades and mines.

[@GoldenLion2004]

Only just starting to watch this series after beginning my own melee-only survival run. I've found Aquagirl an absolute must in the early game, and will be interested to see how you fare without it.

[@Hunterr8]

"Just do drugs to get strong" John-2016

[@Pure060]

anyone know if the beta progress transfers to live when patch comes out ?

[@jaystonepk]

Great minds think alike although you convinced me to drop my new chicks starting strength down to 3. I still want armorer without having to put a direct point early on. These stats are VERY similar to mine and I pretty much follow the same progression by picking up the same few perk books/weapons before heading to Garvey. It looks like I need to go for deliverer before pickmans this time around. I've already scrapped a level 25 hybrid build because of a few stupid starting stats plus I broke the pull the plug quest by not talking to the bloke.

[@MEGAyognauts]

now looking back on it as a level 54 survivalist whos still got the main quest and all of the dlc left to do I would say that i wish id taken more intelligence 5 and perception 4 instead of strength 6 but it is nice to have the extra carry weight from strong back IF you are interested in settlement building which i most definitely am

[@AllaKaZingbob]

Would Adamantium Skeleton have any value in a Survival run, or is that another perk which you should ignore like the plague? I found some use in it with my build, but I guess the benefits of not being crippled are kind of outlived in the mid game.

[@MikePSU]

Personally going to go with: Strength - 6: (Strong Back) Perception - 1: (Get +1 Bobblehead handed to you extremely early so its at 2 for rifleman) Endurance - 3: (Going to use Special Book on it to get to 4, Chem Resistant and Life Giver (Rank 3 specifically) are 2 perks I want) Charisma - 3: (Lone Wanderer, will boost to 6 for Supply lines) Intelligence - 3: (Gun Nut, I'll get Science later on because the only reason I'll want it is for Recon Scope which needs Gun Nut 4 anyways, will improve intelligence over time) Agility - 6: (Ninja, will use bobblehead to get to 7 for Ninja) Luck - 6: (Better Criticals, will get critical banker when I get the Luck Bobblehead)

[@CeOnGeNiCX7]

The agility bobble head is miles away from sanctuary, it would take a long dangerous trek to get it

[@danielmcgarrie159]

+CDG710 same with luck

[@JaredisAMPED]

Max hype for survival run

[@wolvan]

It's too bad that the graphic and sound effect for Idiot Savant are so off-putting.

[@symphonyofaria]

It's a beautiful sound only when quest exp rolls in

[@prism1002]

download the mod that transforms it into the Oh Yeah from the Kool Aid Man

[@jesterinadeck_2980]

+Prism That sounds awesome.

[@therealfestus2472]

lol when you get idiot savant in vats its fuckin creepy lol

[@BboyHipHop1]

Going to restart my survival mode playthrough, considering the following stats (keen to get some discussion/hear other opinions, what worked well for others): Strength: 2 (improve with bobble head to get 3 armorer) Perception: 4 (improve with bobble head tot get 5 demolition expert) Endurance: 4 (so my character can take a few hits before going down) Charisma: 3 (to grab lone wanderer ASAP then later bump up to 6 for settlements) Intelligence: 3 (to get gun nut, then bobble head to get 4 ASAP and level up as I go for science etc) Agility: 7 (get access to ninja straight away) Luck: 5 (to get idiot savant straight away and the YOURE SPECIAL to bump up to 6 for better criticals)

[@georgedevere2493]

I'm so excited!!!

[@jatelitherius9842]

Sneaky deaky sniper guy worked fine for past survival mode I'm excited for the new one though I've been playing only on survival since the game came out and now it'll actually be a challenge Friggen lack of fast travel tho!

[@therealfestus2472]

well with the institue you can go everywhere you want without a prob just put all you have in your appartements.

[@sex0trone]

Are you finally going to download that mod for power armor to make the UI normal?

[@Luks.V]

Jon, what is your favourite build in fallout 4 so far?

[@AvengerAtIlipa]

Rank 4 of Attack Doge also provides +10% damage reduction. If you combine that with Lone Wanderer and Pack Alpha you have a base damage reduction of 65%.

[@harrygrant4122]

jon constantly goes on about the ninja perk....i never even consider it, a good shotgun will do the exact same thing, kill stuff quickly.

[@lordofthebuckets2676]

I've got an awesome challenge run idea from r you Jon and it is tailored specifically to you, here it comes... "Manyatruenerd Presents: Fallout 4 Male Character Run!" It's a genius idea Jon I assure you that doing this would make your subscriber count skyrocket!

[@flames_fan_328]

XD yes!

[@luismuro9211]

At this point, the male dialogue is the special dialogue xD

[@MarquisSmith]

My own advice on a new survival mode build, having put an ungodly amount of hours into the game. S2 P4 E4 C5 I1 A5 L7 (Stats at the beginning of the game) S3 P5 E5 C6 I2 A7 L8 (After Bobbleheads/You're Special book point in Agility) Similar to Jon's own guide above, this build will use sneaky melee for godly amounts of damage, rifles for long range sneaky sniping, and demo expert to boost our grenades and explosive legendaries. Unlike Jon's build, this one is designed to use Idiot Savant to it's maximum potential, have enough endurance to grab Lead Belly and Aqua Boy - both of which will be a huge help on survival - and enough charisma that we can easily boost it with gear to pass any speech check the game throws at us. More importantly, we'll be able to grab Local Leader early on and share supplies throughout our settlements. With no fast travel, this will be insanely helpful. Don't worry about missing out on the crafting perks of intelligence. You can find any mod you need on weapons you find in loot or store inventories, often at a far lower level than you can make them yourself (for example, maximised capacitors for laser rifles start showing up as early as level sixteen. You would need three ranks in Science to make your own, and you can't get those until you hit level twenty three!!). Should you decide to grab the intelligence booblehead, you'll be able to invest points into Medic, which will eventually speed up our healing rate a great deal, at the cost of a slightly lower proc rate for Idiot Savant. Otherwise, keeping that stat as low as possible to trigger the Savant bonuses is highly recommended. Having played with max intelligence characters and low intelligence Savants, I can assure you that the latter levels at a much higher rate than the former. Finally, with our high luck we'll be able to repeatedly crit tougher enemies, making otherwise tricky fights much easier to handle. With the bobblehead, our luck will be up to eight, which allows Grim Reaper's Sprint to enter to fold, making us a VATS monster.

[@SPACKlick]

+Salfordio Looks good. Inteligence 2 idiot savant 2 or 3 is the best for levelling, When you hit level 25 you're two levels ahead of where you would have been, making up for the two points you've put in idiot savant and then when you hit level 50 you are 7 levels ahead of where you would have been. It's, on average, 1.484 * base xp. That said the alternate route is Int 12 (special book trick), Idiot savant 2, Night person 2, with Lab Coat, Liam's Glasses, Press Cap, With reasonable use of Berry Mentats, X-Cell, Daddy-O, and Squirrel Stew, ensuring you are always or almost always well rested/lovers embraced and in Quiet Reflection. This all works out to between 1.664 and 2.204 times XP. Even more if your lover is Piper as her "Gift of the Gab" doubles XP for speech checks and exploration. If you manage to find 3, 4 or 5 pieces of legendary Sharp armour this goes up again to a max of 2.266 times XP

[@MarquisSmith]

I would strongly recommend against putting three points into Idiot Savant, and keeping it at rank two instead. The third rank is more trouble than it's worth unless you're exclusively gaining XP from fighting, as it triggers a cooldown effect of thirty seconds whenever it procs, and only allows bonus experience to be gained from kills, not other actions. Say you're doing some settlement building, and Idiot Savant goes off. Until the cooldown elapses, you'll have no chance of gaining more procs. Or if you turn in a quest directly after combat. The perk won't trigger on the quest XP, meaning you potentially lose out on a whole level's worth of experience.

[@SPACKlick]

Agreed,

[@MarquisSmith]

You're more than welcome.

[@tingkagol]

+Salfordio Is it just me or is this lacking 1 point? _S2 P4 E4 C5 I1 A5 L6_

[@duncanjax6548]

Jon, if i could make a comments on local leader, the supplie lines have some very viable uses the most obvious one being of course they make it so all your supplies in each settlement are shared. Now the thing is all the provisioners(supply runners) actually make roundabout trips to the settlements thier assigned, meaning people allied to you are traveling all over the commonwealth and with automatron you can make your robots provisioners thereby sending an army of robots allied to you all across the commonswealth who will fight enemies they come across and if you run into an enemy near them they will fight to help you.

[@enzo_plays]

Hey Jon one correction: u said vats is the only way to use criticals. You can use overdrive to bypass this and get crits outside vats. Works quite well with a lucky legendary gun.

[@TheCrimsonFist501]

I'd focus my build around guerrilla tactics, rifles, ambushes, grenades, mines, and I'd level mostly through building and getting a steady flow of supplies in

[@Jimboola]

Everytime I try a character without high Agility & Luck I really miss them, especially Ninja & Critical Banker! Agility & Luck FOR THE WIN!

[@humbertomonteiro3681]

we all have a weakness,mine is int(With 3 strengh for armor and 2 per for rifleman),powerfull modified weapons,power armor,nerd rage,robotics expert(rank 1 Will make robots your slaves) i cant make any character With less than 10 int

[@hampusandersson2729]

I always have 1 luck and 1 agility

[@mikaelihamaki619]

Hampus Andersson me too

[@tobywankenobi3088]

@@hampusandersson2729 You should always have 2 luck or higher for scrounger

[@Azaghal1988]

seems like we get 2 or more videos tonight :)

[@Rochardzorz]

Survival mode is really, really good! However there are a few things that I hope they fix before it's released: 1) Enemies are still bullet sponges. 2) Carry capacity still needs a nerf. It's too easy to get 200+ and it just doesn't make sense that a person can carry that much/many weapons, armors, junk, aid etc etc. 3) Disable settlements until level X or tie some of the overpowered stuff like turrets to Codsworth/Preston. You need to go get materials and a blueprint to be able to create them for instance. That said pretty much everything else is nice. Damage, taken and dealt, is improved. Water/food/aid is SERIOUSLY complex now. Use a Stimpack and some Radaway? Sure! Now you're dehydrated, hungry and need to sleep. Can't sleep because you're in combat? Well, have fun dying. I LOVE IT! Oh, and btw! If you have empty bottles (beer, milk etc) and use them on a water source you can make Dirty Water and/or Purified Water!

[@toaofpi]

Ok, so we're going to want carry weight and melee weapons, and strength 2. ... Well, this is going to be an interesting build! Thanks for the video!

[@slish438]

For anyone who really needs help with this I'll tell you my experiance. I'm level 77 currently and I have yet to spend a point on any of the damage skills, none of the gun perks, none of the sneak or critical perks either. Gunsmith and science do all of the heavy lifting, and Chemist, Party boy, and we'll managed Power armor keep you from dying. Grab a Gatling Laser with that Tesla power armor from the Mechanist dlc and you're good to go. Easy.

[@XProjectHunterX]

i love the sheer amount of fallout 4 content you now have.we should be wrapping up fallout 3 yolo run on sunday so now will will have suvival mode and no guns. also at what point would you be comfortable to do a yolo run for fallout 4?

[@DoopDudesVault]

+XProjectHunterX Yolo for fallout 4 would be really difficult since rads replace health.

[@ba-loo-loo7676]

YOLO FO4 is probably gonna happen in a few years, especially when all the DLC is out, and he's done everything a few times

[@XProjectHunterX]

PlayaR 100 ya i figured since we dont have all the dlc and theres still areas we havent seen yet

[@LeeeWai]

This is good build up if you don't give a shit about settlements at all. I haven't play survival yet, but im planing to do it now, and I'm thinking to invest some in settlements build too. It gives you money, water, food, safety, and you also level up super fast when you building stuff. My last ( and only ) character I played is level 160+, and I didn't go to Nuka Cola yet. Because I go to every hole, pick all the stuff and build every settlement ( I went way to much in details ) But thats the way I like to play the game. Need to try all. That is after 38days of gameplay ( nearly 1000 hours ). But you have to take in account that sometimes I felt in sleep when playing cos im a stoner with to much time.

[@Ben-or1db]

LeeeWai you can invest points into charisma later on as well as the bobblehead

[@josephtoner7355]

Cannibal must be such a good perk now on survival. Free food after almost every battle especially with rank 2.

[@flames_fan_328]

Are you going to be doing a full walkthrough of survival mode Jon? (Sorry if you answered this already, I just stated the video)

[@flames_fan_328]

Ok good just got to the end. So hyped for your survival run!

[@SpikedKirby]

+Flames_Fan_32 yes

[@XRAYElementz]

+Flames_Fan_32 I believe he is, he stated in the intro that this would be before a future playlist for Survival rather than wasting time the first episode for doing his build

[@flames_fan_328]

+XRAY Elementz yeah I heard at the end. Thanks though, i didn't hear him at the beginning

[@ScrambledNetwork]

Can someone give me a tl:dw perk list?

[@Natbuscus911]

What about endurance 5 for Aquaboy/girl like in your last video?

[@ManyATrueNerd]

+Nathan “Natbuscus” Brorsen I might go up to it later - as I'll naturally boost Endurance up anyway. For now, I'd rather focus on being an effective fighting force, with an ability to craft.

[@islarf5095]

+Many A True Nerd what about a high perception? you would want to get penetrator eventually for dealing with more lurks, and sentry bots. being able to target their face and fusion core through their body is extremely powerful when you got some vats enhanced gear

[@islarf5095]

+Many A True Nerd and perception can also assist you with vats accuracy. and I love vats with sniper characters it's so powerful when you can hit everything!

[@islarf5095]

+Many A True Nerd the high perception will also assist in. As you're suggesting gun fu. there's no point taking that perk if you can't hit your targets.

[@islarf5095]

+Many A True Nerd I went with a really high perception and agility build for my current survival run. its insane with 13+ perception constantly. 15 at night. deacon and maccreadies perk. A lot of vats enhanced gear with a vats enhanced 50 caliber rifle. and a high agility. I'm landing too much shots all the time. vats comes back with no effort. and don't get me started on how many shots I get with the deliverer XDXD

[@crispybacon7937]

Apparently carrying too much stuff causes your legs to become crippled, does that still happen while using power armor, or does the power armor legs deteriorate instead of your own legs? This might make nuclear physicist viable so you can just go everywhere in power armor and not have to worry about being over-encumbered. Would also solve settlement problems of not having enough materials, especially with no fast travel. Strong back 4 is also out of the question, unless that actually opens up fast travel in survival mode?

[@r3dp9]

Interesting. I dislike VATS, oddly enough, and focus INT to get Nerd Rage and Chemist. Between those two I get an insane amount of slow mo time that lets me dodge anything and kill everything with any weapon. Nerd Rage is particularly handy on high difficulties because it warns me when my health is low, and helps me escape after stupid mistakes and ambushes (my two leading causes of death). At some point I should try a VATS centered build just for fun, though.

[@SourceOfBeing]

My thinking with Idiot Savant is that you need to run either a min Intelligence (1) or max intelligence (12) character. Idiot Savant will proc more often with min, but when it procs at max, the difference in XP gained is worth several levels of proc-ing at min.

[@leeman27534]

either way works - the extra exp helps regardless of low or high int, it'll just be more reliable at lower int.

[@wmichaell2001]

Just to provide some criticism, isn't there a lot of builds like heavy armor and big guns type characters that don't sneak? I dont really understand the statement "all characters benefit from sneak and ninja"

[@AvengerAtIlipa]

The overdrive drug (requires Chemist) gives you a 25% chance that ANY hit (can be outside of vats) is a critical hit.

[@jenniferstacy8049]

Keep in mind that you *need* Chemist rank 1 to craft Stimpaks, Rad Away, and Antibiotics during this new Survival mode My current Survival Beta build is S9 P1 E1 C1 I6+Book A9 L1 with my perks as Blitz Rooted Hacker Armorer Blacksmith Science +Intelligence Hacker +Charisma +Charisma Nuclear Physicist Armorer Nuclear Physicist Robotics Expert Blacksmith Currently L16 with and have only died 3 times, only once to something stupid. Went mostly for a build that I know works through the Automatron DLC, just modified it a bit for the awesome goodness of Blitz+Rooted with an end goal of Local Leader due to the no fast travel mechanics (currently you can *only* quick-travel in the new Survival by using the Pip-Boy phone app)

[@cinderlight287]

You think it's worth to take CHA 6 for local leader? so you can arrange supply lines between your settlements and don't need to run back to sanctuary when you need to store junk or upgrade things, otherwise your junk is just everywhere

[@jeromykorf2735]

Grim Reaper Sprint actually helped me a lot during my own No Guns run. At higher levels you can almost stay in vats indefinitely, which means blitzing over and destroying anyone who gets in your way.

[@ManyATrueNerd]

+Jeromy Korf I may have an unfair view because I've had a couple of Relentless weapons, and they render Grim Reaper a bit redundant - if you never got one, it would definitely be better. I'm not saying it's bad - just there's stuff I'd rather rush to.

[@jeromykorf2735]

+Many A True Nerd I can see that, but none of the relentless weapons I have found have been all that great, and I like using my furious super sledge or now my new whirly blade from Automatron.

[@SourceOfBeing]

When you do a YOLO run, I assume it will be on Survival. You'll need to eat to avoid hunger, but all cooked foods recover health so what will you do? (Considering stimpaks were banned in Fallout 3 YOLO).

[@TheSurvivalguy57]

This is the best way to increase the difficulty just like metro and stalker COP did I love it

[@leifthesilly]

I'd like to point out that you can actually focus a character around 10 charisma using a companion with the inspirational perk and all the various intimidation style perks you can turn almost any battle into a warzone and it's not like having Charisma 10 stops you from being competent in combat additionally it allows you too almost always pass even the most difficult speech checks I want saw a guy take down the entirety of diamond City on a pretty high difficulty using this setup along with Agatha's dress and the deliverer without any of the luck perks

[@sortasmart4591]

Jon, for the "Fallout 4: You Only Live Once", you will really want to have 7 starting intelligence to bring to 8 w/ the bobblehead --> for Automaton (and a bit in the future) Robotics Expert is a must - unlike animal friend/others, it works 100% from almost any range. Just a tip.

[@graysteve8610]

Supposedly the range bit was fixed with the survival mode update

[@starwarsnerd100]

Hey Jon, you talked a little about the Intimidation perk, have you been trying out that stuff off screen?

[@ManyATrueNerd]

+starwarsnerd100 Yep, and discussing it with other people - it's fun, but it's so unreliable that it's not workable for Survival where if it doesn't work, you die and lose a lot of progress.

[@invghost]

+Many A True Nerd It'd work for a No Kills run, if you have the idea that telling people to kill other people isn't actually killing them yourself. I've done a run (easy mode ofc) just to see how easy it is and the game is certainly not expecting you to play it that way.

[@graysteve8610]

+Many A True Nerd explosives may be incredibly dangerous for survival, for both the player and the enemies. Having rank 3 of Demolitions Expert may be more hazardous to the player than the enemies.

[@fakkmorradi]

life giver III + sunlight removes rads, so good

[@nolongeraperson]

However, those perks are high level, so there's a chance you might be looking at a long rough road until to get those perks.

[@Judokast36]

Interesting..hmmm..might take some notes here..tho My usual sniper/sneak dudette might work just fine. It's all that come with Survival that might trip me up, will have to see how it really is.

[@bunkerboy7885]

does spray and pay get affected by demolition expert?

[@SpikedKirby]

+Liam Gregor yes

[@cowboy6993]

can u not show the skills u unlock on the skill map?

[@eXileLies]

I've got S4 P4 E3 C3 I1 A7 L5. Adding later some Endurance for drug-stuff, going Commando, sneaking & ninja + Spray n' pray = highest DPS in the game so far. Adding Idiot savant for settlement building early on pushes you to lvl 10-ish.

[@MarquisSmith]

Early on, that build is killer. I know because my current character is very, very similar. But late game, Spray N Pray starts to fall off a little. No worries though. Just farm for an explosive shotgun, make it automatic and prepare for fun times. Not sure how it would do on the new Survival mode though, as automatics need a lot of bullets, and ammo will have weight, so.....

[@Kiet1]

OMFG YESSS Fallout 3, Fallout 4 Melee, and now Fallout 4 Survival!!

[@ChaosKam]

I personally don't think there's a such thing as a best build in this game. But nice video!

[@vaultdweller9926]

survival mode is out since the start of f4 or I don't what is new to the mode someone tell me

[@vaultdweller9926]

Ok

[@jackbone1755]

+Many A True Nerd if you want to be in VATS as much as possible, why not have a high perception? That with some perception boosting apparel like glasses and a beret, plus Sniper and Macready's Killshot perk, will let you headshot people in VATS from a huge distance

[@RTRyles]

Does anyone know what he used the SPECIAL book on?

[@Foogi9000]

Luck

[@mac8275]

Luck. He said in the video

[@RTRyles]

+Caitlin Macdonald ah, I guess I missed it at the time. Appreciate it!

[@mac8275]

+Austin LaCour no problem!

[@Mikeymanza1]

Was that why Automatron so freakin hard? I didn't have Robotics Expert.

[@EGRVedge]

When is survival mode coming out?

[@Horesmi]

You use overdrive drug, and you get 25% crit chance flat, you crit on every 4th hit, so you can use crits outside of vats.

[@ZinTyPhoon]

To me, luck just seems like the best thing to pour your points into for survival mode. Personally however, I find I have a difficult time playing the game without high charisma and intelligence, which given both Automatron and the info we have for Wasteland Workshop, seems like an even better idea. But that's just me.

[@marklemus3317]

I didn't use VATS in fallout 4 because the shooting was so good. Almost feels like cheating but now with survival mode I can go way more VATS oriented play-through like this build here!

[@sethmellor8536]

Can you explain what you mean by 'dump stat' do you mean you dump points into it, or that it's a dump as in it's bad/useless?

[@ManyATrueNerd]

+Annonymoose Useless - though in all fairness Bethesda did stop any stat from being utter garbage - lone wandered, awareness and demolitions save charisma and perception.

[@SpikedKirby]

+Annonymoose he means its useless

[@sethmellor8536]

Many A True Nerd concentrated fire and sniper are also excellent perception perks

[@lloydgrover2690]

In the earlier Fallouts, your SPECIAL stats were, by default, set to 5, a dump stat is a stat you lower to allow more points in other stats. In Fallout 4, a dump stat, is just a stat you don't put many points into, again, allowing more points for other stats.

[@SpikedKirby]

Annonymoose sniper is not as useful, since you need high perception you will already have high vats chance of hitting and also if you are using a scoped weapon its better to take the shot yourself than to leave it to chance

[@AlphaGator9]

Is this for only the PC version, or is it available for PS4, etc.?

[@minerva9104]

It's fallout, what do you think

[@ozskeeter]

Melee does not require carrying anything more than a single weapon (maybe 2 if you want a fast and a slow) ... the halving of carrying weight is going to be a challenge with ranged weapons and ammo. My main is a sneaky sniper so I will be looking at pure melee (STR/END/AGI) for my survival build. Not in a hurry to level so would not be aiming for Idiot savant ... but will be wanting INT 2 for Medic. I am very much a min-max build kind of player and I personally don't like the jack-of-all-trade spread of starting SPECIALS Weakness of course is no CHA for Settlement building ... but I do seriously get annoyed by Garvey's quest spam.

[@randomguy3849]

honestly I have no agility in any of my characters because I never see my self using vats and if I use the agility perks I just see my self using riflemen and modding my guns up and it really fun

[@dark1stknight555]

i believe the wiki said that int 13 or higher with second rank of idiot savant actually makes the most XP overall at least that was the math used in vanilla fallout 4 its pretty easy to get 13 int in this game but it does leave you with a lot less points in the others

[@sethmellor8536]

Surprising

[@andrewkibler9384]

I can really tell you know your shit. Thanks for sharing the knowledge.

[@johns7630]

"there is no character that does not benefit from Ninja" I have 5 different characters that have never in their lives entered sneak mode.

[@zeyface6366]

Small correction 10 intelligence + Idiots Savant is better than just 1 intelligence + Idiots Savant. It's starts going up at around intelligence 6 if I remember correctly

[@flames_fan_328]

So hyped for this to be released to console

[@Kevin-bs5tv]

+Flames_Fan_32 K.

[@SeanO96]

+Alien “The Alien” Alien K.

[@t33nh3artthrob]

+Sean Of The Led K.

[@flames_fan_328]

+Mr. Fruitloop k

[@rolandrice3692]

Great comment thread guys 👏👏👏

[@laernulienlaernulienlaernu8953]

I'm sorry but for survival, where ammo now has weight, I would take strength 8 or 9 and possibly boost it with You're Special. I don't want to have to rely on chems for my strength, especially for carry weight.

[@Safer7Sephiroth]

if you get life giver 3, solar powered 3 and the boston mayoral shelter magazine you'll regen health and burn off rads so fast that healing items become a bit redundant

[@joshz6975]

what's the magazine?

[@ba-loo-loo7676]

+Joshiewowa The one in Boston mayoral shelter.

[@richardl1708]

Agility is the most important perk? Well I just started a big guns run and I am not going to be sneaking or using VATS so my agility is at 1 ;) gonna be interesting

[@ba-loo-loo7676]

Why the winky face?

[@gmoddude12]

i never actually use much agility since i dislike stealth based builds XD and i dont have any use for sneak sandman and such if i dont plan on sneaking around and just go guns blazing anyway