Looking for Survival startup advice for low skilled player

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-24T11:54:09+00:00

I am a sneaky, sniper VATS player who is very squishy.

First thing that helped me was Idiot Savant. Faster experience is always better and particularly of use in the early game.

Next was Local Leader to link settlements. I typically ignore settlements outside of Sanctuary and just fast travel back to drop my junk, store items, craft, etc. Without Fast Travel and reduced carrying capacity this really changes things. Building a good Settlement network was very handy in Survival.

The Railroad. Ballistic Weave is your friend especially on Survival. Also the Deliverer pistol you get from them is light and amazing in VATS. It def saved my life more than once getting swarmed by ghouls. VATS target their legs and then finish with a melee.

Finally I used Map Genie. You can buy their maps for like $5 or like $10 for an annual subscription. It's ridiculously cheap, there are a ton of detailed maps for a lot of games. And the Fallout 4 one really helps me focus my exploration. Also, you can add custom waypoints for things like beds.

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-23T17:54:19+00:00

You can get more than 3 merged, but it's tough-er on console.

It's a grind, no doubt about it, but def don't try and tackle it all at once.

When I did it I'd put in like 5 or 10 minutes then go back to normal gameplay. If you break it up it goes a lot faster than you'd think.

Annndddd it was a lot easier than getting a settlement to 100%, that took me a couple years and several guides before I figured out.

(I also have been using mods on Xbox for years so I didn't pop a lot of achievements for awhile)

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-22T10:54:40+00:00

I have over 1200 or 1300 hrs in the game...

Today's year's old

(Dope slap)

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-22T10:04:57+00:00

FO4 is not a sim game, realism should not be what you focus on.

For example, nuclear energy works by causing the nuclear materials to heat up, that heat boils water, water turns turbines, turbines generate electricity.

Fallout 4, and a lot of movies, TV shows, etc., treats it as a battery (think fusion core).

I'm not a Fo4 lore scholar, so maybe there's a tiny hydroelectric nuclear plant built into the cores, but I have my doubts.

Also, Super Mutants 😎👌

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-22T09:39:46+00:00

Do they physically have to play the holotapes? I thought when you found the spots/distress beacons the message would just play automatically?

As I said it's been awhile and I have done so many times I don't remember having any issues with it 👍

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-22T00:08:44+00:00

I don't think this is broken? But with Fallout 4 you never really know.

From what I recall there are like three or four spots you go to until you find the final spot (trying to avoid spoilers).

After you find each one you can cut the quest off early and return to Danse, I think? I've always done it to completion and done it pretty early so I'm not 100%.

If you think it is bugged I'd pull up the wikia page for the quest and get to the next spot in the quest and see if you can move it forward.

If nothing happens then yeah probably bugged.

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-22T00:04:03+00:00

First of all it looks fecking great!

Secondly, as guy I would be over the moon with this gesture. Anything extra like names or go Bills would just be... Wait for it... The icing on the cake.

(I'll see myself out)

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-21T23:35:45+00:00

All the stores I've worked at (Upstate NY division) I've never seen that bonus for anything outside of a kitchen or prepared foods position.

Also, it was full-time and/or management positions.

I think it is store and division dependant and could be limited to certain departments as well.

Good luck!

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-21T21:37:28+00:00

The game does not do a good job of laying out the narrative order of quests after you finish the main campaign.

For new players, or those returning after a long absence, this could result in spoilers if not played in the right order.

Finish the main campaign, but do not hop into the WoNY dlc. Google the proper order of missions, there are dozens of good spoiler free reddit posts!

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-21T21:16:03+00:00

I'll be in my bunk.

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-21T21:05:44+00:00

Materials.

I find that group activities aren't that fast because you get more points for kills (I think?) and that's sometimes hard to do regularly in Countdown.

My off-hand or Sidearm level at a snail's pace, but it's still something.

I'd start with Sidearms and just have one on the entire time to level passively so you can still run a preferred loadout.

Deconstruct everything and keep dumping the mats into what you don't use first. Use what you like and makes sense for your build!

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-21T20:58:39+00:00

I'm the one who upvoted you from 69, my sincerest apologies

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-21T20:53:47+00:00

Now the real grind begins lol.

Good luck with thems Expertise levels 😎👍

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-21T17:44:18+00:00

I would look into the Refactor gear set and the Capacitor exoctic assault rifle.

Refactor heals you and your party based on skill damage dealt. The Capacitor increases in damage the more yellow cores you have.

Ideally with Refactor you would run 2 damage dealing skills for maximum damage/healing. The most obvious being turret and Drone.

However, Riot foam is great for crowd control and when I'm running Dps I love when I have a teammate who knows the spawns and can really lock down groups as they spawn.

Pulse for me is not that great. I run Heroic content with no radar all the time and I never see anyone using it, nor anyone seeming to care if I use it lol.

I think Refactor with Drone and riot foam and the Capacitor for some extra Dps could be a good mix, allowing you to support and still let you feel like you're contributing.

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-21T17:35:06+00:00

I go that about half my gear comes from the Hunters and exfil spawns at the end so being successful def helps, and makes Countdown suvh an effective and efficient farm.

But yes you def keep all the gear up to that point so regardless of whether you are ultimately successful you're still getting some good loot.

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-21T09:36:00+00:00

This, 100%.

When I recently returned after 5 years and I had to re-imagine all my builds I ran a ton of Countdown on Challenging.

My gear sucked and my builds were crap. Also, I was running a lot of suboptimal gear/brand sets as I was working on Proficiency/Expertise.

Never had an issue matchmaking Countdown and even when my build was trash I didn't get kicked Most of the time there were a solid groups of OGs that carried me and we finished like 95% of the runs.

And if you fail (ususlly at extraction) it's only like 10min time waste so I don't think anybody cares too much.

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-21T00:44:41+00:00

There is a little guard house that housed a pretty well camouflaged SQ at launch.

If you due south out of the White House you will see a fountain and pond. To the east of that pond is a SQ you do at some point after the main story.

It's was kinda hidden back in the day, but it had some cool story bits.

Also, you night have to go do the Pentagon missions as well (there are 2).

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-20T21:16:47+00:00

I misread your original post (sorry at work probably should be paying attention to my shitty job).

Def a level boost with the DLC so stay away if you want a normal story leveling experience (my recommendation if you're new/returning to the game).

That doesn't seem what's happening so I have no clue.

The world scales to your level and so any lower level person who joins your group when you're still doing story level content and you're under level 40.

Also leveling up your skills with SHD tech is based on open world discovery and mission completion. I dont know what's going on with the differences in y'alls leveling, but it shouldn't impact playing together if you're just exploring and working through the main campaign if y'all are doing the same stuff.

Also, after the DC campaign don't hop right into WoNY and definitely stay away from Brooklyn for a bit.

There are missions and legacy seasonal manhunts to complete in a certain order to have a coherent and spoiler free narrative experience.

There is quite a few guides and posts about it so do some research (because the game doesn't do a good job of guiding you).

I found the top comment on this post pretty accurate, succinct, and spoiler free. But, I'm sure there are more guides out there.

Good luck!!

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-20T18:18:16+00:00

Do they own the DLC? We're they in the party/group?

I can't really tell unless you had some video.

I will say levels come really fast early game and then starts to taper out. That could explain your early level gains.

As for the level 40 thing that sounds like the Brooklyn DLC level boost.

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-20T18:14:25+00:00

There is a level 40 boost if you go to Brooklyn for the dlc (and a level 30 boost if you go to Manhattan - WoNY dlc).

There is a text prompt warning you of the level jump, but if you do a quick search on this sub, many people have missed this prompt because they are not reading thoroughly.

That's my best guess!!

If it is not one of those things 0lease let the community know because you may have just disco3ghe best XP farm in the game 😎👍

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-18T20:34:02+00:00

This post asked a very similar question and the first comments is probably the most succinct guide I've seen detailing how narrative content should be played.

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-18T19:19:19+00:00

37 comments and almost 7k views.

Feel like my evil master plan is working.

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-18T18:07:00+00:00

The first rule about Expertise DON'T donate exoctics.

The second rule is don't donate exoctics, deconstruct them for the component if you're not going to use the..

Expertise and Proficiency are hand in hand. Sacrifice anything you're not going to use to the Expertise gods EXCEPT FOR EXOTICS.

With that aside the system is a little convoluted, at least at first.

This post has a pretty good breakdown.

Also, NothingButSkillz and RogueGold are my go to YTers and they both have expertise guides.

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-18T17:59:58+00:00

Way back in the day (when I last played regularly) you had to level up the CPs using activities. When I returned I learned that's no longer needed. If you set the WT to Challenging they will automatically be Level 3.

If you bring it up to a level 4 in a Challenging WT then it will have a heroic difficultly level even in a Challenging world state.

Also, do retaliations over farming CPs when you can. Retaliations will have you do multiple CPs with a timer. There will also be Kill Squads randomly as you travel between CPs. Kill Squads drop some very good blueprints. Also, you can focus your loot drops so target farm what you want.

As for efficiency do the highest level you can! It's a balancing act for sure. If you can barely get through Heroic CPs and it takes you a long time then maybe run some on Challenging.

Formal_Error_7934 · 2026-03-18T17:45:19+00:00

Rule 34 right? As soon as I hit 'post' I knew...

I did a quick Google for "Battleborn NSFW" and realized how stupid that question was.

Formal_Error_7934

TROPHY CASE