Recently I failed the final check to romance piper but have passed previous checks and would like to have her as my romance option.
Is it possible to get a second chance to romance a companion and if so is it dependent on passing earlier romance checks?
ElliottElliott79955 gold badges1717 silver badges2727 bronze badges
1 Answer
Yes it is possible, I've experienced it myself with Cait. I failed it the first time, said we were best friends the second and then tried, and passed, romancing the third time.
The first try was after finishing her side quest. The second was me talking to her and going through the dialogue options. The third was her initiating a conversation with me after fast-traveling.
VanBuzzKillVanBuzzKill12.8k2020 gold badges7070 silver badges112112 bronze badges
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged fallout-4 or ask your own question.
Fallout 4’s rich and varied landscape is built for lackadaisical roaming – the player character’s nicknamed the Wanderer for a reason. The experience isn’t about just racing through the main questline or finding the best gear, but assembling your own story from all of Bethesda’s tiny interlocking parts.
The Commonwealth is a harsh mistress, however, so we could all use some help – and none other than our grizzled survivor “Corbyn” has heeded your call. We’ve already covered the 12 key tips for beginners, so now it’s time for some more advanced instruction. Let’s really get those Super Mutants quaking in their boots.
1. VATS tricks
Fallout 4’s Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS) mechanic slows time down to a crawl, and allows you to target specific body parts of enemies – and displaying the chance of hitting them in a percentage. This is all many players use it for but there are several kinks to the way VATS operates that can make all the difference in a tight spot.
The obvious ones first: use VATS when your gun’s empty and, for the AP cost of that shot, you’ll get both the shot and a free reload. Critical hits build up over time in VATS and can then be stored until you want to use them – yes these do great damage, but much more importantly they’re guaranteed to hit even if your ‘normal’ shot only has a 1% chance. This is useful but in fights against enemies with specific weak points, such as the fusion core on power armour, save that Crit and zoom into VATS the second their model turns sideways – 1% chance is all you need for the shot that ends the fight.
But it doesn’t end there! One of the most useful functions of VATS is that your aim will be centred on any enemy you shot at after you’ve exited VATS. Think of this as at least one free shot and, thanks to the shonky enemy AI, usually many more – if they’re still alive after using VATS, just spam that trigger.
2. Fraggle Rock!
Messed up that grenade toss? Always throwing it just a second too late as the Raiders scarper? Worry ye not my wasteland friend, for there are two magnificent tricks to frags that will turn your throwing arm into the envy of Shane Warne.
First one is obvious when you think about it: a well-placed bullet will prematurely detonate your grenade. Hit the VATS button as soon as you throw and you’ll find you can target the grenade, though depending on its location your shot chance will be different (this is another great opportunity for using the guarantee of a Crit.) And boom – no more legs for your luckless foes.
The second trick, however, is even sneakier. A glitch in Fallout 4’s way of slowing down game time during VATS means that, if your grenade has landed and you then target and shoot an enemy using VATS, the grenade will explode during the VATS shots. That is, you don’t need to target the grenade at all – if it’s in the right place, just target the enemy in VATS and it will explode near-instantaneously.
3. Getting legless
This one can be a lifesaver for when you’re just out on a relaxing stroll and run into a randomly generated tough-as-nails Legendary enemy. Many of these enemies, after taking roughly half damage, will mutate into a tougher form and regain their lost health. What a joke.
The one thing that doesn’t regenerate, however, is limb damage. When fighting Fallout 4’s normal enemies you don’t really need to target limbs so much so it’s easy to forget about this tactic, but it is absolutely the core part of my strategy against Legendaries. If it’s a Legendary Super Mutant, where we’re worried about their weapon, focus on the arms – if they mutate, you’ve crippled the arm by that point and their accuracy’s dived. If it’s a Legendary Ghoul, blow off the legs, and then the mutated second stage can only look up in abject apology as you line up the combat shotgun.
4. Radical Stags
The greatest enemy in Fallout 4, the bane of every player, the most despicable sentence in the Commonwealth: “You’re carrying too much and can’t run!”
God I hate it. There are several common workarounds: load up your companion, use the Solo Wanderer/Dogmeat glitch and so on. But when you’re stuck in a lovely loot zone and just need that bit extra to get outdoors and fast-travel home, you want Grilled Radstag.
You see Radstags everywhere, usually in groups of two or three. Make a rule of slaughtering these defenceless creatures, and grilling them up at a cooking station – because it adds +25 carry weight. Eat that and you’ll feel the benefit for an hour, but why not wash it down with a bottle of alcohol (+10 carry weight) and have an extra 35 on your weight limit. Because no trinket should be left behind.
5. Sleep well
What do you mean you never sleep? True, you don’t really need to – but occasionally a nice rest is just what’s needed to heal up and see the sun again. One aspect of sleeping that is possible to overlook, however, is where the bed is.
Sleep in a bed that you own (in a settlement for example), or rent a room for the night and your character not only heals but gains a “Well Rested” bonus that gives 10% extra XP for eight in-game hours.
6. Sticky business
You could write a whole article about Fallout 4’s crafting system, but one thing everyone needs more of is adhesive. Luckily there’s a simple solution waiting in the cookery pot: have your settlements farm corn, mutfruit and tatos for subsistence. Perfectly respectable foods, but you can use these stores to pick the bottom option at a cooking stove and make Vegetable Starch – each one worth a whopping five adhesive.
7. Pick up named junk
This one’s simple to the point of obvious: you’ll sometimes come across otherwise standard loot that has a modifier in the name, for example “Rich Stanton’s beer”. This means it is an exceptional beer for an exceptional man or, in other words, a key item for a quest you haven’t yet picked up. So pick it up and, down the road, you’ll be able to hand in that quest immediately.
8. Hazmat and Hat
Two items of clothing I keep on me permanently are a Hazmat suit and a hat that grants +3 Charisma. The utility of the first is obvious: everywhere in Fallout 4 is more or less radioactive, and you’ll find some nasty spots. It’s not convenient to fetch Power Armour for every little cubbyhole, so a Hazmat suit just always makes life easier.
The hat I combine with some Grape Mentats (make at any cooking station) for when I need to sell a lot of gear or buy something big. Why not get your money’s worth?
9. Use it, don’t lose it
Advice from bitter experience: don’t just jump into the water willy nilly while wearing power armour. It sinks and, while most bodies of water in the game have a way out, some of them don’t and you’ll have to abandon it there. Also, don’t ever get rid of a companion wearing power armour by sending them back to a settlement – my snazzy Flames set is still out there somewhere.
Finally, don’t get out of it in a non-settlement area without removing the fusion core. Even if you can’t see any enemies. There’s nothing so humiliating as getting out to stretch your legs, waking up a nest of raiders, and watching open-mouthed as they hijack your beautiful suit.
10. Mystery Meat
OK, I said I wouldn’t be too specific but this is too good to pass up. On the far east of the Commonwealth (shown in the image) you can find Longneck Lukowski’s cannery. On entering you’ll see a short exchange between two characters and can then offer to help with a pest problem in the building.
This kicks off a short-but-sweet mission, but the reason it’s great to visit here is that there’s an office at the top of the building containing both the ‘Barter’ bobblehead – which permanently decreases buying prices by 5% – and an issue of Tales of A Junktown Jerky Vendor, which applies its own discount depending on how many copies you have. Basically you’re walking out of there after a 10-minute mission with everything in the Commonwealth 10% cheaper.
Bonus points: in the final confrontation, you can make your opponent surrender if you get them low enough, and make a very .. interesting choice. Oh, and do apply the earlier tips about Legendaries and frags when you’re exploring. Wouldn’t want to end up in a can now, would we?
11. Give them a Minute, man
The Minutemen are rather worthy and dull sorts, all about helping out one’s neighbour and looking out for each other. Blah blah blah, point me to the bad guys right?
Me too. But it’s worth zooming through the early Minutemen quests, which are all very easy, just to reach the point where you re-take a location called the Castle. First of all, when you’re doing the quests beforehand, take Preston as your companion – because completing each one depends on reporting back to him.
Take the Castle, go off and do something else, and soon enough someone will turn up looking for you. Go to see her and within 10 minutes you’ll bag a Fat Man portable nuke launcher, an absolute ton of ammo and a great armour set, and unlock artillery positions for every settlement.
12. And .. smile
Though I’ve loved much of my time with Fallout 4, it is a game filled with bugs and glitches that can – on occasion – really ruin your day. I’ve lost hours of progress through annoying problems with the save system, seen my companions fly into the sky and disappear, even failed a mission because of an NPC that decided to walk to the bottom of a lake.
But it’s worth remembering that, for all the frustrations it brings, the janky side of Bethesda games can have real charm too. Use Corbyn’s tips wisely, comrades, and enjoy these dancing Mirelurks.
- Fallout 4 review – spectacular, messy and familiar
- Fallout 4: the first 10 things to do in the apocalyptic wasteland
Going the stealth route in Fallout 4 is not only deeply satisfying, but an incredible way to deliver high-octane damage with every blow you choose to strike. There are Companion perks, magazine perks and SPECIAL perks that can stack to create an unbelievably powerful character based on stealth that will let you one-shot deathclaws even on Survival difficulty. You can use stealth to go either the sniper route or the melee route (armed or unarmed). Here’s a few tips and tricks on how to build a stealth character in Fallout 4.
Perception: This stat directly affects your accuracy in V.A.T.S. If you’re going the sniper route, there are some perks you won’t want to miss out on.
Agility: Agility affects the ability to sneak as well as the number of action points in V.A.T.S. Every point of Agility gives you +10 Action Points.
Luck: Luck modifies the recharge rate of critical hits, as well as your chance of finding caps/ammo out in the wasteland. The high-level Luck perks enable you to spam V.A.T.S with great success. With the right perks, you’ll be able to rapidly bank crits and easily take down the bullet-spongiest of enemies.
Strength: If you want a melee stealth route, strength will increase your melee weapon and unarmed damage. Straightforward enough.
AGI 3 > Sneak: You’ll want all 5 ranks of this Agility perk. With all 5 ranks, you will be 50% harder to detect while sneaking, sounds from movement (like running or power armor) are eliminated, you won’t trigger floor traps or enemy mines, and when you engage stealth, distant enemies will lose you.
PER 6 > Night Person: This perk has 2 ranks and will cause you to have +3 INT and PER between 6 PM and 6 AM, as well as night vision while sneaking. Sneaking is already better at night, so this means your hits will have an even better chance to land in V.A.T.S.
AGI 7 > Ninja: This perk unlocks at AGI 7. When you unlock all 3 ranks, your ranged sneak attacks will do 3.5x normal damage and your melee sneak attacks will do 10x normal damage, making all ranks invaluable for both a sniper and melee stealth build.
LCK 3 > Bloody Mess: This 4-rank perk will give you +15% combat in battle regardless of weapon. Just for fun, it also causes some enemies to explode -- a fate which can cause other neighboring enemies to explode as well.
LCK 6 > Better Criticals: Unlock all 3 ranks and your criticals will do 2.5x as much extra damage.
LCK 7 > Critical Banker: Unlock all 3 ranks and you can save up to 3 critical hits for when the time is right. Banking a critical has the chance to save an additional critical as well.
LCK 8 > Grim Reaper’s Sprint: Unlock its 3 ranks and any kill in V.A.T.S. has a 35% chance to restore all Action Points and refill your critical meter.
LCK 9 > Four-Leaf Clover: This perk’s 4 ranks will give you a successively better chance for each hit in V.A.T.S. filling your critical meter. Bank ‘em, shoot or attack from stealth and take down even the biggest game no problem.
STR 1 > Iron Fist : If you’re determined to make your stealth killer unarmed, you need all 5 ranks of this perk. Punching attacks do double damage, V.A.T.S criticals paralyze your opponent, and your opponent has a chance to be crippled or disarmed.
STR 2 > Big Leagues : For the discerning stealth melee build. This perk has 5 ranks and when fully maxed out will do double damage with a melee weapon, a chance to disarm your opponent, you’ll hit all targets in front of you, and you’ll have a chance to cripple your opponent or slam their head off.
STR 9 > Rooted: If you stay still and crouch in V.A.T.S, any stealth perks as well as this perk will both activate. This 3-rank perk gives you +50 damage resistance and causes melee and unarmed attacks to deal 50% more damage.
AGI 9 > Blitz: For the melee stealth build, this perk unlocks at AGI 9. It has only 2 ranks and increase V.A.T.S. melee distance greatly. The farther the Blitz distance, the greater the damage. (Blitz and Rooted work with each other!)
PER 2 > Rifleman: You’ll want all 5 ranks of this perk if you’re building a stealthy sniper. At rank 5, your non-automatic rifle attacks do double damage and ignore 30% of your target’s armor, with a slightly higher chance of crippling a limb.
PER 8 > Sniper: When all 3 ranks are unlocked, this perk will give you the ability to hold your breath longer when aiming with scopes, +25% head shot accuracy in V.A.T.S, and non-automatic scoped rifles will have the chance to knock down your target. It’s really that head shot accuracy in V.A.T.S at Rank 3 that is the most interesting aspect of this perk, especially if you are avoiding the MacCready companion perk bug (discussed below).
PER 10 > Concentrated Fire: Accuracy is of the essence for a sniper build. With all 3 ranks unlocked, every attack on the same body part gains +20% accuracy and does 20% more damage. Even if you have headshots on lock, this offers lots of opportunities to turn your enemies into stumpy, gushing torsos.
AGI 4 > Mister Sandman: This unmissable perk has 3 ranks which will ultimately enable you to instantly kill a sleeping person and do 50% more sneak attack damage with silenced weapons.
AGI 10 > Gun-Fu: This perk is a mob killer. With all 4 ranks maxed, you will do 25% more damage to your second V.A.T.S target and beyond, 50% more damage to your third target and beyond, and a critical hit against your fourth target and beyond.
LCK 2 > Scrounger: Snipers, it’s up to you: you can farm purified water or mutfruit for caps in your settlements and use that to purchase ammo, or you can ignore settlements and put points into this perk to find more specialty ammo out in the Wasteland. Scrounger has 4 ranks and each rank increases how much ammo you find randomly lying about.
Deacon, Cloak & Dagger: Deacon’s perk gives you 20% more sneak attack damage and increases Stealth Boy duration by 20%.
MacCready, Killshot: The Killshot perk gives players a 20 percent greater chance to hit an enemy's head in V.A.T.S.
Note that MacCready’s perk is bugged, and if you have it, you will automatically have a 95% chance of a headshot in V.A.T.S. This video explains the perk and its bug:
Astoundingly Awesome Tales #2: Gives +5% damage with scoped weapons. This is located in the Coast Guard Pier. Check by the secured storage room on the toilet inside the locked cell.
Grognak the Barbarian: Each issue raises the critical damage of unarmed or melee attacks by 5%, for a max increase of 50% for all 10 issues. You can find all locations at our Magazine Location guide here .
Covert Operations: Each issue makes you more difficult to detect while sneaking. You can find all locations at our Magazine Location guide here .
Gun Nut (INT 3) is what enables you to craft gun mods; you’ll need Gun Nut Rank 2 to craft a suppressor, and silenced weapons are required to get that Mister Sandman stacking sneak damage. But you find so many modded guns anyway that waiting to find silencers could also be a viable choice, if you prefer not to have to put 5 points into Intelligence in order to build those. If you don’t want to wait, and you want to play a stealth sniper, then Gun Nut at INT 3 will be absolutely required for you to take fullest advantage of your build.
Also remember that if you crouch you’re much less likely to be spotted. If you run away after being spotted and crouch somewhere, odds are good your enemies will forget you were ever there. Teleporting with Blitz is slightly bugged in that if there is anything in the way of your path from you to your target, you may not physically teleport, but you’ll still kill your enemy with the damage from all your perks.
In terms of armor, keep a look out for Chameleon armor, which causes enemies to have a harder time detecting you while you’re sneaking and not moving. Crafting muffled and ultra-light armor mods will also help you make less noise and not be detected. You’ll need the Armorer perk at STR 3 and its 4 ranks to craft armor yourself, though honestly, you get enough crazy loot in a normal playthrough that I don’t consider this necessary unless you like crafting.
Any more tips and tricks for a good stealth build? Feel free to discuss in the comments below.
Fallout 4 has a variety of potential companions that provide company while you traverse the wasteland. Many come with their own quests and unlockable perks. If you want to take advantage of these perks, you first need to max out your affinity with the companion through a variety of actions. Let's break down the necessary steps for improving your relationship with Curie, Fallout 4's robot/human Synth companion. (And check out our guide for Piper Wright if you've decided to go with her as your companion.)
Curie is a French-accented Miss Nanny robot repurposed for conducting research in Vault 81; where you can recruit her after the 'Hole in the Wall' quest that opens the Vault. Later, the player can transfer Curie's mind into a female Synth body as part of a side quest (which we'll cover in a moment).
Curie's General Affinity
Curie as a Miss Nanny robot in Vault 81.
Having Curie as a companion means making good or neutral choices during your travels, while avoiding bad or selfish choices.
She appreciates when you are generous and give items to other characters; for instance beggars. When it comes to dialogue choices, aim for nice responses (such as supportive or positive ones), peaceful responses that aim to de-escalate conflict, and mean-spirited responses (she seems to like both nice and mean responses, oddly enough).
To keep your relationship level high, you'll need to avoid actions Curie disapproves of. If you act violently, steal in her presence, choose greedy dialogue responses, or develop a chem addiction, your relationship with her will suffer. Below we've broken down specific, repeatable actions that will help or hurt your relationship.
Actions that affect your relationship with Curie
Focus on these actions to IMPROVE your relationship:
- Heal Dogmeat in Curie's presence
- Donate items gained from Miscellaneous Quests
- Choose a 'nice' dialogue option when speaking to another character
- Choose a 'mean' dialogue option when speaking to another character
- Attempt to resolve conflict with another character peacefully
Meanwhile, AVOID doing these repeatable actions:
- Ask for an increased reward for a quest ('greedy' dialogue options)
- Act violently towards a non-hostile character (Ghouls and Super Mutants are exceptions)
- Steal from or pickpocket someone
- Kill a neutral Mister Gutsy/Mister Handy
- Become addicted to chems
- Retrieve synths for the Institute
There are also some one-time and quest-specific actions you can take that will affect your relationship with Curie. Possible spoilers ahead, depending on where you are in the game.
One-time actions with a POSITIVE effect:
- Side with the Ironsides during the 'Last Voyage of the U.S.S. Constitution' quest and defeat the scavengers
- Join the Brotherhood of Steel
- Use Curie's help to save Danny Sullivan during the 'In Sheep's Clothing' quest.
- Emphasize the importance of love when speaking to Miss Edna in Diamond City's Schoolhouse
- Tell Moe Cronin that baseball was not a violent sport in his 'Swatters' shack in Diamond City
One-time actions with a VERY POSITIVE effect:
- Complete the experiment at the Cambridge Polymer Labs by combining the U-238 with Gold and Lithium Hydride (without disarming the defense systems)
- Defend the synths when meeting Desdemona, The Railroad's leader.
- Give Brian Virgil the experimental serum at the end of the 'Glowing Sea' quest
The following one-time action has a VERY NEGATIVE effect:
- Decide to destroy the Railroad faction for the Brotherhood of Steel or The Institute
Curie's 'Emergent Behavior' Quest
Doctor Amari will help you transfer Curie's mind into a human Synth.
Once Curie has been your companion for some time, she will ask for your help in becoming more human in order to continue her research. If you've completed the 'Dangerous Minds' quest and have met Doctor Amari in Goodneighbor, you can offer to take Curie to see her.
After meeting Amari and following her instructions, Curie will be transferred to a female synth body. Completing the Emergent Behavior quest gives your relationship with Curie a big boost, and you should be well on your way to the 'admire' and 'idolize' levels of the relationship.
Max affinity, romance, and the Combat Medic perk
Gaining the Combat Medic perk once Curie has expressed her love for you.
When you've completed enough of the positive actions above and have completed 'Emergent Behavior', a notification will pop up that Curie 'idolizes' you. You will begin to see 'Flirt' dialogue options when speaking with Curie, with speech checks attached to them.
At this point you can take one of two routes: you can choose to pursue romance with Curie or remain platonic with her. Note that you DO NOT need to romance a companion to gain their companion perk. Even for Fallout 4 companions that can be romanced, the perk results from a maxed-out affinity.
If you choose NOT to pursue romance with Curie, you will need to continue taking the repeatable and remaining one-time actions that she approves of. In the end it's just a numbers game, and once you see the 'idolize' notification, you're at the home stretch of it. Continue choosing supportive and positive dialogue options; ask her about her research and how she's doing in her new human body.
Eventually you will get a notification saying 'you have achieved the highest level of affinity with Curie'. This means you've unlocked the 'Combat Medic' perk. This handy skill gives you the ability to heal 100 Hit Points once per day when you are below 10% HP. Unlike other companion perks, this ability is only usable when Curie is your current companion, so make sure you keep her around if you intend to use it.
If you choose to romance Curie, you will need to take advantage of the 'Flirt' dialogue options at every opportunity. Choosing (and completing) these speech checks will improve your relationship very quickly. To avoid a failed speech check, make sure your Charisma is high enough. If needed you can temporarily supplement your Charisma level with clothing (Reginald's Suit, Agatha's Dress), consumables (Day-Tripper, Daddy-O, or any beer), or more permanently with the Lady Killer perk (a very useful perk if you want to romance multiple opposite-sex companions).
Eventually the 'Romance' option will replace 'Flirt'. Again, be sure that your Charisma is high enough that you can pass this speech check. If you do, Curie will be in love with you and you will have maxed out your affinity with her. The achievement will pop up on your screen, announcing that you've unlocked the 'Combat Medic' perk (see two paragraphs up for the perk's description).
Finally having romanced Curie, you can sleep in a bed for any length of time while Curie loves you (and is your companion) in order to gain the temporary 'Lover's Embrace' perk. This perk grants you a 15% boost in XP for 12 hours, so take advantage of this temporary boost by completing a big mission after your nap!
Note: This guide has been updated to reflect the option to gain Curie's perk without pursuing a romantic relationship with her.
It’s a harsh wasteland out there, fellow vault dwellers. Horrors can be found in every corner of the Commonwealth. Making it through Fallout 4 in one piece can be tough—especially at first. Thankfully, we’re here to help.
A few of us here at Kotaku have been playing the game non-stop for the last week, and we’ve compiled a list of tips and hints that we think will help you out on your journey to find your son. So put away that copy of Grognak, and let’s talk shop.
[This post originally ran in November 2015, however, we’ve now heavily updated it with a ton of new tips.]
Don’t Worry Too Much About Your SPECIAL Build
There is no level cap in Fallout 4. If you play for long enough, you’ll be able to max out, or nearly max out, pretty much everything on your Perk chart. So, sure—take a moment and peruse the chart; imagine what type of playthrough you’ll want to take; choose a SPECIAL build that opens up the types of Perks you’re interested in. Just don’t overthink it. You’ll be fine.
Advertisement
Some Builds Are Better Than Others, Though
If you’re still struggling with picking a build, here are some specifics you might want to make note of:
- Some basic lockpicking and hacking skills are useful to get inside of locked areas.
- The Scrounger perk is good because ammo is relatively scarce compared to Fallout 3 and New Vegas. This perk also applies to Fusion Cores, a rare type of ammo that you need to fuel Power Armor.
- The Luck SPECIAL attribute is more obviously useful this time around, in general. Bloody Mess is as fun as it is handy. Mysterious Stranger can save your skin. Better yet, companions like Valentine react to the Mysterious Stranger’s appearance, and it’s the best.
- Action Boy makes regenerating Action Points ridiculously fast.
- Winning speech checks is nice, but a charisma build can feel unsatisfying thanks to Fallout 4’s thin dialogue.
- The lead belly perk might seem enticing given how much food you can find in the wasteland, but healing via Stimpaks is better. Food heals you a certain amount, whereas Stimpaks heal a certain percentage.
- Sneaking skills are borderline OP.
- The Lone Wanderer perk will remain active with Dogmeat as your companion.
Grab The Gun At The End of the First Vault
There’s a container near the Overseer’s office in Vault 111. It requires a master lockpick—which there’s no way to have at the start of the game. But shortly after you leave the vault, you’ll find Dogmeat, your trusty canine companion. If you go back into the vault and tell Dogmeat to fetch near the locked case, he will grab the powerful gun for you. Here’s a video walkthrough, if you’re a visual learner:
Ammo for the Cryolator is hard to come by, but an easy way to get it is to set whatever Protectrons you come across to “Firefighter” mode. When those Protectrons drop dead, they’ll have Cryolator ammo on their corpses. Hooray!
Advertisement
Explore Your Old Stomping Grounds
Once you leave Vault 111, there’s plenty to see and loot back in the ruins of your old neighborhood. You can find Codsworth, your former robot butler, roaming the nearby streets. You can pick up bobby pins, which are necessary for lockpicking. And you can find goodies at your old house, too: the room in the back-right of the hallway has a “You’re SPECIAL” book on the floor. Picking it up grants you one SPECIAL point of your choosing.
Advertisement
Stick To The Story Missions (At First)
While it may be tempting to go wandering into the wasteland, you’re probably not prepared for most Commonwealth encounters just yet. I suggest doing some story missions to start out. Within a few hours, the main quests will give you decent equipment (including Power Armor), as well as lead you to Diamond City—where you can find a couple of companions, a variety of quests, and many, many shops. Additionally, main quests will level you enough to be able to take on the other horrors waiting in the wasteland.
Fallout 4 Maccready Romance
Advertisement
Collect The Right Junk
Advertisement
You can pick up and make use of nearly everything in Fallout—but you still shouldn’t lug around every single piece of garbage lying around. That packrat mentality is just a quick way of becoming over-encumbered, which will lead to you spending way too much time in menus, sorting through crap, instead of adventuring.
You should check out the “junk” tab in your inventory, where you can switch to “component view.” There, you can tag various components that you may want to keep an eye out for in the wild. It’s a good idea to tag screws, adhesive, aluminum, fiberglass, antiseptic, ballistic fiber, circuitry, crystal, oil, as well as whatever you’re interested in scavenging.
Advertisement
Save Often
Seriously: Fallout 4 is harder than both Fallout 3 and New Vegas. You will die often. I’ve lost a ton of progress because I didn’t save enough; don’t let the same thing happen to you. Save every 15-20 minutes or so. Save when you enter a new area. Save when you make good progress. You can even save in the middle of conversations! Change up your quicksaves and “hard saves,” as well. Kirk tells me his rule of thumb is: “Quicksave in combat, hard savebefore combat.”
Advertisement
Don’t Fast Travel
Fallout 4 is at its best when it surprises you, and you lessen the opportunity for surprise when you just teleport everywhere. There are a ton of things in Fallout 4 that aren’t marked on your map, too—from random events, to merchants, to secret locales. You’ll miss them all if you fast travel. Here’s some of the crazier stuff I’ve found while playing Fallout 4 without fast travel, in case you need some convincing.
Advertisement
Take Notes
Along the way, you’ll find plenty of locked doors, caches, and difficult terminals that you can’t investigate yet. Write down their locations, and come back later, when you have the right specs. There’s a ton of awesome treasure hidden behind locks and terminals!
Advertisement
Read The Signs
Survivors have scribbled all sorts of things on the walls and streets of the Commonwealth. These always means something. A “KEEP OUT” sign might mean the difference between walking into a super mutant hideout, and living. And a “traders welcome” sign might actually be a Raider trap, hilariously enough.
Advertisement
Occasionally, you’ll also find symbols scattered about. These mean signal specific things, too:
Advertisement
Look Out For Collectibles
Advertisement
Bobbleheads can increase your SPECIAL stats. Magazines can give you special abilities, or stat boosts. And unique weapons can grant you a combat advantage. If you want to know where all these items are hiding, make sure to check out the the (unofficial) Fallout Tracker website—it’ll tell you where every single one of these objects is tucked away. If you want to discover them on your own, that’s cool too. Just make sure to check every nook and cranny for collectibles!
Use VATS To Scope Stuff Out
Even when you don’t see enemies, it’s a good idea to tap the VATs button every so often. This is a good way to catch mines, and to identify faraway enemies. More than once, tapping VATs outside of combat alerted me to dormant ghouls. Thanks to this trick, I’m not ambushed by those sneaky bastards nearly as much as Bethesda planned.
Advertisement
Do The Cambridge Police Station Quest Early
Advertisement
[Image source: Fallout Wikia]
Not only will you get a great weapon for completing this quest, you’ll also gain access to the Brotherhood of Steel questline. I’m still using the gun I got from this location after beating the game, and the Brotherhood itself is a good resource to have, even if you don’t agree with their goals.
Advertisement
Use The Junk Gun
If you really can’t help yourself from collecting every single piece of crap from the wasteland, good news! Doing the initial Brotherhood of Steel quest gives you access to the “Junk Jet” gun, which uses random junk as ammo.
Advertisement
Don’t Scrap Pre-War Money
It’s worth more in raw caps. Feel free to disregard this tip if you’re actually hurting for cloth scrap, though.
Advertisement
Hack Like A Pro
The animation at the start of a terminal session is pretty long, but you can skip it by tapping the action button. Once the potential passwords are in front of you, look out for any letters or patterns that repeat themselves a few times: these are a good way to make an initial educated guess. Here’s the key thing the game doesn’t explain very well: The number of “matched” letters aren’t just in the word, they’re in that place in the word. After picking a potential password, pay attention to how many letters you got right. Picking a word with zero matches is actually very valuable—you can rule out a bunch of possibilities that way.
Advertisement
If it comes down to the wire, look out for any <>, (), and [] entries hidden in the code. Selecting these will get rid of duds, as well as replenish your tries. If that still doesn’t work, remember that you can always back out and start a new session.
And if you really can’t be bothered with this stuff, use the Fallout Hack Tool. There, you can input your word choices from the hacking mini-game, and it’ll tell you what your most optimal choice for success is. Awesome.
Advertisement
Use Enemy Weaknesses To Your Advantage
Every enemy has a weakness. Make use of them. Off the top of my head..shoot ghouls in the leg; they break easily and can stop these enemies from rushing you down. Deathclaws have fragile bellies. Robots go down faster with Pulse and Plasma weapons. Shoot humans in the head for massive damage, or aim for their weapon hand, to stop them from attacking. And if you ever, ever see a Super Mutant Suicider, IMMEDIATELY SHOOT THEIR RIGHT ARM. They’re carrying mini-nukes and will try to tackle you while holding them. This is instant death.
Advertisement
If you’re curious about more weaknesses, take the Awareness perk, which tells you more about what enemies are susceptible to.
Know Your Enemy
When you see a skull next to an enemy’s name, that means they are higher level than you—and can thus be tough to kill. If you see a star next to an enemy’s name, that means they’re legendary. Legendaries are tough to kill, because they can “mutate” mid-fight—an ability which heals them. It’s super-annoying. While running away from tough battles is a viable strategy, if you can swing it, it’s definitely worth killing these enemies. They’ll drop randomly-generated gear with all sorts of cool and unusual abilities that you can’t get any other way. Some examples..
Advertisement
Advertisement
Don’t Forget About Sidequests
While the main quests are pretty awesome, Fallout 4’s sidequests is where the game really shines. Once you’ve got decent gear, peruse some of your optional quests—including the ones under the “Miscellaneous” tab in the Quests menu. Read through them, and do the ones that sound interesting to you.
Advertisement
Don’t Wait Too Long For Certain Quests
Some sidequests operate on a timer, and can be failed if you don’t do them quickly enough. Unfortunately the game doesn’t let you know about this until you actually fail the quests.
Advertisement
Without going into spoilers, a good rule of thumb is this: if it seems time-sensitive, it very well might be. For example: if a friend gets kidnapped and the assailants tell you you need to hurry to save him, if you wait too long, that friend might actually die.
Use Your Companions To Your Advantage
Advertisement
Companions are useful outside of combat! Certain characters can do things like lockpicking or hacking, which is great if your character didn’t spec for that stuff. To get you started: Nick Valentine (from Diamond City) is good at hacking, and Cait (from Combat Zone) is great at lockpicking.
Talk To Your Companions
Getting closer to your buddies means unlocking special quests, and eventually, companion-specific perks. You can only gain a companion’s trust by making decisions they like, though—so you’ll want to talk to them to get a feel for what each companion “stands” for. Quick tip: Nick Valentine and Piper like it when you help people. If you’re the ‘steal everything’ or ‘only look out for yourself’ type, you’ll want to avoid having those companions around—they’ll hate everything you do.
Advertisement
Should you romance a partner, you’ll even gain a special bonus after sleeping in a bed with those characters nearby.
Keep Your Companions Stocked Up
And remember: your companions are only as good as the gear they’re equipped with. Don’t hog all the best items; give some great gear to your followers, too. Make sure that they actually equip that stuff; you can control this via their inventory menu. Note that the weapons companions come with never run out of ammo, but any weapons you give them will.
Advertisement
..But Don’t Give Companions Explosives
Grenades, molotovs, missiles, and mini-nuke weapons should not be given to companions. Your friends will use these weapons at the worst time, and you’ll be caught in the blast radius.
Advertisement
Dress Dogmeat Up
Advertisement
He can’t wear normal armor, but he CAN wear bandanas, collars, dog armor, and certain goggles. Good boy!
Remember, Dogmeat Can Fetch
You never know what the pup will find lying around. Dogmeat is known to retrieve everything from ammo to Fat Mans. Every so often, tell Dogmeat to fetch, just for kicks: maybe he’ll bring back something killer.
Advertisement
OMG DOGMEAT
HE CAN PLAY WITH TEDDY BEARS IF YOU EQUIP THEM ON HIM.
Don’t Forget His Doghouse
If you build a doghouse at your settlement, he’ll hang out there. If you should ever swap him out with another follower and send him back to your settlement at Sanctuary, he’ll automatically go to one of the doghouses in town. If you’re worried you’ve lost him, check those.
Advertisement
Buy More Dogs
Dogmeat not enough? Fallout 4 actually lets you own more than one dog, but to do it, you’ll need to speak to a character named Gene. You’ll need some charisma to convince him to give you a dog, after which you can send said dog to a settlement. The pupster will increase both your settlement’s defense and happiness!
Advertisement
Listen To The Diamond City Radio
The DJ is hilarious.
Explore Every Town Thoroughly
Even alleyways can hide special characters, quests, or events. And in densely-packed places like Diamond City, it’s pretty easy to miss smaller areas of the town. Always make sure to make a thorough sweep and explore every building in a town. You might be surprised by what you find.
Advertisement
Pick A Base of Operations
Advertisement
You have two options at the start of the game: Red Rocket truck stop, and Sanctuary. Both have a variety of useful stations: storage chests for extra junk, armor workbenches, cooking pits, a Power Armor dock, a chemistry station, and even a bed. Sanctuary provides more space for you to build your settlement, but it also requires more work to put together. Red Rocket is smaller, but it has a nicer, more signature look starting out. Neither is a bad choice, but you should still focus on only one, at least to start out.
Build Your Settlements
If you play your cards right, you can build your settlement to be so self-sufficient and resourceful, it’ll have more amenities and shops than Diamond City itself. For that, you’ll want to invest in the Charisma tree most of all, especially the Perk that lets you share resources between settlements.
Advertisement
Break Down What You Don’t Need
Everything you see in your settlement can be moved around and broken down into scrap. Here’s a quick guide to get you started on that.
Advertisement
Grow Your Own Stuff
On a very basic level, you can use your settlements to provide some useful materials that can aid you on your adventure. Under the “resources” tab, you can find options to build water pumps and water purifiers—which can provide you with a free way to heal yourself. You can also use the resources tab to plant food, which you can then use in recipes to cook your own food. Squirrel Stew in particular boosts your XP gain by 2% for two hours, and it requires bloodleaf, carrot, tato, and squirrel bits to make it. You can read more about cooking here. Remember: three dirty water bottles can be turned into one purified water, too.
Advertisement
Make Adhesives
Crops are good for cooking, but they’re also great for crafting. Most notably, you’ll want to use the Cooking Station to build Vegetable Starch. Vegetable starch breaks down into 5 adhesive, which is one of the most useful crafting items around:
Advertisement
The recipe calls for 3 corn, 3 muttfruit, 1 purified water, and 3 tatos. All of these items are easy to find out in the land, and many storeowners carry at least a couple of these. You can provide your own purified water, provided you build a purifier on your settlement, too. Once you have everything, I’d suggest going into your workshop and planting these items, like so:
Advertisement
It’ll take a bit of time for these crops to grow, but once they do, you’ll multiply the number of components you initially had, and you’ll be able to count on more of those items in the future, when you need more adhesive. Hooray, farming!
Build Defenses
It doesn’t happen often, but your settlements can get attacked by Raiders and Super Mutants. These attackers can even steal your items, which is especially troubling if they get a hold of any of your docked Power Armor. To avoid this, you should at least invest in some basic turrets on the settlements you care about, if not give your settlers some basic weapons. They might help your settlement from getting wrecked.
Advertisement
Assign People To Do Things
This is pretty easy to miss, but almost everything can have a person “assigned” to it. When you highlight an item, like a resource or useable item, look at the bottom part of your screen. One of the prompts should be “assign,” and from there you can pick whatever person you want to give that task to. This is useful if you want to regularly harvest your garden, or if you want to make sure someone is actually manning your shops or outposts.
Advertisement
Customize Your Power Armor
It will take a lot of resources, but if you keep an eye out for some of the junk listed earlier in this article, tweaking your Power Armor should be a zinch. You’ll want to do it, too: customization allows you to tailor your Power Suit to your specific playstyle.
Advertisement
Here’s my suit:
Advertisement
I’ve built it so that it grants me extra damage and energy resistance, extra strength, it boosts my action point refresh, and even increases my VATs hit chance. If you find a Hot Rodder magazine in the wasteland, you’ll even be able to unlock custom paint jobs for your rig. Neat.
Invest In The Jetpack Mod
Some high locations/special items can only be reached with this mod installed on your Power Armor—hence why you’ve probably encountered enemies on roofs while adventuring. You can find the Jetpack mod option in the Power Armor customization menu, which is accessed in the Power Armor rack. You’ll need rank four of Science! to build it.
Advertisement
Get The Best Power Armor
While you can find a variety of different suits in the wasteland, there’s one in particular that reigns supreme above all: the X-01 Power Armor. If you want to find it, make sure to read this.
Advertisement
Get The Best Armor
You can’t always run around in Power Armor, I get it. Or, maybe you’re more interested in wearing fashionable gear. There’s actually a way to upgrade ‘normal’ armor, like suits and dresses, to become pretty kickass. We’ve written up a guide on how to upgrade normal armor to the max here.
Advertisement
Don’t Use Pipe Weapons
They suck.
Don’t Use Raider Armor
They’re not very good. That’s why this line of gear looks like garbage.
Don’t Buy Stimpaks
They’re expensive, and if you scrounge enough while adventuring, you should never be short on them anyway.
Advertisement
Customize Your Weapons
Advertisement
Every weapon can be modified to add a variety of effects, including better damage, range, and recoil. Naturally, you’ll want to make your weapons as good as they can be, so make sure to stop by your weapons station and peruse your available modification options for your favorite weapons. Don’t bother upgrading weapons you don’t use. Make sure to tag any components you’re missing, so you can find them out in the wild.
It helps to have the right perks here, too. Otherwise, your customization options will be pretty limited. For those of you that like shooting bullets, you’ll want the Gun Nut perk for your weapon customization needs. If you plan on using energy weapons, get the Science! perk, instead.
Advertisement
Name Your Guns
Chances are you’ll wind up with a few main guns that you like to use. Take the time to name them while at the weapon crafting table. It’ll help you tell them apart from other guns you may pick up, and it’s always fun to come up with good weapon names. Kirk sent me this screenshot of his:
Advertisement
And remember, you can always use HTML to italicize or bold names, too.
Find The Alien Blaster
It’s one-of-a-kind. Here’s a video guide on how to find it.
Farm Legendary Gear
Once you’re high enough level to take down enemies with stars next to their names, you can start farming said enemies for the best gear in the game. If that’s of interest, make sure to read our legendary farming guide here.
Advertisement
Reserve Your Fusion Cores
Don’t take out your Power Armor on a whim. Fusion cores are scarce at the start of the game, so save Power Armor for tough dungeons, or boss fights. Worth keeping in mind that walking around and standing still use less Fusion Core energy than sprinting or using VATS, and fast traveling uses none of your core. When you leave a suit behind at your base, make sure to take the Fusion Core with you—else settlers or attackers might get in the suit and use up your fuel.
Canon’s i-SENSYS LBP6000B is aiming to satisfy these requirements at a reasonable price.Its matte black case includes a bread-bin style shape when closed up and should sit happily upon the end of the desk if you don‘t take up an excessive amount of space. Free Download Canon i-SENSYS LBP6020B Printer Drivers For Windows XP/ Vista/ Windows 7/ Win 8/ Win 8.1/ Win 10 (32bit - 64bit), Mac OS and Linux.Canon i-SENSYS LBP6020BCanon i-SENSYS LBP6020B Review:A private laser printer includes a simpler task – to print black pages clearly and quickly. Canon lbp6000 driver windows 10 free download. To become truly personal, it ought to also use very little room upon the desk.
Advertisement
Steal Fusion Cores From The Brotherhood of Steel
This one guy, to be specific. For whatever reason, this specific soldier at the Brotherhood of Steel base regenerates Fusion Cores indefinitely, as you can see in this video by Gametastik:
Obviously, you’ll want to save before attempting, and it helps to actually have some pickpocketing/sneaking perks on your character.
Advertisement
Sell Your Fusion Cores Before They Run Out
You can get full price for a Fusion Core at a vendor if you swap it out before the gauge reaches zero.
Advertisement
Understand sneaking
When you’re hidden, there’ll be brackets around the word “hidden” on your screen. The closer those brackets get to the word, the closer you are to being detected.
Advertisement
Be Stealthy
Even if you didn’t build your character for stealth, you can still use stealth to your advantage. For instance: if you ever see an enemy that hasn’t noticed you yet, crouch down before shooting them. Not only will this steady your aim on certain weapons, you’ll also gain a sneak attack bonus critical, regardless of what you specced for.
Advertisement
Snipe In Real Time.
Take your first stealthy shot in real time, too, not VATs. Your real-time accuracy will likely be better, particularly when sniping, than VATS. Save VATS for actual combat.
Advertisement
Use Your Critical Attacks
In VATS, your hits will slowly charge up your critical meter. It’s very easy to forget you have that, but if you’re fighting an enemy and need them to take a ton of damage right effing now, trigger your critical before your shot lands.
Advertisement
Use Your Environment
If you see rainbow-colored liquid on the ground, that’s probably gasoline. You can shoot it and the room will burst into flames. If you see fire extinguishers, you can shoot them and they will explode. And finally, if you specced for hacking, always be on the lookout for terminals. They usually let you turn off turrets, or turn on Protectrons.
Advertisement
Use Cover
You can aim from around cover in first-person. Walk up to a corner or other piece of cover and try aiming—your character should pop around the cover and aim at what’s beyond it.
Advertisement
Look Up (And Down)
Fallout 4’s environments have a lot of verticality. If you can’t tell where the shots are coming from, look up—there might be an enemy on the roof, or on the next floor. Sometimes, the enemy might even be underneath you.
Advertisement
Don’t Start Firefights Near Cars
Cars that take damage will eventually explode. Definitely don’t take cover behind cars, or stand near them in the middle of a battle. Cars in Fallout were powered by mini nuclear bombs, so you don’t want to be nearby when one explodes.
Advertisement
Beware of Radiation
Advertisement
Radiation eats up your health, so you’ll want to avoid it. Make sure to keep a stockpile of Radaway, and don’t eat random food from the wasteland unless you absolutely have to. Every so often, the Commonwealth will be hit with radiation storms that can pile on radiation damage, too. You’ll want to go indoors for those, or better yet, keep a radiation-resistant outfit (like a Hazmat suit) or a gas mask at the ready for when these hit. These items will protect you. If you’re exploring and wind up in a radiation storm, you can always just fast-travel away, too.
Take A Swim
There’s a lot of water in Fallout 4. Some of it covers areas of interest, like special locations of stashes of items. Provided you’re equipped to deal with radiation, don’t be afraid to dip into the water and see what it stores. Just know that while Power Armor shields you from radiation, it also makes you sink to the bottom of any water sources, which can make navigating a pain in the ass.
Advertisement
Take A Snooze
Sleeping not only heals you, it gives you a short 10% experience bonus. Worth doing every once in a while, even if you’re fully healed.
Advertisement
Listen To The Game’s Built-In Soundtrack
Yes, the radio is great. But the game’s original soundtrack is fantastic, and can especially set the mood in more desolate/creepier areas.
Advertisement
Use Outfits To Your Advantage
Advertisement
Outfits aren’t just about high damage resistance. Clothes can be useful in other situations, especially if they boot your SPECIAL up. It’s worth keeping outfits that boost your bartering and speech skills, and to swap into those threads before doing those activities. Most of the time, said outfits don’t weigh much, either, so you can carry them around with you.
Listen to NPCs
When you get to a new area—even hostile areas like raider bases—stop and listen to the NPC chatter. Sometimes, it’s funny. Sometimes, you’ll learn about new locations, or be given quests. And sometimes they just react to stuff you’ve done around the world.
Advertisement
Revisit Dungeons
Many of Fallout 4’s locales actually respawn enemies after a few days of in-game time have passed. If you want to farm legendaries, or just want to grind some XP, you can always go back to a raider-infested locale and experience it once more. A good way to know if a place has respawned its enemies is to hover over its icon on the Pip-Boy’s map. If it doesn’t say “CLEARED,” it’s fair game.
Advertisement
Try The Different Factions Out
There are four factions in Fallout 4: the Minutemen, the Institute, the Brotherhood, and the Railroad. While eventually you’ll have to pick a side, feel free to do the introductory quests for all of these factions first. You’ll get a taste of what they stand for, which is helpful. Personally, I’d go through each route far enough that they give you their faction-specific bonus, then I’d try another one. And you can always just betray whatever faction you’re with if you’re not feeling it.
Advertisement
But Don’t Do The Boring Faction Missions
There are three types of missions you can get with factions: there are ones that further the storyline, side-quests, and radiant quests. You should do the first two. The last kind, though, are the worst types of missions in Fallout 4. You’ll know them when you see them—if your faction is asking you to take control of a settlement, or to clear out a dungeon JUST BECAUSE, then it’s probably a radiant quest. These are practically endless and not very interesting, so unless you’re just interested in dungeon-crawling, I’d leave them alone.
Advertisement
Use The Vertiberd
Of particular interest is the Brotherhood’s Vertiberd perk. It’s an aircraft that can transport you anywhere you want, which is useful for whenever your character is overburdened. Oh, and that onboard mini-gun is pretty cool, too.
Advertisement
Listen To New Radio Signals
If you suddenly find a new radio signal while traveling (like a distress signal for example), tune in. These broadcasts are usually side-quests or things of interest.
Advertisement
Look Out For Skeletons
Advertisement
Some of the best storytelling in Fallout 4 is told entirely through skeletons!
Talk To Shopkeepers
Always remember to shoot the shit. Many vendors actually have sidequests for you, but you have to ask for them first.
Advertisement
Steal
Why not? Some of the best gear in the game can be stolen from right under the noses of your favorite shops, if you’re careful enough. Trust me, that Gauss Rifle hiding behind the Brotherhood of Steel armory is worth the risk.
Advertisement
Synths Are Closer Than You Realize
Not to make you paranoid or anything..but your settlers can and will be replaced by synths from time to time. These doppelgangers will turn on your settlement, after which you’ll find synth parts on their body—revealing the betrayal. Yeah: this game is wild.
Advertisement
Mod Your Game
Want Paladin Danse to look like Buzz Lightyear? Want to see what your dialogue options are in full? Want to make Fallout 4 look hot as hell? If you’re on PC, good news: you can alter your game however you’d like. Make sure to drop by the Nexus hub for Fallout 4, and search for whatever you’re interested in. No matter how niche or strange your desire, there’s probably a good mod for you there.
Advertisement
When All Else Fails, Cheat
You may not want to deal with Fallout 4’s difficulty. Maybe you’re just here to have some fun. I don’t judge, man. If this describes you, know that Fallout 4 has an item duplication glitch that be used to give yourself max SPECIAL points, too. Here’s YouTuber Genie, walking you through the process:
Other assorted tips
- If you’ve never played a Fallout game before, don’t sweat it. It’s not necessary to enjoy Fallout 4 (though it can certainly help. There are some returning characters/plot points!)
- You should customize the color of your Pipboy/UI in the options menu.
- Press down the B/O button for a while to turn on your flashlight. You can customize the color of your flashlight in your Power Armor.
- You can pick up objects and move them around by holding down the interact button.
- Check mailboxes, dumpsters, and trashcans. They usually have stuff hiding within.
- Once you discover Jamaica Plains, you can turn on the security measures in the underground museum and manually disarm every laser indefinitely for an endless supply of fiber optics, crystal, and steel.
- You can swap mods from one gun to another, provided they both use it.
- You can eject an enemy from its Power Armor by shooting at its Fusion Core
- Build a bell in your settlement to have an easy way to summon all your settlers in one place.
- Stop and look/listen to your companions every one in a while. They have rad idle animations, and will sometimes interact with other characters or objects in the world.
- Do not get rid of overdue books. Certain locations will take them and give you rewards in exchange for collecting them.
- Holster your weapon while you’re not using it. Having it out slows you down!
- “Quiet reflection” - gain 5% extra XP for a limited amount of time after sitting in a pew in the Diamond City chapel.
- Being drunk affects your dialogue options in hilarious ways.