Permadeath playthrough tips.

[GreySky]

If you're not interested in long posts then don't bother reading...

For many players I've noticed they've become burned out and/or lost the interest to continue playing Fallout 4 on their 100+ hour playthrough and simply can't find any reason to start a new playthrough due to some of the contraints Fallout's RPG elements present in regards to replayability (Lack of evil options, choices, inability to create various types of characters due to the voiced protaganist's dialogue ruining the illusion your character may speak a line of dialogue in a different fashion, etc).

Well for me Fallout has always felt like a survival game (which, in a sense, it is) and I've always done my best to treat it as such by making decisions I personally would make and sticking by them even if they blow up in my face (quite literally) and actually taking the time to plan and initiate ambushes, attacks, exercising caution, taking risks and so on, instead of manufacturing the outcome I want by reloading a save and reattempting a sneak attack or grenade throw until it succefully has the effect I want.

So this time around I decided to take Fallout to a new level and play it on Survival difficulty and if I died then that was it. No restarts and no reloads. That was it. Needless to say, this has lead to some of THE most AMAZING and FRUSTRATING sessions of gaming I've ever encountered.

Now, I understand this isn't a new concpet by any means. So why do I bring this up? Well, it's for those players looking for a new element to add to their Fallout game. And let me just make this clear now - THIS IS NOT SOMETHING EVERYONE SHOULD TRY. If the concept doesn't appeal to you straight off, then DON'T TRY IT. For some people Fallout is fun because they can create a character to play and go on this adventure as, but for me Fallout games have been about ME surviving the post-nuclear wasteland so when I make a decision then I stick by it because I made the decision. I'm not constantly asking myself "What would my character do in this situation...?", if you like to play that way (and there's NOTHING wrong with playing that way) then you may not enjoy this type of playthrough.

I've attempted this type of playthrough close to 20 times. To some of you that probably sounds absolutely stupid and pointless, but for me it has lead to some really memorable moments and talk about immersion... You'll never feel more immersed or attached to a playthrough when you have so much at stake... I promise you.

The furthest I ever got on a single playthrough was something like 40+ hours and I was level 26 or so. Admittedly thats not that far, but when I outline some of the tips I have you'll see how insanely difficult things can be...

First off, my personal play style will differ from some greatly as in I don't use fast travel ever. I only use Power Armor for certain circumstances such as large groups of Super Mutants, Deathclaws and Yao Guay's, or if the storyline calls for it (Brotherhood Quests/Concord Deathclaw Fight etc). I still save like crazy because it's a Bethesda game and if it crashes there's no sense in losing countless hours of play. I also have a mod that disables the Sneak Indicator, Compass Enemy Blips, Enemy Health Bar/Enemy Name, No crosshairs, and no Hit Markers called 'My HUD' (http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/1476/?).

You should know that playing this way makes the Perception Stat useless to a degree. As it should. The Perception stat should ONLY be a factor if your character is made up and you're playing out the story as if you were someone else, meaning they may have a perception unlike your own dictated by the number you've chosen for that skill, but more ME I am a human and I can hear gunshots nearby or footsteps and deduce that an enemy is beyond the door in front of me or beyond those trees. I don't need a red dot to tell me, nor should I. It's just not realistic for MY type fo playthrough.

I tend to just put my Pereception at 3 and when I get the Perception Bobblehead I can use the Lockpick perks. So if you don't want to play that way thats fine, but I implore you to try it since as a real person you don't have the ability to magically know your enemy's health, name, and location instinctually and it makes combat WAY more intense and thus very rewarding.

So here's some things I've learned it my many many attempts...

THINGS TO BE AWARE OF WHEN STARTING THIS KIND OF PLAYTHROUGH -

- Landmines/makeshiftbombs/bottlecap mines/tripwires (If you feel like things are just "too quiet" or "too easy" while walking through an abandoned building or going up stairs then be patient and LOOK AROUND, odds are there's a trap you're about to set off... For many people they'll remember where a mine was placed from a previous playthrough and know how to navigate around it or disarm it. Thats fine. We can't will ourselves to forget that stuff.)

- Bloatflies and other insects/animals (Take ANY insect or animal VERY seriously, but in my experience bloatflies can be the most hazardous on Survival ESPECIALLY Legendary bloatflies. One magot shot can drain ALL your health at relatively early levels and THEN some... Meaning you could pop a stimpak and the poison's effect would still be more potent than your stimpak and kill you anyways, EVEN if you pop a Buffout as well. Believe me... I tried it and still died. There is a way to counter the poison, but I'll get to that...)

- Grenades/Molotavs/Explosives in General (Do not engage large groups of enemies, even at a relatively good distance unless you have a good plan like mines set up to deal with enemies closing the distance, grenades to thin out the pack, or high powered rifles to pick off the more imposing enemies before they even get a chance to fight back. The reason I say this is because grenades WILL kill you even at high levels with modded outifts and what-not on Survival Difficulty even with Power Armor on sometimes, and enemies will not hesitate to chuck a few grenades your way. Even a couple molotavs can be deadly FAST.)

- Mini Nuke weidling enemies (This goes for Power Armored Raider's who weild a Fat Man, but also, and probably more importantly, the Super Mutant Suiciders. Some of you probably laugh at how easy it is to deal with these enemies. The Power Armored Raider can be sniped no problem, but you may find yourself thinking "Before I deal with him directly, I'll lure some Ghouls his way and let him nuke them for me..." This may turn out badly if you're too close to the Ghouls when that nuke goes off, be careful... And The Suiciders are a joke, right? Wrong. They're easy to pick at from a distance sure, but what happens when you enter a building and there's a Suicider literally FEET from you and Dogmeat just triggered his suspicion and now you'll die because of Dogmeat's lack of stealth. And now you're thinking "Just go outside again really quick to get away from him" WRONG AGAIN. Enemies who are searching for you will spawn outside WITH you at the same moment you leave a building and this means the Suicider will detonate as soon as he spawn next to, or on top, of you... Leave companions outside if you're worried about potential Suiciders and deal with them before bring a companion into the building with you. Oh, and try to kill the Suicider without detonating his nuke so you can loot the Mini Nuke from his dead body, but if it's easier to just shoot the nuke in his hand potentially taking down a couple other mutties then do that.)

- Refreshing Beverages (Craft at least 3-5 of these at a time and bring them with you when you travel into hostile territory... Which means everywhere pretty much... Refreshing Beverages are the only health item I'm aware of that heal you completely while also ridding you of Rads in a matter of seconds, even on Survival Difficulty. It takes about 3 seconds to go from a nearly empy health bar to full. It takes like 30 seconds for a stimpak to give you a portion of your health... I mentioned earlier how a Legendary Bloatfly's magot shot poison would kill you even if you preemptively popped a stimpak and buffout, well a refreshing beverage is the only thing (that i've found) that will be more potent than the poison and allow you to heal up, also ridding yourself of Rads in the process, while you continue to fight the bloatfly, or better yet run FAR AWAY from it... Or lead it towards some settlers or something...)

- Sometimes you'll just need to know when to fold (Some situations just aren't winnable if you don't have to equipment or resources necessary... Sure on a normal playthrough you just keep reloading until you come out on top since each time you reload you gain a better idea of where each enemy is coming from, what weapon they have, what level they are, and how much health they have left, etc... Playing like I'm challenging means you'll just have to run away and figure out a different approach for later. And I should mention, running away has actually lead to some REALLY cool situations. Some enemies follow you and end up stomping into some other enemy's domain leading to a really cool fight and you get to heal up and enjoy the show)

- Let enemies fight each other (Don't interupt a good battle if you have nothing at stake with either faction that is fighting. Why put yourself in the crosshairs needlessly? You'll have less enemies to deal with in the end and you'll still get all the good loot when you take down the remaining enemies who more thna likely have way less health than if you had jumped in earlier.)

- Patience is key (Take some time to look around. What may look like a couple raiders just chilling by a fire may actually hide many other deadly factors - A patrol may have been walking around outside the camp, a dog might be sleeping next to a log making it difficult to spot, landmines or tripwires could be littered at the outskirts of the camp, or many other potential things... Take a moment to survey the surroundings and decide how you'll attack, if at all.)

- Treat each situation like life or death (This is a big one... For me I struggled a lot with this at first because I realised some situations were EASY. You could DESTROY a couple raiders no problem and find yuorself craving action. You'll want a real firefight and you'll start to almost subconceously manufacture situations where an enemy will get the chance to fight back, but you may not be taking into account how many levels you've gained recently and the raiders, or mutants or whatever, are now WAY more formidable than the ones you fought a while back... Fight with all you've got if the situation calls for it. You may waste more grenades than you needed to, you may be bored by one encounter where you absolutely rekt a couple enemies, but as soon as you assume the same thing will happen on your next encounter is when you'll slip up and die...)

- Chems are your friends (Don't be afraid to pop a chem or two if you feel the situation warrants it. Jet can be a literal life-saver when you get into a jam and need a way out. Buffout is a big help too. Create Buffjet. Get creative.)

- DO NOT TAKE LONG WALKS INTO DEEP SECTIONS OF WATER IN POWER ARMOR (There are areas of the water that if you stay in them too long in Power Armor it'll glitch out and cause you to drown and die even though you're not supposed to while in Power Armor... I found this out the hard way. And since I play very seriously, I had to start over... But thats just me and just a friendly tip...)

In conclusion, I hope some people will try this challenge. I had a lot of fun playing this way. Especially when you get pretty darn far. You'll start to get REALLY nervous about going into certain sections of the city, you know, like you would in real life... You'll remember how difficult a section of the storyline was from a previous playthrough and you'll start to think about how to plan for it better this time around. Again, you can't will yourself to forget that stuff...

Personally I gave up on this type of playthrough a little while back because I'm waiting for the new Survival Mode Overhaul and then I'll give it another go down the line. In any case I'm sure I missed some great tips and if you have more feel free to leave them in response.

And again, this is not for everyone. I get that some people play differently than others, no judgements. If you're not into this, then carry on. No need to flame. Happy hunting.

[Shad]

I've tried MATN's true healh counter run on Fallout 4 and beat the game, the normal perma-death no manual save run is easy if you don't run into enemies and you're aware of your surroundings.

[GreySky]

Originally posted by Scarecrow:

I've tried MATN's true healh counter run on Fallout 4 and beat the game, the normal perma-death no manual save run is easy if you don't run into enemies and you're aware of your surroundings.

Yea, I imagine if you look at is as a game it's not all that difficult. But what I'm proposing is more along the lines of following the story realistically. Helping those you want to help. Playing like you would in this world. Not like a game where it's simply "Beat the game".

Immerse yourself in the world and do what you would do. If you care about helping a group of settlers then you'll go clear out that Raider encampment for them - if you care about beating the game simply to say you did it, then you won't help those people... Thats all I'm saying... Do what you as a person would do. Thats more of my challenge I guess.

[chris.boney]

Originally posted by Scarecrow:

I've tried MATN's true healh counter run on Fallout 4 and beat the game, the normal perma-death no manual save run is easy if you don't run into enemies and you're aware of your surroundings.

cse on max settings
+ any other large spawn mod
+ legendary rarity
+ tougher legendaries
+ 6x enemy damage
and so on..

perma death vanilla,, fair enough.
extreme-nightmare-mode-perma-death-lilly-skillz-not-a-weapon-playthrough?
no chance.
tried a few times.. lol.

[Shad]

Originally posted by chris.boney:

Originally posted by Scarecrow:

I've tried MATN's true healh counter run on Fallout 4 and beat the game, the normal perma-death no manual save run is easy if you don't run into enemies and you're aware of your surroundings.

cse on max settings
+ any other large spawn mod
+ legendary rarity
+tougher legendaries
and so on..

perma death vanilla,, fair enough.
extreme-nightmare-mode-perma-death-lilly-skillz-not-a-weapon-playthrough?
no chance.
tried a few times.. lol.

With a stealth sniper build it's no biggie, just expect to come close to dying a few times.

[chris.boney]

dont know what happend tot his guy but this thread was quite good.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/496881136903481395/

[chris.boney]

Originally posted by Scarecrow:

Originally posted by chris.boney:

cse on max settings
+ any other large spawn mod
+ legendary rarity
+tougher legendaries
and so on..

perma death vanilla,, fair enough.
extreme-nightmare-mode-perma-death-lilly-skillz-not-a-weapon-playthrough?
no chance.
tried a few times.. lol.

With a stealth sniper build it's no biggie, just expect to come close to dying a few times.

like i said, no chance.
even radiant side quest to just go and pick up a haptic drive takes days and sometimes weeks worth of dying before you give up and move on..

[Shad]

Originally posted by chris.boney:

dont know what happend tot his guy but this thread was quite good.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/496881136903481395/

The thread kind of died off

[Shad]

Originally posted by chris.boney:

Originally posted by Scarecrow:

With a stealth sniper build it's no biggie, just expect to come close to dying a few times.

like i said, no chance.
even radiant side quest to just go and pick up a haptic drive takes days and sometimes weeks worth of dying before you give up and move on..

That's what the Scribe Farming trick is for

[chris.boney]

Originally posted by Scarecrow:

Originally posted by chris.boney:

dont know what happend tot his guy but this thread was quite good.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/496881136903481395/

The thread kind of died off

you dont say...
hence thw word 'Was'..

[Shad]

Originally posted by chris.boney:

Originally posted by Scarecrow:

The thread kind of died off

you dont say...
hence thw word 'Was'..

"Don't know what happened to this guy"
To answer that a bit further, he's not really that active anymore even on steam.

[chris.boney]

Originally posted by Scarecrow:

Originally posted by chris.boney:

like i said, no chance.
even radiant side quest to just go and pick up a haptic drive takes days and sometimes weeks worth of dying before you give up and move on..

That's what the Scribe Farming trick is for

*mods game to such high intense impossible levels, then use glitches to skip his way out of it8..
nice.....
kind of defeats the whole point of it.

[Shad]

Originally posted by chris.boney:

Originally posted by Scarecrow:

That's what the Scribe Farming trick is for

*mods game to such high intense impossible levels, then use glitches to skip his way out of it8..
nice.....
kind of defeats the whole point of it.

You said "no chance", and I provided one.

[chris.boney]

Originally posted by Scarecrow:

Originally posted by chris.boney:

you dont say...
hence thw word 'Was'..

"Don't know what happened to this guy"
To answer that a bit further, he's not really that active anymore even on steam.

rehtorical,, since his thread was about "perma-death" to begin with but hey..
*shrug*.

[The_Boog]

don't die