Crafting in Fallout 4 is one of the most rewarding and expansive elements. While the method of crafting itself isn’t that complicated, the various sub-features associated with it give the art a lot of depth, and a steep learning curve.
Crafting is an entirely optional part of Fallout 4, but you’d be missing on a lot of good stuff if you decide to solely rely on items you find in the open world. Even the most legendary items cannot compare to the sheer power and versatility you can acquire from crafting your own customized arsenal.
Crafting is a very general term, and covers a wide variety of different manufacturing procedures. You can craft weapons, armor, Power Armor, chems, food, and resource items with base components you salvage from scrap and junk items scattered across the Commonwealth.
Each type of craftable item has its own special Workbench in the game. Weapons can be crafted on Weapon Workbenches, while Power Armor can be crafted on Power Armor Stands.
Every settlement is directly associated with the ability to use its Workshop workbench, which allows you to construct resource items like turrets, houses, food, generators, and more. Most settlements also house a weapon workbench as well as an armor workbench, though this isn’t a rule of thumb.
Additionally, you’re likely to find plenty of workbenches without a workshop nearby, usually in neutral areas in the map.
Weapon Workbench
The Weapon Workbench is where you modify your weapons. To use this workbench, you have to understand how weapons in Fallout 4 work.
The base of a weapon is its frame. There are many different types of frames around. A common example is the Piper Rifle frame, or Piper Revolver frame.
Once you’ve acquired these frames, you can add mods to it at the workbench. These mods can completely alter the look, feel, and performance of your weapon.
You could start off with a simple Piper Pistol, and mod it out to make it a Piper Sniper Rifle.
In order to do this, you need to alter several different parts of a weapon. Each part of the weapon has a number of mods to it that you can apply. They will alter your weapon’s performance and looks, both of which are displayed on screen.
These mods can’t be made out of nothing though. On the right side of a highlighted mod, you’ll see the base components required to create it. These components are found across the world within junk, which the workbench will automatically convert (provided you are carrying the item or have it in a nearby workshop) into base components and use them for a mod.
Base components that aren’t available will be greyed out, which you can tag to find in the world.
Armor Workbench
A Weapon Workbench is often accompanied by an Armor Workbench. It acts in a very similar manner to the weapon workbench, except that you modify armor instead. Everything else is very much the same. However, Armor doesn’t exactly have ‘frames.’ Instead, you get several pieces of armor.
Armor pieces can be individually modified to make them stronger, whereas suits and full sets have to be modified as a whole.
Power Armor Stations
Power Armor is an integral part of Fallout 4, and unlike its predecessors, you’re given one from the beginning, and have the luxury of modifying it. Power Armor stands allow you to do exactly that, along with repairing your Power Armor as well.
Mods for Power Armor function in a similar manner to weapon and armor mods, but they are way more versatile.
You could attach a simple blue headlamp on your Power Armor, or you could add some jets at the back to boost you to heights that are otherwise impossible. Power Armor mods are amazing, yet they are extremely costly.
Cooking Stations
Across the Commonwealth wasteland, you’re bound to find plenty of meat, herbs, and other consumable content. Sadly, almost everything is irradiated, which means you’re putting yourself at risk of radiation every time you consume them.
Cooking Stations can fix this for you. The irradiated meat you find from the many mutated animals across the world can be cooked at these stations, after which you can consume them harmlessly.
While crafting food and drink is the primary purpose of cooking stations, one of its most useful functions is the production of vegetable starch.
Vegetable Starch yields the all-important and rare Adhesive base component, which is used in just about every weapon, armor, and Power Amor modification.
Chemistry Stations
Chemistry Stations are stoves where you cook chems, create explosives, make unconventional ammunition, and more. It’s a chemist’s paradise, and allows one to explore an aspect of the game that is usually underrated and overlooked by most.
You can check out our Chems guide for more in-depth detail on Chemistry Stations and what you can produce there.
Weapon mods in Fallout 4 are categorized in different ways. For melee weapons, you only get one type of mod, plus the ability to choose your own color. For guns on the other hand, you can modify just about every part you want.
The most widely used and important base components for weapon mods are:
Barrel Mods
These mods are applied to ballistic weapons. Barrel mods tend to affect a weapon’s range, accuracy, and recoil. They improve your weapon’s range and accuracy, but increase recoil.
For energy weapons, barrel mods tend to affect nearly every aspect of a gun’s performance. Bigger energy weapon barrels result in enormous damage output, but also slower speed and reduced ammo capacity.
Barrel mods also have diverse effects on heavy guns.
Grip Mods
Grip mods generally affect a gun’s accuracy and recoil. Longer, arm-based grips tend to increase weapon range, reduce recoil, and improve long range accuracy at the cost of hip-fire accuracy, while shorter hand grips will improve accuracy with hip-fire but reduce range.
Mag Mods
These types of mods determine a weapon’s ammo capacity and reload speed. In very rare cases, weapon mods can have unconventional effect.
Muzzle Mods
Muzzle mods have a versatile effect on a weapon, depending on the type of mod. They include suppressors, bayonets, compensators, and more.
Receiver Mods
Receiver mods are extremely influential, and primarily influence the overall weapon damage. Also, changing receivers of certain types of weapons can completely alter their performance and the ammunition they use. This is a great way to make the most of the ammo that you have abundance of.
Sight Mods
Sight mods primarily affect a weapon’s accuracy and range. You can get magnification and optics from these mods, and also in advanced cases night-vision and marking.
Armor Mods in Fallout 4 dramatically improve your protective gear. It is usually far better to customize and equip pieces of major armor sets rather than simpler full-sets and garments.
The most fundamental and important base components of armor mods are:
Miscallaneous mods are linings that further improve certain garments. These mods have a variety of effects, depending on the type of mod. They can either simply improve radiation resistance and damage, or add extra utilities like increased carrying capacity, longer chems duration, and more.
Headlamps
You can attach small headlamps of different colors to your helmets if you wish. They work in a similar manner to the Pip-Boy’s flashlight, though they are a bit more directed.
Ballistic Weave Mods
These mods reinforce lightweight garment that otherwise offers little to no protection. You’ll find plenty of outfits that use these types of mods.
Power Armor comes with its own types of mods, and they are some of the most unique. Because of how much they offer, Power Armor mods are difficult to make, and require a lot of rare components.
The most commonly used base components for Power Armor are:
Base Mods
Base mods determine the Damage Resistance and Energy Resistance offered by a Power Armor.
Material Mods
Most Power Armor parts have parts that offer slots for material mods. This allows you to alter the material of the power armor. You can do things like lead plating, winterized coating, and explosive shielding to make your Power Armor even sturdier than before.
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