I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. This is it: the end of the game. Or, in true Fallout-style, at the least the end of this version of the main story. I can’t say that I’m pleased with the outcome, but I did enjoy the ride.
With all of the massive experience dumps of the final missions, I earned three levels. Playing on Very Hard difficulty has its tense moments, so I took the second rank of “Toughness”, which is essentially free armor. I’ve also been getting crippled fairly regularly. To address this I bumped my Endurance up to seven allowing me to take the first rank of “Adamantium Skeleton”, which reduces limb damage.
Cait! We talked about this! Stay away from the chems!
I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4.
At the end of the session, where I’d reached level 78, I decided to splurge and spend my hoarded perk points. I’m well past the point of needing things, so I decided, instead to dig and figure out what I wanted. As I’m a heavy V.A.T.S. user and still (mostly) walking from place to place, I decided to focus on Action Point replenishment.
I first completed the second and third ranks of Grim Reaper’s Spirit. This gives me a 35% chance to restore all my action points and refill my Critical Meter after a kill in V.A.T.S. Next, I took all three ranks of Moving Target, a perk I’d all but ignored. The first rank offers +50 damage and energy resistance when sprinting. Useful for those, um, “strategic withdrawals”, but not something I was missing. That hides the real draw of the second and third ranks, each of which reduce the Action Point usage of sprinting by 50%. I can run everywhere now!
Vertibirds are fragile. I’ve seen at least a dozen of the damn things go down.
I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. I made excellent progress in the main story this session which is a double-edged sword.
On the one side, it is nice to feel like I’m making progress after wandering essentially aimlessly for so long. On the other, the main story is, sadly, pretty damn unimpressive overall.
I continue to horde my perk points. I continue to have little reason to do so.
I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. I paid a visit to Tinker Tom, from whom I bought an armored bathrobe. We also talked about something else. I’ve continued walking most places, which has led to more discoveries and distractions.
I earned two levels, but haven’t spent the points. I’ve no reason for hording them beyond my enjoyment of spending a bunch of them at once. Why up something by 20% when you can double immediately?!
I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. I’ve been swamped, as the kids say, “IRL”, so haven’t been moving forward much. After being disappointed by the courser in the last part, I decided to deal with my thieving settler problem once and for all.
I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. I continued to ignore my long-lost son and Danse came with, like the dim-witted, loyal, puppy-dog that he is.
This guy is a straight up thief!
I began by cleaning house. I’ve been stockpiling loot, so did the fast-travel shuffle to sell it all. Danse didn’t appreciated the fact that I did this naked. It’s the easiest way to keep my wanted gear seperate. He keep telling me I was “out of uniform”.
In this process I noticed that some of my gear was missing! Danses gift, “Righteous Authority” and the “Limitless Potential” prototype, amongst others, were gone! I discovered that my settlers were straight up stealing from me! The local bartender (that bastard pictured) had no fewer than four of my legendary weapons on him! To think, I gave that bastard his job!
My adventuring earned me four more levels. I used the first two to finish off all five ranks of Rifleman. My non-automatic rifles now do 200% damage, ignore 30% of my enemy’s armor and are better at crippling. It’s not helped by the perk, but I also tossed a flamer barrel on a “Never Ending Plasma Pistol” to create an exceedingly nasty little number.
My gauss rifle now does 409 damage, plus a bit of explosive AOF. That’s over 1700 damage on a sneak attack.
My Lucky Laser Rifle does 144 damage (double that on criticals), but ammo is much more common.
Who wouldn’t want to shoot a never-ending stream of green fire from their hands?
I also took the second rank of Critical Banker, allowing me to have three criticals on tap. It’s come in handy. Lastly, I took the first rank of Grim Reaper’s Sprint. V.A.T.S. kills now completely refill my action points 15% of the time. As a heavy V.A.T.S. user, this is one of my favorite perks from previous games. I’m surprised it took me so long to take it here.
I’d be more comfortable if that shadow was less… swiss-cheesy.
I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. As I promised last time, today I headed over to the Cambridge Police Station to hook up with Paladin Danse. The Brotherhood and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye on things, but they deserve a shot, right?
My adventuring earned me three levels and I dumped all mt perk points into Rifleman. With the exception of my still glorious gauss rifle, my weapons have been getting a little anemic. I’m hoping this will give them a much needed boost for the end game.
I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. Last time, I traded in Nick for Curie and today we painted the town. When I get a new companion, I like to travel with them until they idolize me. I consider it a gift to them.
I also did a little spring cleaning. I cleared out my inventory of useless gear and, using the Chemistry and Cooking Stations, converted much of the rest into more useful items. Crafting items earns very little experience, but crafting hundreds of items is a different story. I jumped a couple of levels after my craft-a-thon and got a couple more from quests. Including the perk points I’d been hoarding, I had six to spend.
For all those people that see a super-mutant and just wanna bop them a good one!
As I had to deal with a “sea monster”, I took the first rank of Aquagirl. It seemed odd because the first rank eliminates rads from water and allows you to breath underwater. The second and final rank makes you invisible in water. It seems like it should have been three ranks, but I’m not complaining.
I also took two points of Luck, raising it to 9 and the first rank of Critical Banker. Having an extra critical hit in my pocket has definitely come in handy. Finally, on a whim, I upped my Agility one point to 9 and took the first rank of Blitz. Stabbing people from far away can’t be a bad thing, right?
The U.S.S. Constitution seen breaking the horizon during a radiation storm.
I continue my play diary of Fallout 4. I moved the story forward today a bit and found my second favorite quest of the game so far (it’ll take a lot to top The Sliver Shroud from Day 13): Last Voyage of the U.S.S. Constitution.
The Constitution has always fascinated me. The ship was launched in 1797 and christened by George Washington. It was the third frigate to be built for the fledgling U.S. Navy. Built in Boston, she is the oldest active commissioned warship in the world. She was never bested in battle and, in fact, is the only active ship in the U.S. Navy to have sunk an enemy vessel. She received her nickname, “Old Ironsides” from her pitched battle with the Guerriere, a British frigate, during the War of 1812 when the British became convinced that their cannon shot were bouncing off her hull.
In the Fallout universe, apparently, the ship was heavily modified for reasons. Who could argue that strapping rockets to a 300-year old wooden ship is a bad idea? Well, I suppose somebody could argue that, but they would be wrong.
I continue my play diary of Fallout 4 on the PlayStation 4. As I move forward, I’ve made a decision to knock off all the fast traveling. Well, maybe not all, but most. I may still do the odd quick trip to dump gear or defend a settlement, but other than that, it’s me and my walking shoes, baby!
Fallout games tend to devolve to fast-travel-a-thons after a while. Get an assignment, fast-travel to the closest place, run to the assigned place, fast-travel back, wash, rinse, repeat. Walking takes longer, but it’s the only way to see the amazing number of non-quest locations, unmarked easter eggs, staged scenes and lush landscapes.
One side-benefit, shared with upping the difficulty level, is that I’m getting a lot more gear. One legendary raider I decapitated dropped my new baby: an explosive shielded gauss rifle. After some basic tinkering I’ve got a rifle that does 217 points of base damage plus 15 points AOE explosive damage. With my perks, that’s over a 1,000 points of damage on a sneak attack! I’ll miss my Endless gauss rifle and never having to reload, but and extra few dozen points of damage seems more than worth it.
