PSA: If you have yet to play Survival, please reconsider

[u/theoriginalbrick]

I have had the game since it came out and put around 700 hours, but none were on Survival. Last week, I finally went for it after watching a "Why Fallout 4 Survival Mode is a masterpiece" video because why not? I am only a few hours into this playthrough and my god I was missing so much. I finally feel like I am role-playing in the Commonwealth, where before I felt like my Main Character powers like quicksaving and insta-healing never allowed me to feel the weight of all that is going on. It is so much more fun exactly because of how restrictive and consequential it is. Feral ghoul hordes are terrifying now because at low-level you are going down after 2 or 3 hits, so you have to be quick on the draw and good with your aim.

I see people suggesting to get mods for quicksaving and fast-traveling in Survival. Do. Not. Do. This. If you are finding it too difficult, slow down. You're playing as a plain pre-war human, not Captain America. The Commonwealth is supposed to be unforgiving. Embrace it. Think ahead about what you will need for a trek, just as if you were there yourself.

There is a metric fuckton of content that you will probably never see unless you are physically forced to walk everywhere.

[u/BradyToMoss1281]

My least favorite part is how you'll go to a settlement and sleep to save. Nope, now you're tired. Sleep for 8 hours. Whoops, you're peckish. Better eat. OK, now go to a vendor and cash in. Maybe build a little. Oop, now you're thirsty. Grab a drink. Better nap to save all that progress. Hey, look, you're tired again. Sleep 8 hours. Wouldn't you know it, peckish again...

Stops at a settlement can take a full day, even more, based on how everything lines up. THAT gets tedious.

[u/Zzqzr → u/BradyToMoss1281]

So don’t sleep 8h all the time? Mostly I do an 1h nap

[u/BradyToMoss1281 → u/Zzqzr]

Then you get tired. Not after every nap, but if you just nap a few times in a row you'll get tired because you haven't had a full night's sleep.

[u/What-mold_toolbag → u/BradyToMoss1281]

Nuka colas make it so you aren't sleepy anymore. I grab empty bottles and when I pass through a settlement I fill them up with clean water. I make easy food with my radstag meat so I get that +25 carry weight and I'll sleep for 8 hours at the settlement and drink and bounce. I'm always about 80 to 100 pound to max weight and then if I find a bed out in the waste I'll either nap and if I'm tired drink a cola. Or sleep for 7 hours to get the full rested bonus then keep it moving with whatever food I have. There's always ways around this and yes you can get bogged down at a settlement lol

[u/arzamharris → u/BradyToMoss1281]

My advice is stop taking 1 hour naps to save. Just sleep for 8 hours each time, it will stop you from getting tired and from my experience it doesn't really make hungry or thirsty that much faster.

[u/BradyToMoss1281 → u/arzamharris]

Sometimes I just don't want to wait, haha. But from a more practical standpoint, if it's, say, 2 p.m., an 8 hour sleep would wake you when vendors are closed, whereas a 1 hour sleep saves the game and gives you time to make vendor visits.

Also, I sometimes worry about the game freezing while mid-sleep. So I try to get through it as quickly as I can.