Do to a promise that I made my wife and kids( I can only play when no one else is home, long story) I am just now starting to play. So instead of going back and reading the last 41 pages, any tips, tricks, hints?
1) Build settlements early. Invest at least 5 points into charisma (6 if you aren't going to use the skill book for +1 to Charisma). This will allow you to start automatically harvesting junk items, to convert into weapon/armor mods later. The 6 level of charisma can unlock supply lines, which allow settlements to share crafting resources. It makes having multiple settlements still acceptable for ease of crafting.
2) Spend some time in your settlements. Sometimes people will tell you about the location of other settlements, allowing you to unlock map locations.
3) Science, Armorer, and Gun Nut perks are necessary for the crafting minded. There's nothing like the Deep Pockets mod to allow you to carry more stuff in the early game.
4) Don't sell stuff. The caps system in this game is crazy different than in the past. Weapons sell for next to nothing, so scrapping them for materials is probably a better option.
5) Invest into intelligence. It seems like it has a direct bearing on experience earned for everything. A low intelligence character just doesn't level.
6) Seek out a tutorial on building online. Bethesda did a crap job explaining it.
7) Keep the vault jumpsuit. It's one of a few items that you can wear under the armor bits, and it can be upgraded dramatically. At level 45 I'm still wearing mine.
8) Melee is immensely more amazing now. Bringing a knife to a gun fight is actually pretty amazing.
9) Power armor seems like a good idea in the early game, but it isn't. Too few fusion cores, and too expensive to keep repaired. You don't need it.
10) This is loaded. There are two types of "new" enemies. There are level bound brutes, who have a skull at the end of their name. This means they are higher level than you, and might be difficult to kill. Likewise, there are legendary enemies. These are enemies that when low on health mutate, completely regen health, and come right back at you harder than before (the exception is one shot kills, which prevent mutation). The legendaries drop special loot, with substantial bonuses. For example, an Instigating sniper rifle does +100% damage to an enemy if it hits them at full health. Legendaries pull random items and bonuses though, so I've seen things like a Junkie's Deathclaw gauntlet (suffering from withdrawl makes you hit harder),
11) Screw the story (after the founding of your first settlements), and explore. To that end, get the Aqua Boy/Girl perk soon, as there is quite a bit of water in the commonwealth. The initial weapon choices are terrible (pipe weapons, even fully upgraded, are just barely above garbage), so you'll have to get a few levels to get something awesome. After exploring for a few hours go back and build. I've gone from level 43-44 just building a trio of settlements, and at low levels the experience is even better.
12) If you run into the build limit on a settlement you can manually drop junk from your inventory, and scrap it. This can actually decrease the perceived items "built" down to zero, allowing an settlement to fill all of its space with items.
13) Craft. Craft. Craft some more. If you're farming quite a bit you'll never run out of adhesive. Between the crafting xp, and the building xp, you could theoretically just build a bunch of settlements to power level without ever needing a gun.
14) Have fun. It's a Bethesda game. There are a ton of bugs, some areas where performance absolutely blows, and "special" AI. Despite this, the game is fun. Enjoy it, but don't ever let the minor flaws detract from an otherwise great game.
