Game modder SKK50 created a mod for Fallout 4 that allows you to experience Fallout 76 before it releases. This will not only remove all of your companions but add griefers and, yes, even random missile launches.
When I realized I had been playing this mod for 4 hours I decided I may have been having the time of my life. It got to a point where I had been defeated by the most ridiculous things over and over that I was laughing at myself while simultaneously raging. Yeah, this mod brings you right to the brink of that insanity and it's so fun.
How it works
After you download this mod a file will appear inside of your MISC inventory labeled "Fallout 4-76 Enable". To activate the mod all you have to do is open it up that Holotape from the Pip-Boy menu. You'll be met with a not so welcome message and a concise rundown of what you will experience.
It even plays the tune of "Country Roads" for you, which I loved. After enabling the mod that Holotape will then turn into configuration settings from your Pip-Boy.
Settings include things like changing the time of griefing spawns or how often Nukes will drop on you. I would ignore the options for taunting, griefer corpses or PlayerUndead. Turning any of these off will dull the experience that you could be having. Normal enemies in Fallout 4 taunt you during battle, so not having them makes things too quiet in my opinion.
You're probably going to experience a couple of glitches. In my video above I came across a live feral that had only its feet sticking out of the ground. After killing him, he did a little shimmy and then sunk into the ground. Rest in peace, little buddy. Since I experience Fallout 4 glitches on just the base parts of the game, I don't fault the modder for them happening. They happen just as frequently as they do without the mod, so there's no reason to shun it.
Turning your NPCs into Feral Ghouls
There are no raiders or angry scavengers in this mod. All of them have been replaced with ferals. But, you have the option to turn off NPCs being replaced by Feral Ghouls. This mod is going to remove NPCs from the game entirely anyway, so the only thing this option will do is make areas a little less lonely and a lot more deadly. With it on every town or settlement will have Ghouls inhabiting the area that you'll need to clear out but you have auto-access to any Workbench you come across.
So, don't let the fact that there are no NPCs scare you if you're looking to do a full run with this game. There are no quests. All doors and mechanics that once required an NPC to unlock are now open from the very beginning. Some of the quest grounds, like the Death Claw spawn that is supposed to be in the beginning, (shown in the video above) are just straight up removed.
Oh, look. It's Diamond City and the Old Church. Whats that? Ghouls instead of Guards or Minute Men? They're not even the "Of the people, for the people," kind. They straight up want to eat your face so make sure you shoot theirs first.
To be perfectly honest I would recommend you keep this selection on. It gives the game that much more of a "fresh apocalypse" feel to it that you're going to experience in Fallout 76 anyway. If you want to mess around with the nukes and the griefers you can turn this option off for easier gameplay.
This mod is the most fun I've had in Fallout in a long time
Even if you're not looking forward to Fallout 76, this mod is still an extraordinary amount of fun. The griefers level with you and that makes the difficulty of this mod work pretty well. If you're starting from the beginning, the griefers come out on "Noob" level difficulty, increasing in rank as you progress. As you see in the picture above being a higher level has you against the L33T enemies.
It's set up this way to give you the real-life feeling of a fresh apocalypse that Fallout 76 will be doing when it launches. Let's face it, at the start of the apocalypse there flat out aren't that many survivors. From the mouths of Bethesda themselves, "It's the apocalypse, not a theme park."
Want to emulate playing an MMO with your friends like you would with Fallout 76? No problem. Just go into the settings and turn your companion mode back on. Then grab your furry friend and try to take on the wastes together. What is a world without Dogmeat anyway?
All around, this is 100% worth the download and has only made me that much more excited for Fallout 76 to release. Did I mention the adorable notifications you get? You can see them in the video above. From "W00t boxes on sale now!" to "You shoot like a Radroach." It was a nice humorous touch I appreciated from the modder.
See for yourself and get ready for Fallout 76
You can find the Fallout 4/76 mod on the Nexus website, and the download instructions are super easy.
- Download the mod through the manual downloads. You can find the download under the "files" tab on the website.
- Create a folder on your desktop and label it "Mods."
- Extract the download file to that folder.
- Copy the three files inside of the folder.
- Paste the files into your Fallout 4 Data folder. (Found: ComputerC:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout4\Data)
- Load into your Fallout 4 game and select "Mods."
- At the bottom, menu select "Load order."
- Click the new mod so that it's selected with a check mark.
- Go back to the main menu, it will reload, and then you can get right to having fun!
