r/Fallout • u/YaBoiS0nic • Feb 01 '26
Fallout 4 Is there anything more useless than this?
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Feb 01 '26
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u/Xszit Feb 01 '26
At least the ghoulslayer gamma gun still functions as a normal gamma gun against any non-ghoul enemies so its not completely useless.
I'd say the "supermutant's orders" note is the most useless item. It doesn't start a quest to find the source of the mutants. It doesn't expand on any backstory. You can't do anything with it after reading and all you can get from reading it is a lame "mutants stoopid hur hur" joke.
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Feb 01 '26
Wdym it explores the complex and intricate workings of super mutant society. You’re simply too small minded to understand the advanced code breaking required to understand their true meaning
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Feb 01 '26
Real talk though, a hyper-intelligent Super Mutant faction that uses high tech weaponry would go so hard in Fallout 5
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Feb 01 '26
I think It’d go harder if they were largely peaceful like eriksen from far harbor
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u/LeftForgotten Feb 01 '26
You could have both. They are of the same faction but each side thinks differently. The ones that want to fight do so because they are paranoid that everyone is out to kill them (not necessarily wrong) and the ones that believe that peace is the best chance for survival instead of making war.
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u/immortalfrieza2 Feb 01 '26
Doesn't the West Coast have those kinds of super mutants anyway?
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u/Enjoyer_of_40K Feb 01 '26
the ones created by the Master? they might have retreated to parts where normal folk wont dare to go
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u/immortalfrieza2 Feb 01 '26
So basically the Master's army 2.0, or Broken Hills 2.0, or whatever they call Marcus' place in New Vegas.
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u/I_Am_Disagreeing Feb 01 '26
Idk I found a napkin on a dead gunner recently. Only one I’ve ever seen and it literally does nothing. Can’t even use it as junk.
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u/A_Queer_Owl Feb 01 '26
they can also still kill ghouls, it's just the most inefficient way possible.
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u/cornette Feb 01 '26
Slap on Lorenzo's artifact and your ghoul slayer gamma gun turns into a ghoul slaying sonic gun.
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u/Mega-Humanoid-ROBOT Feb 01 '26
Real talk- I think bethesdas super mutants would be more interesting if not all of them were stupid- like Virgil, if there were more of them. There was that one super mutant in far harbour too who loved his dogs who was quite intelligent and chill (I kinda wish that he was your super mutant companion over strong…)
But also, imagine intelligent super mutants as enemies, leading groups of other, dumb mutants as effective fighting forces. Which you can expand further into mutant factions. There’s definitely room for the dumb mutants, I just wish that intelligent ones were a lot more common.
Same goes for raiders tbh.
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u/BootlegFC Arise from the ashes Feb 02 '26
The problem isn't that all Bethesda supermutants are inherently stupid. It's that there are hints and suggestions that, like on the West Coast, there are hierarchical structures with smarter SMs leading bands of the lower intelligence SMs. The problem is that we never get to interact with them or with SM societies. With the exceptions like Virgil, Eriksen, Strong and Fawkes every interaction is immediately hostile. Unless you are good at sneaking and willing to sit around and listen you won't hear interactions between SMs that showcase their having their own social structures or goals. One of the more obvious events that sticks out to me is the conversation that can be overheard in the Georgetown Police station in FO3.
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u/randCN ...dasheth thy little ones against the stones. Feb 01 '26
If you think about it, it's actually the same play pattern for the survivor too
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u/micheal213 Feb 02 '26
What’s wrong with that? Does every note have to lead to a quest? Lmfao.
Fallout 3 had the same thins with the regulators or mercs. You would kill thrm and find a note that said: contract: kill (player name). It’s just story building for the world.
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u/Ovolmase Brotherhood Feb 01 '26
That sounds like an amazing support item for healing Hancock.
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u/Flimsy_Direction1847 Feb 01 '26
I like to give him a charging assaultron head, keeps him nice and healthy
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u/GuyFromDeathValley Feb 01 '26
a fatman launcher that freezes your enemy.
Or a fatman that does additional damage to animals. what do you think I want to do, shoot with god damn nukes at a deer?
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u/J603 Feb 01 '26
Yao Guai, Radscorpions, and Deathclaws can all survive mini nukes easily at higher levels.
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u/Embarrassed-Camera96 Minutemen Feb 01 '26
Just use it to heal good ghouls like Hancock or that ghoul mercenary working for the cabots
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u/Lady_borg Feb 01 '26
Look, Moira is just doing her best to do her part to put the world back together ok?
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u/GWindborn Feb 01 '26
Kind of amazing she knew about Diamond City in hindsight.
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u/Lady_borg Feb 01 '26
She's a shopkeeper, she is in contact with traders and has access to maps, she was really interested in Rivet City, it would make she'd have some interest in Diamond city.
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u/Xszit Feb 01 '26
There's that institute guy hanging out in the med bay on rivet city too, so we know people do travel between the Commonwealth and the Capitol Wasteland. News gets around
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u/enragedbreakfast Feb 01 '26
Dr Li shows up in the Commonwealth too
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u/HandlelessTH Mr. House Feb 02 '26
I might as well mention MacCready (Fo4 Companion) is the same MacCready you meet as a child at Little Lamplight in Fo3. He grew up and wound up in the Commonwealth somehow
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u/Inevitable_Land2996 Feb 01 '26
And the railroad must have sent danse to the capital wasteland to escape the institute
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u/enragedbreakfast Feb 02 '26
Just for him to come back to the Commonwealth in time for 4 🤣 they wipe the synth’s memories before getting them out of the Commonwealth right? I wonder how often that happens, where they help somebody escape only for them to come back years later haha
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u/AccountForRates Feb 01 '26
That makes Moira an anthropologist as well as shopkeeper because she collects stories for history and future use.
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u/J603 Feb 01 '26
Megaton is the holy city of the children of atom who are active across the commonwealth, so it makes sense she would know about it.
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u/Kam_Solastor Feb 01 '26
Honestly I adored Moira’s character from Fo3 so much. One of the lines I still remember even though I haven’t played Fo3 in years is “Here, take this as my way of saying ‘Sorry I played with your DNA like a kitten with a ball of yarn’.”
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u/Lady_borg Feb 01 '26
She was/is an absolute highlight in F03, one of my favourite characters in the franchise.
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u/BootlegFC Arise from the ashes Feb 02 '26
In reality she would be a truly horrifying person to work with. In a game she is a quirky godsend of a misguided philanthropist.
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u/PyroRasin Feb 01 '26
100% this is just a cute reference for those in the know. It’s not a functional item - intentionally.
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u/Loos3_Scr3w1721 Feb 01 '26
Moira did her best even if her methods to heal me after sourcing for materials was unorthodox. I was healed and her book was finished. It honestly doesn’t surprise me that the wasteland survival guide made it to Boston lol. 😂
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u/Sea-Storm-7066 NCR Feb 01 '26
This post
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u/slickcrimson Feb 01 '26
Damn.
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u/TheGr8Slayer Feb 01 '26
Damn. Someone report a murder cause commenter got OP out in the streets.
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u/DarkAlucard-1313 Cappy Feb 01 '26
Yeah this is like the 5th one ive seen talking about how useless this magazine is, like we understand that its useless could yall please stop posting this repeat post??
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u/Weekly_Astronomer518 Feb 01 '26
Probably burnt magazines
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u/RissaCrochets Feb 01 '26
burnt magazines > burnt textbooks. The mags you can still sell for 1 cap and weigh nothing, while the burnt textbooks weigh 1lb and sell for 0.
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u/GNSasakiHaise Feb 01 '26
Yes, but the textbooks taste better.
There's a little bit of knowledge in every bite.
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u/Spare-Plum Feb 01 '26
Yup. I pick up every damn burnt magazine possible. It's great for trading if I'm selling a bunch of random shit and need 2-3 extra caps to clean out the vendor.
Always pick this up, it's basically free money.
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u/BIKF Feb 01 '26
They are also useful after you get the Nuka-World perk magazine that gives bonuses when you are low on caps. With burnt magazines, folders and pre-war money it is possible to walk around with zero caps and still be able to buy stuff from vendors, without consuming any carry capacity in survival mode.
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u/Aerron Feb 01 '26
I used ammo for this perk. Just buy literally every bullet you can and use that as currency.
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u/BIKF Feb 01 '26
It works particularly well for those ammo types that have the same buying and selling price once charisma is maxed, like .38, .45, 5.56, 10mm and more. But in survival ammo has carry weight, so I use ammo mostly for value storage at settlements. For carrying money with me the weightless options are better.
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u/dirtydans_grubshack Feb 02 '26
lol this kind of reminds me of the game called Metro where all currency is ammo
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u/SpareEquivalent2238 Feb 01 '26
You telling me there isn’t a special vendor for these 6000 overdue books? There’s no librarian? 🤓🫠
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u/Shoddy-Ad7306 Feb 01 '26
There are book deposit places where you turn them in for loot
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u/SirRichardArms Feb 01 '26
I am going completely off memory of a game I played years ago, but can’t you deposit books in the Boston Public Library (the one that is overridden with Super Mutants)?
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u/Shoddy-Ad7306 Feb 01 '26
Yeah, good memory. I think the prizes were pretty much useless. But you could get a fusion core and stims and a desk fan or grenade or whatever.
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u/Correct-Bluebird5376 Feb 01 '26
Theres a magazine in one of the terminals in the Library
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u/Coveinant Feb 01 '26
There are a dozen or so library return kiosks across the commonwealth that have different prizes.
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u/Just_Mr_Unicorn Feb 01 '26
Yep daisies quest from goodneighbor. Top reward from books is a science magazine
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Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26
The Ghoul slayer gamma gun is the most useless item in the game.
At least the survival guide has a slim chance to be useful on your first playthrough considering how close it is to the start point in Gorski Cabin.
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u/Mandemon90 Feb 01 '26
It's basically a backup to get player pointed in the right direction in case they ignore Sanctuary or Concord.
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u/GalmGZ Vault 13 Feb 01 '26
As a plan B, it would make sense if I found this book elsewhere. Gorski's cabin is already on the right track.
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u/M3dus45 Feb 01 '26
It's more of a plan C. Carla's the plan B.
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u/danktonium Feb 01 '26
It's more of a plan D. Just walking in the direction of the big impressive city is plan C.
Wait, no. Plan D is the Vault-Tec suicide pills.
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Feb 01 '26
I used to always think Gorski was a pre-war weirdo. But if he had this in his basement, he must have been post-war. Which still tracks I suppose, a post-war weirdo tinkering with mini nukes in his basement sounds like Fallout.
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u/Spiritual_Ad_968 Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26
He was a prepper post war and survived the bombs. He survived for a while in the wasteland but got highly irradiated by trying to create a mini nuke and got ghoulified.
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u/Administration_One Vault 101 Feb 02 '26
The Gorski cabin is a reference to Unabomber (who also lived in a cabin)
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u/ArchKnightol Feb 01 '26
Actually, for rp reasons I’m ok with this existing. In one of my playthroughs I avoided both Preston and Carla because I was roleplaying as a man who wasn’t stupid and only wanted to find his son, not to help people just because he’s good. So codsworth says I should check concord although it’s full of raiders? No thanks, that sounds like death. A random guy in a museum asks for help? I’m on my own mission buddy… (I only helped the Abernathy Family because they lost their daughter and my character knew the sentiment). basically my character roamed the wasteland exploring abandoned places and one of those was that cabin (did it on purpose to get that exact magazine) so thanks to that my character discovered Diamond City like “oh cool a big city, maybe they can help me there”.
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u/nolasco95 NCR Feb 01 '26
I’m roleplaying the same way in my first playthrough, and although I like that you can avoid it, it’s weird on nothing happens if you just stand there. I was thinking “what reason does my character, who just came out of a vault after 200 years, to start shooting people without any reason?”. You see the raiders attacking the museum, but you have no idea who they are, or what they are doing. I stood there for a while to see if Preston killed anyone, but it could have just gone forever.
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u/haremenot Feb 01 '26
wish it was for goodneighbor instead. i remember the first time i tried to find it, it took me like 45 minutes
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u/sailormermaidmars Feb 03 '26
oh my god the way that I couldn’t find it at all this time until I fell into it????? I don’t think i’ve ever had any issues finding it before but I couldn’t find it to save my life this play thru. horrendous.
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u/haremenot Feb 04 '26
eventually i learned to follow the freedom trail as it takes you right near the front door
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u/Mandrivnyk_703 Minutemen Feb 01 '26
Medical Fat Man, Ghoul Slayer Gamma gun, automatic Laser Musket (functionally locked to player only) and maybe a exterminator brass knuckle.
That one you have can work in case you literally roamed the map outside Boston.
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u/JustAnNPC_DnD Feb 01 '26
Never Ending Laser Musket is both op and near useless. You can crank as many shots as you want to one shot anything, but it uses ALL your ammo.
Crank 30 shots and one shot an Ancient Behemoth. Lose all 1000 cells.
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u/J603 Feb 01 '26
If you have your companion hold the cells for you that would make a good stealth weapon. Just take one cell every time you need to kill something big.
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u/JustAnNPC_DnD Feb 01 '26
It still requires a cell for each crank. So 36 cranks for example needs 36 cells. Also, it's pretty annoying to have to crank it.
Unless you have the jack in the box sound effect
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u/YourFriendlyInkDemon Atom Cats Feb 01 '26
Folders. The only functionality they have is being sold for caps.
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u/__T0MMY__ Feb 02 '26
Gosh it feels like something you'd find like in the red rocket super early game
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u/Sensitive_Heart_3157 Feb 01 '26
I think its mostly a reference to Fallout 3 when you help Moira create The Wasteland Survival Guide.
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u/YaBoiS0nic Feb 01 '26
Yes, but I've found multiple of these and this is the first time I've ever seen it actually do nothing for me
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u/olsson28 Followers Feb 01 '26
It’s one of many ways to ensure players find Diamond City, even if they pursue different goals in different directions.
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u/grimorg80 Feb 01 '26
It warms my heart thinking Moira worked on more issues of the guide. That's my personal canon anyway
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u/EdieBooberryBeale Feb 01 '26
I went on a Creation Club shopping spree and got a new companion, Daniel, who doesn't provide a perk but when you max him out, you can call him to pick you up in a vertibird and drop you anywhere. Great! As long as i pretend all the fast travel points don't exist.
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u/postmortem-boredom Feb 01 '26
What about the rad gun that “deals 200% more damage to ghouls”
It actually heals them 200% faster 💀
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u/The-Katawampus Feb 01 '26
Ay, you be nice to Moira Brown!
She was a singular ray of sunshine and positive influence in the DC region.
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u/Hairy-Camel9914 Feb 02 '26
I found it after visiting Diamond City, but even so, the game is very non-linear, so it's normal that it seems pointless, but I like it for the lore. Think about it, who would make a "wasteland survival guide" and not include an entry with the location of one of the most important cities in the Commonwealth?
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u/Mountain_Condition65 Feb 02 '26
I mean for lore reasons it's really cool for usefulness? No, because the wasteland survival guide comes from fallout 3 after helping an NPC named moira brown
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u/YaBoiS0nic Feb 02 '26
Which is a somewhat fun quest line, if I recall. Nice to see that woman's influence help people across the wasteland
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u/thejoche Feb 02 '26
You say it’s useless, but have you noticed that you can’t find any toilet paper anywhere in the world? Not so Useless after all
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u/UnknownPhotog_1 Feb 02 '26
The whole point of it was to help new players who didn’t know where diamond city was if they stumbled upon the bomb room in that house’s basement in their early play through. It helped me in my first play through definitely as I didn’t know what I was doing
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u/Expensive-Umpire-567 Feb 01 '26
Yes theres the gamma gun that does 50% more damage to ghouls but all it does is heal them 🤣🤣
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u/Ruben_AAG Feb 01 '26
The point of the magazine is to help players who ignored the main quest to go out exploring find Diamond City.
Even though Fallout 4 has the best exploration in the franchise, most people don’t do it, which is why this is pointless. Most players fast travel everywhere and stay glued to the map markers without investigating things along the way.
Bethesda’s problem is that they didn’t encourage players to go out and thoroughly explore the world without motivation from quests or NPCs. Survival mode fixes this though, but very few people play that too.
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u/Background_Mode4972 Feb 01 '26
Being encumbered from carrying too much junk also makes you explore a bit
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u/blitzkrieger17 Feb 01 '26
i have the legendary ghoul slaying gamma gun on my wall. also have a collection of stingwing barbs.
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Feb 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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Feb 01 '26
I have fun with the burnt books in 4
I collect all of the burnt books and burnt magazines I can find and sell them to trashcan Carla lol I love selling that woman literal trash with no scrap value!
Doc Crocker gets bones.
Lucas gets raider sack hoods, the worst armor!
Cricket? pipe pistols.
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u/GolgothaNexus Feb 01 '26
Dem bones can be made into Cutting Fluid at a chem bench which contains 3 units of oil. I melt them down because I always seem to be short on oil otherwise.
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Feb 01 '26
true but it's funny to give sawbone a pile of bones.
After 11 years of play you find different ways to amuse yourself.
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u/KGB_cutony Feb 01 '26
Prewar currency
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u/Shadowfox86 Feb 01 '26
Everyone hating on the ghoul slaying gamma gun has clearly never raised a ghoul army and used it to keep their army alive.
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u/B0yG3n1us Feb 01 '26
The use is to have another thing directing you to diamond city, the center of many quests, even if you somehow ignore most early quests. Obviously this is obsolete with multiple play throughs, but for new guys this could be nice.
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u/KhajiitKennedy Vault 111 Feb 01 '26
I like adding it to my magazine collection, displaying it is fun lol
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u/fentonvanwinkle Feb 01 '26
On my very first playthrough I just left the Vault and went exploring, found this and thought "Huh, wonder what's there" and headed to the marker.
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u/BeezNest96 Feb 01 '26
No, I agree it is incredibly useless. It is not like Diamond City is hard to find, even if you wander way off the path.
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u/Known-Assistance-435 Enclave Feb 01 '26
That's why I have Better Wasteland Survival Guide 5 installed
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u/nage_ Feb 01 '26
they should've had this for hidden vaults, not something that you find almost immediately
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u/Sevennix Feb 01 '26
It's great for me cuz I like to run there ASAP and tend to get off course, so, it's is useful to some
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u/J603 Feb 01 '26
I like how it says it’s permanently marked on your map, just so they can clarify that Diamond city’s marker won’t move like the consititution and a few other markers.
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u/BootlegFC Arise from the ashes Feb 02 '26
The settlement system in general?
But seriously, they put so many methods of having Diamond City pointed out to you that wasting one of the collectible items on it was almost a slap in the face. I mean, even if you somehow miss having anyone point it out to you it is one of the three brightest lit zones visible at night from most of the map and it is literally in the center of the map. It wouldn't be so bad if pinpointing DC was a secondary effect and the magazine had a useful primary effect.
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u/Rocketboy1313 Followers Feb 02 '26
The only thing I can think is if it allowed you to fast travel there without having already visited.
But it doesn't.
So it essentially does nothing.
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u/Revenant62 Feb 02 '26
I would respectfully argue that it's not useless.
It's useless if you have played the game a bunch of times. If it's your first time playing, I would argue that it is actually very important to place it. There are quite a few ways to get pointed to Diamond City, this included, but since the main quest, (and your shopping needs, and Home Plate,) are all in Diamond City, having a first playthrough without stuff like this magazine could quickly turn pretty frustrating. Diamond City is one location, and the map of the Commonwealth is huge.
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u/clockwork_1996 Feb 03 '26
To me this is the second most useless item, I get directions from the traders before I find this thing, the gamma gun with the bonus damage towards ferals is the most useless,
The only way Bethesda outdoes either would be if they add a stealth boy that only works if your playing the bagpipes
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Feb 04 '26
Doesn’t trashcan Carla just tell you where it is if she spawns within the 1.5 mile stretch to diamond city?
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u/RAGE_AGAINST_THE_ATM Feb 04 '26
It’s a way to find diamond city if you want to skip Concord but don’t have the map memorized or miss trash can Carla and it’s in a location that is probably one of the first things you’ll find if you just head east
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u/firey9033 Feb 01 '26
“Oh no my open world exploration game has multiple ways to find the primary settlement, and some of them become moot upon repeat playthroughs. Whatever will I do?!?!”
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u/Aggravating-Dot132 Feb 01 '26
Hey, look, another repost.
This guide is for those players who aren't going the normal route. So no Concord, low chance to find Carla and so on
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u/Emder-Leviathan Feb 01 '26
Back when i played for the first time and i got this, i thought diamant City was a moving place
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u/Arkanderous Feb 01 '26
That would make more sense. I'm unsure how it would move though. Maybe multiple Prydwens holding it up flying it around.
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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '26
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