Tips & Tricks

Here are a number of little tips and tricks to Lunar Fallout that you might not know or might find interesting. I'll try to add to it if I think of more.

• Lunar Fallout Overhaul is intended to be played with the default reduced leveling speed. V.A.N.S. Perks have been edited to be kind of a built in cheat option for those who don't want that. If you want to level up even faster, collect the ingredients required to make Squirrel Soup For a 2 hour XP boost. And on top of that, pop a Mentats just before completing a quest for an additional XP boost!
• Preston is the least liked companion in the Fallout community. Because of this I've made sure his stats are better than other companions. His aim is decent, he does decent damage, and settlers will often give him items when you visit settlements which will help a lot (high chance of stimpaks).
• The Alien Blaster is an especially unique weapon in that it is most useful when you first get it (level 20). By about level 40-45, other weapons start to outperform it. You can line up a particularly difficult quest objective and wait to obtain this weapon before attempting it. A perfect example is the last mission in the Silver Shroud questline. With one or more criticals banked and a decent cocktail of chems/nuka quantums, you can take out Sinjin and his crew without losing Kent. I will usually queue that mission up, then wait until level 20 and collect the Alien blaster before I complete it.
• I've edited the workshop manufacturing equipment to allow crafting a greater assortment of items. In particular, you can now craft your own shipments. This opens up the ability to haul a lot of stuff in survival for selling or starting up new settlements.
• There's a small prefab wooden shack that fits 3 beds. Make 2 of those (six beds), 2 water pumps, 6 or 12 crops, and 2 tall defense barricades. add a radio beacon and inefficient generator when you can. This is a no nonsense and quick to build settlement that requires no perks to build. Easy to scale up later if you wish.
• The Minutemen NPC spawn table has been radically changed so that they are more diverse and stronger (higher levels, better gear). This makes the flare gun far more useful. Get in the habit of firing a shot just before any big outdoor fight or defending a settlement for support (if you are allied).
• Experienced Settlers are much stronger and come better equipped than regular Settlers. They have about a 25% chance of spawning every time you get a new settler. Prioritize upgrading their equipment. Since Settlers are mortal in Lunar Fallout, over time you will notice a natural process where regular settlers die and (if a settlement gets attacked often enough) most of the Settlers will end up "Experienced". Due to the nature of mortal settlers, you can speed up this process through creative methods.
• You can make one Settlement a Deathmatch Arena Settlement and send regular Settlers there to fight. Speeding up the process of obtaining Experienced Setters and only having one Settlement with low happiness due to Settler deaths.
• Local Leader Perk ranks buff Damage Resistance, Accuracy and Damage output of Minutemen as well as Settlers. The difference is quite noticeable. This means Local Leader has an impact on the effectiveness of the Flare Gun. It also means if you have Local Leader and go against the Minutemen, they will be tougher opponents.
  
  

Walkthrough (Early Levels)

I've played through the first 20-30 levels probably 50+ times while playtesting Lunar Fallout Overhaul so have kind of a set path for quickly giving a character a good start. Most of this also applies to vanilla, but I figured I'd share it here in case anyone is interested.

• Go to Sanctuary, talk to Codsworth, activate the workbench and grab "What Makes You SPECIAL". Pick up Dogmeat at Red Rocket and clear the cave just behind Red Rocket. You should have plenty of molerat meat to cook molerat chunks.
• head to Concord and do Preston's quest.
• Dump any excess stuff at Red Rocket (stay in your power armor) and visit Abernathy Farm. Start the 'Returning the Favor' quest, then talk to Connie Abernathy and buy 6 crop items.
• Plant the crops in Sanctuary, then pick up Codsworth as your new companion.
• Complete 'Returning the Favor' quest and return to Abernathy Farm to get that settlement. Drop of your power armor at Red Rocket (or wherever).
• You should have enough scrap to build everything for Sturges' settlement tutorial quest by now.
• Head west to Wicked Shipping and loot that area, then head southwest to Sunshine Tidings and clear that settlement (getting the Wasteland Survival mag).
• Head east to Starlight Drive In and clear that settlement. Then head south towards Lexington, but stay on the road just west. Clear out Jalbert Brothers Disposal. Make sure to loot the Children of Atom as they have a chance to carry Nuka Grenades. Cook the molerat meat if you need more food.
• Head south east to Cambridge, clear it and start the Brotherhood quest (grabbing the brotherhood outfit off the corpse outside the police station). The brotherhood uniform may or may not be better than your current armor.
• Optional: drop off most of your stuff at a settlement before going through ArcJet in order to collect the most loot.
• Synths are much tougher in Lunar Fallout. Let Danse and Codsworth do most of the work in ArcJet and you will end up with a stun baton, a legendary laser rifle and plenty of fusion cells.
• Head back to Sanctuary and talk to Preston to start the Minutemen quest-line proper. Go to Tenpines bluff, clear Lexington. Return to Sanctuary and swap our Codsworth for Preston (give him a try). Start doing the settlement quests he offers in order to unlock as many as possible quickly.
• If you've collected enough scrap to build radio beacons and generators, get them running in any settlements you've unlocked. Start building up defenses, beds, water, planting crops. If you can run supply lines, do so.
• Head to Diamond city, clear Hangman's Alley, pick up Piper and send them to a settlement (or swap out Preston if you want). Give Sheffield a nuka cola and send him to a settlement. Do some of the mini quests in Diamond City.
• At this point you've leveled up enough and collected enough gear that you have a lot more options of where to go. Personally I would work my way east through the city to unlock Cait, head to Goodneighbor and unlock Mcready. Then pick up Nick.
  

Challenges and Odd Builds

If you want increased difficulty or just an interesting playthrough idea, check these out.

• Don't take any ranks in weapon type Perks (Iron Fist, Big League, Heavy Gunner, Rifleman or Gunslinger). All other Perks are allowed so you will either be focusing on buffing companions or secondary damage perks like Bloody Mess and Lone Wanderer.
• Lone Wanderer + Perks that add temporary companions (Intimidation, Animal Friend, Ghoulish, Robotics Expert, Hacking [with Protectron Overrideholotape], Mysterious Stranger, Wasteland Whisperer). Minutemen Flare gun also.
• No Crafting Build: Don't take Armorer, Blacksmith, Engineering, or Science. Bonus if you don't swap in/out weapon and armor parts and just use what you loot.
• Live with addiction. Don't use doctors or Addictol to remove addiction for an entire playthrough.
• Don't take any Perks below 7 of any SPECIAL Stats
• Mines and Grenades are your only offensive option
• Role a single die to see how many points to put in each SPECIAL Stat (1-6) and make a build with that. You can't put take Perks above those numbers later (but the stats can be increased).