Fallout 4 Guide: Weapon Mod Crafting

Fallout 4 has many weapons to choose from and you can modify all of them. Most weapons can have up to 6 different mods, with many choices in each category. You’ll need high rank Gun Nut perks for the advanced mods, so keep that in mind when building your character.

I’m going to describe the mods available for each weapon category and what you need to make them. Don’t forget to check the Fallout 4 Beginner Tips and Tricks for more guides!

This guide will go over everything about crafting weapon mods including:

• Weapon Mod Crafting Basics – How to craft mods, perks needed, and examples of materials.
• Advanced Weapon Mod Crafting – Each weapon category and the types of mods you can make for each.

Weapon Mod Crafting Basics

You need a weapon workbench to craft any mods for weapons. Luckily, there are many throughout the world and you can add them to your settlements.

Perks

If you plan on taking advantage of the weapon mod crafting system, there are multiple perks you need to keep an eye on.

• Gun Nut (Int 3) – This lets you craft mods for guns.
• Rank 2 – Level 13
• Rank 3 – Level 25
• Rank 4 – Level 39
• Blacksmith (Str 4) – This lets you craft melee weapon mods.
• Rank 2 – Level 16
• Rank 3 – Level 29
• Science (Int 6) – This lets you craft high-tech mods.
• Rank 2 – Level 17
• Rank 3 – Level 28
• Rank 4 – Level 41

You will also want 2 or more weapon damage perks, but these aren’t required to craft anything. Melee and Heavy weapons are in Strength, Rifles are in Perception, and Automatic or Pistols are in Agility.

Materials

The materials needed depends on the gun, type, and mod. Every weapon mod needs Adhesive, so stock up. Below are examples of other materials you might need.

• Metals, such as copper or aluminum.
• Circuitry
• Fiber Optics
• Nuclear Material
• Rubber
• Glass
• Oil

There are others, but it is best to check each weapon. I suggest grabbing nearly everything you come across while traveling because you can break it down into materials at a workshop. To do this, drop what you want to scrap, open the workshop menu, and highlight the item to scrap it.

Note: If you use an item during crafting instead of breaking it down for materials, you lose any extra materials that the item has that are not used in the recipe.

Advanced Weapon Mod Crafting

Most weapons have multiple types of mods in common, but each category has mods unique to that type. I’ll list the types of mods you’ll see in each gun type.

Classic Guns (Non-energy weapons like pistols or rifles)

• Receiver – This affects the weight, damage, and rate of fire.
• This is how you change a weapon between normal or automatic.
• Some weapons can also change the ammo type in this category.
• Barrel – This affects range, accuracy, and recoil.
• Some give better hip-fire accuracy, while others improve accuracy when aiming down the sights.
• Stock – This affects recoil and sometimes accuracy while aiming down the sights.
• Magazine – This affects ammo capacity and reload speed.
• Sights – This affects what you see when you aim down the sights.
• You can add various scopes in this category, or improve the iron sights.
• Muzzle – This is a miscellaneous category with few options.
• You can add bayonets for better bash damage, improve recoil, or add a suppressor. 

Energy Weapons

The barrel, stock, and sights work the same way, but the muzzle is different and capacitor replaces receiver.

• Capacitor – This affects damage and can add burning damage over time.
• Muzzle – This affects the way the beams shoot from the gun.
• Beam Splitter – Splits the beam into multiple projectiles that cover a wider area.
• Beam Focuser – Improves range, accuracy, and recoil.
• Gyro Compensating Lens – Superior recoil, but reduced range.

Melee Weapons

• Upgrade – Improves damage, adds bleeding damage over time, or armor piercing.

Special Weapons

These are weapons that all have unique upgrade options.

Fat Man

• Launcher – Standard and MIRV.
• MIRV is an experimental mod and you need both Gun Nut and Science at rank 4 to do this.

Missile Launcher

• Barrel – This increases ammo capacity.
• Sights – Adds scopes or the option to lock onto targets.
• Muzzle – Adds bayonets or stabilizers to increase accuracy and recoil.

Minigun

• Barrel – This affects damage, rate of fire, and accuracy.
• Sights – Improves sighted accuracy. 
• Muzzle – Reduces range, but adds superior bash damage.

Flamer

• Tank – Increases damage.
• Barrel – Increases range.
• Propellant Tank – Improves ammo capacity, but reduces range.
• Nozzle – Improves damage, but reduces range.

That’s it for my Fallout 4 Weapon Mod Crafting guide. Let me know if you have any questions or comments!